If you think about it then they have made themselves dalits. The 1984–85 Villanova Wildcats returned six of the top seven players from a team that had won 75 percent of their Big East Conference games the year before and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament. He portrayed a veteran point guard, three future NBA players, and a coach, Rolli Masino, who regularly became March Madness.
Center Ed Pinkney was twice named All-Big East. Forward Dwayne McClain was one of the most dynamic players in the country, a physical force scarcely lacking. Junior forward Harold Pressley was a McDonald’s All-American at High School, and Villanova won an uphill recruiting battle to sign him. Point guard Gary McLean was in his third year as a regular and had more than five assists in his junior season.
“We had this team that should have been good and we just had, really, a good regular season,” Steve Lappus, then a first-year assistant coach with the Wildcats and now CBS sports analyst. “I remember how disappointed Coach Mass was in these people, thought they would be better.”
UPS limit by seed
15 vs 2 | 14 vs 3 | 13 vs 4 | 12 vs 5
Ultimately, it was they would become the lowest-seeded team to win the NCAA tournament, enter the 1985 NCAAs as an 8-seed and somehow progress to one of the great upsets in Final Four history: Villanova 66, Georgetown 64, a performance soon became known as “The Perfect Game”.
This is the time period for that improper run:
November 24, 1984: Roy L. of Villanova Vermont. Patrick opens his season at the Gymnasium with an 80-56 route on the road. It was the beginning of a two-game road trip including a trip to Marist College – a 56–51 Wildcats win. The Wildcats played the role of Temple in the Palestra as part of the Big 5 competition. He did not play his home opener at Villanova Fieldhouse in the December 5 matchup with Monmouth, until the fourth game. (Man has changed college basketball).
January 22: After defeating Boston College and Seton Hall, the Wildcats reach 12-3 and see their AP ranking peak at No. 14. He added another win the next day, against Providence, to reach a season-high 10 games over .500.
2 March: The Wildcats had arrived at Pitt’s FitzGerald Fieldhouse for the final game of the regular season on a winning streak of three seasons, but with a record of 5-5 in the last 10 matches. They were disinterested, but well behind St. John and Georgetown in the Big East Stand.
“I’ll never forget. We were playing CBS. They were good, and we were terrible. He said, ‘We were down like 20 points on the halt. He says from the beginning,’ You’ve got four minutes. If If you don’t get it together, you’re coming out. And sure enough, four minutes, he took them out and put in a walk-on and everyone else. We ended up making 35 or whatever.
The final score was Pitt 85, Villanova 62. It looked like only 35 digits.
March 9: Earlier, in revenge for Pitt’s loss in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament, the St. John’s, the Wildcats were 19–10, losing 15 in the semifinals and receiving a major bid for the NCAA tournament. He was assigned the No. 8 seed in the Southeast Region, which meant facing No. 9 Dayton on the Flyers homecourt at the UD Arena.
“I remember Coach Mass, we were sitting at his house. He said, ‘I got another game with these people,’ Lappa told SN. “‘one more game.’ They really drove him crazy. We weren’t going to last long, because we weren’t really that good. “
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March 15: Villanova 51, Dayton 49. In a 49-all tie with 2:30 remaining, Villanova’s Pressley stole the ball from Dayton’s Anthony Grant (yes, that Anthony Grant, Sporting News’ 2019-20 coach). There was no shot clock in college basketball back then, so the Wildcats stretched the floor and tried the game’s final shot – or any open stride. As it happened, wing Harold Jensen clearly popped with 10 seconds left and put the Cats ahead.
Cedric, who was heavily defended by the Wildcats, missed a 16-footer to stick at Tony Buzzer.
“Actually, that we weren’t getting close to ’85,” Lappa said. “Then we started playing better and better.”
