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1988 NCAA Tournament

The Final Four Run Of The 1988 Oklahoma Sooners

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The University of Oklahoma has been much more renowned for its football program than what they do on the basketball court and that was certainly true in the 1980s when Barry Switzer had OU football rolling and won a national championship. But the 1988 Oklahoma Sooners basketball team were awfully good themselves and nearly gave the college town of Norman another national title.

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When head coach Billy Tubbs arrived in 1981 the program had made just one NCAA Tournament in the past 35 years. By 1983, Tubbs had the Sooners in March Madness. In 1985, with a team built around a great post player in Wayman Tisdale, they came within a basketball of the Final Four. In 1987 they lost on a buzzer-beater in the Sweet 16. In 1988, it all came together.

The talent was tremendous and it started up front with Stacey King and Harvey Grant. They combined to average 43 points/19 rebounds per game and King went on to play in the NBA on the first run of Michael Jordan’s championship teams with the Chicago Bulls in the early 1990s.

Mookie Blaylock and Ricky Grace were a potent backcourt duo, combining for 32 points a game. Dave Sieger chipped in 11 a game to complete a balanced and explosive attack. And the Sooners could also play some defense—Blaylock was a defensive ace in the backcourt, King an outstanding shotblocker down low. Oklahoma played a high-octane style, but the high point volumes came because of pace, not because of a lack of defense.

OU wasn’t highly regarded when the season began, ranked 19th in the preseason poll. They won their first fourteen games, but it was against non-descript competition. When the Sooners lost 84-77 to LSU in a road-neutral game at New Orleans—to a team that would end up a 9-seed in the NCAAs and lose in the first round, there still wasn’t any reason to expect anything special.

Then Oklahoma beat sixth-ranked Pitt, with future NBA forward Charles Smith and a tough power forward in Jerome Lane. The old Big Eight Conference was having a strong year in 1988 and that would be validated in March. OU stormed through it. After an early loss to Kansas State, the Sooners ripped off ten straight wins and clinched a share of the league title.

An overtime loss at NCAA-bound Missouri was just a hiccup. Oklahoma closed the regular season with a 113-93 win over Nebraska to secure the outright conference championship. The Sooners won the Big Eight tournament in Kansas City and secured the #1 seed in the Southeast Regional.

The NCAA run began in Atlanta and OU got off to a slow start, only leading 16-seed UT-Chattanooga 34-29 at the half. They were outrebounded on the game, 39-34. But the Sooners had too much talent. They dropped 60 points in the second half, Grant and King combined for 50 and the end result was an easy 94-66 win.

Auburn, another school more noted for its football teams, was up next. But like Oklahoma, Auburn had a basketball team that was pretty good too. Charles Barkley was a recent star, as was NBA forward Chuck Person. Even without those two, the Tigers had thrown a mild scare into eventual national champion Indiana in the 1987 NCAA Tournament. And they got a first-round win over Bradley, who had an elite scorer in Hersey Hawkins.

The Sooners were ready, especially on the defensive end where they forced Auburn into 35 percent shooting. In spite of another poor rebounding performance, Oklahoma made up for it with sheer talent. King went off for 37 while Blaylock added 21 in a 107-87 win.

It was on to Birmingham for the regionals and an anticipated game with Louisville. The Cardinals were only two years removed from an NCAA title and their center Pervis Ellison had been the Most Outstanding Player in the 1986 Final Four.

The game was everything you would expect from two very athletic teams, frenetic action and it was hotly contested. Ellison went for 23/14 and six Cardinal players scored in double figures. Oklahoma got great games from its own frontcourt. King delivered a 24/12 and Grant exploded for 34 points. The ultimate difference was threes and frees—OU hit 10 treys to Louisville’s 5 and the Sooners outscored the Cardinals 20-13 at the free throw line. The final was 108-98.

Everyone had expected another high-profile Bluegrass battle in the regional final, this time with 2-seed Kentucky. But Villanova had jumped up off the 6-line to beat both Illinois and Kentucky to get here. Memories of Villanova’s 1985 NCAA title run were still fresh in everyone’s memories, so no one needed to remind Tubbs about what this program could do.

Villanova slowed the pace and led 38-31 at the half. To their great credit, Oklahoma’s players kept their posed and they clamped down on the defensive end. The Wildcats only scored 19 after intermission. King was the dominant individual player, with 28 points/11 rebounds. The Sooners gradually took control and then the avalanche started as they won going away, 78-59.

King was named Most Outstanding Player of the regional. Oklahoma was going to the Final Four in Kansas City. There was only other #1 seed still remaining and that was Arizona, with All-American Sean Elliot at forward and Steve Kerr at the point.

