1981-82

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At a Glance
NCAA Champion--North Carolina (32-2; coached by Dean Smith/21st of 36 seasons with Tar Heels; tied for ACC regular-season title with a 12-2 record).
NIT Champion--Bradley (26-10; coached by Dick Versace/fourth of eight seasons with Braves; won Missouri Valley title by one game with a 13-3 record).
New Conferences--ECAC Metro (forerunner of Northeast) and Metro Atlantic Athletic.
New Rules--The jump ball is employed only at the beginning of the game and the start of each overtime. An alternating arrow indicates possession in jump-ball situations during the game, with the arrow first pointing in the direction of the team that didn't gain possession of the initial jump ball. . . . All fouls assessed to bench personnel are charged to the head coach. . . . National third-place game in the NCAA Tournament is abolished.
NCAA Probation--Arkansas State, UC Santa Barbara, New Mexico, UCLA, Wichita State.
NCAA Consensus First-Team All-Americans--Terry Cummings, F-C, Jr., DePaul (22.3 ppg, 11.9 rpg, 56.7 FG%); Quintin Dailey, G, Jr., San Francisco (25.2 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 54.6 FG%); Eric "Sleepy" Floyd, G, Sr., Georgetown (16.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.7 apg, 50.4 FG%); Ralph Sampson, C, Jr., Virginia (15.8 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 2.7 bpg, 56.1 FG%); James Worthy, F, Jr., North Carolina (15.6 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.4 apg, 57.3 FG%).
National Player of the Year--Sampson (AP/UPI/NABC/USBWA/Naismith/Wooden).
National Coaches of the Year--Oregon State's Ralph Miller (25-5/AP); Idaho's Don Monson (27-3/NABC); Missouri's Norm Stewart (27-4/UPI), and Georgetown's John Thompson (30-7/USBWA).

Georgetown's John Thompson took umbrage to depictions of him as the initial African-American coach to direct a team to the Final Four. But the injustices in the past against his race were sufficient reason for placing emphasis on Thompson's achievements with predominantly black rosters. His shooting guard, Sleepy Floyd, became the first Georgetown player to earn a spot on an NCAA consensus first- or second-team All-America squad.

Slowdown tactics boring fans to tears embarrassed the prestigious ACC Tournament, helping pave the way for the introduction of a shot clock later in the decade. Despite the presence of standouts such as Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, James Worthy and Ralph Sampson, only one team scored at least 60 points in the seven ACC Tournament games. . . . Jordan, who contributed the game-winning basket in the NCAA final before eventually becoming national college player of the year and perhaps the greatest pro of all time, scored a career-low two points for Carolina against visiting archrival North Carolina State (see accompanying box regarding freshman scorers). He went on to have only one single-digit scoring outing in his 13 NBA seasons with the Chicago Bulls. . . . North Carolina State junior guard Dereck Whittenburg, an All-ACC second-team selection, became coach for Wagner and Fordham. . . . Clemson, 4-11 against ACC competition, suffered a pair of heartbreaking defeats by identical 56-54 scores to Virginia when the Cavaliers were ranked among the top three in the nation.

Seton Hall guard Dan Callandrillo averaged 27.4 points per game to set a Big East Conference single-season record. He was named league player of the year although the Pirates finished in a tie for last place with a 2-12 mark. . . . UC Irvine's Kevin Magee became the only player ever to finish two seasons in the top 10 nationally in scoring, rebounding and field-goal shooting. Magee set a school single-game scoring record with 46 points against Loyola Marymount. He also grabbed a school-record 25 rebounds against Long Beach State.

Ohio State (21-10), coached by Eldon Miller, won almost half of its games by fewer than four points (10-2 mark in that category). . . . Michigan State (12-16), coached by Jud Heathcote, had more than half of its contests decided by fewer than six points (5-10). The Spartans were 6-9 in that category five years earlier in Heathcote's initial campaign with them. . . . Junior guard Melvin McLaughlin was named Mid-American Conference player of the year although Central Michigan finished in last place with a 4-12 league record. . . . Two-time All-MAC forward Jeff Zatkoff of Eastern Michigan had a won with same name become an NHL goalie. . . . Western Illinois' Joe Dykstra converted 64 consecutive free throws, which lasted as an NCAA record for 19 years. . . . Reserve guard Kevin Stallings, one of Purdue's captains, went on to coach Illinois State and Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament. . . . DePaul, coached by Ray Meyer, finished among the top two in final wire-service polls for the third straight year and top six for the fifth season in a row.

