1982 At 30: The Final Four Thread

[Admin]

For the period March 26-April 2, this thread will serve to discuss and remember those events around Georgetown's participation in the 1982 Final Four In New Orleans.

Feel free to share your thoughts, memories, and stories of this transformative weekend in Georgetown basktball history. (The statute of limitations for any Bourbon Street events has passed.)

N.B.: Please do not post comments on this year's Final Four games in this thread: this is for 1982 discussion only.

[idhoya]

I was 10 years old. I cried, literally, after the loss. Although I was not there, I was in awe of a freshman named Patrick Ewing. His wing span, size, skill and athletic ability amazed me. Big John WAS Georgetown basketball to me being from DC, so I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment when the Hoyas made the final.

[sleepy]

I was 27 and both my wife and I cried. initially tears of sadness from the loss and knowing that something very special had ended, but they turned to tears of great joy knowing what they had accomplished and that this was only the beginning of great things to come.

[HoyaChris]

I had driven from Chicago to New Orleans for the game. The semifinal against Louisville was amazing, probably the most intense defensive basketball game I have still ever seen. The final was just so tense, back and forth, with athletes who would not have been in school today - Patrick and Michael would have been there for their mandatory years, but Sleepy, Worthy and Perkins would probably have already been in the NBA.

When Freddy threw the ball away I was crushed but also critical of Big John who had called our last time out immediately thereafter, because I wanted him to set up a play if Worthy were to miss his free throw (which he did.) If we had had a talk board then I would have started a highly critical thread.

After the loss, I got back in the car without speaking to anyone and drove non-stop back to Chicago except for gas stops and one run in with the law. A nice Illinois state trooper said I was doing 85 MPH in Southern Illinois. It was a lie. I was doing at least 95.

[Elvado]

5 of us in an AMC,Concord, stopping only to gas up and tank up. We hit NO on my 19th Birthday with no place to stay, the clothes we could carry, beer money but most importantly game tickets. Got a place to crash at the Catholic house at tulane and enjoyed every second of the dawn of GU basketball supremacy. The loss hurt and the ride home seemed twice as long as the ride down, but I always smile when thinking about that trip.

[hoyaken]

Many memories...
1. My $25 donation to the Hoop Club yielded seats four rows from the court.
2. My group decided not to stay with the main group in Biloxi. We scrambled and first found rooms in Metairie and then moved into town after two nights.
3. I recall GU having a charter flight from DC and another from Newark. When we landed in NO, we watched many more Piedmont planes land (from NC). We felt badly outnumbered.
4. I was standing on the seat of my folding chair screaming when Fred passed the ball to Worthy....I collapsed to the floor. I was sure that we were on the verge of winning and then....disaster.
5. I had a Canon AE-1 with a 200 mm lens and took some great photos. One shows Patrick, MJ and Worthy; another shows Patrick alone onder the hoop; both are signed by Patrick and hanging on my wall.
6. It was 30 years ago....wow, I am getting old.

Hoyaken

[centercourt400s]

I was 16 and had been attending Hoyas games with my father since the age of 7. We had gathered at a family friend and Georgetown professor's house for the game and early in the first half another guest started actually making monkey noises and scratching under his arms when Pat Ewing was shown on the screen. Now my father was a pretty mild mannered guy but he immediately got right up in this guy's face and told him to shut the F up and looked ready to swing on him. I had never seen my dad like that before so I was pretty impressed, as was the idiot, who immediately shut up and remained quiet for the rest of the night. I was proud of my dad that night.

[michaelgrahamfan]

I remember watching as a kid. The one thing that confused me was that the color of the Hoya uniforms was different than it had been in the other tournament games and the Heels uniforms were more the color of what the Hoyas had worn up to that point. I thought that may have had something to do with the last seconds of the game.

[nashvillehoyas]

The game was as much about John Thompson than the game it's self. North Carolina and Kentucky was the face of college basketball at the time. Most folk outside of D.C. knew nothing about Georgetown. This was the team that John Thompson coached.... and that was great!

