Holliday: UNC, Duke wake up the echoes of 1977

By Bob Holliday, WRAL Sports contributor

Prior to the 1976-77 season, Al McGuire announced that campaign would be his last at Marquette. Now UCLA’s John Wooden told his 1975 squad two days before the championship game that they would be the last team he would coach, but McGuire is the only man I can recall who coached an entire season as a prospective retiree and then won it all. Mike Krzyzewski of course, is on target to duplicate this feat.

McGuire’s final victory, of course, came against Dean Smith’s North Carolina Tar Heels in a 67-59 chess match for the ages that will go down as the greatest disappointment of Smith’s storied career.

Fast forward 45 years. Hubert Davis – whose uncle, Walter Davis starred on that 1977 team – is now coaching Carolina. Wisconsin native Shaka Smart, after a successful stint at Texas, has become the man in charge at Marquette. Their Thursday afternoon matchup in Fort Worth would be just the second meeting between the Tar Heels and Golden Eagles since ’77—UNC beat MU in the 2011 Sweet Sixteen.

This time around it wasn’t much of a contest. Marquette’s full-court pressure played right into North Carolina’s hands. The slick passing Tar Heels piled up 29 assists on 34 baskets. Four players scored in double figures led by Brady Manek’s 28. UNC routed MU 95-63.

A friend of mine told me the blowout was revenge for 1977. Yes, basketball memories run deep in these parts.

Baylor is a great defensive team but no way Scott Drew was going to start the game pressing UNC full court. The Bears would apply pressure of course, but in the half court. Still, Carolina moved the ball. A total of 14 times the Tar Heels put shots in the basket during the first half. 12 times the shot was set up by a deft pass.

UNC led Baylor at the break 42-29 and proceeded to get the Bears in foul trouble early in the second half. The Heels were in the bonus barely six minutes in. Those extra free throws, along with torrid shooting by Manek and R.J. Davis staked Carolina to an improbable 25 point lead over the defending national champions.

Then it happened. Jeremy Sochan, who established himself as a provocateur in the first half when after a scrap for a loose ball he wrapped his legs around Armando Bacot as he tried to stand up, drew the ire of Manek. The UNC forward maintained his position to grab a rebound but then threw a high elbow that hit Sochan in the head, knocking him to the floor. Officials reviewed the play and assessed a flagrant two foul on Manek, which carries with it an automatic ejection.

The tenor of the game changed immediately. Deprived of Manek’s special ability to pass, cut, and shoot, UNC went four straight possessions without even getting a shot off. While Baylor, its defense emboldened by the departure of UNC’s most versatile offensive weapon, began to hit. The Bears shot just 40% in the first half, 2-10 from three, but now, led by Adam Flagler, they scored five straight times, cutting UNC’s lead in half.

Then things got worse for Carolina. Guard Caleb Love fouled out. Baylor extended its pressure and turned up the heat defensively, with R. J. Davis left to manage ball handling responsibilities on his own. UNC turned the ball over five more times down the stretch—in bound passes proved to be a special nightmare—and the Bears tied the game with 15 seconds left. Overtime.

At this point it appeared UNC had missed its best opportunity to win, having lost a 25 point lead and two of its best players in the final 10:08 of the game. The Tar Heels began the overtime with unfamiliar players filling unfamiliar roles.

But then one of those players, Dontrez Styles, canned a three ball very late in the short clock to start the extra period, giving UNC a crucial psychological boost. Another of those players, Justin McKoy, grabbed a huge defensive rebound after Sochan missed a dunk. UNC doubled down at the defensive end. Baylor would score just one basket in OT.

The Tar Heels did catch a break on a ball that went out of bounds with 2:02 left in the game. Officials ruled “Carolina ball.” TV replays revealed the departing spheroid actually touched a Tar Heel last, but official reviews only take place inside the final two minutes.

On the ensuing out of bounds play Bacot passed to Leaky Black for a layup. UNC led 88-85.Davis then made the game’s biggest play, switching to his left hand as he drove through traffic and putting up a scoop shot that hit high on the backboard and dropped in. Davis added a free throw. McKoy drained a pair of free tosses in the final moments as UNC closed out a hard-earned victory that nearly got away.

