A Dribble Down Memory Lane: PC’s Improbable 1987 Final Four Run, Part 2
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
A Dribble Down Memory Lane: PC’s Improbable 1987 Final Four Run, Part 2
Late Sunday afternoon on March 8, 1987, the Friar basketball team and their coaches gathered after the Big East tournament to listen to the NCAA Selection Sunday show on CBS. Thousands of Friar fans also gathered in homes and local watering holes in Rhode Island to find out where PC would play and who their opponent would be.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe 1987 basketball season featured many of the usual basketball thoroughbred schools and legendary coaches that would be playing in this year’s tournament, including: UNC (Dean Smith), Kentucky (Eddie Sutton), Kansas (Larry Brown), UNLV (Jerry Tarkanian), Duke (Mike Krzyzewski), Michigan (Bill Frieder), and Indiana (Bobby Knight).
Providence’s name was called out as the #6 seed in the Southeast region to play #11 seed, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The 64 selected teams were allocated to the following regions with the #1 seed for each region shown, as well as other Big East teams, and other notable teams shown for the East, West, and Midwest regions. The complete lineup of teams in the Southeast region is shown.
East: #1, UNC; #2 Syracuse; #5 Notre Dame; #9 Michigan
Southeast: #1 Georgetown; #2 Alabama; # 3 Illinois; #4 Clemson; #5 Kansas; #6 Providence; #7 New Orleans; #8 Kentucky; #9 Ohio State; #10 BYU; #11 UAB; #12 Houston; #13 Missouri State; #14 Austin Peay; #15 NC A&T; and #16 Bucknell
West: #1 UNLV; #3 Pittsburgh; #4 UCLA
Midwest: #1 Indiana; #5 Duke; #6 St. John’s
While the Friars would face a relatively modest University of Alabama-Birmingham team in the first round of the Southeast regional, there were circumstances that clouded PC’s play in this game. UAB, as it was referred to, squeaked into the tournament with a 21-11 record by virtue of winning the Sunbelt Conference tournament under veteran Coach Gene Bartow. The NCAA tournament site, by coincidence, however, was UAB’s home court in Birmingham, AL.
The bigger issue facing the Friars was the shared grief that the team was experiencing after the death of Coach Pitino’s 6-month-old son Daniel on Selection Sunday afternoon. The excitement of making the NCAA tournament was totally fractured by the loss of Pitino’s son Daniel. Pitino came to the Friar practice at Alumni Hall on Wednesday before the team flew to Birmingham and told the team that he was going to coach them in the tournament. He asked the team to stay focused on their student-athlete responsibilities at Providence College.
Opening Rounds
The Friars were not affected by UAB’s home-court advantage, and the players put Coach Pitino on their backs to soundly defeat UAB, 90-68, while shooting 51% from the field. Donovan was totally focused, and his teammates followed his lead. Donovan lit up the scoreboard with 35 points and dished out a season-high 12 assists. Freshman Shamsid-Deen came off the bench to muscle his way to 10 first-half points.
It takes skill, unexpected performances, and luck for a mid-tier team like PC to advance to a Final Four. PC received a huge break when the next opponent, expected to be #3 seed Illinois, turned out to be #14 seed Austin Peay who upset the Illini in the opening round, 68-67. Austin Peay from Clarksville, Tennessee was in the 1987 tournament representing the Atlantic Sun Conference.
The Governors, as they were called, surprised Illinois, and for most of the game against the Friars, they surprised PC with their athleticism and rebounding. They snared 55 rebounds, the most of any team that played the Friars that season. PC trailed by ten points, 75-65, with just under 6 minutes to play. A memorable sight on the televised game was Pitino lashing into his players in a time-out break. That seemed to wake up the Friars, who were able to get the game tied with 20 seconds to play. Austin Peay had the ball, and Delray Brooks, who had a tough shooting game (3-14), was called for a foul with two seconds on the clock. It looked like PC’s season was over. Robert Thomas of Peay went to the line to shoot one foul shot. Pitino called a timeout. Thomas returned to the line. Pitino called PC’s final timeout. Thomas missed the foul shot. Pitino had iced him. The Friars outscored Austin Peay in OT to win 90-87 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
The Friars came home to Providence, and Friars Fever gripped the state. PC’s next opponent would be Alabama, the SEC champion. The game would be played the following weekend in Louisville’s legendary Freedom Hall.
Alabama came into the game against PC a seven-point favorite, winning the regular season SEC title and the SEC tournament also. At one point in the season, the Crimson Tide under Coach Wimp Sanderson won 14 games in a row in the SEC! They had crushed Kentucky at Lexington. They entered the game with PC with 30 wins in their pockets with a #9 ranking in the country.
Junior forward Derrick McKey was the Alabama stud averaging 17 pts and 8 rebounds per game. Surprisingly, Alabama only had ten players on their roster. The bench was thin as only 7 players got 90% of the minutes. Alabama played a half-court game.
