Howard Cosell

Jack Magee

Art White

Press Maravich

Bill Newton

Apple Sanders

Mike Laska chases Pete.

Maravich vs Georgetown (above and below)

Victories over Georgetown and Oklahoma propelled the LSU Tigers into the semifinals of the 1970 National Invitation Tournament.

• The opponent was the tournament favorite, the Marquette Warriors (decades before they changed their politically incorrect nickname to Golden Eagles).
• Al McGuire's club sported a 24-3 record, the fourth season in which they posted 20+ victories. They occupied the eighth spot in the national rankings.
• The Warriors prided themselves on defense, finishing 12th in the nation in that department by limiting opponents to 62.9 points per game.
• That put them on a collision course with the Tigers, who finished fourth in scoring with a 94.8 average. LSU had scored 180 points in their first two NIT games but surrendered 176.
• Press Maravich was expecting McGuire to throw a smorgasbord of defense against him, including man-to-man and various zone presses.
• Asked if he was concerned about the press after his team nearly blew a 15 point lead against Oklahoma's press, the Tiger coach replied: In the last three seasons, Oklahoma was the first team to press us and my guys weren't familiar with it. He added: I would say Marquette has one of the best defensive teams in the nation. I was up at 6 o'clock this morning thinking about it. They are the kind of team that stops your offense. You just can't run and fire against a team like that. They jump like kangaroos and they're quick as cobras. If we play the same kind of ball we did in our last two games, they'll run us off the court.
• McGuire didn't plan to put G Dean "The Dream" Meminger on Pete lest his star foul out. Instead, he would start with Jeff Sewell. Jeff is quicker than Peter. He's not as good, but he's quicker.

19,500 packed Madison Square Garden for the Thursday night game, which proved again that a good defense will usually prevail over a good offense.

• The Tigers provided the entertainment the crowd wanted in the first half, which ended with the Warriors in front 49-43.
• Marquette's big men, Rick Cobb and Joe Thomas, equalized the Tigers' front line of Apple Sanders, Fig Newton, and Danny Hester.
• Sanders, along with G Jeff Tribbett got in foul trouble early, checking out of the lineup after seven minutes of play with three personals. Then Sanders returned and was whistled for a fourth with four minutes left in the half.

Marquette quickly pulled away in the second half to win 101-79.

• With two to three men harassing him throughout, The Pistol scored only 20 points, tying his season low set in the opening round against Georgetown.
• His 13 FG attempts was also a career low, three below his previous mark.
• Hester led the Tigers with 24 points and 10 rebounds, while only Pete and Tribbett, with 10, were able to reach double figures.
• Thomas and Cobb led the Warriors with 28 and 20 points respectively as five men scored in double figures, including Meminger with 16.
• A key to the lopsided victory was Marquette's 50-34 margin on the boards, depriving the Tigers of the fast break opportunities they capitalized on all year to put up 90+ points per game.
• Sanders lasted only 6:17 into the second half before fouling out. Newton and Tribbett later joined him on the bench, which exposed LSU's lack of depth. The 30 fouls called against the Tigers set an NIT record. Marquette was hit with 25 personals.
• LSU shot a more than respectable 49.1 per cent (26-of-53) and hit 27 of 36 FTs. However, the Milwaukee school did even better, making 37 of 55 for 56.9% and 27-of-47 FT attempts.

What wasn't revealed at the time was that Pete had partied hard the night before the game.

• He had cancelled an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show and gone to his hotel room with orders to the front desk to hold his calls.
• Then someone knocked on the door with a six-pack. Copious libations were consumed.
• As Pete recounted years later: The party continued into the night and I got totally wasted. I drank to feel good and forget.

• McGuire: He's good, but I'd take Dean Meminger against him one-on-one up in Harlem any day.
• Meminger: There are a lot of cats in the parks that are just as tough as Maravich.

The defeat put LSU in the consolation game Saturday afternoon against Army, which played a hard-nosed defensive style taught by its young coach.

Continued below ...

Tiger Den Basketball Archive | Top of Page

Al McGuire

Pete Maravich in his floppy socks
working against Marquette.

Dean Meminger with the NIT MVP trophy

Dale Brown

Kenny Higgs

Joe B. Hall

Jordy Hultberg

LSU first played Kentucky on the hardwood in 1933 in the first SEC Tournament.

