Sunday, March 25, 2007
Today's winner advances to Saturday's Final Four gathering in Atlanta.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- The night Michael Jordan made that shot, Roy Williams and John Thompson III were inside the Superdome, too.
They also have memories from 25 years ago -- of an elusive Snickers bar and a Rottweiler that got away.
North Carolina and Georgetown play today in the East Regional final, with Tyler Hansbrough, Patrick Ewing Jr. and the other players focused squarely on a trip to the Final Four.
For many fans, the matchup means a lot more than the top-seeded Tar Heels' transitions vs. the second-seeded Hoyas' patience. It represents a harmonic convergence of history, harkening back to a true thriller in college basketball.
"I think you don't have to go down the list of great, great finals very long before you get to the '82 North Carolina-Georgetown game," Williams said.
Jordan's legend
In a game that started the legend of MJ and ushered in the era of huge crowds for championship night, Jordan's jumper from the left side with 17 seconds left lifted North Carolina over Georgetown 63-62 on March 29, 1982.
"I'm very blessed for what that shot did, and my name did change from Mike to Michael," Jordan said this month. "To sit back and think 'what if?' is a scary thought. There are a lot of other options. I could be pumping gas back in Wilmington, N.C."
Williams, now North Carolina's coach, was then an assistant to Dean Smith.
"Other than my wife and my mother, I don't know that anybody knew I was on the bench at that point," he said. "I had dark black hair and it was pretty neat."
Yet to hear him tell it, he almost was absent.
Candy caper
"I was a little superstitious. I kept a candy bar in my pocket before every game down the stretch and I would always buy it at the arena," he said. "Believe it or not, the Superdome in New Orleans in 1982 didn't sell candy, so I went to one of the gates and I walked out, went across the street in New Orleans to buy a candy bar.
"I came back to the door and the person, the guard that was there changed and they weren't going to let me come back in," he said. "My biggest memory is how doggone scared I am. I'm helping coach a team in the national championship game and I'm not even going to get into the arena."
Thompson was a high school junior at the time, sitting across from the Georgetown bench where his father was head coach.
"I remember everything about it," he said. "It's difficult to handle it because it's the national championship game."
Then there was the family pet. His dad, John Thompson, was at the Meadowlands Saturday and recalled that part of the story.
"I remember somebody asked my son how I took that loss. He said something like, 'I don't know about him, but I know that our dog disappeared,' " the former coach said. "I don't know what ever happened to that damn dog."
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