A Dribble Down Memory Lane: PC’s Improbable 1987 Final Four Run, Part 1
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
A Dribble Down Memory Lane: PC’s Improbable 1987 Final Four Run, Part 1
But the PC basketball program has had many challenging, tough stretches and managed to somehow make comebacks, defy expectations, and provide incredible joy and hope to its loyal fans. Let’s talk a look at and enjoy one of PC’s most satisfying and improbable hoop years in a more innocent college basketball era, PC’s 1986-87 season.
Rick Pitino replaced legendary Joe Mullaney in 1985 as the PC coach. Mullaney in his second term with the PC went 48-70. Just prior to coming to PC, Pitino was an assistant coach for the NY Knicks under Hubie Brown and had 5 years of successful college head coaching experience at basketball backwater Boston University in 1978-83.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTPC Athletic Director Lou Lamoriello knew very well that BU was a hockey school, and that basketball was a second-tier sport at BU. But Pitino convinced fellow Italian Lamoriello that he could turn PC’s basketball fortunes around.
Pre-Season
In his first year at PC, 1985-86, Pitino did turn the program around with a respectable 17-14 overall record and a 7-9 record in the Big East. But despite the promising record in the previous year, PC was still considered a lower tier to mid-tier Big East program in the fall of the 1986-87 season.
The Big East had nine teams at the time and featured heavyweights like Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Georgetown (NCAA 1984 champ), and Villanova (NCAA 1985 champ). Pitino, with his successful coaching resume at hockey school BU, was up against an elite lineup of Big East coaches: Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, John Thompson at Georgetown, Lou Carnesecca at St. John’s, and Rollie Massimino at Villanova.
In looking at the Friars lineup for the 1986-87 season, it featured three promising freshman recruits, three very question-mark transfers, only one returning double-digit scorer in Billy Donovan, and a backup center in Jacek Dudek, who was a Polish refugee living in Central Falls. This lineup only brought forward about 52 points in scoring from the previous year. Delray Brooks, a transfer from Indiana, would only be able to join the team in December. While he had been a Parade magazine high school All-American, he had spent most of his first two years at Indiana on the bench.
Pitino had his work cut out for him in pre-season. Six of PC’s fourteen players had not played college basketball in the previous year. Pre-season was audition time to see who could shoot, rebound, and play defense and to see which lineup worked well together. To make matters more challenging, freshman Carlton Screen and transfer Dave Snedeker would start the season on the injured list, unable to see action until the last week of December.
In pre-season polls, PC was generously picked 6th in the 9-team Big East with Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, St. John’s, and Villanova ahead of them, and Boston College, UConn, and Seton Hall below the Friars. Georgetown, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse were picked to be in the top 20 teams in the AP national pre-season poll.
Local Friar fans were also anxious and excited to see how PC would adapt to a new NCAA rule for the 1986-87 college season: the 3-point field goal. The NBA had 3-point field goals for a few years, and the NCAA decided that it might bring a new dimension to the college game.
First Half of the Regular Season
Given the number of new faces on the roster and Pitino’s need for time to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of his players, the first half of the season featured a sweet array of cupcake opponents, besides the annual games with URI and Brown. Eight of the first ten games were played at the Providence Civic Center. There was one legitimate opponent, Tulsa, which later won the Missouri Valley Conference title. The cupcakes included American, Siena, Maine, Howard, Rider, and Hofstra.
Given the easy schedule, it was not too surprising to Friar fans that PC went 9-1, losing only to Tulsa 80-74 in the “Fleet Classic” at the Providence Civic Center. What was surprising were the points the Friars were racking up. Pitino was taking no prisoners. He had the Friars playing full-throttle basketball, putting up 60-70 shots every game.
In the first half of the season, PC averaged 95 points per game to lead the country in scoring at the end of December. The new weapon—the 3-point field goal—became synonymous with PC basketball. Pitino saw the value of the 3-point shot when he was with the Knicks. Billy Donovan and Pop Lewis led the team in 3-point field goals, and when Delray Brooks joined the team in December, he joined PC’s 3-point brigade.