• UK won 51-38, the start of a 19-game winning streak against the Tigers.
• Dale McCreary's 1961 Bengals finally upended the Wildcats 73-59 in Baton Rouge.
• After 16 more losses, the Tigers won again at home 88-71 in 1972 under Press Maravich two years after Pete left for the NBA.
• LSU beat Big Blue again in 1974, Dale Brown's second year at the helm, 95-84, again on their home court.
• So going into their January 14, 1978, meeting in Lexington, the Tigers had never beaten Kentucky on any court outside of Baton Rouge.

Brown's 1978 Tiger team was his most talented so far.

• LSU entered the fray with a mediocre 9-5 record but had just played its best game of the season, a 121-87 home romp over Tennessee.
  UT Coach Cliff Wettig didn't appreciate Brown continuing to press late in the game. "LSU has to come back to Knoxville and I don't think we'll forget them pressing that far ahead." Dale, not worried about making friends among the SEC coaches, responded: "Hey, Tennessee got beat. Take it like a man and quit griping about the press. I know we'll be in Knoxville. What am I going to do? Get scared and cancel the trip?" Brown then pretended to dial a phone: "Please call off our trip to Tennessee." (LSU beat the Vols again on February 6, 101-86.)
• The Tigers boasted a tall, quick front line: C Lionel Green (6-9, 200 junior), F Rudy Macklin (6-7, 205 sophomore), and DeWayne Scales 6-8, 208 freshman).
• PG Kenny Higgs (6-0, 180, senior) ran the show with Jordy Hultburg at the shooting G position.
  Higgs hailed from Owensboro KY, where he made a high school All-American team. Conflicting stories circulated about why Kentucky hadn't signed Higgs.

  • The Owensboro Sports Editor wrote that Kenny wanted to attend UK "but Kentucky had different thoughts once someone planted a rumor that Higgs was a militant."
  • Higgs said Coach Joe B. Hall begged him to sign with the Wildcats. "He started crying, telling me how much he needed another G," said Kenny.
  • Hall, who certainly wouldn't admit to begging a player to sign to the point of tears, told a different tale. "I already had guards. I didn't need guards, and I just didn't think he'd be happy in our program riding the bench."

  Whatever the case, Big Blue fans berated Kenny every time he played in Rupp Arena.

Kentucky fielded a team with as much size as some NBA squads.

• The front line featured the Twin Towers: seniors Rick Robey (6-10, 230 from New Orleans), Mike Phillips (6-10, 240). Al McGuire, who had just retired from coaching Marquette to become a TV commentator, called players that size "aircraft carriers." Others not so flatteringly called them King and Kong.
• In the 1977 East Regional final, North Carolina Coach Dean Smith pointed at Robey and swung his elbow in the air, calling attention to what Dean considered excessive physical play. When Robey laid a hard foul on one of his guards, Smith ran almost the length of the court to berate the big C. Rick said the revered UNC coach called him "a cheap son of a bitch," a charge Dean denied. A Lexington reporter wrote that Robey "had the face of an angel and the elbows of a devil."
• Hall was one of the first basketball coaches to use weight training. Hultberg: "They played Joe B. Hall basketball, and they punished you. They wanted to get it inside and just beat you. They had the Kentucky name and the officials were intimidated, especially at Rupp. They're never going to call a foul there."
• Brown kept quiet about UK's caveman style before the game but would have much to say about it afterwards.
• The colorful North Dakotan, who was 1-9 against Kentucky, did say that, unlike other coaches in the league after the undefeated Wildcats' 86-67 win at Florida, he wasn't willing to concede the SEC Championship to Big Blue.

James Lee, Mike Phillips, Rick Robey, and Jack Givens

The usual packed house of 23,466, undeterred by a light snow, gathered at 4 pm to see their beloved Wildcats. The SEC Game of the Week crew was on hand with recently retired UCLA Coach John Wooden providing the commentary.

Continued below ...

LSU and Kentucky met in Rupp Arena on January 14, 1978. The teams were chippy from the start.

