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The 24-10 Wildcats vs the 35-2 Hoyas
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00:00the following is a special presentation of hbo's sports of the 20th century
00:11clearly above and beyond everybody else it was georgetown and everybody else was second
00:22we're not gonna be humble we weren't jackie robson okay if a fight broke out we accommodated
00:29we said oh is this the way you want to play huh underneath mourning in america was all this
00:38turmoil and all this energy and all this rage john thompson and rolling massimino were night and day
00:44it was like a coronation that you were coming to see how badly will georgetown be doing over
00:49he sat down threw his jacket and said who the hell they think they are they can't do that to us
00:55so we go into battle and we make this thing happen we didn't miss
00:59couldn't miss
01:02they had to play perfect game to beat us
01:08200 000 people crowded into times square to count down the final seconds of the decade
01:23the 1980s began ominously in the united states an economic recession spilled into the new decade
01:32causing massive unemployment soaring interest rates and a sputtering stock market
01:37the soviet union wielded its strength in eastern europe the u.s. seemed powerless in the face of
01:46escalating nuclear buildup and international terrorism
01:53but by 1984 with an improving economy and a perpetually cheerful president in the white house
02:00the perception of a nation suffering of crisis of confidence was changing there was a sense of let's
02:06stop worrying about everything let's have a good time let's make money let's party it's morning again
02:13in america and under the leadership of president reagan our country is prouder and stronger even
02:21among those of us who thought that was a very silly phrase that it's morning in america somehow that idea
02:26became very persuasive the 80s was for a lot of people like a coming out party greed is good without
02:33liberty to discuss our trading activity the 80s were big and larger than life
02:41it seemed like everything was becoming bigger including the world of sports by the mid 80s major
02:48league baseball salaries were routinely passing the one million dollar mark the nfl super bowl had
02:54become tv's biggest annual event rights fees paid by networks to televise the games were skyrocketing into
03:01the billions inside the louisiana and no sport was growing faster than college basketball
03:10march man started to take off during the bird and magic johnson game in 79 and it was flourishing
03:22by 1984 the center of the college basketball world was a small jesuit school located just two miles
03:29from the white house throughout its almost 200 year history georgetown university had been known for
03:36its high academic standards and its lousy basketball team but part of that perception began to change in
03:431972 when an imposing former nba backup center with little experience was hired as head coach
03:50here was john thompson this black man he wasn't just any black man here's a guy 6 10 300 pounds when you
03:59looked at him he put the fear of god in you john thompson what thompson bought to georgetown was really
04:08what he learned backing up bill russell for the celtics and he built the team around defense
04:12there were not a lot of black coaches in the country number one bigger than ewing right there
04:18secondly there weren't a lot of coaches who had no college coaching experience who would come directly
04:23in from high school when i first came to joystown university i pointed to the wall and told them a
04:28national championship flag will fly in this building but along the winding road to capturing a championship
04:35flag the outspoken thompson couldn't help but make enemies i just remember john thompson being an
04:42intimidating guy not just as a coach not just in the basketball court not just with officials but
04:47with people john thompson and intimidation go hand in hand that's the mainstream perception of john in
04:56his coaching career 99 of america isn't right about most of the things i set the standard for what will
05:03be done with my team it's just that simple i always felt that that was a problem to some whites
05:09wd dubois said once our whole lives we have spent answering false accusations and i'm not going
05:15to spend two minutes doing it i thought anytime a black was making statements and not asking questions
05:21setting the rules and not asking for permission some of them had difficulty in dealing with that
05:28despite the friction that always seemed to surround him by the late 70s thompson had made georgetown
05:33basketball legitimate the school soon joined forces with other top eastern programs to establish a
05:40brand new conference which echoing the theme of the new decade was called the big east with cable tv on
05:47the rise and all sports networks desperate for programming the big east quickly became a reversing
05:54the long tradition of players being lured to conferences in the south and west if you take a look
05:59at guys like kareem jabbar new york city ucla wilt chamberlain philadelphia kansas it's not kareem
06:09one who calls him by two of his three names kareem abdul jabbar
06:16and luau cinder went to ucla he wasn't kareem yet
06:22those players stayed at home all of a sudden kids wanted to be on television
06:34and that became part of every brochure how many nights you were on tv
06:39the big east immediately scored recruiting high school phenoms like duane
06:44washington to syracuse michael adams to boston college and chris mullen to st john's
