Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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60 APRIL 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? The overshadowed California native was the steadying hand of the 1978 Final Four team BY LOU SOMOGYI F orty years ago, the greatest com- bination of star power and depth was formed on a Notre Dame men's basketball team, resulting in the school's first and still lone Final Four appearance. That 1977-78 edition featured 10 players who were drafted by the NBA, and eight of who played in "The League." Five were selected among the top 26 players after their senior years: Orlando Woolridge (No. 6 overall in 1981), Kelly Tripucka (No. 12 in 1981), Bill Hanzlik (No. 20 in 1980), Tracy Jackson (No. 25 in 1981) and Bruce Flowers (No. 26 in 1979). Not even included in that group is Bill Laimbeer — drafted in the third round before embarking on a stellar 14-year NBA career — and the senior duo of Dave Batton and Don "Duck" Williams, the top two scorers on that Final Four team. Yet nobody was on the floor more than sophomore point guard Rich Branning with his 950 minutes in 30 games. Head coach Digger Phelps re- ferred to it as his "Noah's Ark" team that had two of everything: • Laimbeer and Flowers provided physicality in the post with "10 fouls to give," as Phelps put it. • Power forwards Batton and Woolridge complemented each other with either superb perimeter shoot- ing (Batton) or electrifying inside moves and dunks (Woolridge). • Small forwards Tripucka and Jackson were two of the greatest pure shooters ever to walk the campus. • Williams was a force on offense (averaging 18.2 points the previous year as a junior), while the rangy 6-7 Hanzlik was one of the nation's elite perimeter defenders. • At point guard, though, Branning was the one player Phelps was more reluctant to take out while freshman backup Stan Wilcox (now the direc- tor of athletics at Florida State) de- veloped. The first player in Notre Dame an- nals to average double-figure scoring in all four of his seasons (1976-80), Branning ran the show on the floor, often deferring while leading the team in assists (still No. 9 on the all- time chart). He never ended up making an NBA roster after getting selected No. 78 overall in 1980, but his steadying hand at Notre Dame helped make the Irish a consistent top-five to top- 10 mainstay throughout his career. BLESSED BEGINNINGS Growing up in Huntington Beach, Calif., during the 1960s and most of the 1970s, Branning was a regular at USC football and UCLA basketball games, where he truly saw the best of both worlds. USC football won three national titles from 1967-74, while the John Wooden UCLA dynasty won seven consecutive national titles from 1967-73. The late Dick Enberg was the play- by-play broadcaster for the Bruins, which helped feed Branning's affin- ity for basketball. Meanwhile, from 1964-69, the head coach at nearby Marina High School was Lute Olson, who would lead Iowa to the 1980 Final Four and Arizona to four more Final Fours, highlighted by the 1997 national title. Olsen would open the gym doors regularly for the ambitious Bran- ning to practice his craft from third grade through junior high. The one problem was that even in the eighth grade, Branning stood only 5-2. "I would watch him coach to help me learn the game," Branning re- called. "One day, I heard him tell my dad, 'Your son could be a good player — maybe great — if he only grows.'" The growth spurt for the 6-3 Bran- ning occurred in high school, and by his senior year he joined Louisville's Darrell "Dr. Dunkenstein" Griffith on Sport magazine's national high school "Dream Team" backcourt. Branning was expected to stay in state, even though he was also look- ing at other colleges. "One of the things I was told in recruiting by the California schools was, 'Rich, I know you're consider- ing Notre Dame, Michigan, Kansas, but 95 percent of Californians — par- ticularly Southern Californians — that leave the state end up coming back," Branning said. Two events in Branning's high school senior year helped him keep a more open mind. One, Wooden stepped down from his post after leading the Bruins to their 10th national title in March 1975. "If Coach Wooden would have been there, it would have been very difficult for me to say no," Branning said. Two, one of the foes Branning had played against in the California In- terscholastic Federation Champion- ships, Laimbeer, signed with Notre Dame in 1975, providing some ground-breaking in the state. Meanwhile, Notre Dame began emerging as a basketball power in its own right, first with Austin Carr leading them into the top 10 in 1970 and 1971, and then third-year head coach Phelps putting his stamp on the program with a 26-3 ledger in Branning averaged double-digits in scoring all four seasons he played at Notre Dame, becoming the first in school history to achieve the feat, and helped lead the Irish to the 1978 Final Four. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS Rich Branning, 1976-80 Point Guard