Georgetown-Princeton 20 years ago

[jyd]

today played that epic 1-16 matchup. i believe score was 50-49. i remember my basketball camp would show that game every summer. can not remember specific plays but i remember us relying on Alonzo.

some credit that game for saving the smaller conferences--some talk of abolishing ivy league and other conferences from NCAA--don't know if this ever had legs.

anyone have specific memories? at the game?

www.princetonbasketball.com/blog/

sorry if this is not appropriate board for this or if this has already been posted.

[tigerhoya3]

An epic game which in some ways helped make the NCAA Tournament ... the March Madness that it is today for mid majors and low majors. In 1989, there was a lot a pressure to take away automatic bids for the champions of leagues such as the Ivy League and other similar conferences.

On a personal note, I was (and still am) a Hoyas fan. The 1989 team was the first Hoya team I really followed from the beginning to the end of the season. I remember them winning the Big East Tourney and being led by Charles Smith and a freshman named Alonzo Mourning who saved the day for the Hoyas. That night, I couldn't stand Princeton. Ironically, however, Princeton is where I ended up going to college and I ended up going to Georgetown for grad school afterwards. The link below (which is referenced in the link you cited) is on one of Princeton's athletic websites and provides further details about the game such as the fact that it was on ESPN (some and perhaps all early round games those years were on ESPN; with CBS broadcasting the games in subsequent rounds). After this game, having recognized the potential ratings bonanza that early round upsets could produce, CBS purchased the rights to all games of the NCAA games starting the following year.

goprincetontigers.blogspot.com/2009/03/it-was-20-years-ago-today.html

[SirSaxa]

Can't believe that was 20 years ago!

[Boz]

Can't believe Tony Kornheiser still thinks it was a foul on Alonzo.

BUM I can understand, sure, but for anyone else, how many times do you need to see a blocked shot to recognize it as a blocked shot?

Here's a video, but quality's not great and it's all Princeton highlights:


Some fun moments:
- Vitale saying he'd dress in in a Princeton cheerleader outfit at the beginning of the video.

- The famous endgame at about the 7:50 mark.

- Pops saying that "Princeton deserved to win is an understatement" at the very end.

And of course, near perfect offensive execution throughout (from one team anyway).

[vthoya82]

Consummate lurker infrequent poster.
I had just purchased a top of the line SONY 35" for the tourney. I was watching that game with my brother, an '84 Princeton grad. At one point at the end of the game when it was too close for comfort (tied?) and my brother was gloating and talking trash, I had the TV above my head (it was still plugged into the socket) at the threshold of the window in my 6th floor apartment in NYC preparing to foreswear off Hoya basketball (until the next year) and deposit the set in the alley behind my apartment. As I listened to the announcer call the final seconds, I replaced the TV and proceeded to polish off the martinis remaining in the shaker. My brother got his revenge when his law school alma, the even then hated Devils, ousted us in the regional finals.

[JS]

Here's a box score from the March 21, 1989 Princeton Packet that I scanned tonight:

princetonbasketball.com/images/princetongeorgetownboxscorelarge.jpg

JS

[DanMcQ]

I was there... and was on call that weekend in Boston in the days before cellphones that actually worked indoors and in the Civic Center where there were approximately 8 total payphones. I was extremely unpopular as I made 4-5 calls in a row during timeouts and held up all the bookie calls.

Princeton ran the offense to near perfection and I remember breaking into a cold sweat as that last play unfolded. Alonzo was, as always, immense in that game. The Hoyas could use another guy like him.

[NJHoya95]

The Sports Illustrated article on the game described a certain person in the stands that night (in Providence, RI I think) who was so nervous that he chewed through his ticket stub. He was torn during the game between his friends and former teammates on one team and his father coaching another. Guess who that was?

[HoyaTejano]

For want of a point. If GU had been down 9 instead of 8, that game goest to OT.

Interestingly, maybe GU would then have crushed Princeton in the OT, thus removing all doubt. As it is, that 1-point victory is perhaps the costliest in the history of the program, in terms of how victories go.

That said, it is sure a hell of a lot better than LOSING.

[augustusfinknottle]

Princeton came out of a timeout with possession, virtually no time left and down 1. Their inbounder held the ball across the baseline hoping to sucker the GU defender into slapping at it (2 shot T). Hoyas were not buying.