In 1983, the college basketball world got a memo from Georgetown that basically read: uh-oh.
As a freshman, Patrick Ewing looked like the second coming of Bill Russell. He could run the court like few big
men ever have and he shut down the lane pretty much completely. Against UNC in the finals that year, coach John Thompson instructed him to block everything he could in the first few minutes even if it was goaltending, just to send a message: the lane is mine.
UNC won as the nation got its first idea that Michael Jordan was a rising star (he hit the winning basket), and Georgetown would have to wait a year to get a title.
In 1984, the Hoyas got Kentucky in their first game in the Final Four and the Wildcats, spurred on by Ewing picking up three first-half fouls, went into halftime feeling pretty good.
The second half was an entirely different story.
Ewing and the Hoyas limited Kentucky to just three field goals in the second half, holding the Wildcats scoreless for the first 9:56 of that half. It was utterly unbelievable. They also forced 15 turnovers in the half. Not a single starter got a second-half basket.
This was one of the greatest defensive performances in NCAA tournament history and if you want to make a category called, say, High Level Games Between Highly Regarded Teams/Programs (feel free to improve on that), it’s one of the greatest defensive performances in that category as well. The Hoyas were unbelievable.
They went on to beat Houston, with Hakeem Olajuwon, Benny Anders and Ricky Winslow for the championship.
Thirty-one years later, Winslow’s son, Justise, would help Duke win the 2015 national championship.
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