"VIOLETS VICTORIOUS" and “LOW BLOWS, HIGH BLOWS, ZAB GOES”
#926/#925
926. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY VS OHIO STATE
NCAA TOURNAMENT
NATIONAL SEMIFINALS
MARCH 24, 1945
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
QUALITY OF PLAY—6.13
DRAMA—8.20
STAR POWER—5.24
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—8.05
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.44
LOCAL IMPACT—8.43
TOTAL: 42.49
"VIOLETS VICTORIOUS"
During World War Two the nascent NCAA Tournament remained in the shadow of the more prestigious National Invitational Tournament. Just eight teams competed; the Eastern four at in New York at MSG, the Western quartet at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. But the 1945 NCAAs went a long way towards equalizing the two postseason tourneys in the minds of many fans, in large part thanks to an incredible comeback by a downtown local five.
The key figure in New York University basketball history was Howard Cann, a former star player who took over as Violets coach in 1923. In the years before tournaments, NYU was among the nation’s best teams, ranked #1 in 1935 and in the top five in several other seasons. The 1944-45 team wasn’t considered the equal of some earlier great squads led by the legendary Ben Auerbach (no relation to Red), but it had a new weapon—16-year old freshman sensation Adolph “Dolph” Schayes, fresh out of Clinton High School in the Bronx.
NYU topped the Middle Atlantic Conference in ’45, and were invited to the NCAA Tournament. The Violets creamed the Jumbos from Tufts (yes, Tufts) in the quarters, while Ohio State took out Kentucky. That set up a semifinal showdown and Eastern regional final between the Buckeyes and the Violets.
The NCAA Tournament may have been little brother to the NIT at the moment, but that didn’t mean it was unpopular. A frenzied crowd of 18,161 packed the old Madison Square Garden on 50th Street in Hell’s Kitchen on Saturday, March 24, 1945. Even as General Patton stormed across the Rhine and into Germany, the college basketball world concentrated on NYC and witnessed a long day of hoops, including the third-place game between Kentucky and Tufts and three prep title games.
Ohio State had fallen in the 1944 final to Dartmouth, and were eager to correct that mistake. “They are big, they are heavy and experienced, in addition to which they exert terrific pressure on their opponents under the baskets, carrying Midwest emphasis on rebounds to the nth degree,” William Richardson wrote in his preview for the Times. But NYU started fast behind mercurial guard Frank Mangiapane, a walk-on who became a three-sport star at NYU (and who would play a little for the Knicks in its pre-NBA incarnation). The Violets held an early 17-10 lead, but OSU rallied behind its star center, Arnold Risen. Risen controlled the paint on both ends, outplaying Schayes, at that point just “a nervous brunette with the bony legs and frightened eyes of a fawn,” according to Hy Turkin of the Daily News, and not yet the superstar he would become. Schayes picked up four first half fouls trying to slow Risen and power forward Jack Duggar, an All-American football player in the fall.
Risen poured in a variety of set shots, hooks and putbacks on his way to 26 points. The pace was getting too furious for NYU, who received a welcome respite when a “wild court-length heave by NYU smashed a fotog’s speed light bulb, and they had to wait while the court was cleared of splintered glass,” reported the News. Fouls slowed the game as well, with many ticky-tack calls going against NYU, to the dismay of the crowd and the Violets, who at one point surrounded the referee, soccer-style, and seemed to threaten to do to the striped shirt what Patton was doing to the remains of the Wehrmacht.
Thanks to a friendly whistle and Risen, the Buckeyes seized a 36-34 lead at the half. and dominated the second stanza, building a consistent lead of a dozen or so points as the clock ticked away. It seemed for all the world as though OSU would be back in the finals.
Then, a critical moment—Risen reached in on Schayes (who had played well with four fouls the entire second half) and was called for his fifth foul, disqualifying him. Immediately, Risen’s absence was felt, but OSU nevertheless maintained a ten point lead with just two minutes left, and felt they could escape the convulsing Garden and the partisan Violets crowd.
But the rest of the game would live forever in the annals of NYU and MSG basketball lore.
