Final Four Fact February: When The BIG EAST Ruled The World
March 1985 is a little before my time, but I imagine a day spent as a teenager then going a little something like this:
You walk out of your local two-screen cinema from a showing of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning1 with a satin Starter jacket on and your pant legs tucked into your fresh, new Nike Terminators. You step into your parents’ Buick and turn on the radio just in time to hear Whodini’s “The Freaks Come Out at Night,” as you drive home to catch the Final Four.
It’s the culmination of a new-look NCAA Tournament; not necessarily the first installment in what I deem the modern era of the Big Dance based on my own criteria2 in 2023, but certainly enough of a departure from past postseasons to mark a major milestone.
1985 was the first 64-team Tournament
The NCAA Tournament transforming into the cultural phenomenon that is March Madness began a decade prior to the 1985 Big Dance. In J. Samuel Walker and Randy Roberts’ informative book The Road to Madness: How the 1973-1974 Season Transformed College Basketball, the two chronicle the final edition of the postseason limited to conference champions and only the most highly ranked independents.
1975 marked the beginning of expansion, which lasted 10 years until reaching the natural conclusion of 64 teams. It’s more or less remained at that number for almost 40 years because it’s perfect3, and anyone arguing for 80 or *stifles vomit* 96 teams fundamentally hates the sport.
All the conditions were right in 1985 to take college basketball’s premier event, which had already become a TV ratings bonanza, to another level. Cable subscriptions skyrocketed in the latter-half of the ‘80s, and ESPN carrying opening-weekend games made the Tournament more accessible4.
College basketball’s overall talent level was also arguably at its peak in the ‘80s. More games provided more opportunities to showcase such talent. What’s more, the first Tournament to feature 64 teams set a fitting tone: Without the expanded field, the most improbable national champion perhaps in Final Four history would likely not have made the cut.
Villanova emerged from the field as a No. 8 seed, lending immediate credence to the concept of March Madness as a wide-open event any team can win so long as they just make it in.
Villanova’s title-game win over Georgetown was the last college basketball game played without a shot clock
Flirtations with a shot clock began a few years prior to the 1985-86 season, but did not become the universal rule until then. Thus, the ‘84-’85 season was the last culminating in a Tournament played without the use of one.
Villanova’s win over Georgetown is famous in large part because the heavy underdog Wildcats successfully exploited clock-eating tactics to hold off the Hoyas. Villanova attempted just 28 field goals over the course of the game and made a remarkable 22. I’m not sure I could go to my driveway right now and shoot 22-of-28, and that’s without Patrick Ewing patrolling the rim.
Interestingly enough, while the 1985 championship is indeed remembered for Villanova’s slow-down strategy, the 130 combined points scored in Villanova’s 66-64 win are more than six Championship Games since the advent of the shot clock:
1992: Duke 71, Michigan 51
2002: Maryland 64, Indiana 52
2010: Duke 61, Butler 59
2011: UConn 53, Butler 41
2012: Kentucky 67, Kansas 59
2014: UConn 60, Kentucky 54
And one game in the shot clock, Florida’s 73-57 rout of UCLA in 2006, matched the combined total of Villanova-Georgetown.
The ‘85 Final Four was the first and still only with three teams from one conference
Because of the longstanding rule limiting the field to only conference champions, the semifinal field could not include multiple teams from the same league.
The second Tournament featuring an expanded field, 1976, was the first with multiple Final Four teams from one league5. Not counting independents — thus Marquette and UNLV in '77 — two more Final Fours until 1985 featured two teams from the same conference6.
Tournament expansion and the introduction of at-large bids encouraged strong programs to band together, which led to the formation of the BIG EAST at this time. Rising basketball powers started the league in 1979, the conference claimed its first national championship by its fifth season, and in its sixth year, sent a still-unmatched three teams to the same Final Four.
John Gasaway’s outstanding book Miracles on the Hardwood in part details the formation and rise of the BIG EAST, including the conference’s dominant showing in the 1985 NCAA Tournament.
Understanding the backstory of BIG EAST basketball makes ESPN effectively sabotaging it for football TV money all the more upsetting. Knowing the context of just how good both Georgetown and St. John’s were going into that Final Four also makes the magnitude of Villanova’s title win much more striking.
St. John’s Chris Mullin and Walter Berry were both National Players of the Year
One could make a tangible argument that St. John’s in 1984-85 had the most collectively talented roster since the heyday of the John Wooden UCLA dynasty. Mark Jackson was the Johnnies’ point guard; Bill Wennington, for as much as he leans into jokes about his role on the Michael Jordan-led Bulls teams, was a damn good defensive big man; and St. John’s boasted a forward tandem that each finished their college careers with National Player of the Year honors.