[Nevada Hoya]

I was already in Las Vegas, and I was attending a conference at one of the hotels, and I had to watch the game with a bunch of people from North Carolina. It was just nerve-wracking watching the ebb and flo of that game. There was nowhere to hide, when Freddy passed to Worth. I just could not stop thinking of whether Sleepy would have made the shot, had not the errant pass not be made. Sigh!

[DFW HOYA]

Mar 26, 2012 13:19:36 GMT -5 michaelgrahamfan said:

I remember watching as a kid. The one thing that confused me was that the color of the Hoya uniforms was different than it had been in the other tournament games and the Heels uniforms were more the color of what the Hoyas had worn up to that point. I thought that may have had something to do with the last seconds of the game.

There is a body of opinion that the uniform color did affect that play subconsciously.

Georgetown had wore white jerseys in 10 straight games dating back almost six weeks, and 13 of 14 dating almost two months (Feb. 2), before being the road team in the final. If Brown had grown used to seeing his teammates in white, the split second decision with someone in the forecourt wearing white and the blue number 2 (not Eric Smith's 32 or Gene Smith's 22, but Worthy's 52) "might" have played a role.

[MassHoya]

I wondered about the uniform thing that long and sleepless night and many times since. We will never know. The other lasting memory is JT hugging Freddy after that game, and giving him a similar hug in 84 after winning it all.

[EasyEd]

My primary recollection was how loud my sh_t shout was.

[wisconsinhoya]

I was a 7 year old boy who had just been introduced to Georgetown during the NCAA tournament. My dad told me to watch this team coached by a former NBA player who was Bill Russel's back up center with the Boston Celtics. He also explained they had a 7'0" freshmen center, and their nick name was the Hoyas? I thought what was a Hoya? We didn't have cable yet, so the first Hoya game I ever watched was the West Regional Final against Oregon State. I remember asking my dad why Patrick wore a t-shirt under his uniform? The Hoyas shot the lights out and were on their way to the Final Four. I remember watching the semifinal game against Louisville on Saturday afternoon. I remember asking my dad, why are they playing a basketball game on a football field? After the Hoyas won, I looked forward to the title game. It was the first NCAA title game I ever watched. I'll never forget all of Patrick's blocked shots at the beginning of the game. Patrick was an offensive force in the game. I'll never forget the ending for as long as I live. I was so heart broken that the Hoyas lost the title game. However those two weeks were the start of a 3 decade obsession with Hoya basketball. Over 3 decades later, through the extreme joy of some big wins, and devastating lows of some bitter defeats, I still plan virtually my entire life around the Hoyas basketball program!

[paranoia2]

I was nine but IMO the 1982 title game brought NCAA basketball to must see status. What I remember about the game was how many sub plots existed and how they were made for TV drama. John Thompson a longtime friend of Dean Smith. Sleepy and Worthy from same area. Patrick the menacing terror in the lane swatting the first shots NC took. Ed Spriggs being an older dude that was a mailman or something. Just craziness. I remember being in awe of...Eric Smith. I thought he did everything right for the Hoyas right down to chasing Worthy down to at least continue the game at the end. Say what you will about Brent Musburger but he painted the picture of an epic battle before the game and it was incredible drama. Looking back at the NBA stars in the game is incredible. The first of many Michael Jordan slings I have endured. Simply an incredible title game.

[GPHoya]

1982 was filled with so much promise that even the loss to UNC was not as painful as the 1980 loss to Iowa in the Regional Final or the disappointments in 1985, 1989, 2008 and 2010.

I had moved to Wellesley in 1980 and had two young sons and little opportunity to travel to follow the Hoyas then, but I had seen Patrick debut in the Garden in a blowout win over St. John's in January and I went to Hartford for the the Big East as we rolled through that event. It never occurred to me to go to New Orleans and now I can't imagine how I missed it (until I remember my salary, car and mortgage in 1982)

Most of that season it seemed like we were the only team in most of our games as our defense would at some point take complete control and fuel a spurt of offense that would create an advantage that even our frustrating end game slow down could not erode.

