Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 1987, Page 25

Description:	BIG SHOT, BIG WINIU captures NCAA titleSmart takes the shot, ho! Andthe Hoosiers with three secondsgo ahead ... Indiana wins thechampionship! Keith Smart is thehero.—Brent Musberger, CBS SportsWhile the IU team mobbedKeith Smart and 64,000 plus fansmobbed the team, Bloomingtonbroke into pandemonium. It wascold and icy but the conditionsdid not hamper the festivities inthe least.5,000 fans stormed the traditional place for celebration,Showalter Fountain. They perched upon the statue of Venus,balanced on the auditioriumawning and stood in the Fountainitself as a trio of tubas played theIU fight song. A similar celebration of 10,000 fans was underwayon the Square and KirkwoodAvenue. IU police Lt. Pat Schuttesaid the crowd was well behaved considering that it was achampionship celebration. Only18 were jailed and 62 taken toBloomington Hospital. Police saidthat they had more problemswith the UNLV game when fansstomped in the roofs of carsdowntown.However, to get to the 49thNCAA touranment the Hoosiershad to endure a tough season.Their only losses were to Vander-bilt, Iowa, Purdue, and Illinois,which left IU tied with Purdue forthe Big 10 Championship. IU wasseeded first in the mideastregional and beat Fairfield,Auburn, Duke, LSU, and UNLVto reach the NCAAChampionship.The final game was slated to bea close one; IU was favored byonly two and a half points.Syracuse head coach JimBeohiem said the key for his teamwas to limit Alford as much aspossible and to do a good job inside on the boards. However,IU coach Bob Knight said the keywas our ability to get the ball into our offensive operating areas.Knight is only one of threecoaches in basketball history towin more than three NCAAchampionships. However, Knightis the only coach to win anNCAA, NIT, Olympic and Pan-Am championship. He is also theonly coach in Big Ten history towin over 200 Big Ten games.It was the fifth NCAA championship for Indiana and theyfinished the season with a recordof 30-4. When the team returnedto Bloomington they were met byover 1,300 screaming fans whopacked Assembly Hall. CoachKnight noted that There isnt agroup of fans more deserving ofhaving something like thisbrought home to them as you all,we have the best group of fans inthe country. The IU team, andespecially seniors Alford, Meierand Thomas, were having thetime of their lives.So much for those 2 points! lUscenter Dean Garret successfullyblocks a shot against Duke inthe NCAA tournament game.NCAA 25
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/2674
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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