Championship Game
The 1982 NCAA Division 1 Championship Game was between the Georgetown Hoyas, led by Patrick Ewing and Eric "Sleepy" Floyd, versus the North Carolina Tar Heels, led by James Worthy, Sam Perkins, and a young Michael Jordan.
The championship matchup was tightly contested throughout, with no team ever leading by more than a few points, and 15 lead changes in the game overall. With slightly over a minute to go, Sleepy Floyd scored to put Georgetown on top, 62-61. After a timeout, Carolina worked the ball to its young freshman guard, Michael Jordan, who hit a jumper from the left wing with 17 seconds to go to put Carolina back on top, 63-62. Georgetown did not call timeout but immediately pushed the ball up the court. However, guard Fred Brown mistook Carolina's James Worthy for a teammate and passed the ball right to his opponent. Worthy was fouled with 2 seconds to go. He missed both free throws, but with no timeouts left (Georgetown coach John Thompson, in a questionable move, used his last one before Worthy's free throws rather than save it to set up a final play) the Hoyas' last desperation shot fell short.
Aside from the dramatic finish in the final minute, the 1982 NCAA championship game is today primarily remembered as being the stage on which several eventual basketball legends were introduced to a national audience, particularly Michael Jordan of North Carolina and Georgetown's Patrick Ewing, both 19-year-old freshmen at the time of this game. Both had outstanding games, Jordan with 16 points including the game-winner, and Ewing with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Worthy, Jordan, and Ewing went on to Hall of Fame careers in the National Basketball Association.
The real star of the 1982 title game, and a third player in this game who would eventually be inducted to the pro basketball Hall of Fame, was Carolina's James Worthy. Worthy scored a game-high 28 points, showing the blazing speed and some of the same authoritative drives to the basket that later became familiar sights during his career with the powerful Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s. Beyond these three legendary players, two other outstanding pro players of the 1980s and early 90s appeared in this 1982 game: Georgetown's Sleepy Floyd, who went on to an All-Star career in the NBA (including a still-standing record for most points in a quarter and in a half for a playoff game) and Carolina's Sam Perkins, who distinguished himself over a durable NBA career lasting 17 seasons.
Read more about this topic: 1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
Famous quotes containing the word game:
“My first big mistake was made when, in a moment of weakness, I consented to learn the game; for a man who can frankly say “I do not play bridge” is allowed to go over in the corner and run the pianola by himself, while the poor neophyte, no matter how much he may protest that he isn’t “at all a good player, in fact I’m perfectly rotten,” is never believed, but dragged into a game where it is discovered, too late, that he spoke the truth.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)