|
Hoya Hoop Club Blog
I CONFESS!! I have a confession to make! I actually like the Louisville Cardinals (except, of course, tonight and any other time they play my beloved Hoyas!). I mean any school that produces Johnny Unitas and Wes Unseld and beats the hated Dookies in the NCAA Finals (1986) has to have something going for it. Perhaps, over time, as a BIG EAST rivalry develops, I will learn to loathe them as I do, for example, certain BIG EAST teams from upstate New York and Indiana. But, for now, I am okay with them. My appreciation for the Cardinals stems not only from the sporting icons referenced above but also from Denny Crum, their long-time, legendary coach. After serving as Coach John Wooden's chief assistant at UCLA during the three Lew Alcindor NCAA Championship years (1968-71), "Cool Hand Luke" arrived in Louisville as its head men's basketball coach in March 1971. At the time, the conventional wisdom was that he would serve at Louisville until Coach Wooden stepped down at UCLA, at which time, Crum would return to his alma mater and replace Coach Wooden. As is often the case, the conventional wisdom was wrong, and Coach Crum created his own legend at Louisville, remaining there as coach for 30 years before retiring in 2001. Tonight, before the Hoyas take on the Cardinals at Freedom Hall in Louisville, the University of Louisville will name the playing floor at that arena "Denny Crum Court." At that point, I will raise a glass of Vintage Seltzer Water in honor of Coach Crum and then proceed to root my brains out for the Hoyas! While no extra motivation will be needed, the sight of Coach Slick Rick Pitino at the helm of the Cardinals will make me clearly see Blue and Gray! Georgetown and Louisville. The first Coach Thompson and Coach Crum. Throughout their storied coaching careers, Coach Thompson and Coach Crum's programs generally moved upward in parallel universes but when those programs did intersect (or when they might well have intersected), the results were exquisite and at times exquisitely painful. For example, I firmly believe that Georgetown's first national championship should have come in 1980, rather than 1984, during John "Ba-Ba" Duren and Craig "Big Sky" Shelton's senior season. The crown, of course, was won by Coach Crum's Cardinals who defeated Coach Larry Brown's (yes, that Larry Brown) UCLA Bruins by the score of 59-54. The "Doctors of Dunk" Cardinals were sparked by "Doctor Dunkenstein" himself, Darrell Griffith, who scored 23 points, including a clutch 18-foot jumper that broke a 54-54 tie. But enough about Louisville! Georgetown should have won the NCAA title that year! Local D.C. products Duren and Shelton, with the help of freshman sensation Eric "Sleepy" Floyd from Gastonia, North Carolina, led the Hoyas to a 26-6 record. The highlights of that season included closing Manley Field House in Syracuse with a 52-50 victory over the Orange, capturing the first BIG EAST Tournament championship, again with an 87-81 victory over Syracuse, after sharing the regular season title with the Orangemen and St. John's, and, of course, beating Coach Lefty Driesell's "vaunted" Maryland Terrapins, led by "Buck" Williams and Albert King, twice, including an NCAA Regional semifinal game in Philadelphia. That was, indeed, a special Hoya team. But, in the Regional Finals, after being on the verge of running Coach Lute Olsen's Iowa Hawkeyes out of the gym in the first half, the Hoyas, inexplicably, played the second half as if they were using Coach Thompson's symbolic underinflated basketball as the game ball and lost 81-80 in a heartbreaker. No one will ever convince me that we would not have beaten either Louisville or UCLA had we gotten to the Final Four that year! We had the talent, the strength, the depth, and the will to "dunk the doctors!" But woulda, coulda, shoulda, does not win championships, so we had to wait until 1984 for that coveted championship! Georgetown and Louisville's basketball paths again crossed in the 1982 Final Four in New Orleans. The 1982 Final Four, of course, is most remembered for the incredible championship game between Georgetown and North Carolina, won 63-62 by the Tar Heels on a jump shot from a freshman named Jordan, followed by "the pass" from Hoya point guard Freddie Brown to James Worthy. To this day, that game remains as the most extraordinary collegiate game that I have ever seen! Four or five Patrick Ewing blocks/goal tends to start the game for the Hoyas, a see-saw battle that left me on the edge of my seat the whole time and gasping for breath at the end. But, for all the attention paid over the years to "the pass," people, even ardent Georgetown fans, often overlook that, if Freddie Brown had not been playing for Georgetown in the semifinals against the Louisville Cardinals, Georgetown would not have made the final game. I can still see Brown directing the offense, and then running back and forth along the baseline for key baskets or rebounds. Until Patrick Ewing arrived at Georgetown, Brown was the single-most remarkable freshman that I had even seen on the Hilltop. Watching him as a freshman running the Hoya show in McDonough Gym, Brown played as if on a different plane than his teammates. (The only other Hoya that I can think of in this regard was Allen Iverson!) Of course, playing on a different plane than his teammates, Brown and the rest of the people in McDonough often heard the voice of Coach Thompson bellowing in loud, alliterative phrases at Freddie as a pass whizzed beyond a teammate out of bounds. Georgetown defeated Louisville 50-46 in the National Semifinals in New Orleans on that March Saturday in 1982. And Freddie Brown was named the most valuable player of the game! How ironic! So tonight, we again lace them up against the Cardinals. It is easier for me now that Coach Rick Pitino is at the helm to root against the Cardinals. I can never forgive Slick Rick and Billy the Kid Donovan for Providence's beating Reggie and the Miracles in the 1987 Southeast Regional Finals in, you guessed it, Louisville's Freedom Hall, on the floor which tonight will be named so-aptly "Denny Crum Court." So let's raise a glass to Coach Crum and then "Let's Beat the Crum-less Cardinals!" WE ARE GEORGETOWN!!
Michael E. Karam (F'72, L'76, L'82) |