06:53but it would be a seven footer transplanted from jamaica to massachusetts
06:59who would establish the big east as the elite conference in the nation
07:03his name was patrick ewing one of my assistants had asked me to go to boston with him to see a young man
07:10playing i'm sitting there i can't keep my eyes off of this other kid
07:18with just his energy level and intensity how he played i said hey mama get me that
07:26i said i'll win the national championship if you get me that kid there's a kid from jamaica never really
07:32took up the sport until he was in seventh grade and just grew into an enormous folk legend in new england
07:40in new england
07:44everybody wanted him my mother wants all of her kids like to go into college and get a good education so
07:51so they you know they won't be a bummer in the street hanging around well i remember when coach
07:57thompson came to talk to myself and my mother and father my mother asked him a question what kind of
08:03social life would my son have at your at your university are there any other black people at
08:09georgetown you know i said washington is 70 percent black i said if your kid can't have social life in
08:17a place that's seven percent black i said he got a problem that i can't solve it's like the artist
08:22having an opportunity to paint and he's very eloquent he played the position he's black i think all that
08:31as a young black man growing up it gave me something to aspire to be after considering all
08:37the fact my decision is to attend georgetown university
08:45ewing made a resounding impact on the college basketball landscape
08:53carrying georgetown to its first ncaa championship game in his freshman year
08:58only to be beaten in the waning seconds on a jump shot by another hot shot freshman from north
09:08carolina i'm gonna enjoy it he beat him all the time in the nba too and ewing showtime despite the
09:18laws ewing had put the college basketball world on notice for the next three years a dominant force
09:25would patrol the paint in the nation's cannon
09:33on april 2nd 1984 ewing's junior season concluded with georgetown's first ncaa basketball championship
09:43it had been 30 years since a northeastern team last held the title
09:47but john thompson had made even more significant history
09:51john thompson is the first black coach to ever win the ncaa basketball championship i knew exactly the
09:58significance of me winning that game oh your paranoia on it you know a young boy said to me
10:03in the press conference didn't mean anything to me to be the first african-american and i saw him if that
10:09means that i'm the first african-american that had intelligence enough to do it i find it very
10:14offensive because there have been a lot of guys that come before me that never was provided with
10:19an opportunity to do you think that when georgetown won in 84 and patrick ewing is coming back the next
10:26year that they are the odds-on favorite and should win the national title who's going to beat them
10:35georgetown campus and the city of brotherly love stood one of its big east rivals another catholic
10:41school better known for academics than for basketball but unlike georgetown in the early 80s
10:47a championship tradition wasn't being built at villanova though competitive and talented nearly
10:53every year the wildcats were rarely thought of as serious national title contenders their road to the
11:00final four was usually a dead end villanova was led by its own charismatic coach but it looks posture
11:08and attitude raleigh massimino couldn't have appeared more different than john thompson night and day
11:15john thompson and raleigh massimino were night and day
11:20raleigh was just so nice little cuddly guy john's a hugger but he doesn't want to see people hugging him
11:27and roll he's an embarrassment because he hugs everybody by the end of the game he looked like
11:30he'd been from kind of a maytag washing machine he was like a bottle of soda that you shake up and
11:37then you take off the top he was daddy mass you were recruited to the family of villanova we used to
11:46invite 40 50 60 people after every game we would make eight pounds nine pounds of macaroni only people had
11:54feed for massimino his home cooked meals and his basketball program were run the same way family
12:01style i would show up at his house and just walk in the front door and there's mr massimino she goes
12:06oh hi chuck hey mom how you doing so what's for dinner he was a guy that bonded extremely well with his
12:13players it was just his natural personality did he scream at him yeah but he put his arms around him yeah
12:18nice shot his fatherly persona helped massimino compete for top-notch recruits in the rugged big
12:24east and in 1981 he signed three freshmen that would make up the nucleus of his team for the next four
12:30years highly touted center ed pinkney from the bronx forward dwayne mclean from massachusetts and a
12:37brash fearless point guard from long island named gary mclean the cocky freshmen called themselves the
12:44expansion crew we didn't want to be treated as freshmen because we knew and we felt that we
12:51were going to be running the campus here shortly gary made sure whatever we did we did it all together
12:57and we did it big and better than anyone else had had done it gary was definitely the vocal leader of
13:05that ball club if things were a little rough gary was right there to pick everybody up one of his
13:10favorite targets was chuck everson uh seven footer from long island and gary would give it to him
13:16non-stop day and night used to call chuck you know because he was kind of big and you know i was pretty
