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1981 NCAA Tournament

The Road To The 1981 Final Four

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The first four days of the NCAA Tournament in 1981 were marked by a sequence of upsets and buzzer-beaters that was then unprecedented. But by the time the 1981 Final Four rolled around, the powers-that-be had emerged. Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia and LSU were all high seeds that won regionals. Let’s look back on the road all four teams took to Philadelphia.

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INDIANA

After their unbeaten national championship run of 1976, Bob Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers slipped back and missed the NCAA Tournament two of the next three years. The road back to the national elite started in 1980 when they won the Big Ten before a Sweet 16 loss to archrival Purdue left a bad taste.

There was still as much talent as Knight ever had on hand, and it started with All-American sophomore guard Isiah Thomas, who averaged 17 ppg, was a terrific floor leader and would go on to be one of the great NBA point guards of all-time with the Detroit Pistons.

Thomas was supported by two-guard Randy Wittman, another future NBA player. Ray Tolbert averaged 12 rebounds a game. Another forward, Landon Turner might have gone to the pros as well, but the aggressive rebounding forward had his career tragically cut short in the summer following the 1981 season when a car accident left him paralyzed from the waist down.

This group won a second straight Big Ten title and was seeded #3 in the Mideast Regional. After a first-round bye in a tournament field that was then 48 teams, Indiana crushed Maryland 99-64. Tolbert and Turner dominated inside, combining for 46 points on 19/26 shooting.

Meanwhile the rest of the favorites in the Mideast (the forerunner of today’s South Regional) were dropping like flies. DePaul, the #1 team in the country, was stunned by St. Joe’s. Kentucky, the two-seed and potential Sweet 16 opponent for Indiana, lost to Alabama-Birmingham. And fourth-seeded Wake Forest lost to Boston College.

As if that hadn’t opened up Indiana’s path to the Final Four sufficiently, the regionals would be held on their homecourt in Bloomington.

Indiana beat UAB 87-72, although this was a talented Blazer team. They were coached by Gene Bartow, who had guided UCLA to the Final Four in 1976 before tiring of the pressure that came with succeeding John Wooden. UAB also had a good guard in Oliver Robinson, and this team made the final eight one year later.

In this tournament, UAB hung with IU for a half, trailing 42-37 before the Hoosier backcourt took over. Isiah and Wittman combined for 47 points to take over the second half. Indiana then got one more break when St. Joe’s upset Boston College 42-41. It probably wasn’t going to matter in any case, but with a good inside-out combo of Jay Murphy and John Bagley, the Eagles would have had a puncher’s chance against the Hoosiers.

The same couldn’t be said for St. Joe’s. Indiana dominated defensively and led 32-16 at the half. They held St. Joe’s to 33 percent shooting for the game and coasted in 78-46. Thomas finished with 12 assists and was named Most Outstanding Player of the regional.

NORTH CAROLINA

Dean Smith had already made five Final Fours with North Carolina when the 1981 season began. The most recent was 1977, when his team reached the championship game before losing. But Smith still didn’t have a ring and his team suffered early exits each of the previous three years.

What they did have in 1981 was a lot of talent. The frontline had future NBA standouts in Sam Perkins and James Worthy, and they weren’t even the best players in this particular year. That honor went to forward Al Wood. Collectively, this Big Three of the frontcourt combined to average 47 ppg.

North Carolina finished second in the ACC and grabbed the #2 seed in the West Regional. They beat Pitt 74-57, getting a combined 56 points from the Big Three on 21/32 shooting to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since ’77.

UNC was now the favorite in the region after #1 seed Oregon State had been upset by Kansas State in the second round. Utah and Illinois had held serve as favorites to join the Tar Heels in Salt Lake City.

North Carolina drew Utah in the round of 16, and the Utes weren’t to be overlooked. They were playing in their home state and they had Tom Chambers, soon to be one of the most potent scoring forwards in the NBA. But the Tar Heels got 45 points from the Big Three and reserve Matt Doherty stepped up with 12 more to lead a 61-56 win.

