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00:24Hi everybody, I'm Brian Kenney and welcome to ESPN Classics Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame.
00:29They were the hippest fraternity in the country and way ahead of their time.
00:34With their pressing defense, fast break and never-ending thirst for breathtaking dunks,
00:38the Houston Cougars stormed into the national sports culture.
00:41With Clyde the Glide, Akeem the Dream and Mr. Mean, they were five slamma jamma.
00:46At one point, while running off 26 straight victories, it seemed they couldn't lose.
00:51But lose they did in 1983 to North Carolina State and in 1984, again in the national championship, when they
00:58lost to Georgetown.
00:59Before we count down the top five reasons you can't blame five slamma jamma for not winning a title,
01:04let's look back in awe.
01:21Texas, we play basketball also.
01:24It was a tremendous experience for us to come together and go to a major university and be successful.
01:30That was a great team to be on.
01:32Very talented group of guys who really came from nowhere.
01:35By the fall of 1980, Houston coach Guy Lewis had a team comprised of one high school All-American,
01:42Rob Williams, and some high-octane players unknown to much of the hoops world.
01:48And then in October came the...
01:49Big Afro, Clyde Drexler, Sterling.
01:52Where is that?
01:55That would be somewhere in Louisiana where Drexler's from.
01:58...one who would be the difference maker.
02:00A scout in Africa had told Guy that he was seven feet tall, but Guy said,
02:05I've had scouts tell me about seven-footers, and then when they come to you, they're six, seven, or six,
02:09eight.
02:10I got a call about two weeks later from New York City.
02:14He wasn't seven foot, he's 6'10 and like some change.
02:18I'm Akeem Olajuwon.
02:21He said, I want to come to Houston.
02:22We were just hanging around the university one day, and this tall guy got out of a yellow cab,
02:28and he just kept unfolding, unfolding, unfolding.
02:30He came from Lagos, Nigeria.
02:32You flop him down in the middle of the Houston High School All-City team.
02:35And presto, you've got five slammer jammer.
02:40After red-shirting his first year, the still-raw Akeem Olajuwon came off the bench in the fall of 1981,
02:47bolstering a starting five of senior captain Lyndon Rose, juniors Larry Mishaw and Williams,
02:53and sophomores Clyde Drexler and Michael Young.
02:56It was like Guy V. Lewis had a stable of thoroughbreds.
02:59You let the thoroughbreds run.
03:02Take the ball to the basket strong, try to get to the line.
03:05But with that attitude, what we started doing was trying to just dunk everything.
03:09When you dunk, you set up your defense.
03:11Everyone is fired up, and we can press.
03:14Once you get the routine down, pressing, trapping, getting in the passing lane, stealing the ball,
03:20it's so much fun.
03:21That team was supposed to be a year away, but Rob Williams made that team go.
03:27Williams led Houston in scoring and into the 1982 Final Four.
03:31But against number one North Carolina, he shot blanks.
03:35All-American, who's averaging over 25 points, did not have a very good game.
03:41I never scored two points even when I was five years old.
03:44So I get to the biggest game of my life, and I go 0 for 8.
03:47That 68-63 loss was Williams' collegiate farewell.
03:52But Olajuwon was just beginning.
03:54He developed his game in brutal off-season sparring sessions with Moses Malone.
03:59I just am amazed at how much he's improved over the last year.
04:03When they could get out in the open court and run, they were most effective.
04:06But nevertheless, in the half court, they would settle down and get the ball inside to Olajuwon.
04:11I'm going to get the Olajuwon.
04:12And to have a big guy that could run up and down the floor with you and play that style
04:18of ball at that level made it even better.
04:21In January of 1983, after watching the Cougars detonate 10 dunks against Pacific,
04:28Houston Post writer Thomas Bonk dubbed them Phi Slamma Jamma.
04:33They frolicked their way to 22 straight wins, entering the NCAA tournament.
04:38I've never seen another school that actually gives dunk statistics, but they do.
04:42If you double the Keene, they got guys that can shoot.
04:44If you didn't double them, they have good slashers.
04:46They get out in the open court, got that ball to Alvin Franklin and Drexler and Michael Young on the
04:52wings.
