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AFTER 88 COMES ZERO
Sports Illustrated
JANUARY 28, 1974
That is basketball's arithmetic as UCLA's winning streak is snapped
in three tumultuous minutes that woke up the echoes at Notre Dame
by BARRY McDERMOTT
It ended the way Hollywood would have written it, drama and
symbolism holding hands with ghostly legend at Notre Dame, the
denouement arriving on an arching shot from the corner. It was an
attempt born of chance and cloaked in destiny, and the UCLA miracle
ceased. The winning streak was over.
In the shadow of The Stadium and The Gipper and The Golden Dome, on
a leaden Saturday in South Bend, Dwight Clay stared opportunity in the
face and never shivered. His jump shot with 29 seconds remaining wiped
clean UCLA's 88-game winning streak and once again cast Notre Dame as
the bad seed in the Bruins' victory garden.
Clay was not out of costume in the 71-70 victory. Although he has
the poorest shooting percentage among the Notre Dame regulars, it was
the fourth time that the junior guard has helped win games with blithe
final-second shots, and the second time that he has broken a streak. He
fired in a basket against Marquette last year that ended the Warriors'
home-floor successes at 81 straight and earned him a nickname: "Iceman."
In those frantic closing seconds against UCLA, Clay did not figure
in the Irish plan. Notre Dame had scheduled a play designed to get the
ball to John Shumate, its extraordinary center who had been battering
away inside against the Bruins' weary Bill Walton throughout the second
half. It was Walton's first game since suffering a back injury 12 days
earlier and his teammates were more than ready to give him some help.
They surrounded Shumate, and Gary Brokaw spotted Clay in the corner. A
few seconds later, the Iceman cameth. "He's the best clutch shooter in
the country," yelled Brokaw over the victory din in the Irish locker
room. "The man has proved it. When he has to do it, he does it."
"I wanted the ball," said Clay. "I was open and 1 was waiting."
That summed up the mood of the Irish. They were ready and waiting
for UCLA. This time they did not get 46 points from Austin Carr, as they
had on Jan. 23, 1971, the last occasion anyone had beaten UCLA, but the
tableau unfolded with just as much incongruity. Except for four very
early ties, UCLA had led the entire game, adopting for the most part the
posture of a man playing with a toy. But then the unpredictable currents
of emotion switched and the Bruins were swept away on a tide of panic as
their elegant play turned crude.
During the last three minutes they were outscored 12-0, sabotaged by
four puerile turnovers and, while the Irish were sinking six straight
shots, they were fluffing six in a row. In the final moments their
frantic attempts approached burlesque as they stuttered over a series of
open shots. "They threw the ball away, they ran into their own men. I
guess the crowd shook them up," said ND's freshman starter, Adrian
Dantley.
UCLA's John Wooden, once a high school coach in South Bend, offered
no excuses, claimed indifference to the expiration of the win streak and
cited this Saturday's rematch in Los Angeles as a better barometer of
strengths. Notre Dame is No. 1, Wooden seemed to be saying, for right
now.
"You don't mind if we don't show up next week, do you, John?" Irish
Coach Digger Phelps said to Wooden. "You better," Wooden answered with a
smile.
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The
shot heard 'round the world, roundball version, arches
over Tommy Curtis (22) as Adrian Dantley (44) and Dave
Meyers await the report. |
The Bruin players mirrored their coach's proud
demeanor in defeat. He told them: "Winners do the talking. Losers
keep quiet." Following his advice, they accepted the loss calmly,
without rancor, unsalted by tears. "They played a good game, they
won, that's all we can say," whispered Keith Wilkes.
But for Notre Dame the flush of victory was exhilarating. There is
little harmony between the two teams. Both are vain, and defeat does
not dwell comfortably. During Phelps' first season at Notre Dame,
UCLA beat the Irish by 58 points. Last year Wooden admonished
Shumate for jostling with Walton and implied reprisal. Later Wooden
sent a letter of apology. During Saturday's game there were frequent
little incidents that could have flared into serious trouble.
"If 1 had Tommy Curtis here I'd stuff him in that locker," Clay
snorted afterward, peeved at the UCLA guard for mocking him during
much of the game. "He was talking that street talk. I told him to
shut up or I'd punch him in the mouth. All that bad-mouthing, that's
for the playgrounds. It's worked for 88 games, it's not going to
work anymore."