13:22much hovering between hulk and chuck and i just came up with chulk i wound up being on the end of a lot of
13:28his stuff but that kept everything going too little things that he did would just keep everybody loose also
13:34keeping the team loose was a little old man who sat courtside for every game 75 year old jake nevin
13:41had been villanova's team trainer for 56 years but with lou gehrig's disease confining him to a wheelchair
13:48he now served as villanova's unofficial team mascot and inspiration with this disease my hands i can't do
13:55anything i can't walk but the kid's out on me as a head man anyway jake knew how to to bust him
14:04you'd wake up on a plane and you'd look down and your tie was cut in half or he'd pinch you or stick
14:09you with a pin and you'd look at him and go oh jake he is a very special person to all the guys that were
14:16on that team he was just a magical guy with the foundation for success seemingly in place massimino
14:26looked to his trio of recruits to spur a basketball renaissance at villanova and in the ultra competitive
14:32big seasons were only solid not spectacular in a conference overflowing with big teams and big stars
14:42villanova usually came up just a little smaller here we go up with the steel for three years they
14:47watched in envy as their conference rivals georgetown cut down nets for one tournament victory after
14:52another georgetown was a national power john thompson had athletes he had guys who could bang he had
15:02players uh opposed to villanova i don't even think we recruited in the same class as georgetown this swagger
15:08was so much different than everybody else's swagger we had to work for everything regardless of who
15:12it was we played we were the little small school in pennsylvania we're like the have-nots
15:22they were able to play and stretch as well but never really able to play consistently for a 40-minute
15:29period villanova didn't make much of an impression on me i mean it was a tough team look at pearl
15:34dribbling didn't have that attitude of flair that some of the other squad said
15:39attitude and flair was what big east basketball was coming to be all about
15:47but its style of play was not what james naisman had in mind it was really hard-nosed aggressive take
15:55you by the throat if you got a chance squeeze the life out of you basketball and they were brawling and
16:00there were near fights all the time no team demonstrated this style more than georgetown
16:07their intensity and aggression even earned its own nickname poya paranoia
16:14was there a paranoia yeah you were scared of georgetown they were a tough team they were
16:19a street team they played street ball as like you're not making a layup
16:22i'm going to knock you to mouth i'm going to kick you i'm going to foul you i'm going to do whatever
16:28i can to not let you score can't get a shot off knocked out of his hands by jones georgetown epitomized
16:35the sort of ethos of intimidation they made defense cool and they made defense tough
16:41oh and then you're also on the sideline saying if by chance you get past this team i'm standing here
16:53and i will kick your ass too
16:59if a fight broke out we accommodated you we're not going to be humble we weren't jackie robinson
17:04so what happens people right away they started to say they're playing dirty we were playing defense
17:09here is where georgetown gets accused by many of being a bunch of thugs i did think they were
17:15dirty because i always believed that they felt they could get away with anything because they
17:19were georgetown i among others have been critics from time to time their list of critics was long
17:25and loud and their defenders usually sensed a motive behind the attacks race oh georgetown was certainly
17:34covered in a particular way because it was an all-black team headed by a black coach you know
17:39instead of saying this is a well-disciplined aggressive team uh they described as oh they're
17:45great athletes instead of saying you know we played a smart game or an intelligent game they would say
17:50well they just uh they intimidated the other team and just scared the crap out of them it's funny because
17:56it was so different from what we were actually like it's really evident how georgetown was painted
18:04you know john thompson just went to darkest ghetto
18:10got the meanest look at the roughest black thugs you can get put some nikes on them and put them on
18:16the court i mean what was thuggish about them you know they were going to class if they didn't go to
18:22class i'd be ready to kill them when we get out on the floor we took no prisoner i think coach thompson
18:28was a great man a great educator not only about basketball but also about life you know john wasn't
18:33raising thugs i mean he was making men ever defiant thompson refused to yield to the
18:43a quote unquote thug patrick ewing would not shake his teammates hands
18:50his entire career if he did not see them wash their hands and knew they didn't wash their hands
18:57a thug germaphobe
19:00demanding journalists further fueling hoya paranoia people are so accustomed to kissing the
19:06ass of the media and i didn't do it there was a piece of that called him the idiom mean of college
19:12basketball comparing him to a mass murderer black people love georgetown and love thompson
19:19my uncles loved him you know uh old black guys from down south they understood he was up against
19:27it wasn't just old guys from down south young black males from all over the country embrace the hoyas
19:34and their us against the world attitude it fused perfectly with a burgeoning cultural movement
19:40that featured in your face rap music symbolic fashion and swagger