04:52It was over.
04:54Drexler!
04:55But defensively is where they broke you down.
04:58They broke the other team's spirit.
04:59They knew they could take a lot of risk in the half court because not only did they have a
05:03Keene back there,
05:03but they had Larry Nishok, who was a pretty good shot blocker as well.
05:06But Drexler or Young or Mishaw would pick it up, and it was off to the races.
05:12Number one in the polls, Houston incinerated Maryland, Memphis State, and Villanova in the NCAA tournament.
05:19In the final four, the Cougars met another aerial circus, number two Louisville.
05:24They played a game that was never played ever in the history of college basketball against Louisville.
05:32Why do you have played something?
05:33Both teams played completely above the rim.
05:38A reverse dunk.
05:40They just ran us off the court.
05:41He went up on the alley-oop and stuffed it.
05:43It was 22-1 run.
05:45Drexler, wow!
05:46And that just shows you right there that we just ran out of gas.
05:50High slam-a-jammer!
05:52Three dunks in a row.
05:54After we beat Louisville, I just, like, licked my fingers.
05:58Yeah, it's good.
05:59It's going to be real good.
06:01Boasting a 31-2 record, Houston was a nine-point favorite over ten-time loser North Carolina State
06:08in the title game.
06:09Almost everyone expected a walkover, including the Cougars.
06:13When you're the caliber team like we are, you're going to go a little cocky.
06:19These guys wouldn't take them as serious as long.
06:21They thought they had this game won.
06:23And it sticks to nothing, the Wolfpack on top of Houston.
06:27We couldn't get the shots.
06:29We couldn't get our running game going.
06:31It looked as though they were playing not to lose rather than to win.
06:34Knocked away by Lowell.
06:35Frankman loses the ball.
06:37Biggest thing I think they did is get Clyde Drexler into foul trouble in the first half.
06:41Clyde Drexler's on in fourth foul.
06:44He's one of our energy guys out here.
06:47And we just couldn't get the momentum going.
06:51Down 33-25 at the half, the Cougars turned to the dream to rescue them from their nightmare.
06:57Olajuwon was unstoppable.
06:59Off-team, Olajuwon had tied the score.
07:02They got the ball down the poles.
07:04He turned, he scored, he rebounded, he blocked shots.
07:09Olajuwon ignited a 17-2 run that shot Houston into a 42-35 lead midway through the second half.
07:16But when the tiring big man had to make a pitch stop, Lewis took the foot off the accelerator.
07:23I didn't want to slow it down.
07:25We've finally gotten up on these guys.
07:28Let's go ahead and take them out.
07:29When they got slower, I think they just really played into our hands.
07:33Ball makes the field.
07:34Wittenberg came down and he hit two or three in a row.
07:38Got us back in the game.
07:39Quick left, buys a 22-footer.
07:41Binks it in!
07:42Where Guy Lewis screwed up is he pulls the ball out against NC State.
07:46They're playing a foreign game right now to their style.
07:50And turns it into a foul shooting contest.
07:52Insane!
07:53Houston's lead was cut to four with less than three minutes left
07:57when Young went to a haunting place.
07:59The free throw line.
08:01This free throw is missed!
08:02I missed free throws.
08:04Quite a few of us missed free throws.
08:07And they would come back down and score.
08:10And the work is for NC State.
08:11The game was tied at 52 when NC State coach Jim Valvano
08:16purposely put Houston freshman Alvin Franklin on the line.
08:2065 seconds left.
08:22Franklin's win ball is so good!
08:25We missed the front end of a couple of one-on-one free throw situations
08:28that could have iced the game.
08:31In the final seconds, NC State got off a shot.
08:34But not the one it planned.
08:37Wentzberg tries him out of 30-footer.
08:39No good stuff back!
08:40Lorenzo down!
08:42Clams it in!
08:43The surprising thing to me was I was up there and nobody else was there with me.
08:49Hakeem, if he would have been back toward the rim, we would have probably won that game.
08:55We played them 20 times.
08:57I still don't think they'd win but one game.
08:59It don't matter if they can beat us 19 more times.