Earlier in the week, the opposing players had exchanged similar
pleasantries in the press. UCLA starting guard Pete Trgovich, who
grew up in East Chicago, Ind., just a few football fields away from
South Bend, said, "I despise Notre Dame. I stopped liking it when
Johnny Dee left. I don't like Digger Phelps." Countered Clay: "If
they gave a foul for bad language, Walton would be out of the game
in two minutes, especially if he blocks your shot."
The game even exceeded its promise. For weeks it had simmered as
UCLA and Notre Dame marched on unbeaten. The teams presented
contrasts that went beyond Los Angeles and South Bend, beyond their
coaches and players and pedigrees. It was the Establishment against
the nouveau riche, West vs. East, a master coach against an aspiring
heir.
Phelps would have none of Wooden's blase pregame attitude. He even
bought a book about Wooden, read it and passed out excerpts to his
staff. "I want to understand the man," he said. Phelps showed up at
the Bruins' game with Iowa in Chicago Stadium on Thursday night,
huddling conspicuously with his assistants, immersed in
machinations, poring over diagrams of Bruin strategy.
Wooden cloaked his feelings in his usual restraint. "I haven't seen
Notre Dame play," he said. "I did talk to a friend about them, not a
basketball man, just a friend."
"We heard they were scouting us against Kentucky," replied Phelps.
Earlier the UCLA coach had been less than specific over whether
Walton would even make the trip east. Not until Walton showed up
with the UCLA team in Chicago on Wednesday and went through a
private workout (he never did see action against Iowa) was it
certain he would play against Notre Dame.
"I'm really surprised," said Phelps dryly when he heard the news.
Phelps' commitment to the game is not difficult to fathom. Only a
few years ago he was an acolyte, the freshman coach at Penn. The son
of an undertaker, he speaks with a glib humor that belies his
competitive self. "Listen," he says. "I can get you a good deal on a
box." Still, there were tears in his eyes after his team beat
Indiana this year. And at practice his approach is caustic.
"Get off the court," he snapped at a reserve earlier in the week.
"You don't even know what day it is."
"I know how uptight he is about the game," said Brokaw. "I'm trying
not to make mistakes so he won't holler."
The week began with Phelps in his office on Monday sorting through
tickets that at the moment were more popular than rosary beads. On
the wall was a framed piece of paper, the diagram of Clay's winning
shot against Marquette. Notre Dame had shuffled off to a 1-6 start
last season and that, following on the heels of a 6-20 year, had the
faithful wondering if Phelps might make a better embalmer than
inspirer. Clay's shot helped turn around the year, and the Irish
went on to finish second in the NIT.
Although Notre Dame was scheduled to play Georgetown Tuesday night,
the entire community was gearing only for UCLA. At the post office,
a religious brother told Phelps: "Well, we've got the Jesuits
Tuesday and God on Saturday."
This was the atmosphere Phelps had aspired to since he first knew
success as a high school coach in Pennsylvania. He arrived at South
Bend after a 26-3 season at Fordham, his only year as a head coach
in college, but his fame had not preceded him.
"Trigger, would you like a drink?" asked a woman at his first South
Bend cocktail party.
Phelps could have used plenty of drinks that first season. His team
captain suffered a broken leg. Another guard had a bad knee and
displayed the mobility of "Schultzie," Digger's three-legged pet
dog. The team lost by 65 points to Indiana. Phelps, a big eater,
took to drowning his sorrows in souffles.
Now, two years later, all that was over. "We're ready for UCLA,"
said the 32-year-old coach, who had even taken the precaution of
having his team practice cutting down the nets. "For the first time
we want our kids to go out and just play. UCLA is very simple. It's
the Lombardi concept. They merely execute."
He planned a number of changes from his previous UCLA strategy.
Switching to a man-to-man defense, he would play Shumate behind
Walton to take away the lob pass. In addition, he wanted to keep the
ball away from Wilkes, forcing the UCLA guards up on Walton's side
of the floor, and he wanted to take away Walton's baseline move,
obliging him to hook into the middle.
Generally speaking, the strategy worked. Only twice did Walton score
after getting a lob pass, though he did hit 12 of 14 shots from the
floor. Big Bill hurt the Irish, but he did not cripple them. Wilkes
made but two of nine shots in the second half and no field goals in
the last eight minutes.
Shumate is the spice of the Notre Dame team. He outscored Walton in
their two meetings last year, though Walton did not play the whole
way in those easy UCLA wins. On Saturday they both had 24 points.
Shumate was palpably ready. At one stage Clay had complained that
his phone was ringing incessantly with calls from well-wishers. "Eat
it up," the ebullient Shumate told him. "This comes only once in a
lifetime."
