Post by Commissioner on Jun 20, 2014 22:15:05 GMT -5
Into the top 20 in this countdown:
20. December 5, 1960: Detroit 70, #6 Utah St. 68.
Detroit entered the 1960-61 season with high hopes, having made its first post-season appearance in the previous year’s NIT. Sixth ranked (UP) Utah State, a semi-finalist in the 1960 NIT after closing the season ranked 8th in the nation, provided an early test of the Titans abilities.
The Titans were led by returning All-American Dave DeBusschere and his high-scoring running mate, Charlie North. But it was JC Transfer John Morgan, playing only his second major college game, who sealed the win. Morgan hit two free throws with 5 seconds remaining to give the Titans a 70-68 win over the 6th ranked Aggies., the Titans’ first win over a ranked club since defeating #15 Tulsa in the 1955-56 season, and first over a top 10 club since knocking off Oklahoma A&M in the final game of the 1951 season. DeBusschere led the Titans with 26 points, while North added 16 and Morgan 11.
19. March 13, 1965: Detroit 93, La Salle 86 (NIT)
Lou Hyatt scored 10 of his game high 31 points in the final 10 minutes as Detroit finally broke through in post-season play with a 93-86 win over traditional eastern power La Salle in the first round of the NIT. Detroit’s substantial height advantage helped the Titans dominate the boards and take a 53-45 lead at the half. But UD’s 6’8” star center Dorie Murrey went to the bench early in the second half with foul trouble, and the much smaller Explorers came back to take the lead in the second half, before Hyatt took control of the game. The Titans shot 59% from the floor to overcome a balanced La Salle attack in which all five starters scored in double figures.
The game marked the Titans’ first ever post-season win. In the second round they fell to NYU 87-76 to finish the season at 20-8. It was Detroit’s third 20 win season ever.
18. March 22, 2001: Detroit 59, Dayton 42 (NIT)
The Titans won their third consecutive road game to advance to the NIT Final Four in Madison Square Garden by trouncing Dayton, 59-42. The Titans led 33-23 at the half, but Dayton held UD scoreless for the first five and a half minutes of the second half. The problem for Dayton was that Detroit’s defense also stepped it up, and Dayton was able to knock just five points off the Titans’ lead. The Titans then forced turnovers on 4 consecutive Dayton possessions and broke the game open. The Titan blitz eventually turned into a 23-3 run that opened a 56-31 lead with just under three minutes remaining. Having held Dayton to just 8 points in the first 17 minutes of the half, the Titans simply coasted home – or perhaps better put, to Madison Square Garden.
Rashad Phillips led the Titan attack with 23 points. The victory, Detroit’s 25th of the year, tied the school record. The Titans, however, lost to Alabama in the NIT semis, and then to Memphis in the consolation game, to finish the year at 25-12. Still, it is the furthest the Titans have ever advanced in post-season play.
17. March 2, 1999: UD 72, Butler 65.
UD held Butler to 17 percent shooting in the first half and rolled to the Horizon Tournament Title and an automatic NCAA bid by defeating the Bulldogs, 72-65. The Titans’ suffocating defense left Butler struggling for points and a Detroit opened a 53-32 lead with 6:40 left on a pair of Rashad Phillips free throws. Just when it appeared the Titans could celebrate their NCAA invitation, however, Butler came roaring back with a 12-0 run. The Dogs kept up the pressure, closing to 65-60, but that was as close as they would get. Phillips’ 18 points led Detroit.
The victory in the season’s rubber match with Butler gave Detroit both the regular season and Horizon tournament titles for the only time in school history. More importantly, despite a 23-5 record entering the game, it was not at all clear that the Titans would have been selected for the NCAA tourney had they lost in the tournament. The Titans had lost during the season at Michigan, Iowa, and Massachusetts, and without a big road win or a win over a “major” conference team, selection Sunday would have been tense. Detroit upset UCLA in the NCAA before losing to Ohio State. Butler was relegated to the NIT, where the Bulldogs reached the quarterfinals before falling to Clemson.