19:47people pissing on the stage you know they just don't care underneath morning in america
19:52that sense that we're under siege but we're going to stand up to all this stuff
19:58and that was georgetown
19:59don't push me because i'm close to the edge their timing was perfect georgetown became hip-hop's
20:08first team matter of fact i had a rap group that uh i was forming and i called them the georgetown
20:14gangsters i went to take towns and i had a georgetown shirt like why georgetown was your team
20:21even though they were the bad guys georgetown was the jacket to get about 82 83 i had my started
20:27georgetown jacket i know i had my georgetown jacket it meant that you was down like georgetown
20:33it also meant that you had attitude it also meant that you was bad it also meant that you was dope
20:39it also meant that you was fresh it also meant that you was down by the law hip-hop big money and
20:46the spoils of wealth were beginning to define the decade as one of attitude and excess pace
20:54the other thing you had to talk about in the 80s is cocaine cocaine had become a part of the culture
21:04a lot of these athletes a lot of these basketball players football baseball i don't know about
21:12hockey but a lot of those guys were uh were on it it's been hedonist drug really a kind of perfect
21:20symbol of a sort of treadmill of empty consumption coke was everywhere coke was in the clubs coke was
21:27in the clubhouses coke was in the schools anybody can say this in the 80s you just had a lot of friends
21:34that were on cocaine you think about what's on television miami vice cocaine the central part of
21:43that element of popular culture well yo ho ho do you see what i see and back then you know the fast
21:51life really was a football all you had to do was step on the track
21:58e5 the senior season for ewing the expansion crew and a dozen other stars in the nation's finest conference
22:06by mid-season the only true threat to georgetown's crown had come from their new york city rivals st john's
22:13who beat the hoyas and took the number one ranking in late january
22:20just one month later georgetown had a chance for revenge on the conference's center stage
22:26there goes mullen off the glass you had the two best teams meeting for the main event
22:35and of course georgetown winds up smoking st john's back there
22:39another point by ewing yeah we went out to kick their butts
22:43that established a tenor for the rest of the season it was very difficult to imagine georgetown losing
22:58to anyone meanwhile villanova was playing out a drama of its own but their goal was much more desperate
23:07despite a winning record and two close losses to georgetown as the ncaa tournament approached
23:13villanova sat squarely on the bubble with no guarantee of even making the tournament
23:18the string of victories was never there every single time we were about to make the next level
23:23we got crushed their mediocre season meant the expansion crew was perilously close to finishing
23:30their college careers playing in the second rate n.i.t that was sort of like a lost season because
23:37we were all asked to become leaders at that time we didn't handle it well i mean we were sort of off
23:43being the expansion crew and we battled with coach massimino about that because he wanted us to
23:49sort of be a little bit more unselfish massimino believed his team's tournament chances came down
23:56to their final regular season game at pittsburgh it controls the opening tip a strong effort and victory
24:03would get villanova in a loss could destroy their season the pit game was their last regular season
24:12game and they had a terrible first half and they're going no place
24:23we were playing very poorly and i told them it could mean an ncaa bid i said but you have three
24:30minutes to play mclean pinckney and the rest of the starters continued to falter massimino had had
24:36enough i told him you're all coming out and you're going to sit the shipwreck being stranded not on the
24:44island but on the bench all of a sudden like we don't have a game he's quit on his team and it blows the
24:54game wide open and pit kills them we got back to campus and you could see all over people's faces
25:03what happened we were all just comatose what just happened to us we're on the bubble and we're on the
25:10bubble like well now that's great we're not making a tournament now you know this is it's all over just
25:18one year earlier it would have been all over for villanova but the rapid growth and popularity of the
25:24tournament by 1985 convinced the ncaa to expand the list of invited teams from 53 to 64. on selection
25:32sunday the wildcats sat on the edge of their seats we're sitting there we're watching and we're
25:38thinking it's gonna be close we were waiting just to see if we got in the wildcats eight seated will
25:45be going against the university of dayton when we did it was the celebration and we're all jumping
25:50around and then we said okay let's get to work let's go after the pittsburgh thing we established
25:57such a great camaraderie i can remember gary said coach you can remember us for more than just who
26:06we are because we're going to really win something 64 teams now had dreams of winning the title
26:1263 were probably fooling themselves they have rolled out all these superlatives about this
26:19georgetown team they come into the tournament with 30 victories they could be by the time this is all
26:23finished accorded the honor of being the greatest team ever because they're playing that well
26:27clearly above and beyond everybody else it was georgetown and everybody else was second