In two early confrontations against Walton Saturday, Shumate was
forced into traveling calls. But he tempered his anxiety thereafter
and acquitted himself well, especially in the final minutes, and it
was he who grabbed the rebound of UCLA's last miss. "This is the
greatest feeling I have ever had," he said.
If Notre Dame is good, it seems likely to get better. There are six
freshmen on the team, including Dantley, another of the fine line of
players Notre Dame has plucked out of the Washington, D.C. area, a
list that includes Carr, Bob Whitmore, Collis Jones and Sid Catlett.
Indeed, Carr and Jones drove all night from the East Coast to South
Bend last spring to meet Dantley and persuade him to attend their
alma mater.
The most noticeable thing about Dantley is his strength. In his
first game with the Irish, he bent the rim during warm-ups. Phelps
talks with awe when describing how he was called for dunking in the
Ohio State game. At the time there were Buckeye players hanging on
each of his arms.
Early in the season, Dantley grew homesick. He fell behind in his
studies, so much so that Phelps excused him from practice several
times so he could catch up. With the aid of tutors he did. "All I've
been thinking about is UCLA," he said at one point last week. “I
don't believe I've ever been more mentally ready for a team. When I
was a little boy, that's all I ever thought about, UCLA."
The specter of UCLA dominates Notre Dame as much as it does the rest
of college basketball. The pregame frenzy reached heights of
silliness when it was rumored that Notre Dame students, aware that
Walton is allergic to bee stings, were going to make buzzing sounds
at him Saturday. (They didn't.)
The UCLA players, meanwhile, were reacting like airplane pilots
riding a Ferris wheel. On Friday Andre McCarter, a reserve guard,
was sitting on the steps outside his motel room playing a flute.
"There's no rah-rah stuff about the game," he said. ''We look at it
like a business, like a job. That's how it is at UCLA. It's like the
pros, except you don't have any income."
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With
seconds to go, Meyers rises high for the last tap and
the Bruins' final stab at 89. |
"We don't talk about the streak," said Wilkes. "We want to win, but
we don't sit around talking about it."
In the end, Notre Dame won it the way it should not have won it,
with a move born of desperation. The Bruins looked invincible in the
first 14 minutes, raging to a 17-point lead and evoking fantasies of
the future when two large golden arches would be constructed outside
Pauley Pavilion, Between them would hang a sign: 11 billion won.
Then Phelps put freshman Ray (Dice) Martin into the game, a ploy
destined to give the Irish a hot roll. Martin played the point guard
position, where he turned in an exemplary performance, and Clay
moved to wing. Martin did not have a turnover in 22 minutes, set up
the offense and strengthened the press. He also drew an offensive
foul from Wilkes with 45 seconds remaining to set the scene for
Clay's winning shot.
Flushed from the victory that came only weeks after Notre Dame won
the national football championship, the students poured onto the
floor at the end of the game.
"We want to be No. 1 in both sports and UCLA is in the way," Clay
had said earlier.
The Bruins have not exactly disappeared, but while it lasts, being a
double No. 1 is fun. |
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Notre Dame Snaps
UCLA's 88-Game
Win Streak 71-70
12-Straight Point Rally
By MIKE HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP)- Guard Dwight Clay hit from the right corner
with 28 seconds remaining, capping a surge of 12 straight points and
leading No. 2-ranked Notre Dame to a 71-70 victory over top-ranked
UCLA Saturday in a college basketball showdown, ending the Bruins'
record winning streak at 88 games.
After four early ties, UCLA took control as Meyers hit all five of
his first-half shots and Wilkes four of seven. The Bruins snapped an
8-8 deadlock and built a 17-point lead at 35-18, outscoring the
Irish 27-10 in about nine minutes.
The Irish rallied late in the half, taking advantage of four quick
UCLA turnovers and some cold Bruin shooting. Notre Dame scored seven
straight points, starting a 16-4 surge and drew within 39-34 with 48
seconds remaining.
UCLA, however, got the final four points of the half as Wilkes and
reserve guard Greg Lee each hit two free throws in a span of 13
seconds, making the halftime margin 43-34.
Notre Dame closed within 45-43 on a layup by Shumate with 15:04 to
go in the game, but Walton led UCLA back to an 11-point advantage,
54-43, with about 10 minutes left. The 6-foot-11 All-American
connected on three straight close-in shots and scored four straight
for UCLA during that stretch.
