11-04-2009, 09:36 PM
|
#10
|
|
Heisman Candidate
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 2,538
|
Anyone remember this? Probably the biggest upset in the history of NCAA basketball. It happened 27 years ago and was a regular season game.
Quote:
Chaminade over the University of Virginia -- 1982-83 season. With 7-footer Ralph Sampson leading the way, the University of Virginia was the No. 1-ranked team in college basketball and expected to walk right through the competition in the tournament in Hawaii. Enter Division II Chaminade.
After replicating Sampson's size by having a player stand on a chair during practice, Chaminade surprised and embarrassed the top-ranked Cavaliers. While UVa rebounded to still post a strong season, you have to wonder if the doubt put into their heads on that night helped contribute to a pair of late-season losses to another David, eventual NCAA champion NC State.
|
Another article on the same game
Quote:
VIRGINIA WAS 8-0, WITH THE TOP ranking in the country and dreams of sun, surf, and sanity, when it touched down in Hawaii to play Chaminade.
The last thing they needed was a tough game. It was a few days before Christmas 1982 and the Cavaliers had already dismissed two top teams and their legendary centers. All-American Ralph Sampson had gone for 23 points, 16 rebounds, and seven blocks in a 68-63 win over Patrick Ewing and Georgetown. Against Houston and Akeem Olajuwon, Sampson sat out with an intestinal virus and dehydration. No matter. The Cavs made persona non grata out of Phi Slama Jamma, 73-62.
What the Cavs now needed was some Hawaiian hospitality, and it seemed as if Chaminade would all but hand out fresh flower leis and serve them frosty drinks in hollowed-out pineapples.
The NAIA school had an enrollment of 800--or about as many students as Virginia had in the brass section of its band. Chaminade had only taken up intercollegiate basketball seven years earlier, and had to share its campus with the bigger St. Louis High School.
But Chaminade stayed close, and when guard Tim Dunham flushed one in Sampson's face, the Silverswords went up, 64-62. The teams traded hoops until finally Randolph and Chaminade took a 70-68 lead with a minute and half to play. The Cavaliers' fate was sealed. Virginia began fouling the Silverswords, but Chaminade hit its free throws. In the final 46 seconds, Mark Wells made three, Dunham made two, and the impossible became reality. Final score: Chaminade 77, Virginia 72.
|
|
|
|
Linear Mode
