This is the secondof a three-part oral history series on the 1985-86 Louisville Cardinals, who won the school's second national championship and are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their title this week.To readthe first part of the series,click here.
Fresh off a pair of wins in Ogden, Utah, to start theNCAA Tournament, Louisville returned home with a major showdown looming in the Sweet 16.
Standing in the way of Louisville's fourth trip to the Elite 8 since 1980 was mighty North Carolina, coached by Dean Smith. The Tar Heels were No. 1 in the country for 13 straight weeks, and they started the season with 21 consecutive wins.
But injuries to several key UNC players led to the Tar Heels losing four of their last five before the NCAA Tournament and dropping from a sure-fire top seed to a No. 3. Louisville coach Denny Crum said UNC would have stayed in the top spot in the polls if Steve Hale (11.3 points per game) hadn't suffered a collapsedlung in late February and Joe Wolf (10 points per game) hadn't sprained his ankle in the ACC Tournament.
More from this series: Oral history of Louisville's run through the 1985-86 regular season
By the time Louisville met North Carolina in Houston, though, Smith's Heels were healthy.
"In reality, I guess we had two No. 1 seeds in our regional," Crum quipped.
On the other side of the West Region bracket, eighth-seeded Auburncrashed the party with an 81-65 upset of St. John's, the top seed in the region that had beaten Louisville back on Dec. 1. Chuck Person, nicknamed "The Rifleman," averaged 23.5 points and 11.5 rebounds a game in Auburn's first two NCAA Tournament wins, including 27 points and 15 boards against St. John's.
Crum andhis former playersprovided an oral history of Louisville's Sweet 16 and Elite 8wins in Houston, pieced together with archived articles from The Courier-Journal.
Al McGuire, the formerMarquette coach, called Louisville's Sweet 16 matchup with North Carolina "a real Monday night-type affair." But, McGuire wrote,Crum "doesn’t have the number of athletes to shotgun the number of fouls he’ll need to contain North Carolina’s four centers." In his tandem column with McGuire, Billy Packer disagreed, picking Louisville and writing that "quickness appears to be the prevailing factor in the tournament."
Jeff Hall, senior guard:Once we got to Houston, we kind of knew how everything had finished up in the first two rounds, and with us having the opportunity to play North Carolina, everybody was excited about that.Obviously they had a good year that year. They had a lot of tradition. But our program had great tradition and we didn’t take a backseat to anybody.
I think it was (assistant coach WadeHouston) who said at a pep rally, when someone asked how we were going to stop North Carolina, he reversed that and said, 'How is North Carolina going to stop us?' You have to take that frame of mind.
Kenny Klein, sports information director:Earlier that year, North Carolina really was the team. They were No. 1 up until mid-February. They had some guysget hurt and they lost some games. But that was, in thatSweet 16 game, the No. 1 team in the country against us.
Brad Daugherty and Kenny Smith were UNC's stars, but while those two had solid games against Louisville - Daugherty had 19 points and 15 rebounds and Smith had 12 points and eight assists - the Cards' frontcourt was once again too much. Herbert Crook, making good on his promise to Crum after the Bradley win, played to his potential, collecting 20 points and nine rebounds. Billy Thompson had 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists, and Pervis Ellison added 15 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Louisville led most of the game, but North Carolina rallied to take a 75-73 lead with 4:31 to go. The Cards outscored the Tar Heels 21-4 after that.
Tony Kimbro, freshman forward:You had guys diving on the floor for 40 minutes. We were in tune.As long as we kept the game close, we felt pretty confident that we would be able to win the game. If (Crum's)got that clipboard and he’s got that look in his eye, we’re getting a bucket. We worked through every possible situation. It was hard work in practice to get ready for those situations. At the time, you were kind of like, 'Oh my God, what are you trying to do to us? We should be resting our legs.'Hindsight is 20/20: It worked.
Klein: When wegot in the tournament, we were nails at the end of games. We outscored people in the last four or five minutes of games -big time. Wedid against Carolina. We did that to a lot of teams. Things might be tight but we focused in and we had guys playing loose. Coach always pulled the right triggers on plays.
Dean Smith said Louisville was "tremendous, better than I'd seen on tape." The Courier-Journal headline read: "Slipper Fits to a Billy T."
Earlier that Thursday night in Houston, Person and Auburn topped UNLV, 70-63, to set up a West Region final against Louisville. In the Southeast Region final, played 11 hours east in Atlanta, U of L's archrival, Kentucky, had a date with LSU, an 11 seed on the brink of becoming the lowest seed in NCAA Tournament history to reach the Final Four.
Milt Wagner, senior guard:I would’ve loved it (if Kentucky and Louisville played). I was in the Dream Game (in 1983). That would’ve been like déjà vu, really, only it would’ve been in the Final Four vs. the game to get to the Final Four. That was a lot at stake.
But first, U of L had to get past Auburn, which it did, despite Person's 23 points and a tight game for 39 or so minutes. Crook collected 20 points and 11 rebounds, Ellison had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Milt Wagner added 16 points and nine assists. Auburn coach Sonny Smith said Louisville was playing "as well as any teamin the country."
Wagner:I knew (Person)couldshoot it. Whew. Boy, they call him "The Rifleman" for a reason. He played well. He shot the lights out. But we were a balanced attack. We had so much firepower. He couldn’t overcome all the talent we had. They almost beat us.
After the win, Louisville huddled on its team bus to watch the remaining minutes of the Kentucky-LSU game.
Klein:I had one of those two-inch-screen televisions that we plugged in one of the guys’ boomboxesand we were watching the last few minutes of that game on the bus.
LSU, with its "Freak Defense" and witty coach, Dale Brown, stunned Kentucky, 59-57, to advance to the Final Four in Dallas. But Louisville would deal with that later. First, the red-hot Cards had to navigate the hallways at the airportback home.
Klein:When we got back,we had to go through the main terminal. It was unbelievably packed, and that’s just to get to the Final Four. That was an incredible experience. If there was a fire marshal, that guy had to be pulling his hair out. It was unbelievable.
There was an even bigger celebration to come.