09:02We beat them in the game that counts.
09:03Jan Brexler played Misha scored 14 points total.
09:08We just didn't go out and take care of business like we normally do.
09:13That was our year.
09:15The 1983-84 season was a bittersweet repeat for Houston.
09:2032 wins, another trip to the NCAA championship game, and another loss.
09:25This one to Georgetown.
09:27There's no shame in losing to Georgetown.
09:30Houston been able to win just one time.
09:33They'd be considered one of the more powerful college players.
09:42Houston, there shouldn't even be a list of why they can't be blamed.
09:47Why can't they be blamed?
09:50You have Hakeem and Clyde Drexler.
09:53They won an NBA title first year they got together as teammates.
09:59How hard could it have been to win in college?
10:03You're playing guys in college.
10:08Houston might have had the brightest stars and grabbed the biggest headlines,
10:11but not everything was perfectly aligned for a Cougars championship run.
10:14Before we begin the countdown of our top five reasons why you can't blame
10:17Fy Slamajamma for never winning a national championship,
10:20let's take a look at some of the reasons that didn't make the cut.
10:23We call them the best of the rest.
10:26Georgetown.
10:28In the final four, Patrick Ewing and his wrecking crew improved to 33-3 by holding Kentucky to only three
10:35baskets in the second half.
10:37Houston was overmatched against the imposing Hoyas.
10:40We didn't have Mishaw.
10:42We didn't have Clyde.
10:43And so we had two freshmen down there trying to battle a full-grown man.
10:47And it was a mismatch.
10:49Loops it into Graham and the alley-oop is perfect.
10:51Graham was getting a lot of weak side dumps.
10:54Ewing wasn't there.
10:55He was coming second, blocking shots.
10:57They just clearly didn't have the talent to compete with them.
11:00Georgetown has won the national championship.
11:05Our other best of the rest, George Foreman's retreat.
11:09In 1977, the Houston native and former heavyweight champion went into retirement,
11:15taking the city's sports mojo with him.
11:18They were so close to winning in some of the greatest playoffs ever.
11:21The Phillies winning.
11:23And that's kind of what Houston got known for.
11:24Houston went through a stretch with all of their sports teams where they were having bad luck.
11:29I never put it together that George Foreman might have been the curse.
11:33During Foreman's 10-year hype.
11:35Really?
11:39For the nation, Houston's frustrations were doubled.
11:42Two lost NBA finals.
11:43Two lost AFC championship games.
11:46Two lost National League championship series.
11:49Fuck him out!
11:50And two lost NCAA title contests.
11:53I'm blaming on Big George for leaving.
11:57It went from choke city to clutch city.
12:01Hey, maybe five slamma jam.
12:02He won the title the same year, 1994.
12:05But that's just coincidence.
12:08Some individual cannot have that much power over a city of millions of people
12:13where you can't win anything in sports.
12:18The time it was before, it's time.
12:24Sam Perkins.
12:26In the 1982 Final Four, North Carolina had first-team All-American James Worthy and a freshman named Michael Jordan.
12:33But it was Perkins who missed only two field goal attempts on his way to 25 points, eliminating Houston.
12:40Sam Perkins is the one reason we beat, I think, Houston more than any one player.
12:45Oh, he was unbelievable.
12:47Silky smooth left-hander.
12:49Could get open in the paint.
12:51We all knew Sam was that good, but I don't think our focus was on Sam.
12:55Our focus was on James Worthy at the time.
12:57And to step up and perform like he did kind of took us by surprise.
13:01A year later, it was Perkins' misses, 16 of them in the ACC Tournament semifinals against North Carolina State, that
13:08haunted Houston.
13:10Perkins got off the potential game-winning shot that would have kept NC State out of the NCAA Tournament.
13:16At the buzzer!
13:17Oh!
13:19I'm watching that thing, and I said, oh my goodness, please don't go in.
13:22They got us a stand. I'll tell you, it was there.
13:25We wouldn't have made the NCAA Tournament.
13:27There would have been no dream, no dream season, no national championship.
13:30I wish he had have made that shot.
13:32Maybe we'll be talking about a championship right now.
13:35But so far, Sam haven't played in all favor.