Both backcourts were cold—Grace, Blaylock and Kerr all shot poorly. OU couldn’t contain Elliot, who nailed 31 points. All three Arizona frontcourt starters got 11 rebounds Once again though, the Sooners could overcome a rebounding disadvantage with the offensive prowess of their frontcourt.

Grant and King combined for 42 points and Oklahoma found an unlikely hero on the bench in Andre Wiley, who scored 11 points and keyed a decisive advantage for the Sooners in production from the reserves. They grabbed a twelve-point lead at halftime and maintained control throughout in an 86-78 win.

Conference rival Kansas was only a 6-seed, and had taken out Kansas State to get to the Final Four and then beaten 2-seed Duke in the national semifinal. Even with a nominal homecourt advantage at Kemper Arena, Kansas was still the underdog to OU on Monday night.

For one half, Oklahoma had the pace where they wanted it even though the score was tied 50-50 at intermission. What they didn’t have was Danny Manning. The Kansas star was on one of the great runs in NCAA Tournament history and he capped his senior year with a 31 points/18 rebounds performance in this championship game. King finished with 17/7, but Grant had a so-so game and Grace struggled from the outside. The Sooners lost 83-79.

In the years since, Oklahoma has made a couple more Final Fours, in 2002 and 2016. They’ve produced some great players notably Blake Griffin. They haven’t won a national championship, but the 1988 Oklahoma Sooners showed their hometown just how much fun basketball could be.

1988 Kansas State Basketball: A Great Run & Near Miss

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The basketball program at Kansas State has had a long and steady history of producing winning teams. What the school hasn’t done, at least in modern times, is make it all the way to the Final Four. Not since 1964 have the Wildcats danced on college basketball’s biggest stage. The 1988 Kansas State basketball team came awfully close though and pulled off a memorable NCAA Tournament upset along the way.

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Lon Kruger was a young head coach looking to make his name when he took over in 1987. His predecessor, Jack Hartman, had a good run at reached a regional final four times in his career. Kruger’s first team in 1987 made the NCAAs and won the first game.

Mitch Richmond was the heart of the team. Richmond averaged 23 points/7 rebounds in the 1988 season and went to an outstanding NBA career that eventually landed him in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Richmond got support from William Scott in the backcourt.

Kansas State started slowly. They were 8-4 in non-conference games and that included bad losses to Missouri State and twice to Southern Miss. There was also a 101-72 shellacking at the hands of Purdue. The Boilermakers were one of the best teams in the country, but the Wildcats would get their own say before this season was over.

The start of Big Eight play saw a revival, with five straight wins. Then K-State lost to NCAA-bound Missouri. They lost 112-95 at Oklahoma, another nationally elite team. They lost a one-point heartbreaker at home to archrival Kansas and Danny Manning.

An NCAA bid was by no means a guarantee, but Kruger’s team surged down the stretch. They won their final five games, moved into second place and still had a shot at sharing the Big Eight title with Oklahoma until the Sooners won their finale. The conference tournament saw some of the best Wildcat basketball yet—they knocked off Kansas in the semis and gave OU a good run in the final before losing 88-83.

It was a big year for Big Eight basketball. Oklahoma was a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament and after all the ups and downs, Kansas State was sitting on the 4-line in the Midwest Regional.

In spite of the high seed, the first NCAA game was hardly a walkover. LaSalle might have been a 13-seed, but Lionel Simmons ,who averaged 23ppg, was one of the best players in the country and a worthy rival to Richmond.

Simmons was indeed that good, and he went for 20/10 in the first-round game at South Bend. Richmond was better, dropping 30 and he had more help. Scott hit 17 points and the K-State defense held LaSalle to 37 percent shooting in a 66-53 win.

The second round opponent was DePaul, a Sweet 16 team from 1987 and with a future NBA point guard in Rod Strickland running the show. The Blue Demons were coming off a 64 percent shooting performance in their first-round rout of Wichita State.

But Kruger’s defense met the challenge. Again, they held an opponent to 37 percent shooting. Strickland had 19, but his two key support players, Stanley Brundy and Kevin Edwards, were forced into a combined 5-for-19 shooting display. Richmond knocked down 19 while Scott stepped up with 23 points and Kansas State won 66-58.

 

The reward was a trip to the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan, where the Detroit Lions & Pistons used to play their home games before the advent of Ford Field. It was a nice season for Kansas State no matter what way you sliced it, and with top-seeded Purdue next in line, no one expected the season to extend beyond Friday night.

When the Boilermakers took a 43-34 lead at halftime, everything was unfolding as expected. Purdue, with three seniors in key roles, was widely expected to make a breakthrough Final Four run for head coach Gene Keady.