Kansas State edged Illinois 57-52 in a game where K-State’s Rolando Blackman squared off with Illinois’ Derek Harper—both players would spend several years as teammates on the Dallas Mavericks. Blackman, who had hit the shot the beat Oregon State with two seconds left, was one of the stories of the tournament.

North Carolina had its hands full with Blackman in the regional final, as he went for 21 points/10 rebounds, but UNC had too much. Wood had a 21/17 game and earned regional MOP honors. Doherty, a future starter for this program and much later its head coach, continued his strong play, with 16 points. The Tar Heels were up thirteen by halftime and coasted to Smith’s sixth Final Four with an 82-68 win.

VIRGINIA

The Virginia basketball program wasn’t at all on the map when Terry Holland became head coach in 1975, having never reached the NCAA Tournament. Holland built the program, reached the Big Dance in 1976 and a few years later he landed the biggest fish—7’4” center Ralph Sampson.

In 1980, Sampson’s freshman year, UVA won the NIT. And in 1981, they finally had a big year. They won their first 23 games before a last-second loss to Notre Dame in a road-neutral game at Chicago. With Ralph averaging 18 points/12 rebounds/3 blocks per game and supported by forwards and co-captains Jeff Lamp and Lee Raker, Virginia won the ACC title and were the #1 seed in the East Regional.

Virginia was not impressive in beating Villanova 54-50, but they survived and advanced to Atlanta for the regionals. Their opponent would be a good Tennessee team. The Vols were the 4-seed and guard Dale Ellis had a productive NBA career ahead of him.

Sampson struggled, shooting 4-for-13, but Lamp stepped up with a big game and hit 18 points. Virginia took over in the second half and won 62-48. They were one game from the Final Four and whomever the opponent would be, they would offer some sort of revenge angle.

BYU was the 6-seed and guard Danny Ainge had beaten out Sampson for national Player of the Year honors. The Cougars were playing…Notre Dame. The Irish win over the Cavs had been one of the regular season’s most memorable moments.  BYU would be the survivor—trailing 50-49, Ainge delivered an iconic NCAA moment, driving coast-to-coast for the winning layup.

Virginia trailed the regional final at halftime, 31-28, but Sampson was playing well. He finished with 22 points/12 rebounds. And now it was Ainge’s turn to struggle to a 4-for-13 shooting day. Lamp scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds of his own. The Cavs took over the second half and won going away, 74-60.

Lamp won regional MVP and with Sampson in tow, Virginia was going to Philadelphia as a popular choice to bring home a national championship.

LSU

LSU’s only national recognition as a basketball school came when Pete Maravich graced the floor, and even that was about individual success. The Tigers had otherwise not made the NCAA Tournament since the early 1950s when Dale Brown arrived in Baton Rouge in 1976. By 1979, Dale had the team in the Sweet 16. In 1980, they reached the round of eight. There was one more step to take.

The Tigers had a well-balanced team. In the backcourt, Ethan Martin was the playmaker while Howard Carter led all scorers with 16 ppg. The frontcourt had athletes and rebounders in Durand “Rudy” Macklin and Leonard Mitchell. LSU won the SEC title over Kentucky and got the top seed in the Midwest, the second straight year the Tigers were seeded on the 1-line.

Macklin scored 31 points while Carter knocked down 26 as LSU rolled Lamar, 100-78 to advance into the regionals at Houston. They were only favorite to survive opening weekend, but as 5-seeds go, Arkansas was as tough as it got.

Eddie Sutton had led the Razorback program to the Final Four in 1978, come within a basket of upsetting Larry Bird’s Indiana State team in 1979 and advanced in this year’s tournament by beating defending national champion Louisville 74-73 on a miracle halfcourt shot from U.S. Reed.

Just how well Brown had LSU playing was demonstrated by how thoroughly they controlled a team with this pedigree. Macklin led a strong rebounding effort that controlled the glass, the score was 34-18 by half and LSU coasted home to a 72-56 win.