Notre Dame, trailed 70-59 with 3:30 remaining in the game, but began
their string on two quick baskets by junior center John Shumate, the
second coming after he stole an in-bounds pass.
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Adrian Dantley and Dice Martin cut down the net. |
Freshman Adrian Dantley then stole another UCLA pass and went half
the length of the court for a layup.
Gary Brokaw, who led Notre Dame with 25 points, then converted two
straight short jumpers around a pair of UCLA errors, making it 70-69
with 1:10 left.
UCLA forward Keith Wilkes then dumped in a layup with 45 seconds
remaining, but was called for walking and the basket was disallowed.
After Clay's shot, which caused bedlam among the 11,343 Irish fans,
UCLA called a timeout with 21 seconds left. When the ball was put in
play, UCLA's Tommy Curtis fired a long jumper that came back hard
off the back of the rim. Two Bruin tips failed, but Brokaw lost a
rebound out of bounds, giving the ball back to UCLA with six seconds
to go.
UCLA superstar Bill Walton then tried a short jumper from the side
of the basket, missing for only the third in 15 attempts during the
game. Tips by UCLA forward Pete Trgovich and Dave Meyers failed and
Shumate got the rebound as the clock ran out.
The loss was the first for UCLA since an 89-82 decision on the same
Notre Dame floor Jan. 23, 1971. The Bruins slipped to 13-1 for the
season, while Notre Dame raised its season mark to 10-0. The teams
meet again at Los Angeles next Saturday.
Walton, whose playing status was in doubt until only moments before
the game because of a back injury that had kept him out of three
games, scored 12 points in each half, leading the Bruins with 24
points.
Wilkes. struggling much of the game against the burly Notre Dame
front line, still managed 18 points. Shumate, held to eight points
in the first half, finished with 24 for the Irish. Clay, the hero of
the game, wound up with only seven points, hitting only two of five
shots from the floor.
Shumate hit only four of 11 from the field in the first half, but
wound up the game with 11 of 22. Brokaw converted 10 of 16 field
goals.
UCLA (70)- Wilkes 6 6-7 18, Trgovich 3 1-1 7, Walton 12 0-0 24,
Curtis 3 3-4 9, Meyers 5 0-2 10, Lee 0 2-2 2, Johnson 0 0-0 0.
Totals 29 12-16
NOTRE DAME (71)- Brokaw 10 5-7 25, Clay 2 3-4 7, Shumate 11 2-1 24,
Dantley 4 1-1 9, Novak 0 0-0 0, Paterno 2 0-0 4, Martin 1 0-0 2.
Totals 30 11-16
Halftime: UCLA 43 Notre Dame 34
Technical fouls: Meyers, Brokaw
Attendance: 11,343 |
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One
week later, Bruins reclaim No. 1 spot
FEBRUARY 9, 1974
The
Sporting News
The Bruins, with
brilliant Bill Walton rising to new heights, destroyed Notre Dame,
94-75, at Pauley Pavilion January 26 and re-established their claim
to the No.1 position among the collegiate titans.
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A
week later, it was all Walton. |
UCLA's awesome
display of power in the rematch provided sweet revenge for Coach
John Wooden's team. The Bruins had been upset by the Irish 71-70,
one week earlier in a duel that ended the Bruins' incredible 88-game
winning streak and catapulted Notre Dame to the top of the ratings
for seven days.
Wooden surprised
everyone by starting Marques Johnson, a 17-year-old freshman, at the
wing position in place of Pete Trgovich. The 6-5 1/2 Johnson, first
freshman to start in Wooden's 26-year career at UCLA, scored 16
points, 14 of them coming in the second half.
"That was the key for
them," observed Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps." Johnson simply gave
them added strength on the boards."
In addition to
installing Johnson at forward, the Bruins moved Dave Meyers to guard
on the left side and he moved the ball consistently to Walton.
"Wooden made these
changes and it made them a much better team than we played a week
ago." Phelps noted. "They certainly adjusted very well to the
changes in only one week."
Walton, playing as if
he was on a personal vendetta, dazzled the Irish by scoring 32
points before fouling out of the game with 5:39 remaining, and UCLA
commanding an 82-56 lead. The 6-11 redhead from LaMesa, Calif.,
handicapped by a back injury in the first game against Notre Dame,
made 16 of 19 field goal attempts and snared 11 rebounds.
"We have a tremendous
scoring machine in Bill Walton," Wooden said, "and until they stop
him we should always try to get the ball to him. He's the most
unselfish player I've ever coached."