• The Tigers taunted the Wildcats, talking trash, pushing the ball into their stomachs, and slapping them on their behinds. Players on both sides, especially LSU's Dwayne Scales and UK's Mike Phillips, traded less-than-subtle nudges on their trips up and down the floor (Lexington Herald-Leader).
• Midway through the first half, Scales dunked on Phillips, then pushed him to the floor. No foul was called.
• Near the end of the half, a fight nearly erupted when Floyd Bailey collided with UK's James Lee under the basket.
• After having his way with the UK guards the first few minutes, LSU senior G Kenny Higgs got into foul trouble. The fans threw ice at the Kentuckian as he went to the bench and gave him a mock ovation. Coach Dale Brown would have much to say about the fans after the game.
• LSU's other Kentuckian, Rudy Macklin, also had to leave with 11:14 left with his third foul.
  

Since the Wildcats fielded the tallest and beefiest team in America, the Tigers could win only if they shot well.

• Unfortunately, the visitors, who came in making nearly half their shots, hit only 28% the first half. Coach Dale Brown said afterward: I knew they were doing a good job on us, but this is ridiculous.
• To add to the Bengals' woes, UK played what Coach Joe B. Hall called probably our best half of the year to lead 55-28 at the break. We didn't expect to beat them like that. We ran out and handled their press and that enabled us to get a substantial lead.
• The Tigers had no answer for Phillips and fellow 6-10er Rick Robey. Despite spraining an ankle in practice three days earlier, Mike had 18 points at the half.
• Brown tried a combination zone/man-to-man defense to no avail as the Wildcats made two-thirds of their shots.

As if it wasn't bad enough losing by 27, Brown got into an altercation with a local photographer named Ken Weaver as he left the court.

• Accounts conflict. One says the photographer told Brown, You're gonna trigger a fight. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that Brown grabbed Weaver's stomach, backed him against a wall and said he either wanted Weaver arrested or "just give me five minutes in a room with just me and him."
• Brown told his side after the game: He said something to me that sounded like "kill" or "I'm gonna kill" or "your team's getting killed" or something like that. I don't know if the guy had a gun or a knife or what. I just pushed him up against the wall and asked that be be arrested. This is something I'm definitely going to follow through, even if I have to come back up here to do it.

With the issue no longer in doubt, the teams played out the string in the final 20 minutes.

• The Tigers won the second half 48-41 to make the final tally 96-76.
• The refs whistled 54 fouls, 31 against LSU. The Wildcats hit 30-of-39 at the FT line.
• Phillips added only 5 more in the second half but still led all scorers with 23. Robey added 18 and F Jack "Goose" Givens netted 17.
• Macklin, wo had only one bucket the first 20 minutes, and G Jordy Hultberg led Tiger scorers with 16. Rudy got to punctuate his return to his native state with two straight slam dunks in the second half.
• The Tigers shot just 37% (30-82). Scales went 5-19 and sharpshooter Hultberg, 8-19. The Wildcats, by contrast, finished at 54% (33-61)

Dale both praised and criticized the Wildcats and their fans.

• They have a great team, and I think they really have a good shot at the national title.
• I don't particularly like the style of the University of Kentucky ... I read in Sports Illustrated last year by [Northwestern coach] Northwestern that he thinks they have brutalized the game and also read where [Vanderbilt coach] Wayne Dobbs said there's no possible way to win with the way they play.
• I thought the officials did a very good job. That's amazing to say when you got beat 20 points ... I think Kentucky gets the game so brutalized. ... I just think they've taken away a lot of the beauty of the game.
• When asked if Kentucky is a dirty team, Dale said: I think off the ball they are, yes. ... Now if this is chalk talk for Joe when he comes to Baton Rouge, I'm just telling you the truth.
• I've said to some of you before, you're probably the most knowledgeable people in the world when it comes to basketball and I don't say that because I'm in Lexington. ... However, ... some things just don't belong that are going on. 90 percent of your crowd are phenomenal. They enjoy a good play, they clap. ... I think some of your fans need some criticism and I don't mean this as a blanket indictment.
• Four years ago, a young freshman by the name of Kenny Higgs came from Owensboro to LSU. Nobody knows the true story. I've been the best defender of Kenny Higgs. I'm disappointed he had four years of not winning here. Several statements were made and I now release this to you: Kenny is an epileptic. That in itself is a major accomplishment to be able to play the game. The first year, we walked over to our bendh and you still have some sick people and they still sit behind us and it's not everybody. One of your fans got up and said, "Higgs, you idiot, we would just as soon have lepers in our program as epileptics." Now that man's sick. ... A lot of those people didn't come to enjoy the game. ... Maybe if Sirhan Sirhan and Lee Harvey Oswald would have been basketball fans, they wouldn't have been assassins.

