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1996 Final Four

1996 Sports: Traditional Powers Return To Glory

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The year in 1996 sports was marked by one in which proud franchises or programs returned to the top after what each would consider a lengthy absence. Continuing the theme would be a singularly great player who made a celebrated return and led his team on a historic run.

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We refer to Kentucky basketball, the New York Yankees and Green Bay Packers, who joined with Michael Jordan’s Bulls to turn 1996 into a year of the return to greatness. Kentucky and the Yankees won championships for the first time since 1978. The Packers won the Super Bowl for the first time in nearly thirty years.
Jordan had taken early retirement following a three-peat championship in 1993, made a late return to the NBA in 1995, though too late to get himself into good playing rhythm. 1996 was a year MJ was out to make a statement and he certainly did that, leading his team on a historic 72-win regular season and a run to the NBA championship.
Two other teams reached the throne room of their respective sports. The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup and the Florida Gators captured college football’s national championship, the first title for each.
TheSportsNotebook’s series of sports history articles have put together six separate pieces on the championship events of the major sports. The links below take you on a ride to the Meadowlands, where Kentucky cut down the nets, and through the Rocky Mountains and Windy City and the championship rounds of June, in the NHL and NBA. Then move on to the Yankees-Braves World Series, Florida’s crazy ride to Sugar Bowl glory and finally to New Orleans, where the Packers sealed their own return to greatness.

THE CHAMPIONSHIPS OF 1996
1996 Final Four: Showdown At The Meadowlands
1996 Stanley Cup Finals: An Avalanche Pours Down
1996 NBA Finals: The Bulls Complete Their Mission
1996 World Series: Dynasties Trade Places
1996 College Football: Florida’s Wild Ride
1996 Super Bowl: The Lombardi Trophy Goes Home

Any sports year always offers a few little tidbits that a focus on the championship rounds can’t cover in sufficient detail. In the pantheon of 1996 sports, let’s give honorable mention to the following…
*Anti-Climax In The East: The Orlando Magic, with Shaquille O’Neal were supposed to give Jordan and his crew a big battle in the Eastern Conference Finals. Instead, Chicago’s four-game sweep only validated the Bulls’ greatness.
*LCS Controversy & Comebacks: The Yankees’ win over the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series did not come without controversy. The Yanks won Game 1 when a fly ball to deep right by rookie shortstop Derek Jeter was pulled out of the hand of Baltimore right fielder Tony Tarasco by a young fan, Jeffrey Maier.
Under the rules of today, where home runs are reviewed, this would be easily ruled fan interference. Even under the rules of 1996, it’s almost unfathomable that the umpire placed down the right field line for postseason play didn’t get in position to make the call. The home run stood and it broke a 6-6 tie, ensuring the Yankees at least got a split of the opening two games at home. The fact New York won all three games in Baltimore to clinch the pennant mitigated the potential effects of the blown call, but it certainly helped New York avoid a tough hole.
In the National League Championship Series, the Atlanta Braves were in a 3-1 hole against the St. Louis Cardinals and the Braves’ bid for a repeat World Series title was in trouble. They responded with three consecutive wins by a combined 32-1 score. Now that’s a comeback.
*The Stanley Cup Finals of Colorado-Florida was a letdown, at least in terms of matchup. The Detroit Red Wings had a historic regular season in the West. The Pittsburgh Penguins had the league’s best player in Mario Lemieux. A Red Wings-Penguins Final would have provided excellent hockey and a Rustbelt rivarly. But the Red Wings lost in six games to Colorado and the Pens lost a Game 7 at home to Florida as each favorite came up one round short of the Finals.

1996 Final Four: Showdown At The Meadowlands

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The Meadowlands in New Jersey had hosted many an East Regional final, but 1996 was the first year the NCAA Tournament brought the Final Four here. The 1996 Final Four saw the two best teams in the country, including a top-heavy favorite in Kentucky and a rising midmajor in UMass. There were two relative dark horses joining them, as traditional power Syracuse and Mississippi State both played beyond their seeds in the regional runs.

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Kentucky and UMass were not only ranked 1-2 in the country, but either one or the other had been ranked #1 in the country for all but three weeks in December and they held the top two spots from Christmas forward.

Ironically, given his future in Lexington, it was John Calipari who was coaching UMass as they were in their fifth year of national prominence.