A key element was the rule in place at the time that allowed a team fouled on the floor (not shooting) to choose between a single free throw or possession. The Buckeyes were repeatedly fouled down the stretch, and kept electing to shoot for a point. And they kept missing. As Lou Effrat wrote in the Times, “Instead of doing the rational thing—taking possession out of bounds—the Ohioans elected to try for the point…Ohio State, definitely a smart, alert aggregation, suddenly went into a mental lapse that cost heavily.”
Once, twice, thrice, OSU gave the ball back to NYU without scoring. A trio of jump shots cut the lead to four in a 45-second span, and that was when the Buckeyes coach Harold Olsen, closing out a legendary 24-year span on the OSU sideline with three straight Final Fours, decided stubbornly to shoot and not keep the ball. He and his team resembled Kevin Costner’s thickheaded golfer Roy McElroy in the movie Tin Cup, who refused to admit defeat on an approach shot and sent half a dozen shots into the water, blowing the U.S. Open. Here it was Olsen mulishly insisting on his team getting points from the free throw line, and costing his team a place in the title game.
Schayes put in an offensive rebound to cut the gap to two.
Just 36 seconds remained when the Buckeyes were fouled and, once more, went to the line. They missed yet again, and NYU’s Dan Forman tied the game with a stunning thirty-foot set shot that forced overtime and “ignited shrieks all over the joint.” The game was tied at 62. The Garden crowd went berserk, astonished the game was still alive, given how the first 38 minutes had gone.
With Risen long gone and momentum belonging to the Violets, the overtime belonged to the de facto home team. Schayes popped outside and hit a running one-hander. Al Grenert scored on a corner jumper. Forman “converted Marty Goldstein’s backhand pass” for another score, and Schayes hit a hook shot off a steal. Schayes finished with 14 points, second on the Violets to Mangiapane, who had 17. Soon it was over, and NYU had stunningly advanced to the final, 70-65. Over the last seven minutes of play (the last two of regulation and the five in overtime) the Violets had gone on a shocking 18-3 run. It was, in the judgement of the Daily News, the “most rousing, raving, roof-raising event at the Garden in many a year.”
AFTERMATH
Three nights later NYU tangled with Oklahoma A&M in the final at the Garden, and fell in a hard fought affair to be covered in depth later in the list. In Olsen’s final year as Buckeyes head coach, 1946, OSU returned to the semis, but fell in another overtime affair, this time to North Carolina. They wouldn’t be back in the national hoops spotlight for over a decade, when Fred Taylor took over as coach and the team won it all in 1960 behind Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek.
WHAT THEY SAID
“When the red light blazed and the buzzer rasped at the end, the place was a madhouse. The NYU boys tackled each other and, hysterically happy, meted out more mutual punishment than they had taken from Ohio State’s grid-like opposition all night. Fans forgot about the exits and hung around with Joe College smiles on their flushed pusses to watch the chortling Violets accept the [Eastern] championship trophy in a formal presentation.”
—Hy Turkin, New York Daily News
FURTHER READING:
“NYU Rally Beats Ohio State Quintet In Overtime” by Lou Effrat, The New York Times
925. MIGUEL COTTO VS ZAB JUDAH
WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
JUNE 9, 2007
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
QUALITY OF PLAY—8.75
DRAMA—7.22
STAR POWER—7.45
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—6.55
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.48
LOCAL IMPACT—6.05
TOTAL: 42.50
“LOW BLOWS, HIGH BLOWS, ZAB GOES”
Miguel Cotto is one of the more underrated fighters of recent vintage, a tough, brawling puncher who won titles in four weight classes, and is among the best Puerto Rican fighters ever (he was born to Puerto Rican parents in Providence, Rhode Island).
Cotto fought all over the US in amassing a 29-0 record, his facial expression seldom changing from a dead-eyed blank stare as he relentlessly worked the opponent’s body. He was dominant at 140 pounds, but the bigger paydays were at 147, so naturally, Miggy stepped up to full welterweight. He won the vacant WBA title in late-2006, in a bout in Atlantic City against Carlos Quintana. After a successful defense in Roberto Clemente Stadium in San Juan, the 26-year old Cotto agreed to fight a tough New Yorker, Zab Judah, on Zab’s home turf.
