Villanova’s Perfect Game: The 1985 NCAA Championship

On April first, nineteen eighty five, the Villanova University Wildcats did something so unlikely that has gone down as one of the greatest upsets of all time, where they put together what's known as the perfect game to beat the mighty Georgetown Hoyas to win their very first championship and really put March Madness on alert, where they showed grit, strategy, and a huge amount of luck that took them from an underdog story to a legendary performance and the fact that this has not been made into a movie is insane. One of the greatest stories in March Madness history. Today, we're gonna dive into Villanova winning their first championship as possibly the biggest underdogs and one of the greatest stories in March Madness history. Today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge as we dive into the nineteen eighty five NC Double A Championship and today's trivia question to listen out for is how many eight seeds have made the NC Double A Championship game. Listened throughout the episode to get the answer and if you miss it. I will give you the answer at the very end. So before we get to the actual championship game, we got to see how these teams got there. See, Villa Nova was led by coach Raleigh Massimioni, who had been there for twelve seasons, and they were a member of the Big East Conference, which also featured Georgetown, who was the number one team that year, Saint Johns who was number three, in Syracuse who was number fifteen, and they finished fourth in their conference that year. Although they against those ranked competition, they did come close in January nineteen eighty five, losing to Georgetown by just two points. And they were a senior led team led by Ed Pinkney, Dewayne McLain, and Howard Presley. And this was an important year for the NC DOUBLEA. As we covered previously on the history of March Madness and the history of the NC Double A, nineteen eighty five was the first year of March Madness, the sixty four team bracket that we know today, and Villanova earned an at large bid for winning twenty five games that year, for coming from such a strong conference and ended up in the South Eastern Region and coach Raleigh Massimino really emphasized strategy and preparation and they would set the tone and this would set the tone for the improperable run. Now, Villanova entered the tournament with little expectations in the position of eight seed, meant they would have a relatively tough path to the finals. In the first round, they'd face off against Daytona in Daytona, so facing off against their home crowd, and despite the hostile environment, the wild Scouts were able to eke out a victory fifty one to forty nine, led by Ed Pinckney's twenty points to set the tone for the resilient run. And the second round was one of their biggest tests when they faced off against the number one Michigan, a team with stack talent who had four players that would make it to the NBA the next year. But the Wildcats stuck to their defense and stifled Michigan's offense, holding them to fifty five points, and led by Dewayne McLean and Harold Presley, they were able to win fifty nine to fifty five, making it to the Sweet sixteen, where they would face off against Maryland, who was the number five seed that year, and again they used their gritty defense to have a low scoring battle where they held them to forty three points, winning forty six to forty three, making it to the Elite Eight, facing off against the legendary team North Carolina coached by the legend Dean Smith, and again they used their defense to really set the stage and this was their first real blowout win, winning by twelve points fifty six to forty four, making their way to their first Final Four where they would face off against Memphis State, which is better known as Memphis Now. And this game was tightly contested in the first half, but what when Memphis States starred Keith Lee folluted of the game with ten minutes remaining, they really took control and won fifty two to forty five, making their way to the championship, facing off against a heated rivalry they had in the Big East and the number one team in the nation, the Georgetown Hoyas, who were led by legendary coach John Thompson, and they ended with a record of thirty five and three, led by future Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing, one of the greatest NCAA players of all time and had just come off of winning the National championships the year before. If there was ever a Goliath to face off against a David, it was the Georgetown Hoyas facing off against Villanova. And Georgetown had only lost to number two Saint John's number nine Syracuse that season, and they made their way through the tournament, beating Lehigh Temple, Loyola, Georgia Tech, and Saint John's where they could face off against a conference rival in Villanova. Now. The game was played in Lexington, Kentucky, at Rupp Arena in front of twenty three thousand fans. It was the third meeting that season between the two teams, and Georgetown had won both. One game in January was very close, and though Georgetown was a dominating force and favored by nine points, as Villanova was a number eight seed in the lowest seed to reach the championship game, and in the first half, Villanova again focused on patience and perseverance. They sold the pacedown again as much as they could, as most of their wins that season had come from low scoring games, especially all throughout the tournament, and so they played a matt zone defense to counter Georgetown's physicality. They could not match their height, They could not Mauch the strength, but as long as they were in the way, they could disrupt their shots, and they focused on being patient for their shots, shooting effectively from the start, making their very first four field goals, and despite turnovers, they stayed competitive, even though Patrick Ewing showcased his dominates with three dunks in secession. However, Villanova countered with long range jumpers, not taking points in the paint but taking pivotal two's, and late in the first half, Villanova executed a stalled offense for nearly two minutes, as there was no shot clock in the NCAA at this time, as the following year, partly maybe due to this game, they would institute a shot clock, but they ran an offense to the movie Hoosiers, where they got the lead and tried to hold onto the ball as long as they could, and they held onto the ball for almost two minutes, where they hit a key back as time expired, giving them a lead at halftime twenty nine to twenty eight. Then in the second half, Villanova shot in astonishing seventy eight percent from the field, going twenty two for twenty eight, a fee unmatched in NCAA history, where early they scored by drawing fouls from Ewing, who picked up three thousand secession, limiting his defensive presents as he would interrupt shots in the middle, which gave Villanova the space they needed to continue their scoring. And with just two minutes left in the game, Villanova took the control of the ball and Georgetown attempted to force turnovers but failed and even though Villanova missed some free throws, Georgetown failed to capitalized. And then in the final seconds, the ball was in the inbounded to Dwayne McLean, who held the possession as time expired. When they held the lead sixty six to sixty four, Eddie Pinckney scored sixteen points and had six rebounds, being named the most Outstanding Player, effectively neutralizing Georgetown great Patrick Ewing, holding him to fourteen points and getting him into foul trouble that limited him throughout the game. Now, this game is known as the perfect game. Now it wasn't perfect. There were shots missed, but the Villanova had a record seventy eight percent of field coal percentage that has still not been broken in any championship game. The reason this is the perfect game is if they did not shoot that well, they would have lost. They won by two points, shooting almost eighty percent, and it was the only way they could win, and they did this by shooting actual shots. With Patrick Ewing in the middle, they did not want to charge the lane, so their strategy was to take smart jump shots throughout the game, and making these smart shots helped get them the win for their first NCAA championship. Now, this game marked the end of an era, as this was the last game played without a shot clock. The next year, they would iplement a forty five second shot clot maybe due to the slowness of this game, even though it was a great underdog story, the game itself a little boring watching a team just hold the ball for over two minutes, but it was a historic moment and Villanova remains the greatest upset in nc DOUBLEA Championship history, as the Wildcats are the first and still only eight seed to win the championship, although there have been three other schools to make it to the championship game as an eight seed in Butler, Kentucky, and North Carolina. Although they did not win. Now this win really changed in c DOUBLEA. Really changed Villanova as it led them to slowly become a school that was known for basketball. Now, they didn't win another championship until twenty sixteen, and they won again in twenty eighteen under coach Jay Wright. But without this win in nineteen eighty five, they wouldn't have the history to build on that support that over time continues to build. Now Villanova is now one of the the elite basketball programs in the country, and it all started with this nineteen eighty five run where they use teamwork in defense and patience to win the whole thing. I want to thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please follow us on our social medias. We post pictures and videos of our episodes and we're on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, threads, macedon Blue Sky YouTube, wherever you like to socialize. You can follow us there. Links will be in the description and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question how many eight seeds have made the NCAA Championship And the answer is for Villanova, who's the only one to win, as well as Butler, Kentucky, and North Carolina. The griping, painted and bent steps