26:33we are in dainton ohio villanova opened the tournament with a clash against the university of
26:38dayton on the flyers home court the dayton arena was going crazy they really thought they were
26:44going to win this game it was obvious and it was a tight game
26:52the back and forth game stood tied at 49 a soft-spoken sophomore from connecticut
26:57came off villanova's bench and boldly announced his arrival harold jensen would become villanova's
27:05secret left as he was going for the left everyone stood up in unison saying what are you doing
27:19that layup you know propelled harold into his extreme confidence i think my attitude shifted from
27:25i'll be careful to go for it the length of the court play cut by presley villanova will advance
27:32i think at that point we all look around at each other like this is going to be a fun tournament
27:38next up was michigan the number one seed in the southeast regional in the perennial big 10 powerhouse
27:44we weren't supposed to win we weren't supposed to be even in the realm of winning
27:49what could pick me play great that game was on saint patrick's day and when the game was at hand and
27:59we were going to win i looked over and saw jake in his wheelchair and he had a leprechaun's hat on
28:05that's when i start to think that maybe some forces are at work
28:08all of a sudden everybody was on the bandwagon at that point
28:23another stifling defensive effort against maryland and their all-american forward len bias
28:28earned villanova a 46 to 43 victory and a trip to the elite eight
28:33yeah as they went through the tournament there was a remarkable defensive performance
28:40they were holding people into the 40s very happy raleigh massimino the elite eight was old territory
28:46for massimino who had been eliminated there twice before to finally advance to college basketball's
28:53biggest stage the final four he would have to go through north carolina coached by the legendary dean
28:59smith you could see their confidence building with each and every game
29:04role is telling me that night that they could beat north carolina hey they don't have jordan
29:11or were there anymore
29:15all they have is uh kenny the jet smith
29:23in spite of the coach's confidence the tar heels dominated the first half
29:29jensen and there's raleigh burying his hands he can't believe it i remember being really
29:34tense at halftime for that game tense and depressed that is really the point when i thought this could
29:39be it the fun could be over in the locker room at halftime massimino reached deep into his italian
29:47bag of motivational tricks i mean what are you doing you're not doing anything you do nothing i came in
29:53screaming i said do you know what i want more than going to the final four i want a big dish of pasta
29:59with clam sauce and we're looking at each other in the locker room like what is he talking about
30:04i said you know what i want a lot of cheese on that too where's this coming from we wondered what the
30:12heck does this have to do with motivation to get us out there and then he finally ends up with
30:19just relax and go out there and play your eyes i never forget just like exploded
30:26they jumped up and went out and they played wonderfully
30:32we settled down in the second half we came on a totally different team
30:35between the glass with a strong move to the left side dean smith says no sense falling let the clock
30:42run down let's turn it down five four three two one and now the dream is there raleigh massimino
30:49is going to the final four and all the players just went peep
30:54we had a rally in the jake nothing field house and i've never seen people on campus
31:10and it was a mad house it was crazy the whole school was in there that night so seven eight
31:15thousand like that whatever it was were packed in it was like being ringo in the beatles or being
31:21tito jackson for me in the jackson five you were in the band but you weren't like the main guy you know
31:32it was just an absolutely incredible incredible feeling that gives me chills to this day
31:43having the chance to just thank everybody for you know for being part of it and telling them you know
31:48hey we're not done as villanova was making its improbable run in the eastern regional everything
31:57was going according to script georgetown was advancing through the tournament like a gray and blue steam
32:04first smashing lehigh by 25 points then temple by 17 loyola by 12 and finally escaping georgia tech
32:14we would go out on the court and see the fear in team's eyes georgetown's going back to the
32:21platform
32:25i thought we had the best team in the country we did that might have been better than the team that
32:30i had in 84. they got where they were supposed to be and you felt that this georgetown team was at the
32:37top of their game and the hoyas have got a chance to win it all again
32:46kentucky was shaping up as a private party for the nation's best conference
32:51rivals villanova georgetown and saint john's were thrust together once again
32:57it was the big east's finest hour it was spectacular it was unheard of about three teams like that
33:04the match-ups for saturday were set in game one villanova would face midwest regional winner
33:10memphis state led by all-american keith lee game two would be the fourth contest of the season
33:16between georgetown and saint john's the winners would face off two nights later for the national title
33:23but few thought they'd have to wait that long to crown a champion
33:26i felt the semi-final game between saint john's and georgetown was the championship
33:30you're about to enjoy college basketball's greatest show i had no focus on the villanova