LSU's two Kentuckians made interesting comments.

• Higgs, who was held to 10 points and fouled out early in the second half - for the third time in his four appearances at Lexington: The fans think they bother me, but I'm used to it now. If they yell at me, that makes me feel like I'm more alive. I guess they think I'm a threat to them.
• Macklin: We didn't give up. We hung in there and didn't quit playing. ... It will be entirely different at our place. Our crowd will stimulate us.

In the UK locker room, a reporter told Givens about Brown's comment that the Wildcats took the beauty out of basketball. Beauty is winning, Jack replied.

Recently-retired UCLA Coach John Wooden, who provided commentary for the TV broadcast, didn't doubt that Kentucky was the strongest team in the nation

But what really surprises me is their defense. They showed real strength, of course, but the way they attack and surround the ball is impressive.

Since SEC teams played a full home-and-home round-robin, the Wildcats would come to Baton Rouge four weeks later.

To be continued ...

Dwayne Scales

Kenny Higgs

Mike Phillips

Rudy Macklin

Rick Robey

Jack Givens

Dale Brown

Joe B. Hall

Kenny Higgs

Rick Robey

Part I | Part II

After losing to Kentucky in Rupp Arena on January 14, 1978, LSU won five of the next six games.

• Included in the streak was a 101-86 romp at Tennessee, which the Vols seemingly had an extra incentive to win after taking a 121-87 lambasting in Baton Rouge.
• The Tigers set a record for most points ever scored by an opponent in UT's Stokley Center.
• Big Orange fans threw ice when Dale Brown stood up in front of his bench and flashed a victory sign a la Richard Nixon.
• Tennessee G Johnny Darden: They were nasty as usual. Coach Brown has no class and it's rubbing off on the team.
• The game extended the Tigers' streak of road victories to three after a 74-61 win at Ole Miss and 89-68 triumph at Georgia.
  

That cleared the decks for the return match with the Wildcats.

• LSU sported a 13-7 record, winning 7 of 11 in the SEC. It was their best mark after 20 games since the NIT Final Four squad of 1970 - Pete Mara­vich's last season.
• The Wildcats had finally lost a game, at Alabama 78-62 on January 23. But they continued as the #1-ranked team with a 17-1 mark .
• The game produced the most hoops excitement in Baton Rouge since the namesake of the Center wore purple and gold. All tickets sold out two weeks in advance.
• An overflow and possibly record crowd was expected. The top Maravich crowd had come against Kentucky in 1973 - 14,413.

Brown didn't understate the importance of the game for his program.

Anytime you play No. 1 it has a big impact. But this game seemed to create an impact earlier than any other we've played since I've been here. Winning does that.
In the past it would have taken a miracle for us to beat them. But now everyone sees a ray of hope.
This game could really help us. It could be the catalyst for something great.

He credited LSU's rapid improvement to maturity and a simplifed approach.

We were using too many defenses before and we were asking them to think too much. We've changed to a fullcourt, man-to-man pressure the whole game and that's made us better.

But Dale knew his team couldn't match up with UK physically.

If we let them get us in a physical game, we can't win. If it gets physi­cal, the U.S. Marines couldn't win.

• He hoped Kentucky would be less aggressive on the road.

That's natural for any team when they play before 24,000 people. They lose a little confidence, a little adrenalin ... Every team has an Achilles heel. We've got to exploit theirs.
We can't be too emotional about this game, but we are shooting for the No. 2 spot [in the SEC].

Cats coach Joe B. Hall appreciated the task at hand.

LSU will provide us with our toughest road game of the year. We will have to show a lot of poise and patience and play our best to overcome their pressure defense.
I see teams we're going to play on the tube, and they don't look so tough. But then against us, they always seem to play so hard.

No Tiger craved victory more than senior G Kenny Higgs from Owensboro KY.