16. March 10, 1977: Detroit 93, Middle Tennessee State 76 (NCAA)
With 14 minutes left in this first round NCAA tournament game, it appeared that Detroit’s 1977 dream season might come crashing down. A 24-8 spurt by Ohio Valley Champ Middle Tennessee St. had taken the Blue Raiders from a 44-30 deficit with four minutes left in the first half, to a 54-52 lead. The thrill of the Titans 21 game winning streak during the regular season, the memories of the dramatic 64-63 win at 9th ranked Marquette, a possible second round showdown with in-state rival Michigan, all seemed in jeopardy. Coach Dick Vitale reached into his pocket and pulled out a prayer card to St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes.
How can a Catholic school lose once the saints are involved? Not to mention Terry Tyler. Tyler took over the game, dominating the lane, blocking shots, grabbing rebounds, and scoring, as the Titans scored the next 8 points and never looked back, rocking MTSU 41-22 over the last 14 minutes of the game. The win was UD’s first ever in NCAA play. Tyler finished with 29 points and 15 rebounds. John Long supported Tyler with 20 points. The Titans, of course, lost an 86-81 heartbreaker to #1 Michigan in the next round, ending the season at 25-4, a school record for wins.
15. December 15, 1976: Detroit 70, #8 Arizona 68.
Starting his 4th season as Titan coach, Dick Vitale finally got a win over a nationally ranked opponent, defeating 8th ranked Arizona 70-68 on a 12 foot, turnaround jumper by Dennis Boyd at the buzzer. Detroit led throughout the first half and was up 37-30 at the break, but Arizona caught up with a run early in the second half and after that the lead changed hands several times. The Wildcats tied the game with 12 seconds remaining, setting up Boyd’s heroics. Boyd led the Titans with 19 points, John Long added 17 and Ron Bostick 10 before 6300 fans at Memorial Hall. The Titans, 6-1 with a loss only to Minnesota, hoped the win would propel them into the top 20, but it would take 10 more wins without a loss before UD finally entered the rankings at the beginning of February. Eventually, the Titans would finish the regular season 24-3 and reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since Dave DeBusschere’s senior season. Arizona finished the year at 21-6, losing in the first round of the NCAA.
14. December 16, 1968: #14 Detroit 71, # 10 St. Bonaventure 68.
Excitement was high as UD opened the 1968-69 season behind Olympic hero Spencer Haywood. The Titans opened the season by blasting the inferior competition of Aquinas, Windsor, Western Ontario and Hillsdale at home by an average score of 102-46, but shaky road wins over Western Michigan (106-99) and Eastern Michigan (74-72) left some doubt as to how good the Titans really were.
In Mid-December the Titans hosted St. Bonaventure, which entered the game on a 29 game regular season winning streak. The Bonnies had finished the 1968 season ranked 3rd in the country, led by massive 6’11” center Bob Lanier and point guard Jim Satalin. St. Bonaventure came into Detroit ranked 10th by the AP and 11th by UPI. The Titans entered the game ranked 14th in the AP and 17th by UPI.
In the match up of pre-season All Americans, Lanier outscored Haywood 19-15, but Haywood (who had entered the game averaging 35 points) outrebounded Lanier 16-12, and a tenacious defense by the Titans often forced Lanier outside. The Titans charged to an early lead and were up 31-20 at the half, but the Bonnies fought back in the second half and the game was tied 68-68 with 25 seconds to play. Sophomore guard Jim Jackson hit two free throws to give UD the lead, and Haywood captured the rebound after a miss by Satalin. Haywood was fouled by Lanier and sank the game clinching free throw with 3 seconds left. Beyond his key late free throws, Jackson picked up the scoring slack for Detroit, matching Lanier for game-high honors with 19 points, including 15 in the second half. By the way, the New York Times, reporting on this game, said that Memorial Hall looked “like a Tijuana jail.” Ouch. There are many reasons to hate the Times.
St. Bonaventure went on to a rather disappointing 17-7 season, but would still probably have made the NCAA tournament but for sanctions imposed late in the season for recruiting violations. The Titans advanced to 13th and 16th in the next week’s polls, and continued to dream big dreams for a time.
13. February 3, 1962: Detroit 93, #10 Villanova 89 (OT).
Midway through Dave DeBusschere’s final season, Detroit was struggling along at 11-6. Villanova, previously ranked as high as 5th in early January, came to town ranked 10th nationally at 15-3.