UMass was led by Marcus Camby at center, and they rolled through the regional, including a surprisingly easy blowout of Allan Iverson’s Georgetown team in the final. Kentucky rolled through its own regional unchallenged.

Rick Pitino’s Wildcats took out Utah, the first of three straight seasons that Kentucky would eliminate the Utes, culminating in the 1998 national championship game. Then Kentucky blew out Tim Duncan’s Wake Forest team.

Syracuse was the #4 seed in the West, and they got an early break when top-seeded Purdue was knocked out by Georgia in the second round. The Orange then beat the Bulldogs 83-81 on an overtime three-pointer by John Wallace. This game has lived in NCAA lore by the site of CBS analyst Al McGuire dancing with the Syracuse players in the postgame interview, a scene part of highlight montages every March. The Orange then won a tough 60-57 game over 2-seed Kansas to get Jim Boeheim his first trip to the Final Four since the 1987 NCAA final when he lost a heartbreaker to Indiana.

If Kentucky and UMass were the nation’s best, and Syracuse a program everyone was familiar with, then Mississippi State was the team that came from off the grid. But the Bulldogs’ March run was the most impressive of them all. They got it started in the SEC Tournament, when 6’8″ forward Dontae Jones led the way to an upset of Kentucky for the title. After being seeded 5th in the Southeast Regional, Jones then had 36 points and 23 rebounds in successive wins over the region’s top two seeds in UConn and Cincinnati that put Mississippi State in the Meadowlands.

In 1996 the bracket’s #1 seeds weren’t positioned the way they are today, to ensure the nation’s two best would avoid each other until Monday night. Consequently, Saturday’s national semifinals had a clear undercard/marquee matchup quality to them. Syracuse-Mississippi State tipped it off to start the day, followed by the anticipated Kentucky-UMass battle.

The Orange and Bulldogs were tied 36-36 at half, and over the course of the game, Mississippi State hit its three-point shots and hit the boards. But Syracuse took better care of the basketball and they got to the free throw line repeatedly. Wallace went 8-for-10 on the stripe, while Mississippi State’s entire team went just 6-for-6. Syracuse ended up 20/24 on the line, Wallace finished with 21 points and Boeheim’s team advanced to Monday night by pulling away to a 77-61 win.

Rick Pitino’s coaching legend was built in large part by introducing an offense that repeatedly shot the three. It might come as a surprise to know the Kentucky-UMass game was not impacted by the three-ball, as each team went just 3-for-9 from behind the arc. The teams were relatively even in rebounding. This game was swung the old-fashioned way–just a little bit better execution by Kentucky, who shot 51 percent from the floor to UMass’s 45 percent.

UMass got 25 from Camby, but Kentucky guard Tony Delk scored 20 and forward Walter McCarty had 10 rebounds, to lead the 81-74 win.

Kentucky had opened the season as the favorites to win the national championship and even allowing UMass’s presence with them at the top of the polls, the Wildcats were the ones who faced enormous pressure all season. Now Pitino had to take the final step against Boeheim, who was getting a lot of casual fans rallying around him as he sought his own first championship.

Monday night saw Kentucky return to Pitino’s favored style and attack from the three-point line. Delk banged home seven treys en route to 24 points, while Ron Mercer hit three on a night he scored 20. Wallace had a big night, with 29 points/10 rebounds, but there was not nearly enough depth in the Syracuse lineup. Even though the Wildcats shot just 38 percent from the floor, the three were too much, and they built a nine-point halftime lead and won by that same margin, 76-67. Delk would be named the Most Outstanding Player of the 1996 Final Four.

Pitino would only stay at Kentucky one more year before going to the NBA and eventually returning to coach archrival Louisville. The Wildcats would make each of the next two NCAA finals, including a 1998 title under Tubby Smith. Caliper would also go on to the NBA before making his own college revival at Kentucky in their 2012 title run. And Boeheim? He’s just kept on rolling on at Syracuse, winning the 2003 national championship and making the Final Four again in 2013. They were all on center stage in the Meadowlands at the 1996 Final Four.

1996 UMass Basketball Breaks Down The Door To The Final Four

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To say Massachusetts basketball had less than a stellar history would be to understate the case. When the school went searching for a new coach following the 1988 season, it had been 26 years since they’d even made the NCAA Tournament. The man they hired to turn it around was John Calipari and with his first opportunity at a head coaching job, Calipari did not disappoint.

