1977 Notre Dame Basketball: A Roller-Coaster Ride To The Sweet 16

Notre Dame basketball came into the 1977 season with a veteran team that was coming off three consecutive Sweet 16 appearances. The Irish continued to enjoy success and again made it to the regional semifinal round of the NCAA Tournament. But a roller-coaster ride in the regular season ended with a heartbreaking defeat in March.

MOVING FORWARD WITHOUT DANTLEY

Head coach Digger Phelps had a balanced lineup, where six players ultimately averaged in double figures. Toby Knight was the senior leader down low, averaging 15 points/11 rebounds. Duck Williams was the leader in the backcourt, and he knocked down 18ppg. Everyone from Dave Battoon in the low post to Bruce Flowers and Bill Paterno at the forward spots to Rich Branning at guard could produce.

Preseason expectations were still shaped more by who was gone—Adrian Dantley, the All-American forward, future NBA Hall of Famer, and one of the most prolific scorers in the nation, was off to the pros. Notre Dame opened the season at a somewhat pedestrian #14 in the polls.

THE ROLLER-COASTER’S EARLY ASCENT

By the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Irish faithful needed something to cheer about. A rocky 1976 football regular season ended with a loss at USC. The basketball program stepped up in a visit to a eighth-ranked Maryland in College Park.

Knight scored 19 points, most of them in the second half. The Irish and Terps went to overtime. Trailing 79-78, Duck drilled a 20-footer—the kind of shot that would be a three-pointer in today’s game—that delivered an 80-79 win.

After a couple more wins, Notre Dame went to the opposite coast to visit third-ranked UCLA. Duck knocked down 22 points and the Irish pulled out another thriller, this one 66-63. Notre Dame came home to face Indiana. The defending national champs were in a major rebuild mode and the Irish won 78-65.

Notre Dame was up to #2 in the polls as they got set to play a neutral site-game with sixth-ranked Kentucky in Louisville. The Irish were thriving. But the roller-coaster ride was just starting.

THE DOWNSIDE OF THE ROLLER-COASTER

The Irish took a 102-78 beating at the hands of the Wildcats. Then, Notre Dame went to Princeton and lost to the eventual Ivy League champs. A road trip to face a good Villanova team ended with a 64-62 loss.

Getting eleven days off didn’t produce any changes. Notre Dame went to Marquette in mid-January. Whle the Warriors would ultimately win the national championship in Al McGuire’s final season, they didn’t yet have their sea legs. Notre Dame played poorly in the second half and lost 78-69.

UCLA came to South Bend to complete what was then a regular home-and-home series between the two schools. The Bruins handed the Irish a 70-65 loss.

By the end of January, that promising Notre Dame start had turned into an 8-5 record and a fall out of the national rankings. In this era of college basketball, that was no small thing. Only 32 teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Irish had to play with some urgency if they were even going to make it to March.

MOMENTUM REBUILT

A softer part of the schedule allowed Notre Dame to start getting the roller-coaster moving back upward. They won eight straight games, including a win over NCAA Tournament-bound Holy Cross. A loss at mediocre West Virginia temporarily halted the good vibes, but the Irish exploded for 224 combined points in wins over Loyola-Chicago and a LaSalle team coached by Paul Westhead—who would soon be coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, and in later years coach the famous run-and-shoot teams of Loyola Marymount.

The competition might not have been great, and the Irish might have still been unranked. But winning ten of eleven got some momentum going, in time to host the University of San Francisco. The Dons were a top basketball program in this era, and this year’s edition had Bill Cartwright at center and came to South Bend ranked #1 in the country.

In a sizzling game played for a national audience, Notre Dame led 61-58 midway through the second half. Duck stepped up and ripped off seven straight points, the most significant stretch in a game where he scored 25. The Irish pulled away to a 93-82 win. They moved back into the polls at #15.

STEERING TOWARDS THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

Notre Dame got a 76-68 win at rival DePaul, who was going through a disappointing, injury-riddled season. Then the Irish blew out a bad Xavier team by 31 points. Notre Dame ended the regular season at 19-6. They got an NCAA bid and were placed in the East Regional.

There was no seeding done in the NCAAs until 1979. Had there been, North Carolina would have almost certainly been the top seed in the East and they were on the Irish side of the eight-team regional bracket. Kentucky was on the opposite side. For the Round of 32, Notre Dame had a winnable game against Hofstra.

OUTSCORING HOFSTRA

The Palestra in Philadelphia was the venue. Hofstra came in with a 23-6 record and they had a 30ppg scorer in 6’7” forward Rich Laurel. The backcourt had good scorers in Ken Rood and John Iriving. The Flying Dutchmen also had six seniors playing important roles

Laurel scored 35, Irving added 17 points/12 rebounds, and the Irish were outrebounded, 45-37. They countered with better team defense and lineup balance. Notre Dame shot 53 percent while Hofstra was held to 40 percent. Duck scored 25 points, Knight posted a 19/12 line and Flowers added 14 points/9 rebounds of his own. Paterno came off the bench, hit five of six shots from the floor and scored 14 more.

Notre Dame led by as many as 17 in the second half, held off a gutsy surge from Hofstra and sealed a 90-83 win. For the fourth straight year, they were going to the Sweet 16. And they were returning to the place this roller-coaster ride had begun, in College Park, for the regionals. North Carolina was waiting.

ONE LAST ROLLER-COASTER RIDE

The Irish and Tar Heels were the high-profile game on the Sweet 16 docket. Notre Dame shot the lights out, hitting 67 percent from the floor to 44 percent for UNC. The Irish controlled the boards. Knight had a big 22/14 night, while Branning scored 18 and Duck chipped in 17 more. They led by ten points at the half.

But…Notre Dame couldn’t take care of the basketball, losing turnover margin by a decisive 21-8. The Tar Heels got 70 shots from the floor against just 45 for the Irish, drastically negating the edge Notre Dame had in shooting percentage.

North Carolina took 77-75 lead late. Duck knocked down a jumper to tie the game. The Tar Heels held for the final shot. With two seconds left, a foul was called on Notre Dame. Two free throws by the great UNC point guard Phil Ford handed Notre Dame a 79-77 defeat.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES & REDEMPTION

If you look at this game and season in the big picture, you can get some perspective. Notre Dame had opened the season ranked #14, meaning no one expected them to advance past the Sweet 16. They lost to a national powerhouse in the NCAA Tournament.

But this was also a game that, the way it played out, the Irish had no business losing. In the context of the broader NCAA field, top-ranked Michigan would get knocked out. North Carolina reached the national championship game before losing to Marquette. If Notre Dame closes this win out, who knows who different the rest of the tournament unfolds.

This was also becoming the kind of game Phelps needed to win to silence the questions that were rising about the string of Sweet 16 losses, now at four straight. The good news for Digger is that the answer was soon in coming—in 1978, Notre Dame made the Final Four.