At halftime of today’s Notre Dame-Florida State basketball game, the first and still lone Fighting Irish Final Four men's team will be celebrated on the court during their 40th-anniversary reunion.
Here are four favorites memories from that memorable journey to the Final Four:
1. The Combo Package
In NCAA competition even back then, one was either recognized as a “football school” or a “basketball school.” USC under John McKay was a football school, while cross-town rival UCLA with John Wooden was a basketball school.
Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Penn State, Nebraska, etc., were football schools. Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Kansas, Louisville, etc., were basketball schools.
In the 1970s, though, seldom in NCAA history has there been a comparable football/basketball combination like at Notre Dame.
At the end of the 12 school years from 1970-81, Notre Dame finished in the Associated Press top 15 in both sports seven times, and the top 10 on four occasions (1970, 1974, 1978 and 1981), making it the preeminent combo package in America.
The 1973-74 school year had the best overall mark of 37-3 (11-0 and the national title in football, 26-3 in basketball), but the 1977-78 academic calendar had a unique distinction: It was the first time in NCAA annals the football team (11-1) won the national title and basketball (23-8) advanced to the Final Four.
It has been matched only once in the 40 years hence, with Florida winning the national title in both sports in 2006-07.
2. Recruiting Like Duke Today — Without The 'One & Dones'
Notre Dame’s basketball recruiting first picked up dramatically in the mid-1960s thanks to at least two factors. One was the construction of the sparkling new Athletic & Convocation Center that opened in 1968. The other was the creation of a Washington D.C. pipeline that began under head coach John Dee with the likes of Bob Whitmore, the peerless Austin Carr, Collis Jones and Sid Catlett.
Hired in 1971, brash and fiery 30-year old head coach Richard “Digger” Phelps then began a run at Notre Dame of unprecedented recruiting excellence in 1973 that landed another D.C. stalwart in Adrian Dantley.
The Notre Dame basketball brand was burgeoning in an era when national television coverage in the sport was limited to about one or two games per weekend. The Irish had become a main attraction, making it more appealing to elite prospects.
It resulted in incomparable recruiting in the four-year period from 1974-77 that comprised the Final Four team in 1978. The best way to describe it is it was today’s version of Duke — minus the one-and-done figures.
In today’s landscape, signing a top-50 prospect is rare for the Irish, but in those four years Notre Dame annually landed at least one top-25 prospect ever year.
• The 1974 haul included 6-9 Dave Batton and D.C. guard Don “Duck” Williams — from the same high school as Carr (Mackin) — both of whom were Parade All-Americans. That was the “top-25,” blue-chip standard of that era.
• In 1975, the Irish signed two more Parade All-Americans in big men Bill Laimbeer and Bruce Flowers.
• In 1976, Phelps turned his attention to guards. One was point guard Rich Branning, who averaged 27.4 points per contest while making California’s “Dream Team.” The other was relatively unheralded 6-7 Bill Hanzlik — who would play more than a decade in the NBA.
• The 1977 recruiting campaign was the best ever at Notre Dame with a five-man harvest that included Parade All-Americans Kelly Tripucka and Tracy Jackson (who also was selected to the first 15-man McDonald’s All-America team in 1977), plus 6-11 Gil Salinas and New York point guard Stan Wilcox — now the director of athletics at Florida State, today’s opponent.
Oh, and Phelps also took a flyer on 6-9 Mansfield, La., native Orlando Woolridge because of a recommendation from his cousin, former New York Knicks star center Willis Reed. Woolridge became the No. 6 pick in the NBA draft four years later.
How talented was Notre Dame's 1977-78 NCAA Final Four unit?
The lineup included future 14-year NBA veteran Laimbeer, 13-year pro Woolridge, 1980 U.S. Olympian Hanzlik, who played 11 years in the NBA, and Jackson, a three-year NBA performer and a No. 25 overall pick (first round today).
Believe it or not, that quartet comprised Notre Dame's second team!
The starters featured five players who all scored more than 1,000 points during their Irish careers (as did Woolridge and Jackson): forwards Batton and Tripucka, center Flowers, and guards Branning and Williams.
Among the 13 scholarship players, 10 were drafted (Salinas was the 10th) and eight played in the NBA.
Five were drafted among the top 65 picks in their respective years: Woolridge (6th), Tripucka (12th), Hanzlik (20th) Jackson (25th), Flowers (26th), while Batton and Laimbeer were 62 and 65, respectively.
Never again will (or can) a Notre Dame’s men’s basketball team have such an amazing collection of NBA talent.
3. Balancing Act
Individual talent is one step; having individuals mesh collectively is another.
From 1974-77, the Irish were a glittering 85-21 (.802) during the regular season and had three AP top 10 finishes — but their albatross was the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Dating back to Carr's junior and senior seasons in 1970 and 1971, Notre Dame had been vanquished in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on six straight occasions. The jinx was projected to halt in 1977-78 when the Irish were ranked No. 4 in the preseason for three reasons:
1) Four double-figure scorers returned from the 1976-77 top 10 unit: Williams (18.1), Batton (12.2), Flowers (11.3) and Branning (10.7).