33:35memphis game in the final four you know who cares because in that other game is the national champion
33:40number 22 gary mcclain i did not listen to anything that anybody had to say regarding
33:46our demise my whole idea is we're going to go on the court and slay you
33:50memphis state against villanova my brother was able to get tickets but i was in medical school
33:56and was afraid that i've got tests i got things to study my dad actually talked me into it he said
34:02look i'm just going for a day we're going to lose you'll be back in class and i thought well that
34:07isn't so bad so we went down only expecting to be there for one game double team by villanova
34:12and on the steal it was harold president we were very healthy going into the memphis state game
34:19we felt that eddie could do his job against keith lee and the rest of it was just executing
34:27ed pinkney had help from dwayne mcclain who led the wildcats with 19 points puts it down gets
34:33inside homes and jams on him gary mcclain had just two assists to go along with nine points
34:39but nailed four free throws in the last minute to secure the victory
34:45the surreal atmosphere has started to take effect everything was in place
34:50let the celebration begin in philadelphia the wildcats have done it and villanova will play for the
34:56championship at that point you know i was like to heck with medical school i'm here for the finals
35:02once we got past memphis i thought we could win i really did you exhausted right now yes i really
35:09am this is three weeks of total total total exhaustion but doesn't make any difference two or
35:15three more days i can eat all the pasta i want but to most in the building and around the nation villanova's
35:21win was only the preliminary it was now time for the main event one more confrontation between the
35:27nation's two best teams the red men and the georgetown hoyers for the fourth time this season from the
35:34game's opening tip however it was clear that the champions were in no mood for drop
35:45they came out and knocked us off by the way they hit us with the marianne in the first half and we never
35:50got to go here and i remember the margin by which they beat st john's making me think that this team
36:03is invincible so for only the second time in the history of the sa championship two teams from the
36:09same conference will battle it out for the national title on monday night it'll be georgetown and villanova
36:15in lexington villanova will take on georgetown with the national championship riding on the line
36:23it's amazing i mean the spirit has been with us we were in lexington and we came upon a street vendor
36:31and he's selling shirts he's holding them up georgetown hoyers national champs 1985 we were irate
36:39and he said i'm going to be selling all these shirts tonight you know people are already buying them
36:44usa today the day of the game it said villanova versus a god
36:52prior to going to the facility and i told him think about playing the game to win instead of playing
36:58the game not to lose he says hey guys we're here you know the toughest part is getting here
37:05his emphasis to us was just relax and play your game your style
37:10villanova versus a god and they blasphemed
37:18grab your bag of popcorn and step on inside the russ marina and lexington kentucky it's the 1985
37:25ncaa championship between the wildcats of villanova and the hoyas of georgetown
37:30it was like a coronation that you were coming to see how badly will georgetown beat villanova
37:37i was expecting like most everyone else villanova to get smoked we fully expected to win another one our
37:47younger players and more experience having gone through it once yeah we fully expected to do it again
37:53on a kentucky monday night in 1985 a crowd of 23 000 rose to its feet while millions tuned in from
38:03around the nation to watch the final performance of one of college basketball's greatest dynasties
38:10but a quick glance at the calendar displayed the first sign what they were all about to witness
38:15it was april fool's day full court pressure right away by the hoyas with no shot clock villanova's
38:26strategy seemed obvious play deliberately and protect the ball both responsibilities that fell
38:33to their leader gary mcclain there was nobody that was going to be able to hold me that night
38:38i had made a predetermination in my head to play like this is it early on the wildcats made it clear
38:47they would not be intimidated by the hoyas pressure defense or patrick ewing's looming presence in the
38:52middle hoya paranoia was taking the night off lost control but got it to harold presley and put it in
39:00it didn't look pretty but it counts when i made it and you could see it in everybody's eyes nice nice
39:10georgetown had infected the whole country with fear a lot of people were afraid of the hoyas
39:16comes inside and they're challenging the big fella early we weren't intimidated by him or afraid of him
39:23georgetown's pressure normally forced opposing ball handlers into numerous turnovers but mcclain
39:29was unflammable the press it was inconsequential to these kids they've been in the kitchen they
39:36felt the heat mcclain wants it right back feisty player mcclain was one of those guys that kind
39:42of looked forward to the challenge of pressure there was so much competition built up in my mind
39:47because they had beat us i didn't feel like i was getting respect
40:01the game stayed close throughout the first half but one trend was becoming clear take the outside
40:08nearly every shot villanova put up was going in mcclain with a spinning move is tied at 20.