They would play another team probably better than its seed number indicated in #7 Wichita State. The Shockers had two future NBA forwards in Antoine Carr and Cliff Levingston and had just nipped in-state rival Kansas 66-65 to reach this round.

LSU might have been the powerful #1 seed, but from the perspective of history, their cast paled in comparison to what Carr and Levingston were. It’s a credit to Brown on just how well he got this talent to come together.

Macklin continued to be great, with a 21/10 day in the regional final. Mitchell went for 17/6 and center Greg Cook added 19/7 in a display of frontline dominance. The Tigers again grabbed the big halftime lead, 48-33 and they won 96-85. Macklin was the region’s Outstanding Player.

THE 1981 FINAL FOUR

With four excellent teams that all had seemed to be peaking even prior to the NCAA Tournament, the stage seemed to be set for a great show in Philadelphia. Instead, after such an exciting tournament, all three games at the old Spectrum followed the pattern of good first half followed by a second-half blowout.

Indiana played LSU in the early afternoon game on Saturday. The Tigers led 30-27 at half, but the Hoosier defense took over. They held LSU to 32 percent shooting, and in a game with a lot of good, aggressive forwards, Turner was the best. He delivered a 20/8 showing and IU pulled away 67-49.

North Carolina and Virginia renewed their ACC rivalry and it was tied 27-27 at the half. Then Wood turned one of the most electric performances in Final Four history. He went in, over and around Cavalier defenders for a 39-point performance. Sampson shot just 3-for-10 and UNC won 78-65.

On the Monday afternoon of the championship game, word came that President Reagan had been shot. The teams waited to find out if the game would be played. As it became apparent the president would survive, the decision was made to play the game.

Indiana led 27-26 at the half, and again their defense took over after intermission. They held North Carolina to 43 percent shooting. Wittman scored 16 points, Tolbert had 11 rebounds and Turner chipped in a 12/6. But the star of the night was Isiah. He finished with 23 points and led the way to the 63-50 win.

Thomas was named the Final Four’s Outstanding Player and if we’re just talking about Monday night, that’s true. Maybe it’s easy to say in retrospect and out of sentiment, but I think Turner was the MVP if we look at the two-game period as a whole, which is theoretically what the MOP is supposed to be.

Indiana had their second national title in six years and each one had come in Philadelphia.

1981 NCAA Tournament: Second Round Chaos Leads To Indiana Dominance

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The NCAA Tournament’s modern era officially began in 1975, when conferences began allowing more than one team per conference to enter the field. Each year marked a new progression into the event we know today.

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1976 marked the first year of the post-John Wooden era. 1979 saw the first occasion of a regional being ripped apart with upsets. 1980 was the first time the Final Four was filled with middling-seeded teams. The 1981 NCAA Tournament elevated it all to another level, with an extraordinary first weekend, a memorable moment at the regionals and finally ending with a dominant champion on a night national tragedy was averted.

SECOND ROUND CHAOS

The top 16 teams nationally (the 1 thru 4 seeds in each region) still got first-round byes in this timeframe, a practice that would continue until 1985. Eight of these sixteen teams lost right out of the gate in Saturday/Sunday’s second round. The chaos was highlighted by a sequence of three stunning finishes, one on top of the other, that NBC, which then televised the tournament, couldn’t have scripted better if it wanted to.

DePaul was #1 in the country, but only led St. Joseph’s 48-47 in the closing seconds. The Blue Demons’ missed a free throw, didn’t pick up in transition and John Smith ended alone under the basket for the game-winner.

NBC shifted to Louisville-Arkansas, where the defending national champion Cardinals seemed to have finally prevailed after Derek Smith hit a tough jump shot give Louisville a 73-72 lead and five seconds left. Arkansas’ U.S. Reed heaved a halfcourt shot at the buzzer…and it went in.