The semi-final was a complete rock fight with incredible defensive intensity and seeming offensive incompetence on both sides. In the championship game, there were clearly two teams playing and the marginal talent (like Matt Doherty) and the benches (Martin and Jones) could not keep up with the stars who dominated and elevated the play in a sparkling game. Like Hoya Chris, JT II's post turnover final timeout was a mystery explained only by an overall coaching philosophy that emphasized the emotional over the tactical and that may have been building a foundation for the runs in the ensuing year's.

For someone who started at Georgetown in 1970, 1982 was about the ground we had covered and the boundless possibilities that seemed to lie ahead. While the college basketball world has changed several times over the ensuing 30 years, I have no regret about the emotional investment made in sharing the ups and downs of a competitive college basketball franchise with my Georgetown friends and family and I look forward to the next 30.

[JB5]

I had just learned of my admission to Georgetown, and the '82 Tournament did as much as anything to cement my undying Hoya fandom. In the Tournament that year, the Hoyas were shooting an unbelievable percentage (close on 60, I think) while holding opponents to next to nothing. It was the commitment to defense that made those Hoyas special in those years when everyone wnated to be Dr. J or Larry Bird. The final game was, until the last seconds, the best I've ever seen, and I went to bed that night unable to believe how it had ended, but happy that I would get to be around for the next four years.

[hoyarooter]

Well, a few things.

1. I had seen Oregon State play quite a few Pac 10 games that year, and I thought they were really good. I was surprised that we got the final first seed over them - and I was shocked that we blew them off the court the way we did. That was a phenomenal performance.

2. The Louisville semifinal was, and remains, the best defensive game I've ever seen. Each team took the other completely out of its offense. A 40 minute war.

3. I recall that North Carolina was a one point favorite in the final, and I was amazed that we were considered on UNC's level, because that team was just so damn good. And then the game turned out to be quite possibly the best NCAA championship game ever.

4. I have always said that I was more upset by the Iowa game two years before than this UNC game. And I had never found anyone who agreed with me. Thanks, GP. It's nice to know I'm not alone. For Iowa, I didn't know if we would ever be in a position to reach a Final Four again, and then we lost by a point as a result of a miracle second half. Sort of like another game I won't mention. For UNC, I was just so proud of the way we had played that I didn't feel bad that we had lost, and I had a feeling that we might be back.

[Elvado]

Mar 27, 2012 12:08:12 GMT -5 hoyarooter said:

Well, a few things.

1. I had seen Oregon State play quite a few Pac 10 games that year, and I thought they were really good. I was surprised that we got the final first seed over them - and I was shocked that we blew them off the court the way we did. That was a phenomenal performance.

2. The Louisville semifinal was, and remains, the best defensive game I've ever seen. Each team took the other completely out of its offense. A 40 minute war.

3. I recall that North Carolina was a one point favorite in the final, and I was amazed that we were considered on UNC's level, because that team was just so damn good. And then the game turned out to be quite possibly the best NCAA championship game ever.

4. I have always said that I was more upset by the Iowa game two years before than this UNC game. And I had never found anyone who agreed with me. Thanks, GP. It's nice to know I'm not alone. For Iowa, I didn't know if we would ever be in a position to reach a Final Four again, and then we lost by a point as a result of a miracle second half. Sort of like another game I won't mention. For UNC, I was just so proud of the way we had played that I didn't feel bad that we had lost, and I had a feeling that we might be back.

In DC the line on that game was Pick Minus 1. Nobody won. 1/2 lost and half pushed.

[2ndRyan]

I remember how we dismantled Oregon State ( I have a recurring image of Charlie Sitton and his acne scars) and then I began to think lofty thoughts.