In the longest contest in major-college history, Cincinnati outlasted NIT champion-to-be Bradley, 75-73, in seven overtimes (see accompanying box). "That was my biggest thrill as a coach," said Tony Barone, an assistant to Bradley's Dick Versace at the time. "One of their subs made a jump shot that he had no business making--a terrible shot--that went in with two seconds left in the seventh overtime. We threw the ball the length of the court and our center caught it, turned around from the top of the key, shot it and the ball went in and out. Otherwise, it would have been eight overtimes." In another wild overtime affair, Dayton scored the last points in all five extra sessions to outlast Providence, 79-77.

Missouri, coached by Norm Stewart, won its first 19 games and was ranked No. 1 in the country before bowing to visiting Nebraska, 67-51. The Huskers had lost five of their previous eight outings. . . . Dickey Nutt, a backup guard for Oklahoma State, went on to coach Arkansas State in the 1999 NCAA playoffs. . . . Tim Jankovich, who led Kansas State in free-throw percentage after pacing the Wildcats in assists the previous season, eventually coached North Texas and Illinois State. . . . Tulsa, coached by Nolan Richardson, finished in the Top 10 of a final wire-service poll for the only time in school history. The Golden Hurricanes' leader in assists was Mike Anderson, who went on to coach UAB and Missouri to the NCAA playoffs. . . . Texas, coached by Abe Lemons, got off to a sizzling 14-0 start but finished with a modest 16-11 record after forward Mike Wacker sustained a season-ending knee injury. Ray Harper, a backup guard for the Longhorns, went on to capture multiple small-college national tournament titles as coach of both Kentucky Wesleyan (NCAA DII) and Oklahoma City (NAIA). . . . Hakeem Olajuwon, a raw freshman center from Nigeria, collected two points and no rebounds in his Houston debut against Seton Hall. Two seasons later, he became the top pick in the NBA draft as an undergraduate. . . . TCU, coached by Jim Killingsworth, compiled a 16-13 mark to end a streak of nine consecutive losing seasons. . . . The Southwest Conference had the same five first-team selections for the second straight year (Arkansas' Scott Hastings, Rice's Ricky Pierce, Baylor's Terry Teagle, Texas' LaSalle Thompson and Houston's Rob Williams). It was the third consecutive campaign for Hastings, Pierce and Teagle to be All-SWC first-team picks. . . . Texas-El Paso, after losing its previous 10 outings with Utah, began a stretch where the Miners won 14 of the next 17 meetings in their series.

Oregon State's 14.6-point margin of victory was the lowest ever for a school that led the nation in scoring differential. The Beavers, coached by Ralph Miller, finished among the Top five in final wire-service polls for the third consecutive year. . . . California compiled a 14-13 record for its only winning season in a 10-year span from 1975-76 through 1984-85. . . . Long Beach State guard Craig Hodges, an All-PCAA first-team selection, went on to coach Chicago State for three seasons in the mid-1990s. . . . Small-school power Eastern Montana defeated Iowa State and Washington State. . . . Former NCAA champion San Francisco dropped its program after a 25-6 season because of improprieties frowned upon by the university administration and the NCAA. All-American guard Quintin Dailey, in the course of trying to convince a probation officer that he shouldn't go to jail after pleading guilty to one count of assault, revealed he had a $1,000-a-month summer job for which he didn't have to show up. The Dons averaged 22.5 victories annually in their last 11 years, finishing first or second in the WCAC standings each of those seasons.