40:18i remember saying well this they can't possibly keep this up this is ridiculous
40:21wesley comes inside gets the high
40:24got the roll everything's followed jensen comes baseline inside of williams and creates a shot
40:30villanova's a good team but they are a great team so far tonight we didn't miss we couldn't miss out
40:37away from the basket here's jensen he's on the money we were just waiting for villanova to just miss one
40:43shot comes inside gets it to presley and ewing came back but presley hit it and you felt georgetown would
40:50take control of the game ewing so far against massimino's defense is one of three from the field
40:55they have not been able to get him that easy slam our plan was always to get the ball to patrick as
41:02much as we could throughout their careers villanova's ed pinkman had always played in the giant shadow
41:13cast by patrick ewing not on this night i keyed myself up before that game so much because i knew
41:23i have to have a great game patrick wants to get in a game so bad he just knocked over half the
41:28scorers table it took nearly 16 minutes but late in the first half of his last college game ewing
41:36finally showed flashes of dominance you ain't got his position they won't stop that
41:44oh and ewing comes with the lob and he says let's go but villanova weathered the quick ewing storm
41:51and as the first half was winding down gary mclean pulled for the wildcats to spread the floor
41:57right here going to four corners they're going to try to spread georgetown out down just one point
42:02the wildcats were content to let the clock drift toward halftime i remember one point gary just sort of
42:08standing up at the top holding the ball and just standing there and nobody's coming i think john
42:14tops has had a great year coaching his club but right now i don't know why he would allow
42:19villanova to hold the ball this really plays into raleigh massimino's hands i was surprised they just
42:24let us do it and i'm like oh this is
42:30the man and again i can't understand why they allow
42:33villanova to hold this ball now they get it inside to presley he comes inside
42:38on ewing it wouldn't stay but he comes back with the rebound harold presley's put back gave villanova
42:44a one-point lead and as the first half ended georgetown's reggie williams gave villanova's
42:50chuck everson an old-fashioned halftime send-off biggy style a little bit of a straight underneath the
42:57basket he turned around and with two hands came up and shoved me in the face and kept running
43:03williams comes up with his arms right there much like an offensive tackle
43:07everson had pushed me in the back and i retaliated and they made a big thing about that
43:13sabino is furious coach mass gets fired up and i'm sitting in the stands and coach
43:19mass comes running by he's running off the court he gets one of these well the guy to my left gives me a
43:27well be right in the eye he hits me right in the eye and i spent half time in the refirmer
43:37said who the hell they think they are they can't do that to us
43:40this is not going to happen not tonight that's it we're going to kick their ass and no one's going to
43:45touch our guys we're going to be ready to play we got them flustered in the georgetown locker room
43:51it was business as usual we expected to make a run if we keep going they'll stay with us they'll
43:55stay with us we'll break them down and then we'll get away from them well maybe the coronation is
44:01going to have to be delayed a little that became the story of the second half can villanova stay
44:07in the game not can villanova win can they stay in the game the first half of this game was as good a
44:15half of college basketball as i've ever seen georgetown's second half began with a clear message
44:21get the ball to ewing ewing georgetown regains the lead that quickly but just as it seemed the game's
44:29biggest star was about to take over take nita harold jensen from the perimeter rattles in villanova's
44:36secret weapon began to strike again jensen is now three of three off the villanova bench
44:46harold jensen had a off the hook game i mean the guy was draining stuff from way they shot the ball
44:52extremely well that day villanova had yet to miss a single shot in the second half
44:58and with only 10 minutes remaining their defense had ewing frustrated
45:01he did a terrific job of smothering a big guy and making it tough for him
45:08and that on ewing is the second foul
45:13because it wasn't happening wasn't thinking like he wanted to click
45:18that point in time did come for georgetown hey these guys are not going away back to gary mcclain
45:23the shots there on its way
45:24i was a hundred percent sure he was making a shot
45:44i remember sitting in a bar it was absolutely packed and we keep looking over at each other
45:51thinking how long can these guys keep playing this close to perfection
46:01and the answer was as long as it took
46:07i'm very frustrated over how can you can't stop these guys
46:11how are these guys staying in the game
46:12john johnson's starting to take this game very seriously
46:17even with villanova's nearly unconscious shooting the champions would not go away quietly
46:25we finally went up by one point and we was like okay now we're going to get them to come out and
46:30play we went to our spread offense four corners by georgetown a lot of time to play in this game
46:36but then i threw up and i threw a bad pass
46:40bounced off broad next foot right to dwayne mcclain and they took control again and i hate it whenever i see this tape
46:47every possession was extremely important and then we get this turnover at a very crucial time
46:53i'm sorry you know but they wanted to win as much as i did down one
46:58jensen again
47:08the zone defense stiffened and forced the flustered hoyas into a turnover
47:18georgetown was now forced to send the wildcats to the free throw line hoping they would choke they
47:24wouldn't
47:31we're ahead but until the clock absolutely says zero zero what's going to happen in this game
47:39ewing
47:42plane rebounding inside of a minute through the foul and villanova with a chance to stage one of the
47:50greatest upsets in the history of the ncaa championship finals we got to finish this off
47:57you know we're right there we got to keep going stay focused