• With no SEC tournament, this would be Kenny's last crack at his home state's flagship program.
• He had endured a roller coaster relationship with LSU fans. And, in his fourth season, had to adapt his game to the young players Brown brought in.

Most people around here, if they know basketball, know I'm away from the offense we were used to three years ago. I've got to guard the other team's toughest man, then I've got to fill the lane, run the fast break - do about six things instead of the one everybody else does.
I can score. I have no problem with that. I can score 20, 30 any time I get ready to. But you've got to realize that this year I've been shooting 6-7 times a game, and that's a whole lot different from shooting 21 and 22 times like I used to.

• As a result, Kenny's ppg dropped from 19.3 the first three years to just 12.5.
• He still didn't regret his decision to come to LSU.

I could have gone to Kentucky. And I could've played a role, too. I look at Larry Johnson. I played against him in high school and he could do everything - shoot everything. He goes to Kentucky and he becomes a toy soldier.
When they found out I was signing with LSU, they called me and said to hold up. I said, "Hey, I don't have to hold up. I've got scholarship offers from all over the world."

• After Kenny spurned them, UK coaches spread the word that he was a troublemaker, a brooder, a militant.

It started from Kentucky. That's just a cop-out, like the story about me being uncoachable. Heck, I played for Bobby Watson, one of the best high school coaches in Kentucky! He's the one who helped me make my decision to come to LSU.

• Still, when Higgs started the '77-8 season with a poor game against UNO, which upset the Tigers 73-69, Brown took his starting job away. One interested observer said this:
  I'm behind Coach Brown 100 percent. I just hope Kenny learns from it. He would have had a hard time making it at Kentucky. He was kind of spoiled and he needed discipline.
  The speaker? Kenneth Higgs, Sr.
• Three games later, Junior rejoined the starting lineup.

If I had the chance to go anywhere, I'd do it again. I've learned there's a lot more than winning, winning, winning. I had to make my own life. I didn't have my mom and dad where I could run home when I got a problem. I had to stay right here and face it man-to-man. I wasn't running away from anything.

The visitors had their own counterpart to Kenny Higgs - Rick Robey from Brother Martin High School, New Orleans. The loss of the #1 player in the state four years earlier enraged Tiger fans. But it wasn't that clearcut, as Robey explained.

If I had been a native of New Orleans, I might have had a better outlook toward the state schools. My junior year they [LSU] had signed Frank LeFevre [a 6-10 player, since quit], so they kind of shied away from me until the very end. I guess they thought they already had the big man they needed.
I think they got some alumni pressure to recruit me late, but there's a 90 percent chance I wouldn't have gone to LSU anyway. ... I'd already decided that, if basketball was going to be my career, I had to start looking at the powers. I had to go where they had good tradition, the winning way.

• Rick had to lose weight to compete for a starting spot at UK. He dropped from a 255-260 "butterball" [his word] into the 230s.

I lost in the right places, my waist - from a 38 to 34 - and thighs. It's made all the difference in the world in playing the full 40 minutes and getting up and down the court. I found out weighing 223 in the Pan American Games how much more mobile I could be.

• When asked about comments like former Tennessee coach Ray Mears saying Kentucky played "karate defense" and Brown accusing UK of "brutalizing the game," Rick replied: I think it's an honor when opponents have to talk about us like that. We must be doing something right. Most teams winning big play strong defense. We play a style of defense that's going to be bump, lean, shove. But no dirty shots, not trying to hurt anybody.

All the individual stories faded away after what remains one of the greatest games in Maravich Assembly Center history.

A record crowd of 14,551 packed the Maravich Assembly Center on Saturday night, February 11, 1978, for LSU's rematch with Kentucky.

• Students began lining up the previous afternoon for tickets. The line stretched around the Center and down the ramps to Mike's cage.
• The night of the game, every seat was taken an hour and a half before tipoff. People stood and sat on the stairways.
• Kentucky fans sat in the upper section wearing blue jackets and white shirts.
• 1,000 students gathered in the practice gym underneath the main floor to watch the game on closed-circuit TV. The game would be broadcast on tape-delay on cable TV.
• Lexington sportswriter D. G. FitzMaurice said later, It was a terrific atmosphere. It was good to see that Kentucky wasn't the only team in the SEC that could draw excited fans.
• When the Tigers came out of the dressing room, they couldn't hear anything but the roar of the crowd and the band. Everyone screamed "LSU! LSU!"
• Dale Brown had achieved his goal of creating Purple and Gold fans as passionate for basketball as for football. He had a premonition his Tigers would play well: There was something in their eyes during the timeouts. They knew they could win it.
  