Texas Southern's Harry Kelly (29.7 ppg), Rice's Pierce (26.8), USF's Dailey (25.2), Florida State's Mitchell Wiggins (23.8) and WIU's Dykstra (21.1) set school Division I records for highest scoring average in a single season. . . . Kelly tallied a national-high 51 points against Texas College en route to leading the country in scoring. . . . Pierce became Rice's only All-American since World War II.

Cal State Fullerton, which compiled a 4-23 record the previous season, improved by 11 1/2 games to 18-14 under coach George McQuarn. . . . Montana State's Doug Hashley grabbed a school-record 24 rebounds in a game against Nevada-Reno. . . . West Virginia (27-4), coached by Gale Catlett, finished in the Top 20 of a final wire-service poll for the first time since 1963. The Mountaineers' school-record 23-game winning streak, the longest in the country, was ended at Rutgers, 74-64, in their regular-season finale. They won their first 12 games decided by fewer than seven points until bowing to Fresno State, 50-46, in the NCAA playoffs.

Virginia (30-4/coached by Terry Holland), Fresno State (27-3/Boyd Grant), Idaho (27-3/Don Monson), Tennessee-Chattanooga (27-4/Murray Arnold), Alabama-Birmingham (25-6/Gene Bartow) and James Madison (24-6/Lou Campanelli) had their winningest seasons in school Division I history. . . . Fresno State posted the best scoring defense of any team since 1952 (47.1 points per game). FSU and UAB finished in the Top 20 of a final wire-service poll for the only time in school history. . . . Northwestern State had four players average between 13 and 18 points per game and three of the four shot 82 percent or better from the free-throw line. . . . Mississippi, managing its first winning SEC record in 22 years (11-7), posted the Rebels' lone victory over Kentucky in a 28-game stretch of their series from 1975 through 1986. Ole Miss' Sean Tuohy led the SEC in assists for the fourth straight season. Tuohy became a fast-food millionaire and adoptive father of Michael Oher, an offensive tackle who also attended Ole Miss and became an NFL first-round draft choice of the Baltimore Ravens in 2009. They were subjects of the movie "The Blind Side" starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. . . . More than half of Tennessee's 30 games were decided by fewer than five points. The Volunteers, coached by Don DeVoe, compiled an 11-5 mark in those close contests. Meanwhile, Norm Sloan notched a winning record in the same category during his first seven seasons as Florida's coach before losing 11 of 12 close contests with the 5-22 Gators. . . . Jacksonville (14-13), in Bob Wenzel's first season as the Dolphins' coach, had more than half of its games decided by fewer than five points (posted a 9-5 mark in those close contests).

Western Kentucky competed as a member of the Ohio Valley Conference for the final season. WKU sophomore guard Bobby Jones, an All-OVC second-team selection, went on to become coach at St. Francis (Pa.). . . . West Chester State (Pa.) competed in its final campaign at the major-college level. . . . Notre Dame, incurring its only losing record (10-17) in an 18-year stretch from 1972-73 through 1989-90, finished out of the top 10 of the final AP poll for the first time in seven seasons. . . . The national scoring average decreased for the seventh consecutive season, reaching the lowest point since 1952 with 135.1 points per game (both teams combined).

Bob Weinhauer won his fifth Ivy League title in as many years as Penn's coach. His assists leader for the Quakers was Fran McCaffery, who went on to coach Lehigh, UNC Greensboro and Siena in the NCAA playoffs. . . . Temple became the third East Coast Conference member in five years to go undefeated in league competition but fail to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after losing in the ECC playoffs. . . . Rhode Island wound up in seventh place in the Eastern 8 after tying for first the previous season. . . . Iona (24-8), coached by Pat Kennedy, had nine of its last 10 games decided by fewer than six points. . . . Manhattan senior guard John Leonard, an all-league pick in the inaugural season of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, eventually became head coach of his alma mater. . . . Mike Brey, George Washington's leader in assists and steals, went on to coach Delaware and Notre Dame in the NCAA playoffs. . . . Junior Jay Wright, Bucknell's leading scorer with 11.9 points per game, later coached Hofstra and Villanova. . . . Dave Leitao, a starter for Northeastern's NCAA Tournament team, went on to coach his alma mater for two seasons in the mid-1990s and later accepted similar jobs at DePaul and Virginia. . . . Princeton (13-13), coached by Pete Carril, had 18 of its games decided by fewer than six points (6-12 mark in close contests). The Tigers had an annual average of six games decided by fewer than three points under Carril in an eight-year span from 1978-79 through 1985-86. . . . Guard Jeff Schneider, Virginia Tech's leader in free-throw shooting (81%), eventually coached Cal Poly.