48:04right up until the last second jackson and there are just five seconds we just figured we'd find a way to win it
48:22that's how give me the ball and sure enough i made a move i fell and he still threw me the ball
48:28we did it we did it we actually did it we won the game
48:47i'm like this is this is unreal
48:57i started crying and then you're looking for coach mass because i really wanted to give him a hug and
49:03tell him man can you believe this you're not even conscious you want to hug somebody you want to yell
49:09you're screaming let's go let's go i've never been moved to tears out of sheer joy before in my life
49:21an improbable team when the tournament started the villanova wildcats will now go down in history
49:26it's april fools it's really didn't happen georgetown win april fools we won we were singing now we get a ring
49:37all right what a great you know you could just see it get crazier and crazier
49:43nobody thought they could do it no no one thought we could do it but i did and so did they
49:49i thought it was a major victory for for everyone involved and it's a tribute to the kids
50:02jake was kind of about good luck john
50:07i went over to him and put my hand on his head and said hey this one's for you jake nevin
50:13died just eight months later he willed us to win i really believe that
50:33one look at the final story against one of the best defensive teams in the country
50:38villanova was nearly flawless shooting an ncaa finals record 79 from the field they missed just
50:47one shot in the second half you know i know we we left everything on the court and um the other team
50:54played a hell of a game you know it hurt to lose but you know i mean they played a terrific game they
51:00deserved to win it was just their night they had to play a perfect game to beat us
51:08it was a full-time party huge celebration downtown it was like is this happening is this for us when
51:17we get to the center of town there's people hanging in trees to get a look at us and just you know
51:23pandemonium is ensued a non-stop party with all of our fans with our families
51:29it's really it's really a pleasure and an honor for me and our team to be the national champions of the
51:38michael
51:43you deserve a great deal of credit for that preparation and also and in march 1987 two years
51:50after villanova's team stunned the college basketball world gary mclean did it all by himself
51:57he cooperated in the writing of a story for sports illustrated which revealed that throughout
52:02his college career he used cocaine heavily he revealed that teammates knew of his use
52:09and the mvp of the championship game admitted to playing villanova's semi-final against memphis state
52:16high on cocaine tell me about the memphis state game well it was the semi-finals and
52:22uh i had uh indulged in drugs before the game cocaine exactly i found out through gary he called
52:31said that an article was being written i had went to a rehabilitation center and i was talking
52:38to somebody about it and this other individual said you should write a story and your experience was
52:44there were a lot of times when you played while you were wired a couple of times yes i did i take full
52:50responsibility for it my name was on it and i was a youngster i was 21 years old i didn't check with
52:57other people maybe that was a big mistake some of the things that were said shocked me
53:05i i don't believe that could have happened quite frankly couldn't have the opening sentence of the
53:11story stated that while he and his teammates were being honored at the white house by president reagan
53:16mclean mclean was standing in the rose garden wired on cocaine i'm standing right there with him with
53:23president reagan's right there you know and you know he's talking about he wants to smack him in the
53:27back of the head i was in disbelief you know i'm like where was i doing all this stuff happening was
53:33this dude high in the game because that's what people ask me and i don't know it hurt us
53:40a lot because we knew how much i heard coach mass mass mass amino acknowledged he'd heard rumors of
53:45mclean's drug use in the story mclean said that his coach did little about them roly mass amino nor did
53:52his staff know that gary mclean was on drugs i called him in my office a few times and talked to him
54:02regarding that i heard rumors i let gary know that there was an inkling and at that time we couldn't
54:11drug test it was against the person's individual rights and i knew that we did the right thing
54:18and i think he just embarrassed our team he embarrassed the university he embarrassed himself
54:24every time we do a story everybody asks about it you know so it's always there oh you guys won that
54:30championship but you guys cheated because your point cut was on the stuff man it takes away from
54:37it all for the record i was not under the influence of any mood of mind altering substance in the
54:44championship game bottom line won it can't take it from me mvp of the game i don't believe what i've
54:53been through can tarnish the magnitude of what we accomplished that hurt me more than anything that's
55:02ever happened in my career in january of 2005 villanova's entire national championship team came
55:12together for the first time in 20 years to honor their coach and to bury a bit of the past the opportunity
55:20that gary had to come back to me left a lot of my heart open to him i still love gary like a brother
55:32he knows that and i'm glad we were able to put that behind us and move on even 20 years later it's just
55:38like we haven't skipped a beat we're always going to be family not many people get a chance to have these
55:43type of memories for better or for worse we're all married forever the villanova crew is
55:57that game was played at a level of teamwork it was about heart it was about courage
56:06this is why sports is better than drama better than movies or theater because you can't script the stuff
56:14people around the country even if people didn't follow it said no kidding david beat collide that night
56:22they were just good nice kids that worked and we got a little lucky and i told now that you're 40 you
56:29you still act like you're 21 and i i love them for it too
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