LSU played a recording over the PA before the game of Kentucky native Rudy Macklin reading a prepared statement.

We have played some games away from home where we were treated rather poorly by the fans. They have thrown ice and debris at us, they have taunted us, they have even accused us of having no class. This kind of abuse has no place in athletics. All year, you have treated our opposing teams fairly and decently. Now, more than ever, please continue to do so. Please help us put a stop to the unnecessary and unsportstmanlike abuse that we have had to put up with in other arenas.

The LSU staff inserted a surprise starter.

• Freshman Ethan Martin from McKinley High in Baton Rouge started at G instead of Jordy Hultberg.
• Ethan was assigned to cover Wildcat court general Kyle Macy. The move also forced Macy to guard the much quicker Martin. Kyle was accustomed to taking it somewhat easy on defense to save his energy for the other end of the court.
• Martin said, I thought I'd stay tight on him, stay up in his jock because I knew he was a good outside shooter. I knew if I would give him any day­light, nine out of ten times, he'd make that jumper.
• The LSU coaches also hoped Ethan would force the cool Big Blue leader into turnovers. As Hultberg said about his replacement, Ethan Martin was like Sleepy of the Seven Dwarves. You thought the kid never moved, never sweated, but he was going to pick your pocket, set you up.
• The substitution meant that LSU started five black players, undoubtedly a first in school history. It is remarkable - in a good way - that no one noticed the milestone at the time.

With their SEC supervisor in attendance, officials Bill Bennett and Burrell Crowell seemed determined to keep the game under control. (The SEC would not add a third officials until the following season.)

• LSU F Rudy Macklin committed his first foul on the opening possession. It was the first of 65 infractions (20 more than the national average that year) whistled throughout the evening.
• The Tigers were called for another foul and Kentucky for two in the first two and a half minutes.
• Macy made a 10' jump shot which Martin countered with one of his own. The duel was on.

Kentucky employed the same strategy against Macklin that they had used effectively in Lexington.

• 6-5, 230 lb James Lee tried to deny the ball from the taller (6-7) but leaner (205 lb) Louisville product.
• Rudy liked to find his rhythm early, I've got to have that first one! With Lee on him again, he thought, Not tonight, baby. Not tonight!
• Macklin sank his first shot to make it 7-4. It was a circus shot that he spun and threw at the basket from the corner behind the basket after saving an errant pass from going out of bounds.
• He hit three more buckets plus a FT to complete a 3-point play to put the Tigers in front 11-9.

LSU opened a 29-22 lead with eight minutes left in the first half.

• The furious pace continued, with the visitors pecking away at the lead until they pulled within two, 45-43 when the teams left for the locker room. It marked only the third time that season the Wildcats trailed at halftime. They split those two contests.
• By then, both teams were already in foul trouble. Macklin and his fellow Kentuckian, G Kenny Higgs, as well as C Lionel Green sat on the bench with three fouls. Macy and LaVon Williams had a like number of infractions.
• Brown said after the game:

On the road, you take your starters out with three fouls. At home, you leave them in. At halftime I told them, "You guys make the decision. You tell me when you want to come out." All of them chose not to come out.

After Macy opened the second half scoring with a 10' jumper to tie the game, LSU went on a 14-2 run.

• In a space of three minutes, Higgs made two baskets, dished three assists, but picked up his fourth foul.
• However, with 16:18 left, he fouled out. Onto the court came freshman G Willie Sims, an African-American from New York City.

• After Higgs left the court for good with LSU up 12, F DeWayne Scales picked up his third and fourth fouls in less than a minute. Kentucky closed to 59-53 with 14:57 left.
• With so many starters shackled by foul difficulty, Brown ordered the Tigers into the four corners offense to kill some time by spreading out the opponent. The four corners could just as easily kill your momentum as milk the clock. But this time it helped run a few minutes off the clock and increase the lead to 10 because Sims drove from halfcourt for two and Martin stole the ball and made a layup.
• Macklin got his fourth foul with 10:29 left. With Brown sticking to his promise to let the players decide if they wanted to come out, Rudy committed #5 fifteen seconds later. He left with what would turn out to be a game-high 23 points on incredible 11-for-12 shooting from the floor. Macklin didn't blame the officials.

