Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? 4. San Francisco, March 5, 1977 — The No. 1-ranked San Francisco Dons were 29-0. The 18-6 Irish needed this win to receive a bid to the 32-team NCAA Tournament. This might have been the loudest the arena has ever been. Led by Duck Williams' 25 points, Notre Dame pulled off the 93-82 upset. In an unprecedented move, NBC Sports awarded the MVP honors to the Notre Dame student body. "Twenty-nine (clap, clap) and one (clap, clap)! 29 (clap, clap) and one (clap, clap) …" The bond between Phelps and the student body during this time was as powerful as it gets. 5. UCLA, Dec. 11, 1976 — Freshman guard Rich Branning, a California native, put the Irish ahead on a driving layup and then iced the game with two free throws in a 66-63 Irish triumph that had Phelps danc- ing in front of the Bruins' student body after Notre Dame snapped a 115-game winning streak against non-conference foes at Pauley Pavilion. About 2,000 members of the student body greeted the team in the Main Circle at Notre Dame when the team arrived back home around 2 a.m. Incredibly, it was the first of four straight wins by the Irish in Pauley Pavilion, three against top-five teams and the fourth against a Bruins unit that would finish as the NCAA runner-up. 6. DePaul, Feb. 27, 1980 — In our opinion, this was the greatest and most exciting game in the Joyce Center from start to finish, and maybe the one with the most talent on the floor. The No. 1 and 27-0 Blue Demons were led by Mark Aguirre, Clyde Bradshaw, Terry Cummings and Teddy Grubbs. Notre Dame countered with future first-round picks Tripucka, Orlando Woolridge and Bill Hanzlik, plus second-round and 25th overall pick Tracy Jackson (which would be first round today). In the double-overtime thriller finally won by Notre Dame (76-74), Tripucka tallied 28 points, and Wool- ridge's two free throws with 19 seconds left in the second OT were the deciding points. 7. Marquette, Feb. 26, 1978 — The defending national champs were No. 1 again with a 22-2 ledger, took a 17-point first-half lead and went into the halftime locker room with a 39-25 cushion. Tripucka then went on a tear with 15 second-half points while the 6-7 sophomore Bill Hanzlik was inserted to shut down All-American guard Butch Lee. It succeeded in the 65-59 triumph. 8. The 1973 NIT: March 17-25 — Back then, this was a prestigious event because only conference champs and a few independents could play in the 25-team NCAA Tournament. So this 16-team field — with all the games played in New York's Madison Square Garden — featured what would be a bunch of No. 2 to No. 4 seeds now in the NCAA Tournament. The Irish defeated USC (69-65), Louisville (79-71) and North Carolina (78-71), before being edged by Virginia Tech (92-91 in OT). Along with the 1978 Final Four, this ranks as Notre Dame's most impressive postseason tourney run with three straight victories on a neutral court. 9. North Carolina, Feb. 1, 1987 — The seventh and final Notre Dame victory under Phelps against a No. 1-ranked team. The Irish basketball prominence began to slip in the 1980s, but this brought back the thunder with a conquest of the 18-1 Tar Heels. Notre Dame fell behind 32-16 before point guard David Rivers and rejuvenated center Gary Voce spearheaded the 60-58 comeback victory en route to Phelps' final Sweet 16 appearance. T-10. Kentucky (Dec. 27, 1980) and Virginia (Feb. 22, 1981) — During the senior year of the vaunted Tripucka-Jackson-Woolridge trio, the Irish twice tripped up the No. 1-ranked teams. First, after having lost six straight to Kentucky in "neutral" Freedom Hall in Louisville, Tripucka's 30 points propelled a 67-61 upset of the 6-0 Wildcats. Two months later versus National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson's Cavaliers, Woolridge tracked down a loose ball and converted a 16-foot "Hail Mary" shot that vanquished the top-ranked team (57-56) again. — Lou Somogyi