Finally, the #2 seed in the West was Oregon State, but they were locked in a 48-48 tie against Kansas State. Wildcat forward Rolando Blackman got the ball on the baseline. He feinted a drive, created space and hit a jumper with two seconds left to finish the upset.

This trio of games is best remembered because the flurry in which they all went down, but the carnage continued.  Also losing was Kentucky, the #2 seed in the East, to UAB 69-62. A pair of 3-seeds went down in Iowa and UCLA. Boston College was a 5-seed and nipped #4 Wake Forest, something more notable in the days of the 48-team bracket, because BC was playing its second game in three days, while Wake enjoyed a bye.

All in all, Saturday and Sunday of the 1981 NCAA Tournament wouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon.

Another team that pulled the upsets was sixth-seeded BYU, who had the National Player of the Year in Danny Ainge. There wasn’t a lot of drama associated with the Cougars’ 78-55 demolition of UCLA. It was at the East Regional, in the old Atlanta Omni, that BYU gave the nation its moment to remember.

Notre Dame was the two-seed and opponent in the Sweet 16. BYU trailed 50-49, when Ainge delivered one of NCAA Tournament history’s great individual efforts. He drove the length of the floor for the winning layup, beating seven men in the process—yes, seven, as Ainge beat two Notre Dame players twice.

It got BYU a ticket to the regional final against Virginia, where arguably the two best players in the country would square off. Ralph Sampson stood 7’4” and the sophomore center was Ainge’s rival for Player of the year. Ainge’s magic ran out, as he struggled to a 4-of-13 day, while Sampson had 22 points/12 rebounds. Virginia went to the Final Four, but Ainge had given March Madness a lasting memory in the process.

INDIANA IN THE END

There were upsets and great plays, but by the time the Final Four rolled around it was all about Indiana. Between the other top seeds in the Mideast all losing, and the regionals being held in Bloomington, Indiana ended up with a clear path to the Final Four. Isiah Thomas was outstanding player in the regionals as the Hoosiers first beat UAB, and then ended St. Joe’s dream tournament, 78-46.

In spite of all the upsets, power prevailed at the Final Four in Philadelphia, with two #1 seeds (LSU & Virginia) and a pair of 2-seeds in Indiana and North Carolina.

Indiana fell behind LSU by three points at the half of Saturday’s semi-final, but completely locked down the Tigers defensively and pulled away to a 67-49 win. The hero of the game was Landon Turner, with 20 points/8 rebounds. Later that summer Turner would end up in a tragic car accident that would leave him paralyzed.

North Carolina beat Virginia behind 39 points from Al Wood and set up a Dean Smith-Bob Knight coaching battle on Monday night. But that afternoon, there was an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Both coaches waited for word on whether the game will be played. In the end, Reagan survived and the go-ahead was given to play.

Once again Indiana took over the second half. After leading 27-26 at half, Indiana rolled to a 63-50 win behind 23 points from Thomas, who again took Outstanding Player honors. Indiana won its five tournament games by more than a combined 100 points.

Indiana lost nine games during the season, the largest number for a national champion to date. This wasn’t a start-to-finish domination display, the way the 1976 Indiana basketball team was. But the way IU demolished the 1981 NCAA Tournament is as good as it gets. For the second time in six years, they were national champs and both times had been in Philadelphia.

1981 NCAA Tournament: The One Time Ralph Sampson Took Virginia To The Final Four

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The Virginia basketball program was at the forefront of the national stage—not just for college basketball, but sports overall, when 7’4” center Ralph Sampson played there from 1980-83. Sampson was considered one of the best to ever play the game and all eyes were on him to see if this freak of nature could lead Virginia to a national title.

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The Cavaliers never got to that lofty goal—indeed March disappointments were to become routine. But the 1981 NCAA Tournament at least saw Sampson’s Cavs reach the Final Four.

Sampson was in his sophomore year, after leading Virginia to an NIT title as a freshman—keep in mind, college lineups were dominated by mostly veterans at this time, and the NCAA Tournament field was limited to 48 teams. The NIT crown was a significant splash for Virginia to make in Sampson’s first year.