Heels’ play reminiscent of another day long ago

The character of that overtime performance Saturday with starters out and bench players stepping up reminded me of another UNC afternoon at the NCAA Tournament—in 1977. That Tar Heel team, featuring Olympic Gold Medalists Phil Ford, Walter Davis, and Tom LaGarde, in addition to the coach who led the United States to victory in Montreal, Dean Smith, began the season 12-1, taking down West Coast power Oregon in Portland by 26 points. UNC’s performance in that 86-60 rout of the defense-minded Ducks might have been the greatest regular season performance during the Dean Smith era. The mere mention of the game during my interview with the coach upon his retirement in 1997 brought a tear to his eye. At its peak, that team was so good.

However, LaGarde tore up his knee in a February win over Maryland and was lost for the season. Davis broke his finger in the ACC Tournament and was severely hampered much of March. Worst of all, Ford fell and hyper extended his elbow in the closing minutes of a Sweet Sixteen win over Notre Dame. He could not shoot anything longer than a layup.

Carolina’s path to the Final Four appeared quite narrow, not just because of its own injuries, but also because of the presence of Kentucky, with Jack Givens, Rick Robey and most of the team that would win the NCAA Title a year later against Duke, lined up on the opposing side of the bracket in the East Regional Championship.

The Tar Heels started quickly against the Wildcats, a must given their physical condition. Davis, starting to become more comfortable with the broken finger, hit 7-11 shots from the floor (no doubt his nephew Hubert was in the stands that day at Cole Field House in College Park). Mike O'Koren, the fabulous freshman forward, hit 6-10. Rich Yonaker, one of three freshmen centers Smith rotated to play LaGarde’s position, scored eight points. Meanwhile, Ford made a layup and handed out five assists, but played just 15 minutes. He picked up four fouls, and his bad elbow made him a liability at the free throw line. And free throws were critical, because UNC would be going to its Four Corners offense midway through the second half.

Remember, there was no shot clock in 1977. The only way Kentucky could come back against the Four Corners was to steal the ball, hope UNC shot and missed, or foul and hope for misses at the free-throw line. So Phil Ford could not physically run the offense that he had made famous. His backcourt mate, John Kuester, took the ball. And Kuester played the second half of his life.

Check out this stat line: 3-5 field goals; 13-14 free throws; 2 assists. Kuester did not commit a single turnover! Kuester’s leadership was also paramount that day. And of course he had help from unlikely places. Tom Zaligaris, who normally played 10-12 minutes a game, logged 27 against Kentucky. Dave Colescott, a freshman, also played 5 minutes as the Tar Heels played keep away from the Cats.

Like this past weekend against Baylor, reserves were huge and some starters had to take on additional responsibilities because of the absence of all star teammates. Kuester, like R.J. Davis 45 years later, made sure his team advanced.

McGuire’s moment comes at Carolina’s expense

The 1977 Final Four was staged at the Omni in Atlanta. North Carolina won a semifinal thriller against Nevada-Las Vegas, with Ford now physically able to run the Four Corners again. He made some free throws and handed out nine assists, many of them to O’Koren who scored 31 points. Then, the Tar Heels prepared to play Marquette.

This would match O’Koren against his Jersey City neighborhood buddy Jim Boylan.

“Jimmy was always the first one picked,” O’Koren told the media.

Also, there was some Olympic fallout. Marquette’s Bo Ellis had tried out for the team, but chafed at Smith’s requirement that each prospect run a mile for time. Ellis took one lap around the track, but passed on the final three, heading to the parking lot instead. Dean Smith wouldn’t see Ellis again until the NCAA Championship game. Ellis’ teammate Butch Lee, wasn’t even invited to try out for the U.S. team. Lee, with dual citizenship, played for Puerto Rico and single handedly engineered a near upset of the heavily favored American team. Lee hit 15-18 shots from the floor for 35 points. Only two late free throws by Phil Ford saved a 95-94 USA win, the closest game Smith’s Olympic team had in Montreal by far. So lots of folks in this game knew one another.