When Walter Berry nearly swept the major Player of the Year awards, losing out only on the Naismith to Duke’s Johnny Dawkins, St. John’s joined UCLA as the only programs with overlapping Players of the Year. Chris Mullin earned the Wooden and Oscar Robertson Awards in 1984-85.
Duke replicated the feat multiple times since, including thanks to Dawkins beating Berry for the ‘86 Naismith. Danny Ferry, a freshman that year, split the assorted honors with Sean Elliott in ‘89. At the turn of the millennium, Elton Brand and Shane Battier, then Battier and Jason Williams overlapped.
Otherwise, it’s an anomaly that puts St. John’s into some elite company.
The Pac-10 finished 0-4
While the BIG EAST flourished in the 1985 NCAA Tournament, the Pac-10 was its Dorian Grey painting. The league was in an interesting state of flux in the mid-’80s, with UCLA rebuilding after repeated misfires (and Larry Brown’s very Larry Brown-like departure) in the post-Wooden era. The Bruins missed the Big Dance altogether in ‘85.
Arizona’s ascent under Lute Olson was only just beginning, USC was good but hadn’t yet lured George Raveling away from Iowa to take the next step forward, and the conference’s standard-bearers through the early ‘80s — Oregon State and Washington — each ended the 1984-85 season in different states of turmoil.
For the Beavers, it was going 6-8 down the stretch, culminating in an unceremonious 1st Round exit against Notre Dame. For Washington, it was the impending “retirement” of longtime coach Marv Harshman after consecutive Pac-10 titles and Tournament appearances.
Washington was the first victim in what has become a March Madness tradition: The 12-over-5 upset. The Huskies fell to Kentucky, one of two SEC teams to advance to the ‘85 Sweet 16 despite being double-digit seeds7.
Forcing Harshman into retirement backfired on Washington quickly. The Huskies became the dregs of the Pac for most of the decade to follow before Bob Bender turned the program in the right direction in the late ‘90s, and Lorenzo Romar’s tenure returned it to conference-championship contention.
Washington’s return to West Coast prominence also coincided with something of a Golden Age for Pac-10 basketball: Arizona became a national powerhouse by the late ‘80s, UCLA returned to glory under Jim Harrick, Mike Montgomery made an unlikely juggernaut at Stanford, and Oregon prospered at the beginning of the 21st Century.
Loyola reached the Sweet 16 in its first Tournament since ‘64, and last until the ‘18 Final Four
What a time 1985 must have been to be on the college basketball scene in Illinois. Lou Henson was leading the Illini8, DePaul was still nationally relevant, Illinois State contributed to the aforementioned Pac-10 woes with a Tournament win over USC, and Dick Versace was coaching a Bradley roster that featured a freshman named Hersey Hawkins who, by the time his college career finished, was one of the greatest scorers in NCAA history.
The 1984-85 season was also the high watermark for Loyola Chicago between its national championship in 1963 and its Final Four run in 2018.
As defending national champions in 1964, the Ramblers returned a healthy core of standouts from the previous year’s squad: Les Hunter, John Egan, Vic Rouse, and Ron Miller effectively matured into the starring role that Jerry Harkness filled for the ‘63 squad.
One year after playing Mississippi State in the landmark Game of Change — an NCAA Tournament matchup in which the MSU team had to sneak out of Starkville against threats of violence from locals who opposed the Bulldogs playing a Loyola team with Black athletes — the Ramblers hung 100 points on Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky Wildcats.
However, the dream of repeat championships ended a game earlier against Michigan.
The win over Kentucky in the third-place Regional game marked Loyola’s last NCAA Tournament contest until 1985, when the Ramblers returned as the fourth seed in the East Regional — and summarily won in a 59-58 nail-biter over Iona when Tony Hargraves missed the would-be tying free throw with three seconds remaining.
The 2nd Round win over SMU wasn’t as competitive — a 70-57 Ramblers win — before the run ended in the Sweet 16 against Georgetown.
Thirty-three years, Loyola Chicago became one of the most memorable March Madness teams of all-time on the road to the Final Four, with Sister Jean cheering them on.
In March 1985, Sister Jean was 65 — two years older than John Calipari is now, and almost three years younger than Tom Izzo at present.
David Robinson made his March Madness debut, leading Navy to an upset of LSU
If there was a Mount Rushmore for the best players in NCAA Tournament history to have never reached a Final Four, David Robinson would be on it.
