1985 NCAA Championship on CBS

[GumbyDamnit!]

The unquestioned peak of the BE conference. Get to see Patrick E the player... Gonna tune in. I forget who ends up winning this one.

[Novachap]

Amazing how tight the defenses were packedin the lane.... the shot clock and 3 pointer really changed things (for the better). Dwayne McClain was a fun player to watch..

[Jet915]

Crazy that Nova shot 79% from the field to win and only won by 2.

[MUPanther]

Crazy that Nova shot 79% from the field to win and only won by 2.

No shot clock and Villanova milked the clock.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Crazy that Nova shot 79% from the field to win and only won by 2.

No shot clock and Villanova milked the clock.

I don’t think they “milked” the clock nearly as much as people think. In fact with 3:30 to go and G’town up 1 JT was the one who decided to go to a four corners offense.

That was a deliberate Nova team; a lot like modern day UVA. But if you watch the game they just didn’t rush anything. I mean they did score in the 60’s, which was about average for back then.

[NJRedman]

That pre-shot clock era just doesn't make sense to me.

[billyjack]

Yeah, with the lack of a shot clock, the defense needed to go out and defend... like, the offense would say if you don't want us to stall, get out and guard on the perimeter... the defense would try to get 5 second calls, or try to pick up charge calls. Actually, this led to a ridiculous amount of charges called on ballhandlers 35 feet from the hoop, with the defenders flopping like European soccer players. So, a lot of the game had to do with whether or not the referee was an effing idiot.

Famously for PC fans, in the 1973 Elite-8 game win vs Maryland, Ernie DiGregorio fouled out with 5 offensive fouls with 10+ minutes still on the clock. The Final Four game vs Memphis State, mid first half PC was blowing them off the court by 10 or so early, but our All-America center Barnes blew out his knee, and our backup was a huge downgrade. The common strategy back then, often, was to play stall ball; but Gavitt correctly decided to play for real, and unfortunately we lost the game.

Generally, stalling was employed if an important player picked up his 4th foul. I've babbled a lot in the past about being at the 1980 NCAA at the Dunk, Georgetown vs Iona... this is all from memory, but it went something like the Hoyas had a tight lead and with maybe 12 minutes left one of their key big guys picked up his 4th foul and needed to sit... must've been either Ed Spriggs or another big man (Frazier)... anyway, Georgetown stalled til the gameclock was down to maybe 5 minutes, which then forced Iona to get more aggressive... during the stall, every time the PG (Sleepy Floyd maybe?) dribbled, the crowd would clap on the bounce, and it was a heavy Georgetown crowd cuz John Thompson Jr is a Friar alum... anyway, what am i babbling about?

A double-digit lead back then was the equivalent of a 20 point lead today. Often the D would need to aggressively and dangerously over-extend, leading to easy baskets.

Also, a shot clock was always being considered each year, but old school college hoops fans resisted for years. There were a couple of nutty games in the early 80's where the final scores were like 24-10 and other crazy ones, which eventually helped lead to a change. The first shot clock was i think 45 seconds long. That was a long time, and an offensive rebound re-set it back to 45.

[billyjack]

The unquestioned peak of the BE conference. Get to see Patrick E the player... Gonna tune in. I forget who ends up winning this one.

Pretty sure everyone knows this about the 1985 Big East, but i'll say it again for any newcomers...

The Big East of course had 3 Final Four teams. But 2 other key points are relevant:

ALL 3 BIG EAST 1985 FINAL FOUR TEAMS BEAT ACC TEAMS IN THEIR ELITE-8 GAMES:
One is that each of those BE teams won their Elite-8 games head-to-head vs the ACC. (Hoyas over Georgia Tech, Johnnies over NC State, and Villanova over the Cheatin UNC Tarheels). This was freakin huge, and was the real beginning of the ACC's psychopathic need to try to kill the Big East ever since, and has led us to where we are now, in the midst of their ongoing 35-year freak-out and phallus-envy by the ACC about the Big East.

Seriously, picture the visuals as 3 different BE teams beating the ACC, then the ladders come out, and each player climbs up and snips the nets... all while Tobacco Road sits there watching. Nice.

BOSTON COLLEGE LOST BY ONLY 2 POINTS TO MEMPHIS STATE IN THE SWEET SIXTEEN GAME:
The second key point is that Memphis State (the other Final Four team), besides cheating and having the year vacated, had won in the Sweet-16 game by only 2 points vs Boston College, in a tight tight game where the lead went back and forth a zillion times. In other words, there was a seriously legitimate chance that BC could also have made the Final Four, and how freakin cool would that have been to have had all four Final Four teams come out of the Big East? Also, as it turned out, Memphis State was bounced by Villanova in the first Saturday semifinal, meaning the final 3 teams in 85 were Big East schools. Note also that Boston College beat #10 Duke to make the Sweet Sixteen in 85... i'm sure Coach K and his players cried afterward-- that's pretty much a given.

[Xudash]

Crazy that Nova shot 79% from the field to win and only won by 2.

That's what I remember about that game.

David versus Goliath and David simply kept hitting the mark all night long. Sports entertainment at its best.

[ArmyVet]

I clearly remember watching the game live thinking GTown would win even as the final buzzer sounded. Just had to shake my head because it was so implausible.