March 17: Villanova 59, Michigan 55. Wolverine star Roy Tarpey managed 14 points and 13 rebounds and the team shot 51 percent, but the Wildcats’ defense upset the Wolverines in 13 turnovers. And Villanova’s ability to carry the ball to the lane allowed 31 free throw attempts for Michigan for just five. Guards Gary Grant and Antoine Joubert dropped out of the game.
Michigan became the first No. 1 seed of the extended bracket era to lose less than the Sweet 16s.
March 22: Villanova 46, Maryland 43. With the action transferred to Birmingham’s Jefferson Civic Center, the Wildcats faced a regular-season game they lost to Cole Field House, 77-74, with Len Bias scoring 30 points for Teres Were.
The Villanova matchup zone did not let this happen for the second time. “Our defense was unbelievable,” Lapas said. Bias took four out of eight points. Terps shot 19 out of 53. Only Adrian Branch, now an ESPN basketball analyst, was dominant. He scored 21 points. The rest of the Maryland team scored a total of 22 runs, including seven players.
Pickney punished Maryland for 16 points and 13 rebounds.
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March 24: Villanova 56, North Carolina 44. This was the third time in four years that Villanova had advanced to the Elite Eight. They lost the other two by a combined 28 points.
“I know people talk about warming up in March,” Lapas said. “No, no. It’s heating up during the tournament.” Winning that game in Dayton, winning it the way we won, almost at the buzzer, is what really does you. “
Carolina center Brad Douberti was able to go inside for 17 points, but the Tar Heels were able to get him only nine shots. He rolled the ball 19 times, nine of which came from three reserves who played jointly for 52 minutes.
The Tar Heels held a halftime lead of 22–17, but were blitzed by Villanova in the second half; The Wildcats scored nearly as many points in the final 20 minutes (39) as Carolina did throughout the game.
One of the heroes of that game was reserve Harold Jensen, who went off the bench to score 10 points in 5-of-7 shooting and pulled three stiles. He will be heard again.
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March 30, 1985: Villanova 52, Memphis 45. The Wildcats were one of three Big East teams in the Final Four, a development whose lack of precedent was not surprising (less than a decade since multiple teams in the same league could make the NCAAS) but it was never repeated.
The Tigers featured all-time great Keith Lee as well as 7-footballer William Bedford, dynamic wing Vincent Esqu and point guard Andre Turner, four of the most gifted players in Memphis program history.
Lapus said the Wildcats were happy not to be in the opposite half of the St. John’s playing bracket, as they were already 0–3 against their Big East rivals. “Chris Mullin, the way he shot the ball was a very difficult matchup for us”, Lappas said.
Villanova’s primary concern against the Tigers was slowing down the game, so Massimino ordered his players to put seven or more passes on the ball before thinking about shooting. At halftime, the game was tied at 23. But both Bedford and Lee faced foul trouble in the second half, and coach Dana Kirk somehow let Lee out for more than 10 minutes.
The Memphis coaching staff also missed that Dwayne McClain moved to the line instead of Pressley, the player who was eliminated. Those two free throws gave it an 8 point lead. The Wildcats were later tied up, but never implicated again.
April 1, 1985: Villanova 66, Georgetown 64. It has become one of the most famous scorelines in college basketball. This number still resonates, as does the fact that the Wildcats shot 9–10 from the floor in the second half. So they call it The Perfect Game, because Villenova had to shoot 78.6 percent from the field to win.
This was not correct, however. Hoyce’s pressure defense forced 17 turnovers, including a combined 11 by Jensen and McClain. Hoyes shot 54.7 percent – 57.1 percent if you just counted Patrick Ewing, David Winget, Reggie Williams, Michael Jackson and Bill Martin, who eventually played in the NBA.
“Georgetown was not a good shooting team,” Lapas said. “People forget that Patrick Ewing, as great a player as he was – one of the greatest players of all time – was not a scorer in college. Now, he dominates the games defensively, no doubt. And That year, they beat us once by four and once by two. Our people were not afraid.
“We thought we could stop them. The question was whether we could score enough. Now, we shot 79 percent and won by two, so you know how great they were. “
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