1979-80

Denny Crum played for John Wooden at UCLA in the late 1950s and served as the Wizard's top assistant and chief recruiter from 1967–70. Then, after four NCAA championships, Crum left to coach Louisville in 1970–71.

In 1972 and again in '75, Crum got the Cardinals into the Final Four and both times lost to Wooden and the Bruins in the semifinals. In 1980, Crum & Co. returned to the Big Dance, beat Iowa in the semifinals and met UCLA (who else?) for the championship.

But Larry Brown was coaching the Bruins now. So with Wooden gone and Darrell Griffith (23 points) and Rodney McCray (11 boards) leading Louisville's Doctors of Dunk, Crum won his first NCAA title as head man.

Player of the Year Mark Aguirre and No.1 DePaul were eliminated by UCLA in the second round of the West Regional.

The NCAA tournament field, which expanded from 32 to 40 teams in 1979, grew to 48 in 1980 (24 automatic qualifiers and 24 at-large teams). The NIT, meanwhile, kept pace, adding 16 teams for a total of 32. In other words, 80 Division I teams now had a shot at a postseason tournament—double the number of berths available just 10 years ago.

Final AP Top 20

Writers' poll taken before tournament.

Note: Louisville won the NCAAs.

Consensus All-America

(In alphabetical order)

First Team

·         Mark Aguirre, DePaul

·         Michael Brooks, LaSalle

·         Joe Barry Carroll, Purdue

·         Darrell Griffith, Louisville

·         Kyle Macy, Kentucky

Second Team

·         Mike Gminski, Duke

·         Albert King, Maryland

·         Mike O'Koren, North Carolina

·         Kelvin Ransey, Ohio St.

AP POLL

1. DePaul
2. LSU
3. Kentucky
4. Louisville
5. Oregon State
6. Syracuse
7. Indiana
8. Maryland
9. Ohio State
10. Georgetown

UPI COACHES POLL

1. DePaul
2. LSU
3. Kentucky
4. Louisville
5. Oregon State
6. Syracuse
7. Indiana
8. Maryland
9. Ohio State
10. Georgetown

HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

1980
*Thomas B. Barlow, Player
*Ferenc Hepp, Contributor
*J. Walter Kennedy, Contributor
*Arad A. McCutchan, Coach

Cardinals fly high

He was a legend before he graduated from high school.

Not only was Darrell Griffith regarded as the finest prep player in America in the winter of 1976, but he also was said to be one of the best ever -- in a league with the young Oscar Robertson and Jerry West.

The 6-foot-4 leaper from Male High School in Louisville, Ky., was the subject of national magazine articles, an intense recruiting battle and considerable speculation.

There even was talk that he would bypass college entirely and report directly to the American Basketball Association, which just happened to have a franchise in town. But in late May, with the ABA on its way out of business, Griffith called a news conference to announce his intention of enrolling at the local university.

Griffith had big plans.

"I hope," he said that afternoon, Louisville coach Denny Crum standing by his side, "to win several national championships."

Such great expectations were shared by his teammates, Louisville students and fans. As a result, the hometown hero endured a frustrating three years. The Cardinals won no less than 21 games in each season and Griffith treated his admirers to some spectacular performances, but Louisville failed to reach the Final Four, let alone capture an NCAA title.

The 1980 season, which marked the expansion of the NCAA Tournament field to 48 teams (eight more than in 1979 and 16 more than in 1978), would be his last opportunity.

For that reason, Griffith spent hour after hour in the gym during the summer. No one had to teach him how to jump, which he did better than any collegian since David Thompson arrived at North Carolina State, or to shoot.

But his game lacked the intensity and consistency necessary to boost the Cardinals to the top. It wasn't until his senior year that Griffith delivered on his promise, doing so with astonishing virtuosity.

The 1980 Cardinals were the youngest Louisville team in a decade. Crum started a freshman, three sophomores and one senior. But that senior was unrelenting, and Louisville reached the Final Four in Indianapolis with a 31-3 record and the mantle of favorite.

Iowa, the Cardinals' semifinal opponent, boasted a wonderful guard of its own in Ronnie Lester. The senior had sparked the Hawkeyes through the East Regional, where they made a stunning second-half comeback to beat Georgetown in the final, but he had spent a good part of the season resting a wounded knee.

That knee finally gave out after barely 12 minutes of play against Louisville. Lester scored Iowa's first 10 points as the Hawkeyes fell behind, 12-10, but about five minutes later he was helped to the bench and then to the locker room, from which he failed to return. That was bad news for his teammates, whose dreadful shooting was clear evidence of their Final Four jitters.

Meanwhile, Griffith was hoisting rainbow jumpers over the Hawkeyes defense and hitting with monotonous regularity. He attempted 12 field goals in the first half and made eight.

Still, Iowa played tenaciously and, less than four minutes into the second half, cut the Louisville lead to two points.

Time for Griffith to take charge. He scored baskets. He drew defenders to him and then whipped passes to Derek Smith, Wiley Brown and Rodney McCray underneath. He handled the ball flawlessly. And the Cardinals pulled away to an 80-72 victory.

Griffith, the driving force behind the "Doctors of Dunk," totaled 34 points, six assists, three steals, two blocked shots and at least one astonished opponent.

"I've played against a lot of guys who can jump," said Bob Hansen, one of several Hawkeyes who attempted to guard Griffith. "But they came down."