1982 NCAA Tournament
Summary: Georgetown's early 12-6 lead was the biggest of the championship game. Freshman guard Michael Jordan swished a 16-foot jumper from the left side with 16 seconds remaining to provide the title contest's final points as North Carolina edged Georgetown, 63-62. Georgetown sophomore guard Fred Brown's errant pass, ostensibly seeing a teammate out of the corner of his right eye, went directly to Tar Heels forward James Worthy and prevented the Hoyas from attempting a potential game-winning shot in the closing seconds. Georgetown freshman Patrick Ewing was called for goaltending five times in the opening minutes of the final. Jordan's heroics came after an inauspicious playoff debut when he collected six points, one rebound, no assists and no steals in 37 minutes of a 52-50 opening-round victory against James Madison in the East Regional. Carolina, despite the presence of all-time greats such as Jordan, Worthy and Sam Perkins, posted the lowest average margin of victory (4.6 points) for a champion since the playoff field expanded beyond eight teams in 1951.
Outcome for Defending Champion: Indiana (19-10), after losing guard Isiah Thomas early to the NBA, was eliminated in the second round of the Mideast Regional by Alabama-Birmingham, 80-70. The Hoosiers had a four-game losing streak after dropping their first two Big Ten assignments but they rebounded to finish in a tie for second place in the league standings. Randy Wittman, who scored a team-high 16 points in IU's 94-62 first-round rout of Robert Morris, went on to become coach of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers.
Star Gazing: Worthy, the Final Four Most Outstanding Player, hit 20 of 27 field-goal attempts in two Final Four games. He scored a career-high 28 points in the championship game. . . . Jordan, the pre-endorsement Airness, donned Converse All-Star sneakers while Georgetown wore Nikes. . . . Darrell Walker, who averaged 18.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game for Arkansas, eventually coached the NBA's Toronto Raptors and under Jordan's executive domain with the Washington Wizards. . . . Raw freshman Hakeem Olajuwon scored only two points for Houston in a 68-63 national semifinal loss to North Carolina. . . . Final Four coaches Dean Smith (879 with North Carolina through 1996-97), Denny Crum (675 with Louisville through 2000-01), John Thompson (596 with Georgetown to midway through 1998-99) and Guy Lewis (592 with Houston through 1985-86) went on to finish their careers with a staggering total of 2,742 victories for their schools.
Biggest Upsets: DePaul lost its third opener in as many years as a No. 1 seed when the Blue Demons, ranked second nationally, bowed to Boston College, 82-75, in the Midwest Regional. . . . Middle Tennessee State (seeded No. 11) overcame an early 8-0 deficit to defeat Kentucky (No. 6), 50-44, in the first round of the Mideast Regional. No Kentucky player scored more than eight points.
One and Only: Carolina's Jordan, Perkins and Worthy comprise the only trio of college teammates in history to each go on and score more than 15,000 points in the NBA. . . . Northeastern's Perry Moss was the only player to crack the 30-point plateau in the tourney. He tallied 31 against Villanova. . . . Gene Bartow, who directed Memphis State '73 and UCLA '76 to the Final Four, became the only coach to take three different schools to a regional final in a 10-year span. His UAB team lost at home to Louisville, 75-68, in the Mideast Regional.
Celebrity Status: Cam Cameron, who scored two points for Indiana in a 94-62 first-round win over Robert Morris in the Mideast Regional, eventually became head football coach for his alma mater and the NFL's Miami Dolphins. . . . James McDonald, a defensive specialist who collected seven points and five rebounds for Southern California in a West Regional first-round loss against Wyoming, went on to play tight end in the NFL. He caught 14 passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns with the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions in four seasons later in the decade. . . . Boston College's Rich Shrigley, who contributed 12 points in a victory over San Francisco, became a tight end for the Eagles' first bowl team in 40 years (lost to Auburn 33-26 in Tangerine) as a teammate of quarterback Doug Flutie.