The easy schedule and the PC romps allowed Pitino to really get to know his players. Eleven of the fourteen players on the roster averaged more than 10 minutes of play per game in the first half of the season. And while Donovan was the leading scorer, different players, like Dave Kipfer and Steve Wright, stepped up many nights to lead the team in scoring. Pitino and Friar fans began to feel that this team was special.
The cupcake portion of the season ended when the December calendar was ripped off. In January, the Big East season began for the Friars. It didn’t begin well as PC endured two losses in its first two games of the new year—a 76-67 loss at 17th rated Pittsburgh and a loss at home, 89-85, against the 7th rated Orange from Syracuse. But Pitino was encouraged, despite the losses. The Friars showed that they could compete with the iron of the Big East.
Could they go on the road, compete against unbeaten Villanova, and finally win their first Big East game of the year? Yup. On January 10, 1987, they destroyed the Wildcats, 96-78, before a stunned Villanova sellout crowd. Indiana transfer Brooks scored 34 points on Nova, hitting eight 3-point field goals.
The Friars continued on a tear in January, beating UConn twice (a team with Cliff Robinson and Phil Gamble), Boston College, and non-conference Miami, before a showdown with John Thompson’s 11th rated Georgetown at the Civic Center on January 28th. Georgetown was the beast of the Big East at this time. The players reflected the demeanor of their legendary coach, and PC alumnus, Thompson. Despite 33 points and 18 rebounds from Hoya stud Reggie Williams, the Friars, fueled by the first Civic Center sellout of the season, played the Hoyas tough throughout the game. Georgetown led 74-71 with a little over 2 minutes to play, but PC ripped off eight points and the score was tied 79-79 with PC with the ball and about 30 seconds to play.
Donovan slowly brought the ball up the court, saw a sliver of a path in the lane, quickly drove the lane, three Hoyas converged on him, and Donovan dished the ball to Lewis in the right corner all alone behind the 3-point arc. Lewis gave a brief, measured glance at the basket and then calmly lofted a 3-point rainbow. The ball seemed to travel in slow motion as all the fans stood, eyes fixated on the ball. The ball also appeared to stop briefly at the height of its arc, seemingly looking for the path to the basket. It finally came down and hit nothing but net to win the game, 82-79 for the Friars. The sound of the swish of the net was followed by a deafening and thunderous explosion of joy by the 12,140 Civic Center fans.
The win over Georgetown was a statement game for this Friar team—a statement to the fans, to the other Big East teams, and to the national basketball world. PC could no longer sneak up on any team. Pitino had arrived along with this bunch of no-name Friars.
The Friars followed up the big Georgetown win with an overtime win against 15th ranked St. John’s, 93-81 before another sold out Civic Center. The Johnnies were led by Mark Jackson and tied the game at 76-76 to force OT. The Friars ran away from St. John’s in the overtime period. PC was led by Donovan’s 28 points, 20 from Brooks, and a solid 16 from Lewis. The consecutive wins over two ranked teams propelled PC into the top 20 rankings with a 16-3 record for the first time since 1978.
The Friars went 4-4 down the home stretch of the regular season. Losses to Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and an away loss to Georgetown were not surprising. An upset 67-66 away loss to Boston College, however, was a surprise. The Friars, with their recent top 20 ranking, simply took the Eagles for granted, played lousy at both ends of the court, and were handed a discouraging loss. The Friars closed the regular season with a convincing 97-80 win over Villanova at the Civic Center, a win that included a very rare stat—PC went 28-28 from the charity stripe.
The win over Villanova enabled to the Friars to end the regular season with a 20-7 overall record and a solid 10-6 record in the Big East. The four Big East losses down the stretch, however, knocked PC out of the national rankings. In the Big East tournament, the Friars thrashed St. John’s in an opening round game, 80-51, but lost convincingly to its nemesis Georgetown, 84-66.
Still, Friar fans were very hopeful, with a 21-8 record, that they would be selected to the 1987 NCAA tournament for the first time since 1978. The PC team bussed home from New York and gathered in the Alumni Hall locker room on Selection Sunday, March 8th to await their NCAA fate.