The 1981 season saw Virginia tear off 22 consecutive wins to start the year. This included beating North Carolina twice, including an 80-79 thriller at Chapel Hill. While Sampson was Virginia’s meal ticket, averaging 18 points/11 rebounds per game, the Cavs weren’t a one-man show. Senior captain Jeff Lamp knocked down 18 ppg in the backcourt, and was aided by reliable guards in Jeff Jones and freshman playmaker Othell Wilson.

Virginia’s winning streak continued until February 22, a Sunday afternoon when they visited the Midwest to play Notre Dame at the Rosemont Horizon. The Irish were coached by Digger Phelps, with a reputation as a giant-slayer.

The legend of Digger grew on this day, when Virginia held a 56-55 lead in the closing seconds, when Irish forward Orlando Woolridge scooped up a loose ball on the right baseline and hit a turnaround jumper as time expired. It was a play and shot this then-11-year-old writer would mimic in the backyard many times, and the status of the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers as college basketball’s last perfect champions was safe.

Virginia would lose the following game at Wake Forest, an obvious letdown, but coast to a 13-1 conference record and the ACC title. The Cavs lost in the semis of the league tournament, but still got the #1 seed in the East for the 1981 NCAA Tournament.

The 48-team bracket meant the top 16 teams nationally received byes, so Virginia needed just one win to reach the regionals. They had to fight past Rollie Massimino’s Villanova team—who would pull one of the sport’s all-time great upsets four years later—with a 54-50 win to reach the Sweet 16.

Atlanta was the site of the regionals and the intrigue was with who Virginia might play in the final. The other side of the draw had BYU, whose exciting guard Danny Ainge, had beaten out Sampson for the Wooden Award as national Player of the Year. Or…there was a rematch with Notre Dame. Either way, it was a grudge match of some sort and college hoops fans couldn’t lose.

Virginia still had their own Sweet 16 game to play though, against Tennessee and future NBA starter Dale Ellis. Sampson did not play well, shooting 4-for-13 and ending with nine points. Virginia led just 27-26 at the half, but Lamp shot the ball well, scored 18 points and helped the Cavs pull away 62-48.

BYU beat Notre Dame by a point on an electric coast-to-coast drive by Ainge, who beat all five Notre Dame defenders, including two of them twice to, put his team in the final. But he would be the star who struggled in the final, with Virginia forcing Ainge into his own 4-for-13 game. Sampson was back on the beam, scoring 22 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. Lamp knocked down 18 more and was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player as Virginia dominated the second half and won 74-60.

Virginia came to Philadelphia on a good roll and seemingly ready to cap it off with a national title. But in the bad luck that would seem to settle on this program in March during Sampson’s tenure, they ended up drawing North Carolina in the national semifinal. It’s never easy to beat a good team three times, and it certainly wasn’t here. UNC’s Al Wood poured in 39 points, while Sampson struggled to a 3-of-10 game and the Cavs lost 78-65.

To the surprise of everyone, there would be no happy return. Virginia not only would never reach the Final Four again, they would never even win an ACC Tournament with Sampson. No one can blame Virginia fans for feeling there was a lot of missed opportunity in the four seasons from 1980-83. But at least they got a Final Four trip out of it in the spring of 1981.

1981 Sports: The Catch, A Garden Party & March Turns Mad

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The year that was 1981 sports produced three epic moments, all of which have differing places in sports lore.  One of them has seen its memory indisputably stand the test of time.  A second has seen its memory fade, though with a little jostle, it can be brought back to the forefront. And a third has been unfortunately forgotten.

