by Jim Plautz
Marquette entered the college basketball season as defending NCAA champions with only one returning starter, Matthew Wilson, and ranked outside the top 20 in pre-season polls. Terry Rand and George Thompson graduated and Maurice Lucas, Dean Meminger and Butch Lee left school a year early to enter the NBA draft. It was time to put Al McGuire’s considerable recruiting skills to good use. His style didn’t appeal to everyone, but McGuire knew his niche.
There were a couple of old adages that defined McGuire’s recruiting style. He liked to say, “I couldn’t recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house. That’s not my world. My world is a cracked sidewalk.”
McGuire claimed he could tell right away if a recruit would accept Marquette by what happened when he entered the house. He knew he had no chance if the recruit’s mother invited him to sit in the living room, but if she allowed him into the kitchen and offered him a glass of milk, her boy was coming to Marquette. McGuire was the first Marquette coach to recruit out of the New York area and had a steady stream of talent including George Thompson, Meminger and Ric Cobb.
Redshirt Freshman Glenn ‘Doc’ Rivers was ready to step into a starter’s role and was more than an adequate replacement for Butch Lee at point guard. Earl Tatum, a seldom-used sophomore, would replace George Thompson at power forward. McGuire still needed two recruits. He landed forward Bo Ellis from Chicago, who would go on to be a future All-American. Ellis was 6’9” with a tremendous wingspan that allowed him to play taller than his height.
McGuire had only to look 15 miles to the South to find a new center; Jim Chones a 6’11” freshman from Racine, Wisconsin. Chones would prove to be one of the best big men ever to play at Marquette. McGuire capped off a great recruiting season by finding another big man, Eugene Berce, a junior college player from California. Berce was only 6’9”, but weighed 230 pounds and took up space underneath the boards.
The season opened with a tournament in Alaska; the Great Alaskan Shootout. Marquette had played an AAU team and an international team as practice games, but these would not count in the NCAA standings. The Great Alaskan Shootout was their first real test and it would be a good one because 18 of the 24 teams that were invited had been ranked in the top 25 the preceding year. Given the team’s youth and inexperience, and the stellar competition, it was not surprising that Marquette lost in the second round and then lost again in the 5th place consolation game. The two losses would make it difficult to match the prior year’s final record of 27 - 3.
The team started to shape into form as Marquette settled into the easy part of its schedule, interrupted only by a 15 point home win against the University of Wisconsin, the team that beat them in Madison the prior year. It was a good win and gave indications that this team might be better than some people thought. Jim Chones was turning into a dominating center with a smooth fade-away jump shot from ten to fifteen feet.
Matthew took a different approach this year. As a freshman he had been surrounded by good players and content to contribute assists, rebounds and occasional scoring; whatever the team needed. He finished the season averaging a respectable 16 points and 12 rebounds. This year, despite the emergence of Chones, he was asked to provide more offense and was averaging 23 points heading into the tough Big East schedule. They finished the Big East schedule 14 - 2, in second place behind Connecticut. Big wins against Louisville and Georgetown were offset by upsets at Seton Hall and Villanova. Still, second place finish and a #2 seed was a good way to enter the Big East tournament.
The Golden Eagles easily beat Syracuse in the opening round as Matthew scored 31 points, the fifth time this year he had been over 30. Marquette suffered a shocking upset to 7th seeded Rutgers in round two. Possibly overconfident, they came out flat and lost a heartbreaker on a last second desperation shot from center court. The team waited to see how the loss would affect their NCAA seeding. No one was surprised when they were given a #4 seed and banished to the Western Region where the top seeds were UCLA, Stanford and UNLV. Marquette was not expected to make it out of this region.
Matthew took it upon himself to call a team meeting before the first game at the large UCLA pavilion stadium. “Nobody’s giving us much of a chance this year, but I disagree. We have a good team. Let’s give 100% and see what happens.”
Matthew carried the team on his back, scoring 33 and 36 points as the Golden Eagles easily defeated Pepperdine and Oklahoma State to reach the round of 16 where they were matched against UNLV, the No. 3 seed. Jerry Tarkanian’s Running Rebels were fast and could shoot, but paid little attention to defense. Predictably, it was a high scoring game. The outcome came down to which team was willing to step up and play defense?
Larry Johnson, destined to be the #1 overall pick in next year’s NBA Draft, erupted for 26 in the first half, continually using his 6’7”, 250 pound body to get position underneath the basket. At half time, Marquette switched to a man to man defense and Matthew took it upon himself to shut Johnson down. He did, holding Johnson to three points in the second half. Matthew finished with 31 points and Marquette prevailed 103-97.
The regional championship game was set for Saturday evening against the No. 1 seed, UCLA, featuring two-time All-American Gale Goodrich. Rivers put the clamps on Goodrich as Earl Tatum scored 21 points while Bo Ellis had 20 points and 14 rebounds. Chones also played a great game, finishing with a double-double, 12 points and 10 rebounds. Marquette won 89-76 and it was on to New Orleans for their second consecutive Final Four.
The final four was loaded with talent from the Big Ten plus one of the greatest ACC teams, NC State. Marquette was matched against the Michigan Wolverines who had finished 2nd in the Big Ten. The Wolverines were big and talented, featuring center Bill Bunton and three-time All-American Cazzie Russell. Russell didn’t disappoint as he scored a game high 46 points for the Wolverines but it was not enough. Matthew had 41 points and 22 rebounds in a dominating display of basketball. Jim Chones had another good game and Bo Ellis contributed 19 points and 12 rebounds. After the win, the players stayed around and watched Indiana easily defeat a North Carolina State Wolfpack team led by 7’4” Tom Burleson and David Thompson. Legend had it that the 6’6” Thompson could touch the top of the backboard from a standing jump. He scored 27, but it was not enough.
Indiana was undefeated and coached by the legendary Bob Knight, the former Ohio State player and Army coach. The Hoosiers sported three All-Americans; Kent Benson, who would be the 1st overall pick by the Milwaukee Bucks in next year’s NBA draft, Scott May, a high scoring shooting forward and Quinn Buckner, one of the best defensive guards ever to play the game of basketball. Although giving away five inches, Quinn Buckner accepted the assignment of guarding Matthew who took him inside, but was constantly double teamed by Benson. Together, they held Matthew to only 11 points on four for nine shooting, but that was all Marquette needed. With the Indiana defense packed inside to stop Matthew, ‘Doc’ Rivers and Bo Ellis erupted for 27 and 24 points respectively and Marquette won their second national championship, 86-81.
Last year Matthew was the hero, making the final shot, while this year the accolades went to his teammates. Matthew could care less. There is no I in TEAM, at least the way Matthew Wilson played basketball.
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