Judah, 29, had been both junior and regular welterweight champ, though he had seen better days. Judah had been in line to take on Floyd Mayweather in a big-money clash, but before it could come off he was upset at the Garden by an average fighter, Carlos Baldimir. Zab and Floyd fought anyway, and a low blow by Zab led to a free-for-all that saw Zac’s father/trainer, Yoel Judah, a former kickboxing champ and ninth-degree black belt, throw a punch at Roger Mayweather, Floyd’s uncle/trainer. When the mayhem finally was settled, Floyd danced to a convincing victory. Judah was suspended a year for his role in the melee. He was fortunate to back in the title ring so soon after the ban was lifted.
Zab’s speedy, high-energy approach in the ring made him an interesting contrast to Cotto’s power. Judah thought Cotto’s methodical style perfect for him. “He’s very slow,” he said during a promotional press conference to hype the fight. “He has to plant his feet to throw any punches. He has no right hand. He has no jab. He cannot box. He can’t fight going backward. There’s nothing that Miguel Cotto can do to me.”
Judah grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, and was a three-time NYC Golden Gloves champ. As the local boy made good, he was probably expecting the majority of the support inside the Garden on Saturday night, June 9, 2007.
Alas, he was sadly mistaken. Cotto’s Puerto Rican fans turned out in enormous numbers, not only filling the arena to capacity with 20,658 fans but putting on an unofficial Puerto Rico Day parade (the real thing was scheduled for the next day, June 10) in the hours before the fight, waving flags and blowing whistles and generally turning midtown into San Juan for the evening. Inside the Garden, fight promotors took a page from the recent NBA All-Star festivities in Las Vegas and blasted dance music and laser lighting throughout the evening.
Judah threatened to silence the masses with a strong first round, wobbling Cotto with an uppercut and landing several strong punches. Cotto countered with, ironically enough, a savage low blow that blunted Zac’s attack and sent him screaming to the canvas. Cotto was lectured by ref Arthur Mercante, but from there, the champ took total control. He had a noticeable size and reach advantage, and he moved Judah anywhere he liked. He dominated the next several rounds, dropped Judah with another low blow that cost him a point, withstood a brief seventh-round rally from Judah, and began to seriously damage the Brooklynite in the ninth. Cotto landed a succession of left hooks, peppering away at the defenseless Judah, who sank to one knee under the barrage. He got up and finished the round, only to be berated in his corner by Yoel.
The pep talk got Zab through the tenth, but in the eleventh, Cotto unloaded, bashing Judah with a another left hook to the chin just twenty seconds in that sent the challenger “falling straight backwards to the canvas like a sack of potatoes,” according to the Daily News, and sent the crowd into hysterics. The valiant Judah rose, but Cotto had him defenseless and against the ropes when the referee at last stepped in, calling the fight. A mammoth ovation serenaded Cotto as he soaked in the TKO victory, achieved despite several cuts. Judah was a post-fight mess, with his right eye swollen shut and blood pouring out of a cut just underneath the peeper.
It was Cotto’s thirtieth win against no defeats. Judah fell to 34-5, his third straight loss in a title fight.
AFTERMATH
Cotto finally lost his title and unbeaten record a year later, taken down by Antonio Margarito. But it was a bloody defeat to the great Manny Pacquaio in 2009 that essentially ended the relevant portion of Cotto’s career. He would lose to Mayweather as well, albeit in a controversial decision that saw Cotto land more heavy blows than Mayweather, a brilliant defensive fighter, usually took. Cotto lost his final fight to Sadam Ali at MSG, ending his career at 41-6. The final stretch of Cotto’s career belied his excellence to that point.
Judah had a mixed career from then out, marked by losses to most of the good fighters he took on. He was also held up repeatedly at gunpoint in Brooklyn beefs, including one with the rapper Fabolous. In his last fight, Judah took a savage beating from Cletus Seldin, resulting in a “brain bleed” that ended Judah’s career.
WHAT THEY SAID
“I told him, ‘You can’t win a championship like this. Let’s fight.’ And he did, and it turned out to be a great fight.”
Referee Arthur Mercante, on what he said to Judah when he complained about Cotto’s low blows.
FURTHER READING:
Miguel Cotto: The Inspirational Story by Bill Redban
VIDEO: