UMBC over Virginia in 2018 and Jimmy V’s NC State over Houston in 1983 notwithstanding, the 1985 NCAA Tournament upset on April 1, 1985 of 8 seeded Villanova over 1 seeded Georgetown has to be one of the most historic upsets in the storied history of the NCAA Tournament.
Throughout the season,
Nova used a stalwart defensive scheme and a slow offensive strategy that deemed missed shots like a sign of the apocalypse to come to ultimate fruition as
NCAA Champions.
Achieving basketball immortality over the Patrick Ewing led
Hoyas, a
Georgetown team often vaunted as the unbeatable tournament opponent, the closeknit
Wildcats have maybe one of the greatest runs in tourny history. The
Cats danced to victories in the rounds of 64 and 32 over
Dayton and a top seeded
Michigan team, thumped the Len Bias led
Maryland Terps, and set up an Elite Eight matchup with the Dean Smith coached
North Carolina Tar Heels. The
Cats lit up the
Tar Heels 56-44 and knew something special was brewing down on that hardwood.
Villanova coach, Rollie Massimino – a round, effusive cherub of a man – remarked he knew they could beat anyone and possibly win it all after they knocked off
North Carolina, but the showdown with the
Hoyas was still a
Final Four game away. Nonetheless, they knocked off
Memphis State with stringent defense to move onto the championship game.
With
Georgetown seemingly already crowned the belle of the ball, the
Wildcats were secretly hoping that the
Hoyas would defeat
St. Johns in their respective Final Four matchup. With
Villanova,
Georgetown, and
St. John’s all in the Big East, the teams had played each other many times throughout the season. While the
Wildcats had lost all their matchups to the two other teams, they had been utterly destroyed by
St. John’s in Big East semifinals. The
Cats would rather play the
Hoyas, who had only beaten them in close victories, and lo and behold
Georgetown advanced over
St. John’s in an 89-74 blowout.
Thus, the
Cats were in the
Final against the Evil Empire of college basketball. With Ewing, the
Hoyas reached the
Final three times in four years and had won the whole shebang in 1984. The time for the game had come, and it just happened to fall on April Fool’s Day. Could an unlikely miracle happen?
Villanova devised a defensive scheme that would switch from zone to man to man forcing
Georgetown into a bewildering adjustment on the fly. On offense, they just figured, they would have to play the games of their lives and they pretty much did.
Nova shot a staggering 78.6% from the field only missing one shot in the second half blocked by Ewing. The
Cats played slow and deliberately and with a late turnover by
Georgetown secured the victory. The rest, they say, is history.