It was a well-called game. They let us play. We were just over-aggressive. They weren't ticky-tacky fouls - we hacked them. We were just so excited, we got in foul trouble.

• Brown sent in 6'6" senior Floyd Bailey. Before a minute of playing time elapsed, he got fouled but missed both shots.

It was clear that, if LSU were to hold its lead, the bench would have to perform at a high level.

Ethan Martin

Kyle Macy

Rudy Macklin

LaVonWilliams

(L-R): Lionel Green, Walter Campbell, Floyd Bailey, Willie Sims

Rick Robey

Willie Sims

Kyle Macy

Jay Shidler

Ron Abernathy

Truman Clayton

Art Tolis

Mike Phillips

Janes Lee

As the war entered its last ten minutes of playing time, more starters got into foul trouble.

• Kentucky's Rick Robey picked up his third and fourth fouls within a minute after Rudy Macklin joined G Kenny Higgs as fouled-out Tigers.
• LSU led by seven when F DeWayne Scales was called for his fifth foul at the 9:11 mark. The freshman sensation had pulled down 17 rebounds which would be only two less than UK's entire starting five for the game. G Jordy Hultberg, Scales' replacement, would be lucky to garner 17 rebounds in five games.
• Less than a minute later, Jordy took a pass from PG Ethan Martin to score inside and put LSU up 69-60 with 8:37 remaining.
  

Brown went back to the four corners offense he had employed a few minutes earlier.

• But Willie Sims missed consecutive front ends of one-and-ones, allowing UK to whittle the lead.
• When LSU turned the ball over, and C Lionel "Tree" Green collected his 4th personal with 4:21 on the clock, Dale backed off the offense that LSU fans and players alike detested.
• Robey said afterwards that LSU's four corners aided the Wildcats. It did help us get back in it when we set the tempo and started running.

Trailing 80-70 with 3:27 left, Kentucky turned up the heat.

• G Kyle Macy made two freebies, and Givens hit a turnaround jumper from 8'. LaVon Williams forced a jump ball, won the tip, and scored inside to bring UK within 4.
• Macy fouled out at the 2:27 mark and was replaced by sophomore Jay Shidler, who would play a key rule.
• Lionel "Tree" Green fouled out with 1:13 left to go, leaving G Ethan Mar­tin as the only Tiger starter still eligible. Green had scored only one point and snagged just three rebounds but served as a team leader. Tree would huddle the team up after we broke the huddle in the timeout with the coach­es, said Macklin.
• Assistant Ron Abernathy turned to Brown on the bench and said, Well, we're just going to have to beat them without our starters.
• Rick Mattick replaced the slender Green, whom he outweighed by 70 pounds.

• Robey made one of two FTs to make the score 82-81 LSU.
• Then it was Williams' turn to foul out with just under a minute left. Sims made the first FT but missed the second.
• Shidler found Robey open underneath with 35 seconds left to tie the game. Then LSU went back to the four corners to hold for the last shot.
• Martin did the honors with nine seconds left but missed. Robey grabbed the rebound but, as he tried to go upcourt in heavy traffic, was called for walking. Rick said later, I thought it was a questionable call. I thought I was fouled on the rebound.
• Sims missed a shot with three seconds remaining to send the game into OT.

Many watching the game on closed-circuit TV in the practice gym came upstairs for the OT, increasing the overflow in the Maravich Center.

• UK made the first basket, a Givens 10-footer, to lead for the first time since the first four minutes of the game.
• Hultberg answered with an 18' jump shot to tie it again at 85. But with 3:02 left, Martin fouled out to complete the exodus of LSU starters. Dale Brown surprisingly called on Ernie Brown, who had played very little.
• Bailey, recalled: We were scared, nervous. We were tired, but everybody else was tired too. You gotta do what you gotta do.
• Shidler, the Illinois state tournament record-holder for most points, made two FTs to put the Cats up 87-85 with three minutes to go. Then Robey added his name to the fouled-out list with 2:39 left. Mattick, LSU's best FT shooter, made both to tie the game at 87.
• But Brown fouled Shidler, who hit both shots to restore UK's two-point margin.