2) Laimbeer was re-admitted to school after spending the previous season in academic exile.
3) The incoming freshmen led by Tripucka, Jackson and Woolridge formed the most talented trio Phelps signed in one class. It also posed somewhat of a pleasant dilemma for Phelps.
"It is difficult to assemble that many high school All-Americans and keep everyone happy,” said Branning in an interview with Blue & Gold Illustrated years ago. "When you try to keep everyone happy, then everyone seems to be unhappy. The older guys want 35 minutes, the younger guys want 20 minutes..."
Eventually, the greater good superseded individual goals.
"A lot of these guys ended up in the pros and could have [showcased] their own individual talents," Batton said. "But we blended as a team, and that's what made it special."
A testament to the team's balance was Batton's 14.0 team-high scoring average. It was the lowest output by a leading scorer at Notre Dame from 1951 to 1995. Williams (13.3) and Flowers (6.9) saw their scoring figures dip by five points apiece from the previous year — but the additions of rookie phenom Tripucka (11.7) and Laimbeer (8.1) helped compensate. Branning (11.0) was steady at point guard while Jackson, Hanzlik, Woolridge and Wilcox supplied quality depth.
Highlights of the regular season included a sweep of traditional superpower UCLA and rallying from 17 points down to defeat No. 1 Marquette, the defending national champion. In that game, Phelps inserted the sophomore Hanzlik to handle All-American guard Butch Lee, and Hanzlik's defensive prowess and Tripucka's dead-eye shooting helped propel the rally to a 65-59 victory.
Still, as Notre Dame attempted to build chemistry with its lineup, it sputtered into the NCAA Tournament with a 4-3 mark in its final seven games, including upset losses at unranked South Carolina (65-60) and Dayton (66-59) and an overtime defeat at home to DePaul (69-68).
"We ebbed and flowed," said Branning of the 20-6 regular season. "We didn't dominate, but we worked through those issues to find the right mix. It was a unique balance. Fortunately, we peaked at the right time."
4. Peak Performance
The tinkering with the right combinations during the regular season, which at times was costly, paid off in the then 32-team NCAA Tournament.
In the opening round, Notre Dame played its best game of the season during a 100-77 rout of Southwest Conference champ Houston. Five players scored in double figures, led by Laimbeer's career-high 20 points and nine rebounds in just 21 minutes.
The second-round jinx was snapped on St. Patrick's Day with a convincing 69-56 conquest of Utah that featured future NBA players Jeff Judkins and Danny Vranes. Tripucka converted eight of 11 from the field while tallying a game-high 20 points. For the first time in 20 years, Notre Dame advanced to a regional final.
In the rematch against No. 3 DePaul (27-3), the Irish depth overwhelmed 65-year-old head coach Ray Meyer's sentimental favorites. Regional MVP Tripucka scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Branning played a flawless floor game with 15 points and seven assists.
"Our top five players can beat Notre Dame's top five players. But our top 10 players against their top 10 — no way," Meyer remarked.
The Final Four featured preseason No. 1 Kentucky, led by Jack Givens, Rick Robey and Kyle Macy versus Arkansas with its marvelous trio of Sidney Moncrief, Ron Brewer and Marvin Delph.
In the other semifinal, the Irish faced upstart Duke which had its own phenomenal trio of junior Jim Spanarkel, sophomore Mike Gminski and freshman sensation Gene Banks (who would combine for 71 points in the game versus the Irish).
Popular opinion had a Notre Dame-Kentucky rematch in the final. The two had played on New Year’s Eve in Louisville, and the Irish had a three-point lead with four minutes left before a late Wildcat rally led a hard fought 73-68 win.
It’s hard to believe these days, but Duke was somewhat overlooked.
A poor close to the first half saw the Irish trail the Blue Devils 43-29 at the intermission — and the same margin remained (80-66) with about three-and-a-half minutes left.
Like in 1974 when Phelps’ Irish trailed No. 1 UCLA with its 88-game winning streak 70-59 with 3:32 left, Notre Dame almost pulled off the miracle again.
Scintillating shooting by Jackson and Williams brought the Irish within 88-86 with about 20 seconds remaining. With a full-court press, Notre Dame then stole the in-bounds pass and Williams had an open 20-footer that rimmed in-and-out.
Two free throws by Duke — which was 32-of-37 from the line — with nine seconds left sealed the verdict in St. Louis. A 71-69 loss in the final second to Arkansas in the third-place consolation game capped the standard-setting campaign.
Amazingly, the 1977-78 squad had the second worst record (23-8) during Notre Dame's school-record eight straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1974-81. Yet it is the centerpiece of a halcyon basketball era in which the Irish were 182-52 (.778), highlighted by a 117-10 (.921) mark at the ACC.
To many Irish faithful, it was a given that before the Tripucka-Jackson-Woolridge class graduated, Notre Dame would return to at least one more Final Four, and perhaps even capture a national title.
However after winning three NCAA Tournament games when the trio were freshmen, the Irish won only three more total in their next three years.
All the more reason why the achievement in 1977-78 can be celebrated even more with the passage of time.
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