Duke Bedevilled
6/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Pirate Blue
June 13, 2014
Photo Gallery - 1989 Final Four vs. Duke
In advance of the 2014 Seton Hall Athletics Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony which will honor the 1988-89 national runner-up men's basketball team, SHUPirates.com will take you through the moments that comprised the Pirates' magical run to the Kingdome and the Final Four - one that ignited passions, defied the odds and left an indelible mark on the program and the university alike.
On Thursday, SHUPirates.com took you through a pair of landmark victories as a Seton Hall program that was making its first trip past the second round in just its second NCAA Tournament appearance took down national powers Indiana and UNLV in Denver to reach the Final Four.
"Calm down."
A simple concept, but one that was easier said than done for the 1988-89 Seton Hall Pirates and fans alike. The Hall had just upended a UNLV team that boasted a seemingly indomitable attack, reaching the summit as West Region champions in the Mile High City and extending their improbable journey to Seattle where the program would make its first appearance in the Final Four.
Through 36 games, 30 of which had ended in triumph, the Pirates had spent over 1,400 minutes of game action illuminating for the college basketball world what they had known all along...they belonged on the sport's grandest stage.
Within the team, the excitement was palpable, the mood jubilant, yet the celebration contained. There was work left to be done.
The same could not be said for the scene some 1,800 miles away back home in New Jersey as delirious Seton Hall supporters poured out onto South Orange Avenue, brimming with pride stemming from what their Pirates had just accomplished.
The Hall now knew it was one of four teams headed to the national semifinals but its opponent had yet to be decided. Back in the Garden State, the East Region had been pared down to a clash of titans of sorts as top-seeded Georgetown and #2 Duke were set to go head-to-head.
Naturally, in the brief lead-up to the game, several Pirates came out and said they would welcome a third meeting with the BIG EAST rival Hoyas with whom they had split the regular season series. In the end however, it was the Mike Krzyzewski-led Duke team that came away with an 85-77 win behind a trio of 20+-point performances from All-American Danny Ferry, Phil Henderson and a freshman named Christian Laettner to advance to the second of what would be five consecutive Final Fours.
Despite putting their superlative defense and depth on full display in the previous two rounds against heavy favorites in Indiana and the Running Rebels, this was again the game in which most expected the slipper was supposed to fall off for this perceived Cinderella squad.
When it came time to take the court, it appeared as if those sentiments might come to fruition as the Pirates struggled to find their footing in the opening minutes. Plagued by foul trouble and jitters, The Hall connected on just two of its first 15 field goal attempts and had fallen into an 18-point hole with 14 early points from Ferry spurring the Blue Devils to a 26-to-8 advantage at the 8:47 mark of the first half.
That is when head coach P.J. Carlesimo intervened, calling a timeout and bringing his resilient group together. Inside the ensuing huddle there were no hysterics, no carefully penned motivational soliloquies fit for the silver screen. Instead, the message was straightforward and measured.
"Calm down."
The Pirates' head man knew his team belonged on that floor and simply took a moment to remind them of that fact. He advised them to ignore the deficit; one he assured them would dissipate if they just went out and played the way they were capable of, especially on the defensive end.
Behind the steady guiding hands of team leaders Daryll Walker and Gerald Greene, Seton Hall steadily clawed its way back into the game. The Hall scored 25 of the next 35 in the contest, pulling to within three at 36-33 before Ferry closed the period with another bucket to push the gap to five at the break.
The tide had turned though with Duke now facing foul troubles of its own after Laettner and fellow frontcourt standout Alaa Abelnaby each picked up three before halftime. Greene had also rendered Duke point guard and Seattle-area native Quin Snyder a non-factor with stout defense, further raising questions about the Blue Devils' offensive sustainability.
Duke burst out of the locker room to score seven of the first nine points in the final frame to open up another double-digit advantage at 45-to-35 but the relentless band of Pirates from South Orange simply would not fade. Seton Hall seized control from that point on, exploding for a total of 62 second half points. Held scoreless in the first half, John Morton added 13 in the period and while they weren't busy harassing the Blue Devils down low, Walker and Ramon Ramos found time to become the 17th and 18th players in program history to pass the 1,000 career point plateau.
After scuffling at the start, The Hall tallied 87 points over the final 29 minutes of the game and finished with a final shooting mark of 54.1 percent. Once down 18 themselves, the Pirates charged back to lead by as many as 19 over a Duke team that could not match the depth and sustained intensity as Seton Hall ultimately shocked the college basketball world, again, with a remarkable 95-78 victory.
The 95 points still stands as the most in program history in an NCAA Tournament game and could not have come at a better time as the Pirates continued their giant-killing ways and earned a chance to vie for the national title. Andrew Gaze did what he had all year, knocking down several key treys during the ferocious comeback en route to a team-high 20 points. Walker finished with 19 points, six boards and three steals in an all-around effort for the ages while Greene turned in a sterling final stat-line of 17 points and eight assists - a single-game mark that has yet to be surpassed by a Seton Hall player at the Big Dance.
The loss was the only time a Duke team featuring Christian Laettner, recently named as one of the top10 players in the history of the NCAA Tournament by Sports Illustrated, would be stopped short of the national title game,.
A team that had not set out to, but certainly accomplished all it could have to dispel any doubts surrounding its merits, it was the Pirates who would be playing for the championship. After the game, Carlesimo would be quoted as saying "I think...people are starting to catch on that this is a pretty good basketball team."
File that next to understatement.
On Monday, our Hall of Fame series returns to chronicle the 1989 national championship game at the Kingdome between the Pirates and the Michigan Wolverines. Played before a capacity crowd of nearly 40,000, two halves were not enough to decide what turned out to be one of the most thrilling title contests in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
A limited number of seats remain available for the 2014 Seton Hall Athletics Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony to be held on Wednesday, June 18 inside Historic Walsh Gymnasium. For more information on attending and sponsorship opportunities, please click here.