A sellout crowd watched as DeBusschere tied the game at 79-79 with 18 seconds to go, forcing overtime. In OT, Nova took a 4 point lead, but UD tied it back up and a steal by DeBusschere and long pass to Frank Chickowski for the breakaway layup put the Titans up for good. DeBusschere sealed the Titan win with a 3 point play with 50 seconds to go. Wally Jones had 32 for Nova, while DeBusschere finished with 29 points and 27 rebounds.
The game was instrumental in the Titans post-season fortunes. The Titans pushed their record to 15-7, but after getting an NCAA bid in February (in those days they were announced before the season end, in part because the NCAA and NIT were in hot competition to sign up the best teams) lost their last 4 regular season games, to Canisius, Bowling Green, Seton Hall and Marquette. An earlier loss in this game would likely have caused them to miss out on their first NCAA bid. Unfortunately, the Titans dropped a 90-81 decision to Western Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA. Villanova went on to a 21-7 finish and a spot in the NCAA’s “Elite 8” (though of course in those days no one called it that).
12. February 28, 1985: Detroit 71, #4 Memphis 66.
The rejuvenated Titans had won 10 of their last 12 as #4 Memphis, 23-2, came to Calihan to close out the 1985 regular season.
Before a crowd of 8133, the largest at Calihan in six years, the Titans jumped out early, leading 41-29 at the half. Memphis kept chipping away in the second half, cutting the lead to 65-62 with two minutes to play, but the Titans hit their free throws down the stretch to seal the win. Greg Wendt scored 23 and Keith Gray 21 for Detroit, but the key to the win was the play of sophomore Brian Humes, who held Memphis All-American Keith Lee to just 5 of 18 shooting from the floor, while scoring 13 points himself.
With the win, the Titans had reason to hope for an NIT bid, but a first round loss to Xavier in the MCC tournament killed that possibility. The Titans’ win has also been tainted over the years by allegations that Memphis threw the game. There is some belief that Memphis players were initially trying to simply make sure that the Tigers won the game without beating the spread, only to have the Titans nab the whole thing. Arguably Memphis coach Dana Kirk’s post game comments - “Sometimes you come into a place like Detroit and the players don’t know what to expect, so they don’t play hard” – support the idea that Memphis players simply seemed lazy in the early going. However, the point-shaving allegations were never proven.
The Titans finished the year at 16-13, their only winning season between 1981 and 1993. To date, this game remains the Titans’ last victory over a Top 10 ranked team – far and away our longest drought ever.
11. January 21, 1950: Detroit 67, #4 Bradley 54
On January 16, 1950, 4th ranked Bradley crushed Detroit 71-50 in Peoria. The two squads met again just 5 days later in Detroit. The Titans entered the rematch with a 9-3 record, but most of that had been compiled against a sub-par non-conference schedule, except for a home victory over Michigan State. Detroit was 1-3 in its inaugural Missouri Valley Conference season. Given the thrashing Bradley had given UD earlier in the week, the 15-2 Braves, led by All-Americans Gene Melchiorre and Paul Unruh and 6’7” center Elmer Behnke, entered the game as heavy favorites. But the Titans had reasons not to be cowed. They had stayed with Bradley through the first half in the first game, leading at one point 18-16 and trailing just 31-28 at the half before Bradley had pulled away in the Second half. And the Titans had been nearly invincible at home, winning 8 straight and 15 of 16 in Detroit over the past two years.
Like the earlier game in Peoria, this game was again close through halftime (it was 24 all at the break), but this time it was Titans’ turn to open the second half with a blistering run, and the Titans won going away. Brendan McNamara led the Titans with 15 points.
The loss was Bradley’s only defeat in conference play that season (they also lost to Purdue and Kentucky during the regular season), and the Braves actually finished the season ranked #1. In the post-season, Bradley and City College of New York made history by playing each other in the finals of both the NIT and the NCAA tourney, with CCNY winning each time. The perked up Titans went on to finish 7-5 in the Missouri Valley, their best finish in their 8 seasons in the conference, and 20-6 overall. There was considerable speculation about a post-season bid for the Titans but in the end none was not forthcoming.
Detroit’s starting five were Norm Swanson, John Kirwan, McNamara, Don Berner and Skippy Gleeson.
20. December 5, 1960: Detroit 70, #6 Utah St. 68.
Detroit entered the 1960-61 season with high hopes, having made its first post-season appearance in the previous year’s NIT. Sixth ranked (UP) Utah State, a semi-finalist in the 1960 NIT after closing the season ranked 8th in the nation, provided an early test of the Titans abilities.
