Achieving greatness: Villanova’s first championship, part one

The 1985 Villanova Wildcats
Source: http://www.phillyhall.org/champions_basketball.html
(may be subject to copyright)

It was a different game and a different time, but it was another amazing run for Villanova to the national collegiate basketball championship three years ago in 2016, and again to this past year’s championship in 2018.

It reminded me of that magical March of 1985 when Villanova became the lowest-ranked team to win the national championship – and they engineered one of the greatest upsets in history to do it.

Fast start

The Wildcats started fast in the fall of 1984 with eight straight wins over non-conference opponents before suffering their first defeat, at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs.

Then their conference scheduled started, and the big boys of the Big East loomed on the horizon.

Conference chaos

The Big East of the 1980s was just loaded with great teams. Villanova won their first two games, against Syracuse and Connecticut, to push their record to 10-1.

That streak ended at Madison Square Garden in New York, where they lost to the St. John’s Redmen on Jan. 7. Five days later, they hosted the Georgetown Hoyas at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, but Georgetown won that game 52-50.

The Wildcats would rebound to win their next three, over Boston College, Seton Hall, and Providence, to up their record to 13-3, before dropping an out-of-conference game at Maryland on Jan. 27.

They returned to the Big East, where they beat Pittsburgh, lost at Syracuse, and beat Connecticut before dropping three straight to St. John’s, at Georgetown and at Boston College.

They re-grouped again, beating non-conference St. Joseph’s at the Spectrum on Feb. 19, then winning at Providence and beating Seton Hall at the Villanova Field House.

The Wildcats rounded out their regular season with an 85-62 blowout loss at Pittsburgh, to finish the season unranked, with an 18-9 record, and 9-7 in the Big East Conference.

Conference tournament

Villanova finished fourth in the Big East, behind St. John’s who was 15-1, Georgetown who was 14-2, and Syracuse who was also 9-7 but owned the tiebreaker.

The Wildcats opened the tournament in Madison Square Garden on March 7 against Pittsburgh, who the Wildcats beat by a score of 69-61. That set up a semi-final with the number-one ranked St. John’s Redmen the next day. Playing in front of a home crowd, the Redmen defeated Villanova soundly by a score of  89-74, before losing the tournament championship 92-82 to Georgetown.

That set the stage for one of the most memorable runs in NCAA championship tournament history.

Road to the Final Four

The tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, and Villanova was seeded eighth in the Southeast Regional.

Their first opponent was the Dayton Flyers who were playing in front of their home crowd at the University of Dayton Arena. The teams went back and forth, with Dayton leading 23-21 at halftime, before Villanova escaped with a 51-49 victory. Scoring for the Wildcats were Ed Pinckney with 20 points; Dwayne McClain with 11 points; Harold Jensen and Harold Pressley with eight points each; and Gary Mclain and Dwight Wilbur with two points each.

Awaiting the Wildcats in their regional second round game was the number-one seeded Michigan Wolverines. Villanova jumped out to a 30-26 halftime lead, and held Michigan at bay to win by a final score of 59-55. Dwayne McClain led the way with 20 points; Pinckney had 14 points; Gary Mclain and Pressley each had nine points; reserve Mark Plansky had four points off the bench; and Jensen had three points. Roy Tarpley, who was one of my favourite players of the ‘80s, even through drug suspensions, led the Wolverines with 14 points.

With that win, the Wildcats advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in Birmingham, Alabama where they had a date with the fifth-ranked Maryland Terrapins, who Villanova had lost 77-74 to on Jan. 27. This time the Wildcats won by three, 46-43, after falling behind 20-19 at halftime. Pinckney led the way with 16 points; Dwayne McClain had 12 points; Pressley had seven points; Wilbur had four points; Plansky added four off the bench; and Gary Mclain had three points.

Now, they were on their way to the Elite Eight, just one step from the Final Four in Lexington, Kentucky. Standing in their way in the Southeast Regional Finals, were the second-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels.

The teams met on March 24 , where the Wildcats fell behind 22-17 at halftime. They rallied in the second half, outscoring Carolina 39-22 to continue their meteoric rise, defeating the Heels by a score of 56-44. Pressley led the way with 15 points, Gary Mclain and Dwayne McClain had 11 points each, Pinckney had nine points, and Jensen had 10 points off the bench.

Having now dispatched the first and second seeds, the Wildcats were peaking at the right time.

*This is from the vault