UCLA led by as many
as 28 points in running its Pauley victory string to 60 games and
boosting its season record to 15-1.
The Bruins, who blew
an 11-point lead with 3:30 to play at Notre Dame, surged ahead,
43-30, at halftime and never let the Irish get close after the
intermission.
"I reminded them at
halftime about the lead we had last week," Wooden said with a
satisfied smile. "Not that they needed any reminder." UCLA scored
the first nine points of the game and Notre Dame didn't counter
until freshman forward Adrian Dantley hit a jump shot with 5:54
elapsed.
Walton, who dazzled
6-9 Irish center John Shumate with his lightning quick moves around
the basket, and smooth Keith Wilkes, a 6-7 senior, combined for 32
of UCLA's 43 points in the first half. Wilkes collected 18 points
and
Walton, who was
benched after picking up his third personal foul with 3:20 left in
the half, had 14.
Walton hit for UCLA
only nine seconds into the second half and the Bruins' lead began
mounting.
Leading scorers for
the Irish, beaten for the first time in 13 starts, were Shumate,
with 25 points, and guard Gary Brokaw, with 14.
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But,
it was never quite the same after the loss in South
Bend. |
When the issue was no
longer in doubt, UCLA fans, who had been chanting "We're No. 1"
throughout the contest, broke out a sign that read, "God Made Notre
Dame No. 1 for One Week."
"They outplayed us
and outhustled us. They deserved to win. They are No. 1," Phelps
conceded in a post-game interview.
"We tried to press
and play our game, but their shooting (64 percent in the first half
and 59 percent for the game) was unbelievable."
At the other end of
the interview room, Wooden agreed that his team deserves the No. I
ranking.
"At least that's the
way I'm going to vote," he said with a grin.
Wooden would not say
that the 71-70 loss in South Bend had made his Bruins a better team.
"I think a good scare
last week would have been just as much help," he said.
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Inspired Notre Dame
Upsets Top-Ranked UCLA
Carr's rating: 46 points
SOUTH
BEND, Ind. (UPI)- Notre Dame's Austin Carr poured 46 points through
the basket Saturday as the Fighting Irish upset No. 1 ranked UCLA,
89-82, the first loss to a nonconference team for UCLA in three
years.
It was
Notre Dame's first win after five straight losses to the Bruins, and
UCLA's first loss after 14 wins this year, breaking a 19-game Bruin
winning streak extending back into last season. UCLA's last loss to
a nonconference team was Jan. 20. 1968 when Elvin Hayes and Houston
earned a 71-69 win over Lew Alcinder and the UCLA team which went on
to win the national championship.
Saturday, the fighting Irish, whipped to a fever pitch by the home
crowd of 11,343 and playing before a national television network of
208 stations, never were behind.
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Austin Carr orchestrated the last Bruin loss in 1971. |
But
Notre Dame had to withstand the pressure of a UCLA rally which tied
the score at 47-47 with 16:41 left to play in the game. The Irish
broke in from that tie and thereafter UCLA never came closer than
two points and each time Notre Dame, with Carr the pace setter,
pulled away again.
Carr
netted 17 field goals and 12 of 16 free throw attempts for the 17th
game of his career in which he has scored 40 points or more. He went
into the game with a 37.2 average for 12 previous games this season
and ranked among the top scorers in the country.
Carr
netted 21 points in the first half as the Irish moved to a 43-38
advantage. Notre Dame lost one man on fouls, center John Pleick,
with 14:20 remaining in the game and UCLA's star Sidney Wicks also
fouled out, but with only 1:07 left to go.
Wicks
was higher scorer for the Bruins with 23 points compared to his
season average of 24.2. He was tightly guarded by Notre Dame's
Collis Jones and netted only 11 points, four of them on layups, in
the first half.
It was
the ninth win against four losses this season for Notre Dame, ranked
No. 13 nationally going into the contest.
UCLA-
Rowe 6-4 16, Wicks 8-7 23, Patterson 7-1 15, Booker 3-0 6, Bibby 6-4
16, Schofield 0-0 0, Ecker 0-0 0, Hollyfield 3-0 6, Fanner 0-0 0.
Total 33-16- 82
Notre
Dame- Jones 6-7 19, Catlett 2-0 4, Pleick 3-3 9, Meehan 1-1 3, Carr
17-12 46, Gemmell 3-0 6, Regelean 0-0 0, Sinnott 1-0 2. Total 33-23
89
Halftime: Notre Dame 43. UCLA 38.
Attendance: 11,343
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