Pitino used the thin Alabama roster to his advantage. The Friars came out running and gunning and bombed the Crimson Tide with 14 made threes while shooting an overall 69% from the field! PC had never shot that well in any game of the season. The Friars racked up a season-high 24 assists. Using a full court press in portions of the game, the Friars forced 11 Alabama turnovers. Alabama stud McKey was limited to 11 points, thanks to the play of Dave Kipfer, Steve Wright, Marty Conlon, and Jacek Duda.
Alabama was within 8 points for most of the game, but the Friars went into 4th gear halfway through the second half and pulled away to easily win 103-82. The Friars had four players in double figures with Brooks with 23 points and Donovan with 26 points leading the way.
Despite winning handily, the Friars fouled out three of its starters in the Alabama game—Donovan, Pop Lewis, and Dave Kipfer. Using up the team’s foul allotment was an unusual strategy that Pitino employed throughout the season, particularly against teams with a decided advantage under the basket. He’d rather have the opponent’s big guys take free throws than shoot field goals. As a result of Pitino’s fouling strategy, PC led the nation in fouls in the 1986-87 season, averaging an amazing 28.4 fouls per game!
After dismantling #2 seed Alabama, up next for PC, with a shot at the Final Four on the line, was a game against #1 seed in the Southeast region, Georgetown. For most Friar fans, this was a dreaded matchup. Pitino and the Friars had surprised Coach Thompson and the Hoyas in late January at the Civic Center with a last-second win, but the Hoyas won the next two games easily—one at Capital Centre and one in the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden. Vegas also thought this was a Hoya game and pegged them a five-point favorite.
This was a game in which you tipped your hat to Coach Pitino. A master tactician, he decided to forego the 3-point shot strategy—PC only attempted only 9 threes in the game—and instead had his guards driving the lane to pick up fouls or dishing off to their big guys (using all of them) for layups. The strategy totally flummoxed Thompson, as he was thin with big guys and had a largely guard-oriented team. PC forged a surprising 54-37 half-time lead. Donovan only attempted two shots in the first half.
The Friars beat a very frustrated #1 seeded Georgetown team 88-73 and it didn’t seem that close. Some mind-boggling stats from the game: PC only attempted 46 shots, making 25 for 55% shooting; PC made 33 of 38 free throw attempts; the bench scored 50 of PC’s 83 points; Georgetown shot a frustrating 34% from the field.
The matchups for the final four in the New Orleans Superdome were Providence (#6 seed) vs Syracuse (#2 seed) and Indiana (#1 seed) vs UNLV (#1 seed). The Big East once again showed it was one of top basketball conferences in the country with two teams in the Final Four.
The Friars needed a miracle to beat Syracuse. They didn’t get it. The Orange owned the Friars—they had beaten PC 16 games in a row, and had beaten them twice in this season. They had several stars and multiple weapons in Sherman Douglas, Rony Siekaly, and Derrick Coleman. Somehow, the Friars managed to only be losing 36-26 at half-time, but Syracuse pulled away in the second half. The Friars' 3-point strategy failed them as they went 5 of 19 from behind the arc. Donovan was limited to 8 points, shut down by the defense of Sherman Douglas Brooks and Lewis shot a combined 2 of 13 in 3-point attempts. The Friars overall shot only 36% from the field.
All five of Syracuse starters scored in double figures, and the taller Orange controlled the boards with 53 boards. PC’s strategy of fouling didn’t work as the Orange grabbed multiple missed free throws for easy buckets. Syracuse won 77-63.
Syracuse faced Indiana in the Final and lost 74-73 in a nail-biter. Hoosier Keith Smart was named MVP of the tournament.
Post Tournament Activities
The fortunes of the PC basketball team were radically changed in the three months after the 1986-87 season. Athletic Director Lou Lamoriello left to become the GM and Coach of the NJ Devils and Rick Pitino, despite a contract extension and salary increase offer from PC, left to become the Coach of the NY Knicks. Assistant Coach Gordon Chiesa was named the new PC Coach.
Despite the Final Four loss and the departure of Pitino, the 1986-87 PC season is still fondly remembered by Friar fans and all Rhode Islanders. It was an improbable run by a team with no nationally recognized players. The players were brilliantly coached, and the team succeeded far beyond anybody’s expectations. The Friars changed the national college basketball game forever with their use and success of the 3-point shot. They led the nation in made threes, averaging almost nine made threes per game.
The Friars captured the hearts of Rhode Islanders. They were an underdog team with no stars who showed that hard work, smart strategy, and teamwork really could produce results. And Billy Donovan joined Ernie DiGregorio as a forever RI fan favorite. Ten-year-olds, while shooting hoops on their driveways in East Providence, Warwick, and Cumberland, and Providence, were now tossing up 3-point shots while announcing the game to themselves, “Donovan dribbles up the court, he stops and pops from behind the 3 pt land. It’s good! Friars win!”