13:41One reason down, four to go.
13:43Here's reason number four.
13:46Spencer Haywood.
13:46His legal test case in 1970 freed collegiate players to leave school early for the NBA.
13:53More than a decade later, that ruling would cost Houston, whose best players weren't seniors.
13:59Clyde Brechtler moving in on Dodgers.
14:02They would probably have at least one national championship.
14:06You know, when the NBA comes calling, it's hard to turn down.
14:09Houston lost its rudder when junior point guard Rob Williams left after the 1982 season.
14:15He was Allen Iverson before Allen Iverson.
14:19He had unlimited range.
14:21He was as talented with the ball as anybody I've ever seen.
14:25If he would have stayed, I'm pretty sure that he would have won.
14:31After that loss to North Carolina State in the 1983 championship game, junior Clyde Drexler opted for the NBA.
14:39That's 20 points and about five steals and 12, 13 rebounds.
14:43You've got to have that.
14:44I would have liked to have seen that finals game between Georgetown and Houston with Drexler and Olajuwon side-by
14:51-side.
14:51Graham was killing us.
14:53We're running a 1-3-1 defense.
14:54He's killing us on weak side rebounds.
14:56At halftime, we went in and I looked at somebody and said, sure would like to see Clyde walk in
15:00about now.
15:00I think we would have had our national championship.
15:03He would have been the difference maker.
15:07Finally, Olajuwon, who had a year of eligibility left, departed for the pros after the 1984 season.
15:13We would have had a chance to go back to the Final Four if Olajuwon was there.
15:17I mean, that was the big piece.
15:18If there were no hardship rule, you'd be looking at two national championships for the Houston Cougars rather than this
15:26empty bucket.
15:33Albuquerque, this mile-high city played host to the 1983 Final Four, where the New Mexico altitude took its toll.
15:41Shortness of breath, your nostrils start burning.
15:44Your arms and legs go numb, and after a while you adjust, but you're numb.
15:50You had to know how to rest yourself out there.
15:52You know, you couldn't sprint down the floor every possession.
15:56Oh, man.
15:57But Fly Slamma Jamma continued to play full-throttle basketball in the Final Four, and so did Louisville.
16:04Who you play in the semifinals and the type of game that you have is an impact on the final.
16:09NC State, Georgia played a nice little, well-orchestrated semifinal game, and those two teams came out and just sprinted
16:15up and down the front, dunked on each other for 40 minutes.
16:17The play is still frantic. You can hardly follow it from end to end.
16:21The energy that the Cougars spent in beating Louisville had a lot to do with them getting off to a
16:25slow start against North Carolina State.
16:28The Cougars finally regained their legs and opened a seven-point lead halfway into the second half.
16:34But then they faltered in the thin air.
16:37They got a little lead on us, and the altitude got to Olajuwon a little bit.
16:41The basketball gods got him tired.
16:43He's going to the oxygen thing.
16:45And we end up getting back into the basketball game.
16:49Coach Lewis did exactly what he should have done, and that was spread that thing out, and let's see if
16:55we can hang on to this win.
16:56And Michael Young said after the game, they were just, did not have the energy to make the passion that
17:05it required.
17:07I think a lot of the altitude and the run-and-gun style against Louisville slowed Houston down a lot.
17:14Three reasons down, two to go.
17:16Here's reason number two.
17:19The Horned Frogs.
17:21TCU first demonstrated how to put the brakes on Phi Slamma Jamma.
17:26TCU may be the only team that we played that had the ability to slow us down.
17:32The Cougars liked to get up and down the floor, and when they weren't, it was like they were hamstrung.
17:39The West Conference in 1983, but put a scare into Houston three times, including the league's tournament final.
17:47We might have been the only team in the conference that was running a flex.
17:50It was passing the ball around, you know, 15, 20 times before you take a shot.
17:55We had a tendency that the slow play, and we take even a quicker shot, and we get the rebound,
18:02and we back to throwing the ball around 15, 20 times again.
18:06TCU's guards controlled the pace of play, while its front line imposed their physicality.