Ironically, the only team now standing in the way of Louisville's first NCAA title was the UCLA Bruins, who had denied the Cardinals on the occasion of their previous Final Four appearance.

There had been even greater consternation in Westwood than in Louisville during the intervening years. Two coaches, Gene Bartow and Gary Cunningham, had succumbed to the pressure of trying to replace John Wooden.

It fell to Larry Brown, a rookie college coach who had done time in the pros, to return UCLA to the championship game.

The Bruins arrived on the strength of a 67-62 semifinal victory over a Purdue team that had the home-state advantage in Market Square Arena.

Brown's team advanced to the title game despite a lineup that was even more youthful than Louisville's. Four of the top seven Bruins were freshmen, including two starters (guards Rod Foster and Michael Holton) and the first two men off the bench (forward Cliff Pruitt and guard Darren Daye). A sophomore, 6-6 Mike Sanders, was UCLA's starting pivotman.

Kiki Vandeweghe, the only prominent senior, filled the same role for the Bruins as Griffith did for the Cardinals. The 6-8 forward was both his team's high scorer and its stabilizing factor.

Also like Griffith, Vandeweghe was a hometown boy who grew up minutes away from his college campus. In fact, his father, Dr. Emie Vandeweghe, was the Bruins' physician as well as a former basketball player of some note. He had been an All-American at Colgate and played for the New York Knicks while attending medical school.

There was considerable talent on the other side of the family as well. Mel Hutchins, Kiki Vandeweghe's mother's brother, had been an All-American at Brigham Young before advancing to the NBA.

While Vandeweghe might have been blessed with the genes for the sport, he lacked seasoning when it came time to choose a college, and he had to sell himself to the major college of his choice, unlike Griffith.

Vandeweghe had been a national age-group champion swimmer at 10 and 12 before an early case of burnout convinced him his future lay on land. He didn't start working at basketball until the ninth grade.

"Basketball is one of the few things that did not come easily to me," he said. "Since I'm the type of person who does not enjoy not doing things well, I worked at it."

And worked and worked. He played in four or five summer leagues, trying to make up for lost time. He succeeded in making himself into a nice player as a high-school senior. Not a great player. Not a fully developed player. But a nice player.

Utah expressed interest. And BYU offered a scholarship. But young Vandeweghe wanted to attend UCLA, which was so close to his home he could and did walk to Pauley Pavilion.

It wasn't until Vandeweghe had starred in several postseason all-star games and was ready to announce his decision that Bartow made contact. Kiki got the last scholarship to UCLA.

He might have been the least advanced member of the freshman class, but in four years no one improved more than Vandeweghe. He went from being a quiet role player to a leader of a team otherwise dominated by freshmen.

And his game flowered in the NCAA Tournament. Vandeweghe was at his best against Purdue in the semifinals, scoring 24 points in a performance that featured 9-for-12 shooting from the field and included three resounding dunks in the face of 7-1 consensus All-American Joe Barry Carroll.

Though the Bruins already had lost nine games that season -- more than any UCLA team since 1963 -- Kiki and his youthful teammates gave Brown an excellent chance to become the first rookie college coach to win the national title.

The championship game was anything but a classic.

These might have been the quickest teams to meet in an NCAA final, and they appeared at times to be caught up in a two-legged version of the Indy 500. UCLA would race in one direction, then chase Louisville the other way, neither remembering to take the basketball along for the ride.

Speed was all that seemed to matter.

"I'd be running," said sophomore guard Jerry Eaves, one of Louisville's sports cars, "and I'd turn around and five UCLA players would pass me. Then UCLA would run and five of us would pass them."

All of which left two flustered teams on the court -- and three officials blowing whistles, signaling the other way. By halftime, when UCLA led a 28-26, the Bruins and Cardinals had combined for 16 turnovers, 11 steals and 18 fouls.

The second half didn't look much better than the first. The totals then were 17 turnovers, seven steals and 20 fouls.

"It's funny," Eaves said. "I looked at the two teams and really thought there was going to be a lot of points scored."

There weren't. Louisville managed only 59 points, but that was enough. High-powered UCLA scored 54.

The game remained close through most of the second half, but UCLA took a five-point lead with 6:28 left. The key play that shifted the momentum back to Louisville was a great defensive effort by Eaves and Brown, a 6-8 sophomore.

As Vandeweghe drove for a dunk and a potential six-point lead with about four minutes to play, the two Cardinals caused Vandeweghe's off-balance shot to bounce off the rim. Brown collected the rebound, and Eaves' 16-foot jump shot with 3:26 left brought Louisville back within two, 54-52.

Another anxious moment came when Smith, a 6-6 sophomore forward, went to the free-throw line in a one-and-one situation with Louisville clinging to a 56-54 lead in the final minute. At that point, Crum remembered Terry Howard's critical miss in San Diego five years earlier.

"Thoughts of the '75 game flashed through my mind," the coach said. "I thought, 'Let's not let it happen again. Let's make the free throws.' "

Smith made both. Louisville had its championship.

Fittingly, it was Griffith's 18-foot jumper that broke a 54-54 tie and proved to be the winning basket. The consensus All-American was the only Louisville player in double figures, finishing with 23 points and the knowledge that he had fulfilled his mission.

Griffith hadn't won several championships, but he had won one, and that was one more than Louisville had won before.