Perhaps the key point in the extra five minutes came at the 2:05 mark.

• Givens fouled Mattick, who made the first but missed the second. Givens rebounded and passed to Shidler. But as Jay crossed halfcourt, he mis­judged where Givens was moving and threw the ball out of bounds. The miscue enraged Hall who remembered the errant pass as a turning point years later.
• LSU took advantage of the turnover to go ahead 90-89 on Hultberg's jumper from the corner. The Tigers would not lose the lead. in the remaining 1:40.
• After Truman Clayton rushed a 15-footer that his coach criticized after the game, Sims snatched the rebound and took off on a breakaway. He threw up a rolling layup from the left side. Just as the ball bounced off the rim, Bailey soared high over two men in blue and stuffed it back home for a 92-89 lead. Since the 3-point shot wasn't permitted by the NCAA yet, that gave the Tigers a two-possession lead. Brown leaped to his feet and ran halfway down the court with the arms raised as the crowd went wild. Bailey later recalled: I looked at Willie and I thought, ah man, I don't need to go down there. Willie's gonna do it. But something said, "Get your rear end down the floor," and I went. The scoreboard read 1:07. LSU assistant Art Tolis still remembers the roar of the crowd years later. That game was over right then.
• Mike Phillips hit one of two FTs to cut the lead to two. LSU rebounded and Kentucky fouled Sims to keep the Tigers from milking the clock. Willie calmly sank both with 27 seconds left.
• After a Kentucky basket, Sims was fouled again. With no rule giving a team two shots once the opponent had ten fouls, Willie had to make the first to extend the lead to three with just 10 ticks left. The ball rolled around the rim and fell in. He missed the second, but LSU could allow James Lee to score an uncontested layup at 0:03 to account for the final score: 95-94.
• When the horn sounded, LSU students jumped over press row and poured onto the court. Many (all male) stripped to the waist. Dale Brown danced joyfully among them.

Final stats

• Despite missing half the second half, Macklin led all scorers with 23. Martin added 20.
• Kentucky's leaders were Robey with 18 and Givens with 17.
• The FT figures were mind-boggling: UK 26-36 (72.2%), LSU 25-38 (65.8%); LSU committed 33 fouls to 32 for the visitors.
• The most amazing stat showed LSU outrebounding the Wildcats 47-29.

Post-Game

• Brown: I don't want to sound overly positive, but I had a feeling we were going to win it, even when they got two ahead. I knew we could win it, and I would have thought that even if we had lost it.
  Still holding the victory net, he explained why he stood before the LSU student section, arms raised high, after the final horn: I just wanted to thank them. It was my way of saying "Thank you." They kept our adrenalin flowing throughout the direst parts of the game.
  Concerning the four corners O that produced mixed results, Dale said: I'm not going to dote over the four corners. We've looked like morons with it before. But a lot of guys got a lot of confidence back tonight.
• Macklin: I love it. The people back home [Louisville] are going to see that score and see what we did to them.
• Hall: We thought we had an excellent chance to win. I feel triply disappointed - that's worse than being doubly disappointed. We were playing against their second string.
  We just didn't have the poise. When we did have our chance, we still played in a panic.
  The critics are going to come out of the walls and mail a lot of letters, and I'm going to agree with them. It's my fault that we weren't ready. So save that postage, don't send those letters, don't work those postmen.
  You always look back a half hour after a game like this and kick yourself in the seat of the pants. It seems as if when the other team really wants a game, we roll over and let them have it.
• D.G. FitzMaurice of the Lexington Herald: You have to give the [LSU] reserves credit. They probably didn't know enough to be scared.

Follow-up

• The Wildcats didn't lose another game, defeating Duke for the NCAA Championship.
• LSU finished 18-9 overall, 12-6 in the SEC, their most conference wins since Pistol Pete's senior season in 1969-70. The next year, Brown's boys won the SEC Tournament, and two years later, made the 1981 Final Four.

Reference: Five: The Night Dale Brown's Bench Met the Best, Sonny Marks (2010)

Bobby Lowther

Joe Adcock, 10-year 1B for
the Milwaukee Braves.