18:12What gave Akeem problems was usually a big center, a guy that could kind of push him out and keep
18:17him away from the basket a little bit, and that's what TCU had.
18:20My goal was to never let a large one even get a rebound, and when you can't get rebounds, you
18:25can't get fast breaks.
18:26Two ways to beat us is slow the ball down and get the front line in foul trouble, and Christensen
18:30was great at it.
18:32Led by a trio of seniors, forward Thurl Bailey and guards Derek Wittenberg and Sidney Lowe, NC State followed TCU's
18:40blueprints for a win and a championship.
18:43Well, I don't know, he probably got the take from TCU.
18:47Man, they must have watched our films, because they're trying to do exactly what we did.
18:55Othell Wilson.
18:57North Carolina State was 19th in the polls and dominating No. 2 Virginia on January 12, 1983, when the Wolf
19:05Pack caught a blessing in disguise.
19:08Derek Wittenberg got hurt.
19:09He had 27 points in the first half against Ralph Sampson in Virginia.
19:13He came down on Othell Wilson's foot and broke his foot.
19:16That took the sails out of us a little bit, because he was one of our key scorers.
19:20That right there messed up our chemistry.
19:22In my mind, that's why we had as many losses as we did.
19:27NC State blew a 16-point lead in losing to Virginia and struggled to go 9-6 without Wittenberg.
19:34The Wolf Pack teetered on the ledge, but didn't fall.
19:38Well, what happened was, the younger guys, myself included, got a lot of experience through that time, and Derek Wittenberg
19:44was out.
19:44Got it. He's automatic.
19:46It was a perfect scenario, and it made them better, because it made all the other players have to take,
19:51you know, more prominent roles.
19:52By the end of the year, when he came back, now you've got a more complete team.
19:57With Wittenberg back, all the moving parts were humming in their regular season finale, as the Wolf Pack demolished Wake
20:04Forest 130-89.
20:07I was finally getting my rhythm, and I was really back in to stay now.
20:11We had to build it all the way back again. That's why I'm as proud of this ball club of
20:14any club that I've been with.
20:16It's a loss. It's a loss. It's a loss. It's a loss. It's a loss.
20:1981-78.
20:19The idea that a team would win the ACC tournament and did so well up until Wittenberg got hurt would
20:27be dismissed so easily, it was really kind of hard to believe.
20:30In three of the previous four NCAA tournaments, the champions had been led by guards named Magic, Dr. Duncan Stein,
20:38and Isaiah.
20:40And in the fourth, it was a guard named Jordan making the winning basket.
20:44All this seemed to be a favorable omen for NC State, whose veteran backcourt was not intimidating.
20:51Cindy Lowe just stared right at Michael Jordan, stripped him down defensively.
20:54They were both adept shooters and ballhandlers. Outstanding defenders and could take the ball in transition.
21:02Wittenberg puts it up and drops it in.
21:04That's two of the finest guards I've ever seen on one basketball team.
21:09Despite its nine-game winning streak, the Cardiac Pack was given little chance against Phi Slamma Jamma.
21:15But the NC State guards prevailed.
21:17Wittenberg and Lowe scored 16 of State's 21 second-half points and forced the game to be played on their
21:24terms.
21:26That backcourt mix really played into the hands of what the college game is all about.
21:30And that's controlling transition to a running team.
21:34Played five Slamma Jamma.
21:35We could not press Wittenberg and Sidney Lowe.
21:38So that became very difficult.
21:40We did not get the shot attempt.
21:42Houston, you weren't going to stop Valvano by the time he got to that game.
21:45You can't blame Houston, even with Clyde Drexler and Akeem Olajuwon.
21:56I still give them the blame for what I said.
22:01The top five reasons you can't blame.
22:03I guess I was going to do it for top five because there's more episodes.
22:08They're just not available.
22:10So that's going to be it.
22:13Can't blame Fai Slamma Jamma for never winning a national championship.
22:17Although Houston didn't survive the one-and-done format of the NCAA tournament,
22:21its three-year run of sustained excellence and unrivaled flair should live for generations in our memory.
22:27I'm Brian Kenney.
22:28Thanks for joining us.
22:29Bye-bye.
22:30Bye-bye.
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