Then up jumped Mitch Richmond. He took over the second half and finished the game with 27 points/11 rebounds, shooting 10-for-20 from the floor. The K-State defense found its form of the first NCAA weekend and held Purdue to 27 points in the second half. The end result was a 73-70 upset that shattered brackets across the Midwest, if not the nation.

The Midwest Regional was a gutted bracket and the favorites on the other side had been eliminated. Kansas State needed only to deal with a 6-seed in the regional final. Unfortunately for them, that happened to be a 6-seed with Danny Manning in the lineup and it happened to be Kansas.

Manning was on one of the great tournament runs of all-time and he eventually led his team past Duke and Oklahoma to win the national championship. Even though Kansas State held a 29-27 lead at halftime, it came apart after intermission. Richmond shot 4-for-14 and the Wildcats lost 71-58.

Kansas State has continued to play fundamentally sound winning basketball in the ensuing decades. But it took them until 2010 to again reach a regional final of NCAA play and they again were stopped by a Cinderella story, this time Brad Stevens and Butler. The ultimate legacy of the 1988 Kansas State basketball team is a very good one, highlighted by the win over Purdue. That legacy will look better when this program can finally reach a Final Four for the first time since 1964.

1988 Sports: A College Football Culture War, A Guarantee Made Good & A Super Bowl Drive

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A single college football game highlighted what was, top to bottom, a very good year in 1988 sports. That game took place in South Bend in mid-October and it defined not just that season, but became caught up in a national culture war.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
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The game was Notre Dame and Miami, and with the Fighting Irish perceived as the white hats and the Hurricanes perceived as the black hats, everyone was set for battle. Notre Dame won an epic game 31-30 and that game proved to decide the national championship.
Read more about Notre Dame-Miami
The state of California produced three championship teams at the pro level, two from SoCal and another from the Bay Area. Each was thrilling, but for different reasons.
The Los Angeles Lakers became the first NBA team in nineteen years to win consecutive championships. The Lakers got everything they could handle and then some from the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons, led by Isiah Thomas, had dethroned the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals—although not before Larry Bird first led the Celtics into the conference finals by winning an epic Game 7 scoring duel with Atlanta Hawks’ forward Dominique Wilkins.
It was Detroit’s time in the East, but Los Angeles still had Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy. They trailed the Finals 3-2, but won came from behind in the closing minute of Game 6 and then held off a furious Piston rally to win Game 7, fulfilling head coach Pat Riley’s guarantee of a repeat NBA championship.
More last-minute dramatics were on display at the Super Bowl, as was a championship for a 1980s dynasty. The San Francisco 49ers, led by Joe Montana, scored the winning touchdown with 34 seconds left in their victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Montana’s drive culminated a NFL playoffs that was filled with interesting storylines, but for reasons both on-field and off, desperately needed this kind of an ending.
And in baseball, we’re back down in Los Angeles. The World Series itself was not thrilling. The Los Angeles Dodgers jumped out on the Oakland A’s and won in five games. But the manner it went down has still captured the heart of the nation to this day.
The Dodgers, heavy underdogs to the A’s of Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco won a shocking Game 1. Los Angeles outfielder Kirk Gibson, barely able to walk because of an injury, came off the bench to pinch-hit and took the best closer in the game, Dennis Eckersely, deep for a home run. Los Angeles never stopped winning and took an unlikely World Series title.
Read more about the 1988 Los Angeles Lakers
Read more about the 1988 NFL playoffs
Read more about the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers
College basketball didn’t lack for its own drama, this time in America’s heartland. Danny Manning led the Kansas Jayhawks on an improbable ride as a #6 seed, in which they combined catching bracket breaks with having a singular superstar and took a national championship.
The 1988 NCAA Tournament also saw two respected coaches, who never made the Final Four, have their best chances. John Chaney of Temple and Gene Keady at Purdue each had excellent teams and were #1 seeds. But Temple come up short to Duke in a regional final, while Purdue lost in the Sweet 16. Each would have other chances, but never a better one than existed in 1988.
In that, they shared a common bond with Michigan football coach Bo Schembecler. Bo never won a national title and while 1988 wasn’t his only shot, it was certainly one of his best. Michigan took both Notre Dame and Miami to the bitter end before losing heartbreakers. Sometimes, things just aren’t meant to be, as Keady and Chaney lived through at the NCAA Tournament.
Read more about the 1988 Kansas Jayhawks
The Edmonton Oilers won their fourth Stanley Cup in five years behind the leadership of Wayne Gretzky. The regular season didn’t go as smoothly as had been in the case in recent years, but the postseason was their most dominant. Edmonton rolled to a 16-2 record to add another jewel to their Gretzky-era treasure chest.
Read more about the 1988 Edmonton Oilers