The fanfare for Al McGuire’s finale was nothing like what we’re seeing now for Mike Krzyzewski, but lots of folks wanted to see Coach Al go out with an NCAA Championship. Smith even said at the pre-championship press conference, “I’d probably want Al to win, but I love my players more.”

UNC started slowly against the Marquette zone and trailed 39-27 at the half. But the Tar Heels, behind Davis and O’Koren, began to make shots after intermission. Midway through the second half, Carolina tied the game. And when Marquette missed at the other end, Smith decided he didn’t want to play against that zone any longer.

Under the rules in 1977, the team with the ball in a tie game (or that had the lead) could dictate play. Smith called for Ford to hold the ball. After 30 seconds, per rule, the officials ordered Marquette to pick up defensively. McGuire in fact signaled for man-to-man defense.

Smith called a play. I have seen stories and posts that Smith went to the Four Corners too early, but in fact he was just trying to force Marquette out of its zone defense to play man to man. However, as the Tar Heels started to attack the man-to-man defense, McGuire waved his team back into the zone. Game on.

I had a perfect seat for this basketball theater, sitting next to Woody Durham as we called the game on the Tar Heel Sports Network, along with Jim Heavner. Our seats were directly behind the official scorer at mid-court. And what an experience for me! I had attended Coach McGuire’s basketball camp as a teenager in Wisconsin, and got to know the McGuire family. Al McGuire Jr. regularly attended Coach Smith’s camp and probably would have signed to play at UNC had his father been allowed to take a job offer coaching the Milwaukee Bucks. But Marquette wouldn’t release him from his contract. The McGuire’s spent about six years in Charlotte when Al coached Belmont Abbey, prior to Marquette. Ties between McGuire and Smith went back a few years, and they were friends. But not at this moment.

I looked to my left and saw Smith signal for Four Corners. I looked right: McGuire, using his hands to direct his defense much as a symphony conductor manages an orchestra, implored his defense to stay put as long as possible. One official intervened and blew his whistle. Marquette had to pick up man to man and Smith again called for a play. But McGuire immediately pushed his team back into the zone. Smith shot McGuire a dirty look. The coaching chess match went through a couple more of these sequences: UNC hold the ball, Marquette ordered to pick up man to man, Tar Heels start to run a play, McGuire motions his team back into the zone.

UNC had another problem. O’Koren, by far the team’s savviest player at attacking the basket in traffic, was sitting under the scorer’s table waiting to come back in. Smith’s assistant coaches suggested calling time out to get O’Koren back onto the floor, but the head coach refused. He had put Bruce Buckley, a much-respected senior, into the game to give O’Koren a breather. Smith believed if he called time out that would embarrass Buckley, something he could not do to a player that had spent four years in his program.

Buckley, whose brother Jay starred for Duke’s 1964 Final Four team, thought he saw an opening in the Marquette zone. He attacked the basket. But Bo Ellis—back from the parking lot—closed in and completely erased Buckley’s attempt. Marquette went down and scored. UNC never got another chance to pull McGuire’s team out of its zone, as the Tar Heels never caught up again. Butch Lee, not Phil Ford, put the game on ice in a 67-59 final.

So it was “sea shells and balloons” (McGuire’s words) as Al McGuire celebrated his first NCAA Championship in his very last game as coach.

Smith’s emotions, needless to say, fell toward the other end of the spectrum. Coach Smith would never compare teams and players, but I will always believe that team was one of his all-time favorites. They went through so much—the Olympics, the great start, the injuries and the agonizing finish. I’m not sure he ever got over that loss. After the game Smith sought out Ron O’Koren, Mike’s older brother.

“Ron, I’m sorry,” he said, the coach’s way of acknowledging that he should have called time out to put Mike back into the game.

Ron O’Koren’s response was emphatic.

“Coach, don’t tell me you’re sorry," Ron O’Koren said. "You’ve just given me the best year of my life!”

