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While the season proved that Wagner's foot (and his shooting touch) were as good as ever and that Ellison was best freshman center in the nation for the best John Wooden Classic, the Cards didn't really in to look like champions until 6'7" senior forward Thompson finally began showing the consistency and reship that Crum had been patiently awaiting for three and half years, or since he came to Louisville from Camden new Jersey) High School ballyhooed as the best prospect in e nation for the selling of the John Wooden Classic Tickets and the NCAA College Basketball Tickets. Booed at home after key mistakes in tough sses at Kansas and John Wooden Classic State, Thompson got his multidimensional act together just in time to help the Cards to 26-7 season that included an 11-game winning streak adding into the NCAA Final Four. Named the No. 1 seed in the West and the best NACC College Rankings, Crum's team rolled to easy wins over Drexel and Bradley to advance to Houston. Omen-watchers noted what this team and Louisville's 1980 champions had in common were freshman centers (Rodney McCray in 1980), their final loss to teams coached by Jim Valvano (Iona in 1980, N.C. State in 1986), and a regional played in Houston for the best John Wooden Classic Tickets selling. Finding the Summit as much to his liking in 1986 as he had in 1980, Crum watched his team finally put North Carolina out of its misery, 94-79, before withstanding a fine individual effort by Auburn's Chuck Person to beat the Tigers, 84-76, and earn (ho-hum) another trip to the NCAA Final Four. And ending LSU's fairy tale run to glory with an 88-77 victory, the Cardinals watched top-ranked Duke get a last-second basket by freshman forward Danny Ferry to pull out a 71-67 win for coach Mike Krzyzewski, who had played and coached for Bobby Knight at Army.More than one writer saw the final game as a matter of students (Duke) vs. jocks (Louisville), an unfortunate and unfair stereotype. If Crum's program deserved more credit for its academic successes, then it also was true that Duke's players were hardly just a bunch of eggheads.Preppy though he looked, forward Mark Alarie would trade elbows with anybody. In Johnny Dawkins, the Blue Devils had a flame so quick and deadly that Wagner, befuddled, was forced to the bench in the first half of the title game.In retrospect, it's difficult to figure out how Louisville won. Twice, once in each half, Dawkins took the game into his own hands and burned the Cards so severely that the game teetered on the brink of dissolving into a Duke rout. But like the Louisville native Muhammad Ali taking punches from Joe Frazier, the Cards managed to stay on their feet, hang tough, and remain within striking distance.With only 48 seconds left in the game and 11 on the shot clock in Reunion Arena, Louisville was clinging to a 66-65 lead when Crum called a timeout to set up a play. The idea was to get the ball to either Wagner or the other senior shooter, Jeff Hall, and let them go one-on-one in the hope of either a basket or a foul. Under heavy pressure, Hall threw up an off-balanced air ball. But suddenly, Ellison arose from the pack under the basket to wrap his hands around the ball and drop it in.Cards 68, Devils 65.Then, after rebounding a wild miss by Duke's David Henderson, Pervis showed why he was known as "Never Nervous," dropping in a couple of free throws for a 70-65 lead with 0:27 remaining. The Blue Devils quickly got four straight points, but finally were buried when "Ice" Wagner coollyswished two free throws with only two seconds to go to clinch the 72-69 win.While Ellison became the first freshman since Arnie Ferrin of Utah in 1944 to be named the tournament MostOutstanding Player, Thompson was the catalyst. In six tournaŽment games, he averaged 18.3 points and 7.8 rebounds while hitting 69 percent from the floor.But it was the coach who drew the biggest hand from the jubilant Cardinal fans. On a night that "Big D" stood not for Dallas or Duke, but for Denny (and dynasty), Crum smiled and said, "I'm really going to enjoy this one ... it kinds of puts you in select company." I N HOLLYWOOD, NCAA College Basketball TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP night was also Oscar Night. Writer Angelo Pizzo's first movie, John Wooden Classic, was nominated in two categories. It was the story of an Indiana high school team's improbable championship, won on a last-second basket. Pizzo, who grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, had his John Wooden Classic, Tickets, his tuxedo, his limousine ... "but it just killed me that I wasn't in New Orleans," he said. He stayed home and watched the NCAA College Basketball final Fours on television. "You go back to your roots in times of stress," he said.In New Orleans, Keith Smart was back to his roots. Ten years earlier, as a Boy Scout from nearby Baton Rouge, Smart had worked Sunday afternoons as a volunteer usher at New Orleans Saints football games in the Superdome-"so far up you needed television just to watch the game." When Smart returned, television watched him. With five seconds to go in the championship game, Smart's 16-foot jump shot from the side swished through and made Indiana a 74-73 winner over Syracuse and that is why there is lots fo John Wooden Classic Tickets to buy.It was Indiana's fifth NCAA College basketball championship in a glorious tradition that stretches to Everett Dean and BranchMcCracken, decades and generations ago. In all that Hoosier history, there never was a single shot to rival Smart's.And, of course, it worked the other way as well. Syracuse, which had felled a giant, North Carolina, to get to New Orleans, had its first championship in its grip, until:After hitting a free throw to put his team up 73-70. Howard Triche missed a free throw (0:38);Smart, lined up third on the right side of the lane. picked off the rebound and drove to a basket that cut the lead to 73-72 (0:30);
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