1980 Louisville Basketball: Denny Crum’s Breakthrough National Title

Denny Crum was an assistant for the great John Wooden at UCLA, when the opportunity arose to take the Louisville job in 1972. Crum inherited a program that had been a consistent winner, but had only made the Final Four in 1959. Crum promptly went to the Final Four in his first season. He went again in 1975. Both years, his former boss ultimately won the national title, but the Cardinals were coming. They reached the Sweet 16 in both 1978 and 1979. The 1980 Louisville basketball team took the final step and won the national championship.

Darrell Griffith was the biggest reason why. He averaged 23 points/5 rebounds/4 assists per game and won National Player of the Year honors. The 6’4” guard was nicknamed “Dr. Dunkenstein” and the team as a whole labeled “The Doctors of Dunk” for their ability to play around the rim.

Before playing without a center was in vogue, Crum was renowned for recruiting teams that were heavy on athletic forwards and this 1980 edition was no exception. Derek Smith and Wiley Brown were sophomores who could score and hit the boards, and they combined to average 25 points/14 rebounds per game. Rodney McCray was a 6’7” freshman and he hauled down eight more rebounds a night. Jerry Eaves chipped in eight more points per game as Griffith’s backcourt running mate

This was a young team, with Griffith the only senior leading the underclassmen. But the expectations were high, and Louisville began the year ranked #10 in the polls.

The Cardinals went on the road to face an eventual NCAA Tournament team in Tennessee and came out with a 77-75 win. They easily handled another NCAA-bound foe in Western Kentucky, 96-74 at home. On December 19, the strong non-conference slate continued with a 75-65 win over an Ohio State team that would reach the Sweet 16 in March.

A road trip to Utah a few days later produced the first loss, a 71-69 defeat. But the Utes were still a good team who would win 18 games—even though, in this more unforgiving era of March Madness, Utah did not qualify for what was then just a 48-team NCAA bracket.

On a trip to Hawaii for a holiday tournament, Louisville won two of three games, the one defeat being to Illinois, who ultimately reached the semifinals of the NIT. An 85-73 victory over yet another NCAA-bound foe in Kansas State, set the Cardinals up for conference play. Although, in spite of the strong non-conference schedule, the one loss actually dropped them down to #11. It was a lack of respect that would prove foreshadowing to seeding in the NCAA Tournament.

Louisville played in the Metro Conference, where the top competition in 1980 came from Virginia Tech and Florida State, each of whom ultimately made the NCAA bracket. It was also a league that only had seven teams, so there was still plenty of room for non-conference games in January and February. And Crum kept the quality competition coming.

The Cardinals welcomed an NCAA Tournament squad in Marquette into Freedom Hall and sent the Warriors home with a 76-63 loss. Louisville knocked off Florida State 79-73. The Cardinal record rose to 17-2 when they went to Madison Square Garden to face ninth-ranked St. John’s on the first weekend in February. Louisville won 76-71 and were ranked #4 when the polls came out the next week.

Crum’s team continued to surge in February. They nipped Virginia Tech on the road, 56-54, and then got the Hokies 77-71 in the return game at home. A 77-60 non-conference loss at Iona cooled the hot streak, but the Gaels were coached by Jim Valvano and would make the NCAA field. And Louisville bounced right back by closing the regular season with an 83-75 win at Florida State. They were 26-3, still ranked #4 nationally, and had cleared the field in the Metro by four games.

Their regular season title got them a bye into the semifinals of a conference tournament they were hosting. The Cardinals validated their dominance of the league by pounding Memphis 84-65, and then racking up a third win over Florida State, 81-72. Louisville nudged up to #2 in the polls.

But in spite of this ranking, and in spite of the impressive schedule they had played, the Cardinals were not given a 1-seed for the NCAA Tournament. Instead, they had to settle for the 2-line in the Midwest Regional.

With a 48-team bracket, the top four seeds in each regional got byes into the Round of 32. A rematch with Kansas State was ultimately what Louisville got. And they also got a hair-raising scare from the Wildcats on this afternoon in Lincoln.

Griffith had a rough shooting day, going 8-for-20, although he got his numbers with an 18/6/8 line. Louisville shot 55 percent from the floor, with Smith having a big day—20 points/7 rebounds on 9-for-14 shooting. The Cards also played good defense, limiting K-State to 45 percent shooting, and forcing star forward Rolando Blackmon into a 6-for-18 game But 19 turnovers hurt Louisville and almost eliminated them. A 67-67 tie went to overtime.

In the era before the shot clock, the kind of OT session that ensued was not uncommon. Griffith fouled out with two minutes to go. When Crum got the ball back in a 69-69 tie, he simply went to a slowdown game and held for the last shot. Tony Branch, a reserve who had played only three minutes, took that shot and got fouled. He hit two free throws. The Cardinals escaped 71-69.

It was on to Houston for the regionals and a date with 6-seed Texas A&M, who had ousted North Carolina. The Cardinals again played down to the level of their competition. Louisville only shot 40 percent, with Griffith going 9-for-24.

But they played defense and kept the Aggies to 43 percent shooting and made up for the small disparity with rebounding. Smith and McCray went for 18 combined boards. Brown added 15 points. Another game went to overtime, this one tied 53-53. Once again, Louisville only gave up a single basket in the extra session. This time, they poured it on offensively and pulled away to a 66-55 win.

A showdown with top-seeded LSU was for a trip to the Final Four. After the first two games, no one could be feeling confident about how Louisville would fare against a team that closed the season on a surge. But the Cardinals continued to play good defense and held the Tigers to 43 percent shooting. They led 31-29 at the half. Playing a much more cohesive game on offense this time, Louisville kicked into high gear after intermission.

Griffith hit seven of his 12 shots and posted a 17/8/7 line. Brown was red-hot, going 8-for-10 to score 16 points. Smith and McRay attacked the boards, and each came up with a double-double, 13/10 and 12/10, respectively. Louisville pulled away to an 86-66 rout.

The Cardinals were going to Indianapolis and Market Square Arena for the Final Four. The rest of the NCAA bracket had been gutted of favorites—something we see every few years in our own day, but was unprecedented in 1980. No one else had a top-4 seed line. But, given how Louisville had played the first two games of this tournament, that was no reason to get overconfident.

Iowa, coached by a young Lute Olson, was up on Semi-Final Saturday. The Cardinals were hot from the floor and knocked down 60 percent of their shots, with Griffith going off for 34 points. McCray and Smith combined for 27 points/15 rebounds, and helped key a decisive Louisville edge on the glass. The Cards won 80-72.

And a familiar foe was in the way. Crum’s old employers at UCLA had underachieved much of the year and only been an 8-seed, fourth-best in the Pac-10. But they had talent, starting with a future NBA forward in Kiki Vandeweghe. They had a young Larry Brown on the sidelines and a good backcourt with Rod Foster and Mike Sanders. The Bruins had found their form in March, knocked off top-seeded DePaul, and found themselves in position to return to the top of college basketball.

Louisville seemed to revert to their early tournament form, trailing 28-26 at halftime and still down 50-45 as the game moved deep into the second half. But the continued to play defense, and UCLA only shot 37 percent. McCray was hitting the glass, collecting 11 rebounds. And then there was Griffith. This was Dr. Dunkenstein’s year, and he took this championship game over down the stretch. Griffith finished with 23 points and Louisville won 59-54.

Denny Crum was finally a champion. And he was far from done. Louisville made the Final Four again in 1982 and 1983. And in 1986, Crum won a second national title. For much of the decade, the Cardinals were one of the nation’s signature teams. That all began with the breakthrough national title of 1980.