Numbers Game: Junior guard Rob Williams, Houston's leader in scoring with a 21.1-point average, missed all eight of his field-goal attempts against the Tar Heels in the national semifinals. Nonetheless, he still finished as the tourney's leading scorer because he scored at least 25 points in three previous outings. Williams left early for the NBA after the season and was joined in the same category by teammates Clyde Drexler in 1983 and Olajuwon in 1984 as the Cougars became the only school to have an undergrad selected in the first round of the NBA draft three consecutive years. . . . Virginia's Ralph Sampson grabbed a tourney-high 21 rebounds, but it was in vain when the Cavaliers bowed to Alabama-Birmingham, 68-66, in the Mideast Regional semifinals. . . . Tulsa, coached by Nolan Richardson, appeared in the playoffs for the first time since 1955. . . . The Big Eight Tournament champion was eliminated in the Midwest Regional semifinals for the fourth time in the first six years of the conference's postseason tourney.
What Might Have Been: Olajuwon, Williams and swingman Michael Young combined to average 40.3 points per game for Houston. If only they collaborated for 12 points instead of two apiece in the national semifinals, the Cougars could have defeated Carolina rather than losing 68-63. . . . It is unlikely that DePaul (26-2) would have been eliminated right away in the tourney if Mark Aguirre didn't forgo his final season of eligibility. . . . Maryland (16-13) might have wound up in the NCAA playoffs instead of the NIT if rebounder deluxe Buck Williams had remained in school instead of turning pro early. Ditto Temple (19-8) in its last season before the John Chaney coaching era if Jim McLoughlin wasn't out the entire year because of an injury. McLoughlin averaged 16.3 ppg in Chaney's inaugural campaign with the Owls. Brigham Young likely would have appeared in the NCAA tourney rather than the NIT if eventual All-American forward Devin Durrant wasn't on a Mormon mission in Spain. . . . Kentucky (22-8) might have avoided its opening-round upset to Middle Tennessee State if center Sam Bowie didn't miss the season because of a leg injury.
Putting Things in Perspective: Would North Carolina have captured the crown if the Tar Heels didn't win three games, two of them by a total of just seven points, in familiar surroundings (second round at Charlotte and East Regional at Raleigh)? . . . The highest scoring output by an individual against Carolina was 30 points by Virginia's Sampson.
NCAA Champion Defeats: Wake Forest (7-point margin) and at Virginia (16).
Scoring Leader: Rob Williams, Houston (88 points, 17.6 ppg).
Highest Scoring Average: Perry Moss, Northeastern (55 points, 27.5 ppg).
Rebounding Leader: Clyde Drexler, Houston (41 rebounds, 8.2 rpg).
Highest Rebounding Average: Ralph Sampson, Virginia (30 rebounds, 15 rpg).

All-Tournament Team
Patrick Ewing, C, Fr., Georgetown (31 points, 21 rebounds in final two games)
Sleepy Floyd, G, Sr., Georgetown (31 points, eight rebounds, eight assists)
Michael Jordan, G, Fr., North Carolina (34 points, 14 rebounds)
Sam Perkins, C, Soph., North Carolina (35 points, 17 rebounds)
*James Worthy, F, Jr., North Carolina (42 points, eight rebounds, five steals)
*Named Most Outstanding Player.

Championship Team Results
Second Round: North Carolina 52 (Perkins team-high 17 points), James Madison 50 (Fisher/Ruland/Townes 12)
Regional Semifinal: North Carolina 74 (Doherty/Worthy 16), Alabama 69 (Phillips 16)
Regional Final: North Carolina 70 (Jordan 15), Villanova 60 (Pinckney 15)
National Semifinal: North Carolina 68 (Perkins 25), Houston 63 (Rose 20)
Championship Game: North Carolina 63 (Worthy 28), Georgetown 62 (Ewing 23)