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It was the then-upstart San Francisco 49ers that produced the biggest moment, and it was “The Catch”, when receiver Dwight Clark went high into the air to grab a third-down pass that quarterback Joe Montana was trying to throw away. Clark came down with the catch and the touchdown, producing a victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game.
The images of Clark going high and grabbing the ball with his fingertips have ensured this play a special place in the annals of legend. It was also a seminal moment in the history of the NFL—it marked the the second of three straight conference championship game losses for the Cowboys, and the franchise would start a slow fall from grace that would collapse by the end of the decade.
San Francisco and Dallas were a case of two ships passing in the night. The 49ers went on to win the Super Bowl, and won three more by the time the 1980s were complete.
A footnote to the 1981 NFL playoffs, but most worthy of mention is how good the second round of the AFC playoffs were. The San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins played one of the great postseason games ever. The Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills played one that deserves a heckuva lot more historical attention than it gets. Because none of these teams won the Super Bowl, and because the AFC Championship Game wasn’t very good, the games that preceded them were forgotten, but they shouldn’t be.
Read more about the 1981 San Francisco 49ers
Read more about the 1981 AFC Playoffs
Moment #2 came in the NBA playoffs. The Boston Celtics were in the second year of the Larry Bird Era. They fell behind the Philadelphia 76ers 3-1 in games in the Eastern Conference Finals. Two straight dramatic wins set the stage for the most thrilling game yet.
Game 7 went to the wire with Boston holding a one-point lead. Philadelphia got a crack at the basket on the game’s final possession, but the Celtics held off the Sixers.
The Garden Party all but locked up the first NBA championship for Bird and a return to glory for the franchise. The West’s playoffs that year were gutted thanks to a bad year for Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers, so Boston-Philadelphia was the de facto Finals and everyone watching at the time knew it.
Read more about the 1981 NBA Playoffs
Montana-to-Clark hasn’t been forgotten by anyone who saw it, and Bird’s Garden Party wouldn’t take much to remind people of. But the greatness of the 1981 NCAA Tournament is right on a par with those two events strictly on the merits, even if its legend has faded.
Remember, in 1981, favorites losing early was still a mostly isolated phenomena. That’s why the second round in ’81 came as such a shock. Eight of the sixteen favorites lost. And what’s most memorable is that three lost on buzzer-beating plays that all came right in succession, ensuring that TV viewers could be moved from game to game and see them all.
Finally, the three teams that fell weren’t just ordinary 1 thru 4 seeds. One of them was Louisville, the defending national champion. Another was DePaul, the #1 ranked team in the country. And another was Oregon State, the top seed in the West Regional.
There were more thrills ahead, with BYU’s Danny Ainge making an electrifying play in the Sweet 16, going coast-to-coast in the final seconds to beat Notre Dame by a point. And when the dust settled there was also a great champion. While other favorites fell, Bob Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers simply destroyed people, winning their five games by an average of 20-plus points, and claiming a second national title in six years.
Read more about the 1981 NCAA Tournament
The seasons of college football and baseball were filled with intrigue, albeit for very different reasons. College football saw the age of parity truly arrive. The #1 and #2 teams in the polls—Michigan and Alabama suffered big upsets on the second Saturday of September and it set the tone for a wild year, where old powers fell and new ones came forward.
No team made a stronger step forward than the Clemson Tigers, who went undefeated and beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl to win the national title.
Baseball was interesting for all the wrong reasons. A strike interrupted the year and when play resumed in August, MLB opted for a “split-season”, where teams leading their divisions were declared champions, everyone started fresh and the “second-half” winners would be “first-half” leaders in the first-ever Division Series.
The plan resulted in inequities, but was probably the best idea manageable under the circumstances. The Los Angeles Dodgers ended up winning their first World Series in 25 years, including a big pennant-winning home run by Rick Monday in the National League Championship Series.
Read more about the 1981 Clemson Tigers
Read more about the 1981 MLB season
If you wanted drama, the NHL wasn’t the place to go. But if you wanted excellence it certainly was. The 1981 New York Islanders dominated from start to finish, were the best team in hockey in the regular season and then rolled through the playoffs virtually unchallenged to win their second straight Stanley Cup.
Read more about the 1981 NHL Playoffs