Texas A&M
The Battalion Sports
March 30, 1982/Page 9
Tar Heels overtake Hoyas for NCAA title
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — When
coaches and fans gather to talk
about the 1982 NCAA cham
pionship basketball game, the
overwhelming first thought
urely will be “What a great
fame that was.”
The North Carolina Tar
Heels and Georgetown Hoyas
put on a championship game
Monday night that was worthy
of n Academy Award, with
which it had to compete for na-
ional television ratings.
The Tar Heels' 63-62 victory
over the Hoyas set a standard by
which championship games will
be measured.
"I thought it was one of the
great basketball games,” said
Tar Heels' Coach Dean Smith,
who had lost in his three pre
vious trips to the NCAA title
contest. “Maybe I think that way
because I was involved in it. It
will be interesting to see what
other people think. There was
tremendous talent on the
court.”
That talent produced 40 mi
nutes of excitement and intensi
ty in which the lead changed
hands 15 times. And there were
plenty of oddities for future tri
via experts. North Carolina li
terally did not have a shot go
through the basket for the first
eight minutes of the game, but
trailed by only four points be
cause of four goaltending calls
made on Patrick Ewing, Geore
gown’s 7-foot freshman center.
“I try to block everything I
can,” said Ewing, who scored 23
points to lead his team, but
wound up committing five goal
tending violations.
James Worthy, North Caroli
na’s 6-9 junior forward, voted
the game’s outstanding player.
scored 18 of his career-high 28
points in the first half but Eric
Floyd and Ewing each managed
10 during the first 20 minutes to
allow the Hoyas to escape with a
32-31 halftime advantage.
However, things were just
warming up.
A three-point play by Ewing
put Georgetown ahead by four
midway through the second
half, but Worthy brought the
Tar Heels storming back with a
series of dunk shots. Ewing pick
ed up his fourth foul with 5:32
to go and two free throws by
North Carolina’s Jimmy Black
put the Tar Heels in front by
three.
Then North Carolina’s Matt
Doherty, with his team leading
bv one, missed the front end of a
one-and-one free throw with
1:19 left and Floyd’s off-balance
8-foot jumper with 56 seconds to
go (leaving him with 18 points)
sent the Hoyas in front by a
point.
North Carolina took time out
with 32 seconds left and worked
for what turned out to be a 15-
foot jumper by Michael Jordan
with 15 seconds to go and was
the game winner.
Georgetown did not use a
time out, hoping to catch the
Tar Heels offguard. But when
Fred Brown tried to pass the ball
to Floyd, he wound up throwing
it right into the hands of
Worthy, whose steal clinched
the championship. It made no
difference that Worthy missed
two free throws with two
seconds remaining.
“Floyd was open,” said
Brown, “but they were overplay
ing me. Worthy just made a
great play.”
Thus Smith, who was com
pleting his 21st year of coaching
at North Carolina, finally won
his NCAA crown. And in doing
so he defeated his good friend
John Thompson, who has
coached Georgetown for the last
10 years.
“I’ve thought about it (win
ning the first title), but it wasn’t
that big a thing,” said Smith,
whose team finished with a 32-2
record. “I think I was out-
coached, but fortunately I had
the players that played extreme
ly well. It was important for the
team to win, not me.”
“I thought it was a great
History repeats
game,” said Black, who made
only one turnover despite a
night-long press thrown at the
Tar Heels by the Hoyas. “The
audience (a Louisiana Super-
dome crowd announced at
61,612) probably was on the
edge of their seats, too. It's the
type of game you expect in a
national championship.”
Even Georgetown players
realized they had played in a
game that was special, which
seemed to take some of the sting
out of the loss.
“All I know,” said forward
Eric Smith, “is that two good
teams were out there placing
tonight. They happened to
come out on top. In a couple of
days I might be able to sit down
and think about how good we
placed.”
NC’s victory over Georgetown similar to 1957 clincher
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — North
Carolina’s James Worthy after
his team’s one-point NCAA
championship victory over
Georgetown that the Hoyas
lave nothing to be ashamed ab-
lut after losing.
“Georgetown is the toughest
[earn we played all year,” said
Worthy, who scored 28 points
tnd was named the tourna
ment’s Most Valuable Player.
They’re a great defensive
earn.”
Defensively, the Hoyas had a
most difficult assignment. How
:o stop the inside twosome of
Worthy, an All-America who hit
13-of-17 shots, and center Sam
Perkins.
Much of the responsibility
fell on 7-foot freshman Pat Ew-
ng(23 points, 11 rebounds) and
Spriggs, the one-time postal
worker who has helped anchor
ihe Hoyas' front line all year.
“He’s so good around the bas
ket,” Spriggs said of Worthy.
We did all we could on him.
^nd then they started hitting
from the outside in the second
half which made them doubly
ough. But Worthy is so good.”
While many teams do not
bre go man-to-man against
North Carolina, that was not the
ftse with the Hoyas, who stuck
ith such a defense for much of
the way.
We felt our man wasn’t hurt-
n g us,” said Georgetown Coach
john Thompson. “But when we
We re in the zone. Worthy was
Polling through the middle and
urting us. We felt more secure
n our man-to-man.”
The Hoyas, as it turned out,
" er e in a matchup zone when
freshman Michael Jordan hit a
I "-footer from the left side with
H seconds to go, winning it for
•he far Heels.
1 think we made them take
shot we wanted them to
said All-America Eric
jT^'d, who had 18 points and
'' y e assists. “Fortunately for
'hem it went in. Jordan’s a great
footer and he made a tough
shot to beat us.”
Following Jordan’s basket,
Georgetow n had a final chance
to set up. But Fred Brown threw'
a pass into Worthy’s hands with
five seconds to go and that was
all for the Hoyas.
“I was cutting to the corner
and we spread out their de
fense,” Floyd said of George
town’s final play. “We had them
in several disadvantages. We
had confidence in every player
out there that he could shoot the
ball and make it. We just didn’t
pull it off.”
The game provided a curious
mixture of pride, regret and
irony for Thompson, a close
friend of the North Carolina
coach and his understudy at the
1976 Olympics.
“I thought I was coaching
against the best,” said Thomp
son, w'ho in 10 years has taken a
school that was 3-23 and molded
it into a national power.
But Thompson said he did
not want his team to be left with
a sense of defeat.
“ But as far as the kids are
concerned, they played ex
tremely hard. I feel they are
champions if not national cham
pions.”
As for the Tar Heels, 25 years
separate their two national
championship basketball teams,
but it is a time barrier shattered
by the remarkable similarities
between the two squads.
The 1957 and 1982 North
Carolina units both finished the
regular season as the No. 1 rated
team in the UPI poll — the only
two times in school history they
have accomplished that feat.
The 1957 team set a school re
cord with 32 victories and the
1982 team matched it.
The 1957 team had to fend
off an intimidating 7-foot cen
ter, Wilt Chamberlain of Kan
sas, to win No. 32 in the NCAA
championship game by one
point, 54-53. The 1982 team
also had to fend off an intimidat
ing 7-footer in Ewing.
Frank McGuire, the coach of
that 1957 team who was on hand
at the Superdome for Monday
night’s triumph over George
town, said: “It (the national
championship) means so much
to the state and to the people.”
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