IT WAS SEVEN WEEKS before my 10th birthday but on this day I was in basketball heaven. The 1973 NCAA Eastern Regional final was a classic match up between Providence and ACC Champion Maryland.
Providence was led by its backcourt with First-Team All-American Ernie Diegregorio ("Ernie D") (24.6 ppg) and Kevin Stacom (17.8 ppg) and Third-Team All American Center Marvin "Bad News" Barnes (18.3 ppg) who anchored the running offense with 19 rebounds per game.** Providence came in 26-2 having won its last 15 games including victories over ranked Jacksonville, St. Joseph's (season and tournament) and St. John's and trouncing Chuch Daly's #18 Penn in the semi-finals with Barnes scoring 20 points on 10-10 shooting. This was a sweet victory since then #2 Penn had eliminated the Friars the year before in the first round.
To understand what made this Friar team so amazing, you had to see them in action because few people handled the ball like Ernie D. Coach Gavitt said only two players ever made him stand up and clap - Bob Cousey and Ernie D. The brief clips below are good examples of this. Believe me, I know how the Soviets felt since I once tried to steal the ball from Ernie D and he was faster than the Roadrunner.
Coach Gavitt was up against Maryland's Lefty Driesell whose Terps also featured three future NBA-ers in big men Tom McMillan and Len Elmore (still the ACC's all-time leading rebounder) and guard John Lucas - the latter two are part of the all-time Maryland starting five.
What I remember from this game are 4 things:
- Curt Gowdy butchering Ernie's last name like Frankie Valli trying to sing country;
- Ernie getting cosmic revenge of some sorts by faking out the NBC camera crew with his passing wizardry;
- The growing sense of dred with each foul Ernie picked up until he fouled out with twelve minutes to go with the Friars up by 12; and
- My amazement as the rest of the team - Barnes, Stacom, Fran Costello - played their best twelve minutes of the year and Providence literally ran away with the game.
| FRIAR FOOTNOTES |
|
(1) Only Kermit Washington of basketball "powerhouse" - and my future alma mater - American University snabbed more boards that year than Marvin Barnes. (2) If Lefty was mad when he left Charlotte, I can only imagine how he felt a year later when his #4 Terps lost in overtime in the ACC Finals to eventual champ NC State and thus were denied an NCAA bid which at that time permitted only the conference champion to qualify. |
19730315PennvsProvidenceWJAR[1].wma
FRIAR VICTORY SIGNALED
END OF PALESTRA ERA
The rise of Providence as the new "Beast of the East" and subsequent Big East Conference signaled the sunset of the Palestra basketball - the Philadelphia arena known as the Cathedral of College Basketball as this was once home for all of the Big 5 Teams.
From 1964-73, the Big 5 had a combined 20 twenty-win seasons, 11 Top 20 seasons (AP poll) and only 4 losing seasons amongst them all.
|
LA SALLE |
UPENN |
ST. JOSEPH'S |
TEMPLE |
VILLANVA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Record |
153-101 |
182-80 |
193-84 |
181-93 |
198-78 |
|
20 Win Seasons |
3 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
6 |
|
Best Season |
23-1 |
28-1 |
26-3 |
23-8 |
54-4 |
|
Losing Seasons |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Post Season Play |
3 |
4 |
7 |
69 |
9 |
|
NIT |
2 |
|
2 |
3 (won 1969) |
4 |
|
NCAA |
1 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
5 |
|
Sweet 16 |
|
3 |
2 |
|
4 |
|
Elite 8 |
|
2 |
|
|
2 |
|
Final 4 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
Finals |
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
Top 20 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
|
4 |
|
Top 10 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
|
3 |
|
Top 5 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