The Admiral most famously willed Navy to the 1986 Elite Eight with 110 points, 47 rebounds and 23 blocked shots in four games, which he followed up a year later dropping 50 points in his final college appearance.
Robinson’s March legacy began his sophomore season at Naval Academy, however, with an 18-point, 18-rebound effort in a 78-55 blowout of LSU.
The Mids were the No. 13 seed against Dale Brown’s Tigers, made up of players who would prove integral to LSU’s 1986 Final Four run. But that would have to wait a year thanks to Robinson and Vernon Butler.
Navy bowed out in the Round of 32 after a competitive loss to Maryland that, in doing research for this entry, leaves me wondering What If. Robinson scored 22 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked two shots, while Maryland’s Len Bias went for 20 points and eight boards.
I was too young to have Robinson play at Navy, but he became one of my favorite players as soon as I first began following the NBA in no small part because of his versatile style. Robinson moved like a wing at 7-foot-1, exploded to the rim and put down Dunk Contest-quality slams, and didn’t sacrifice traditional big-man game such as rebounding and shot-blocking.
Based on highlights of his time at Maryland and reading descriptions of Bias’ game, I don’t doubt he would have excited a child-aged me first getting into the NBA with his own unique game. Bias looked like a prototype for turn-of-the-millennium star power forwards like Kevin Garnett and Chris Webber who brought surprising finesse to the position.
Reggie Lewis produced the third of what became five 20+ point games in his Tournament career
Another tragic What If the ‘85 Tournament invokes, both for basketball fans in general and Boston Celtics fans specifically, is the continued standout play of Northeastern’s Reggie Lewis.
The Huskies went to the Big Dance each of Lewis’ four seasons at NU, beginning in 1984 when he scored 21 points in a 1st Round win over LIU and 31 in a loss to VCU.
Northeastern did not win another NCAA Tournament game in Lewis’ time as a Husky, but not for his lack of effort: He scored 35 points and grabbed 15 rebounds against Oklahoma in 1986 and capped his college career with 23 points against Purdue in 1987.
As a sophomore, Lewis posted 22 points in a matchup with Illinois. Illini wing Doug Altenberger, who was assigned Lewis on defense, told reporters after the win that he “got away with a couple of fouls” in his effort to contain the Baltimore native.
Northeastern’s run of NCAA Tournament appearances highlighted Jim Calhoun’s tenure as Huskies head coach. Calhoun was NU’s all-time winningest coach for more than 30 years, finally bypassed two seasons aby Bill Coen.
Calhoun’s later coaching success at UConn indeed began from humble origins. So, too, did Lewis’. Lewis was the least recruited member of the outstanding Dunbar High School Poets team of the early ‘80s, which boasted a roster widely considered the greatest in prep basketball history.
HUGE recommendation for Alejandro Danois’ book The Boys of Dunbar on Lewis’ high school squad. Lewis’ death just as his star began to ascend in the NBA rattled me as a child, but I am glad his legacy lives on.
The fifth installment in the Friday the 13th series reached theaters the same weekend as the 1985 NCAA Tournament regional finals, and is noteworthy as the only installment after the original that did not feature Jason Voorhees as the antagonist. It’s also the only Friday the 13th in which one of the cast members is named Voorhees (Debi Sue Voorhees, who that same year co-starred in the sleazy revenge movie Avenging Angel. That’s worth a mention because the director of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Danny Steinmann, directed the Lindy Blair-starring sleazy revenge film Savage Streets. This explains why A New Beginning is easily the scuzziest of the Friday the 13th entries).
For more on scuzzy grindhouse movies, check out my article from last spring on Chris Russo’s role in the 1992 drama Bad Lieutenant. And, to bring this footnote back to basketball: Friday the 13th: A New Beginning includes a brief yet memorable appearance by Miguel A. Nunez, whose other acting credits including Slam Dunk Ernest and Juwanna Mann.
I consider 1987 the first modern NCAA Tournament by virtue of it being the first with the 64-team bracket, use of shot clocks, and the introduction of the 3-point line.
I don’t mind the First Four, and even enjoy it — when used as an at-large play-in. Sending automatic qualifiers to the First Four diminishes the significance of those programs’ accomplishment and robs the losing side of 16 vs. 16 matchups the opportunity to participate in March Madness the way they’re intended.
Last year, I did a deep-dive into the TV history of the NCAA Tournament for Awful Announcing.
Runner-up Michigan and national champion Indiana.
Purdue and Iowa in 1980, North Carolina and Virginia in 1981.
The other was 11-seed Auburn.
And Illini assistant Jimmy Collins was about to begin a blood feud with Iowa assistant Bruce Pearl.