And speaking of good years…

Coach K and Duke play on

Mike Krzyzewski, like Al McGuire, announced his retirement before the season. McGuire later had some regrets about the timing, noting that his players “don’t fear me anymore.” But for Krzyzewski, with his West Point training, having an orderly plan of succession was a must.

By all standards, Krzyzewski’s final season has been a great success. His Duke team has won 30 games; ACC rivals paid their respects to the outgoing coach as the season rolled along, and in many cases, showered him with gifts. Krzyzewski’s family, which played a large part in his decision to make this the final season, has been able to take an active part in this year-long celebration of the man who now has 1,200 wins.

Coach K has tried to make the season not about him, but about this Duke team. The man excels at “staying in the moment” and has used his 42 years of Duke experience to train his players’ focus on offensive and defensive objectives, as a way of blocking out the noise from fans and the media. Krzyzewski doesn’t play golf, but to use a golf analogy, players should concentrate only on the technique required to hit a shot, not the importance or pressure surrounding the shot.

However, Krzyzewski’s last team is young. There is only one upper classman among the top six. The players want to win for him, how could they not feel the pressure? Imagine coming up short Sunday and leaving him at 1,199 wins instead of 1,200?

Duke 2022 has played its best basketball away from home, suffering three losses at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It's a notion unthinkable in most Duke seasons, including the most high-pressure game of all in the regular season, Krzyzewski’s last ever at Cameron. Duke came up short in Coach K’s last ACC Tournament, too, falling to Virginia Tech.

The common denominator in Duke’s losses: Not making plays at the end of tight games.

Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Duke again found itself in a tight game against a Michigan State team playing at the very upper limits of its capabilities. The Blue Devils held the lead most of the way. Wendell Moore’s layup put the Devils up six with 9:10 to go. Over the next four minutes, however, Michigan State outscored Duke 13-2.The Spartans led 70-65 with just over five minutes left.

Krzyzewski still had time outs left but chose not to use one. This was a moment calling not so much for strategy, but for months of training to kick in. And Duke’s players responded.

Paolo Banchero produced an exquisite spin move that ended a 9-0 Spartan run. State’s Tyson Walker missed a three that bounced long and actually started a Duke fast break. Jeremy Roach scored in transition. Trevor Keels, Roach’s high school teammate, buried a long three to tie the game.

Keels then knocked the ball away from A.J. Hoggard, but somehow the MSU point guard chased down the ball and put up a shot just as the 30 second clock expired. Spartans back up by two. But Tom Izzo’s team would score just one more field goal in the final seven possessions, as Duke played some of its fabulous February defense in March.

Meanwhile, Banchero powered his way for two with a low post move. And Wendell Moore found Roach open beyond the arc. Three ball-Duke 78 to 74.

Banchero and Mark Williams each canceled Michigan State shot attempts. More and Williams combined to hit five of six free throws. Duke won 85-76, outscoring Michigan State 20-6 in the final 5:10.

Krzyzewski told a TV reporter post game, “That wasn’t coaching. That was guts.”

Coach K found his family before leaving the court and pointed to his grandchildren in an emotional exchange. Players celebrated two wins in Greenville, South Carolina, a mini tournament of sorts, beating Cal Fullerton and Michigan State.

The Blue Dukes now head to San Francisco where they will play a very physical Texas Tech team, which out-muscled Notre Dame in the final two minutes of a close game. Duke could also face Gonzaga.

No Krzyzewski team has advanced from the West Regional to the Final Four, one more new mountain to conquer. But realistically, the Blue Devils will probably have to win a buzzer beater at some point.

McGuire’s Marquette needed a last-second shot from Jerome Whitehead to get past UNC-Charlotte in the National Semifinals in Atlanta. Oh, man you should have seen the intensity on McGuire’s face as officials debated whether that shot should count. Whew! But again, McGuire never faced anything remotely like the scrutiny and media attention accorded Krzyzewski in his final NCAA Tournament. Pressure will only grow exponentially from here.

Nevertheless, with two weeks left in the season, Krzyzewski still has a chance to match, even exceed what McGuire pulled off 45 years ago.