It’s hard to understate just how traumatic the 1972 loss to the USSR was for the US. Basketball was a game that the Americans had dominated in the Olympics since the first time it was part of the games
in 1936. In fact, the US had never lost a single game prior to the loss to the Soviets. Worse, there was chicanery and interference from FIBA that was so blatant that the US team refused to accept silver.
For the 1976 games, the U.S. selected Dean Smith as coach and he did something controversial but typically brilliant: he took four of his own players as the core of the team. Mitch Kupchak, Tommy LaGarde, the late Walter Davis and Phil Ford provided a group he could build around.
ACC rivals Kenny Carr (NC State), Steve Sheppard (Maryland) and Tate Armstrong (Duke) knew UNC’s system and were also selected, as was Notre Dame’s Adrian Dantley, Scott May and Quinn Buckner from Indiana, Phil Hubbard from Michigan and Ernie Grunfeld from Tennessee.
After surviving a 95-94 scare from Butch Lee and Puerto Rico (Lee would get his revenge in 1977, leading Marquette past UNC for the national championship), the US rolled to the title game against Yugoslavia.
There are many greater tragedies that came about after Yugoslavia fell apart, but they had a brilliant basketball tradition, and it’s sad that that had to come to an end because they were legitimately great.
In 1976 though, the U.S. was on a mission and took out Yugoslavia 95-74. Here are some highlights from that game.
Lee had his revenge in the next season as Marquette took down Smith and UNC in the national championship game, 67-59.
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