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By 1992, the Minutemen were not only an NCAA Tournament team, they had dethroned Temple as the champs of the Atlantic 10 and UMass was a #3 seed in the bracket. They lost to Kentucky and Rick Pitino in the Sweet 16, one game prior to UK’s losing to Duke in one of the greatest college basketball games ever played, but Calipari had UMass pointing in the right direction. One year later, they were again a #3, although a second-round upset was a disappointment.

Calipari made the big recruiting haul for the 1994 season, bringing in highly touted center Marcus Camby and it paid off with a big year and a #2 seed in March Madness. But another second-round upset again left UMass wanting more.

The following year they were again a #2 and this time made it to the regionals. The prospect of a great battle of big men awaited in a regional final, with Camby on one side of the draw and Tim Duncan of top-seeded Wake Forest on the other.

But when Wake was ousted by Oklahoma State, the door looked wide open for UMass to reach the Final Four. It didn’t work out—the Minutemen went cold in the regional final and while it was their best season yet, they were still one step short.

1996 UMass basketball opened the season ranked #7 in the nation and had all the pieces. Surrounding Camby were three different forwards who were steady rebounders in Dana Dingle, Donta Bright and Tyrone Weeks. The backcourt was led by a pair of Puerto Ricans, 12-ppg scorer Carmelo Travieso and Edgar Padilla. They made a big mark on the season before November was out, with a 92-82 win over top-ranked Kentucky. By Christmas, it was UMass that was atop the polls after a 75-67 win over Georgia Tech.

The regular season had few problems in terms of wins and losses—they started 26-0 and kept their #1 ranking into late February, before a loss to George Washington ended the dream of a perfect season. The scare that came on January 14 wasn’t basketball-related. In a game against St. Bonaventure, Camby lost consciousness on the floor for ten seconds. We were only six years removed from a tragedy at Loyola Marymount, when Hank Gaithers had died on the court, so it was nothing to take lightly. Calipari left the arena to accompany his player to the emergency room and Camby did not return for two weeks.

Once Camby got back in the flow, all was good and they concluded the season with a 31-1 record and were given the #1 seed in the East Regional for the NCAA Tournament. The Minutemen got a tough game from Stanford in the second round, but won 79-74. Now they were on their way to Atlanta for another crack at the regionals.

Whether or not UMass had gotten a bracket break for the Sweet 16 depends on perspective. If you look at the seeds, they were clearly fortunate to be playing #12th-seeded Arkansas. But this was a Razorback program that had been to the last two national championship games, and won the crown in 1994. The talent was a shadow of what it had been, but head coach Nolan Richardson had been down this road before.

The Minutemen brought their defense and rebounding though, holding the Hogs to 34 percent from the floor and beating them 44-34 on glass. Dingle, Bright and even Travieso from the backcourt got to the boards. Weeks scored 16 points/7 rebounds. With that kind of support for Camby, you weren’t going to beat UMass and the star center delivered a 15/7 night of his own. Massachusetts led 40-24 at half and coasted to a 79-63 win.

A future NBA star was staring across the floor from Massachusetts for the regional final. Allan Iverson was the point guard for Georgetown and the Hoyas were the #2 seed in the East bracket. A good game was anticipated and for a half it was all that, as the Minutemen took a 38-34 lead into intermission.

But Massachusetts took over in the second half. Camby had a big day, racking up a 22/7 and Travieso also knocked down 20 points. Iverson scored 23, but only had one assist, as UMass kept the creative point guard from getting anyone else involved in the offense. At long last, Calipari was taking his program to the Final Four.

Kentucky had played with immense pressure to win the national championship all year long, and they were the opponent for the national semifinal in East Rutherford. The Wildcats had too much talent for the Minutemen—truth be told, Kentucky had too much talent for everyone in the country. Even though Camby played well, with 25 points/8 rebounds and UMass didn’t quite—cutting a 15-point lead to three in the second half, Kentucky was able to reassert control and win 81-74. Two nights later they won it all.

1996 UMass basketball saw its legacy take a hit when recruiting violations pertaining to Camby were uncovered. Officially, the school has been forced to vacate the wins in the NCAA Tournament, the usual sham job the NCAA does, wherein some of us are supposed to pretend we didn’t see UMass take apart Iverson’s Georgetown team (I had the Hoyas in the Final Four in my bracket that year—do I get retroactive credit now that the wins are vacated?). On the basketball floor, there’s no doubt what happened—1996 UMass basketball finally got over the hump and made the Final Four.