Youthful Broadcaster Mike Gorman, who did the play-by-play: “Princeton looked like the high school team that stumbled into the wrong gym.” Princeton’s near-upset of Georgetown on St. Patrick's Day in a 1989 NCAA first-round game made sure Cinderella would always get invited to the ball.
Sean Gregory, SI:
Today the NCAA Tournament is a multi-billion dollar enterprise with cultural cachet to rival the Super Bowl. During its first week millions of Americans, many of whom haven’t watched a second of college basketball all season, fill out brackets in office pools and try to pick the likeliest upsets. They let economic productivity go all to hell, cheering for schools they’ve never heard of, following the action on smartphones and tablets as well as the TV at the corner bar.
But 28 years ago some underdogs risked extinction. As the tournament boomed through the 1980s, more and more schools began to seek Division I status. They coalesced into leagues in hopes of landing NCAA tournament bids that would deliver exposure and revenue. Eventually the major conferences, determined to freeze the field at 64 teams and grab the highest share of the money that went with 34 at-large bids, became fed up. Their representatives on the basketball committee hatched a plan to deny each of the weakest two conferences an automatic bid. Moreover, they proposed to pick the outcasts on Selection Sunday, which would strip a bubble conference’s postseason tournament of much of its drama. To extend the metaphor trotted out each March, a couple of would-be Cinderellas wouldn’t even leave their charwoman’s (woman employed as a cleaner in a house) posts for the ball.
It didn’t help that the Ivy League had sent teams to the three previous tournaments that lost by an average of 40 points. The Princeton-Georgetown game halted that discussion.
The chronic pessimist Princeton head coach Pete Carril had set the betting line. “I think we’re a billion-to-one to win the whole tournament,” he said. “To beat Georgetown, we’re only 450 million to one.”
The second half lead reached double digits at 31-21, for the Tigers of Princeton. Georgetown fought back, behind the inside presence of center Alonzo Mourning, tying the game at 49. Mourning, who entered the game as a 65% foul shooter, converted both ends of a one-and-one. Following a missed possession by Princeton, Mourning converted the front end of a one-and-one. The free throw put Georgetown up, 50-49 with 23 seconds remaining. He fired the second one long and Princeton's Bob Scrabis chased down the rebound in the left corner.
With two timeouts remaining, Princeton elected to hold for the last shot. Scrabis had his clean look at the rim with seven seconds left. Scrabis: “He jumped from the middle of the lane.” Mueller: “The way Mourning got out there, it’s insane.” Still, even after Mourning’s block, the game wasn’t over. Princeton kept possession. One second remained.
"For a beat, Princeton had an opening. Referee Range was preparing to hand the ball to Lapin to inbound. Mourning fronted Mueller on the near side of the foul lane. No Georgetown defenders stood behind Mueller. Lapin: “I was like, ‘Gimme the ball, gimme the ball.’ They were still getting ready. I just remember thinking, if the ref had given me the ball then, we would have had a good chance to score.” Carril: “They were a little disorganized there. We had an easy layup there.”
Princeton gets celebrated for almost winning. The word "Cinderella" has, by analogy, come to mean one whose attributes were unrecognized, or one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect. On March 17, 1989 in Providence, the shoe "almost fit perfectly."
Paul Murphy
Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy
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