The Titans were led by returning All-American Dave DeBusschere and his high-scoring running mate, Charlie North. But it was JC Transfer John Morgan, playing only his second major college game, who sealed the win. Morgan hit two free throws with 5 seconds remaining to give the Titans a 70-68 win over the 6th ranked Aggies., the Titans’ first win over a ranked club since defeating #15 Tulsa in the 1955-56 season, and first over a top 10 club since knocking off Oklahoma A&M in the final game of the 1951 season. DeBusschere led the Titans with 26 points, while North added 16 and Morgan 11.
19. March 13, 1965: Detroit 93, La Salle 86 (NIT)
Lou Hyatt scored 10 of his game high 31 points in the final 10 minutes as Detroit finally broke through in post-season play with a 93-86 win over traditional eastern power La Salle in the first round of the NIT. Detroit’s substantial height advantage helped the Titans dominate the boards and take a 53-45 lead at the half. But UD’s 6’8” star center Dorie Murrey went to the bench early in the second half with foul trouble, and the much smaller Explorers came back to take the lead in the second half, before Hyatt took control of the game. The Titans shot 59% from the floor to overcome a balanced La Salle attack in which all five starters scored in double figures.
The game marked the Titans’ first ever post-season win. In the second round they fell to NYU 87-76 to finish the season at 20-8. It was Detroit’s third 20 win season ever.
18. March 22, 2001: Detroit 59, Dayton 42 (NIT)
The Titans won their third consecutive road game to advance to the NIT Final Four in Madison Square Garden by trouncing Dayton, 59-42. The Titans led 33-23 at the half, but Dayton held UD scoreless for the first five and a half minutes of the second half. The problem for Dayton was that Detroit’s defense also stepped it up, and Dayton was able to knock just five points off the Titans’ lead. The Titans then forced turnovers on 4 consecutive Dayton possessions and broke the game open. The Titan blitz eventually turned into a 23-3 run that opened a 56-31 lead with just under three minutes remaining. Having held Dayton to just 8 points in the first 17 minutes of the half, the Titans simply coasted home – or perhaps better put, to Madison Square Garden.
Rashad Phillips led the Titan attack with 23 points. The victory, Detroit’s 25th of the year, tied the school record. The Titans, however, lost to Alabama in the NIT semis, and then to Memphis in the consolation game, to finish the year at 25-12. Still, it is the furthest the Titans have ever advanced in post-season play.
17. March 2, 1999: UD 72, Butler 65.
UD held Butler to 17 percent shooting in the first half and rolled to the Horizon Tournament Title and an automatic NCAA bid by defeating the Bulldogs, 72-65. The Titans’ suffocating defense left Butler struggling for points and a Detroit opened a 53-32 lead with 6:40 left on a pair of Rashad Phillips free throws. Just when it appeared the Titans could celebrate their NCAA invitation, however, Butler came roaring back with a 12-0 run. The Dogs kept up the pressure, closing to 65-60, but that was as close as they would get. Phillips’ 18 points led Detroit.
The victory in the season’s rubber match with Butler gave Detroit both the regular season and Horizon tournament titles for the only time in school history. More importantly, despite a 23-5 record entering the game, it was not at all clear that the Titans would have been selected for the NCAA tourney had they lost in the tournament. The Titans had lost during the season at Michigan, Iowa, and Massachusetts, and without a big road win or a win over a “major” conference team, selection Sunday would have been tense. Detroit upset UCLA in the NCAA before losing to Ohio State. Butler was relegated to the NIT, where the Bulldogs reached the quarterfinals before falling to Clemson.
16. March 10, 1977: Detroit 93, Middle Tennessee State 76 (NCAA)
With 14 minutes left in this first round NCAA tournament game, it appeared that Detroit’s 1977 dream season might come crashing down. A 24-8 spurt by Ohio Valley Champ Middle Tennessee St. had taken the Blue Raiders from a 44-30 deficit with four minutes left in the first half, to a 54-52 lead. The thrill of the Titans 21 game winning streak during the regular season, the memories of the dramatic 64-63 win at 9th ranked Marquette, a possible second round showdown with in-state rival Michigan, all seemed in jeopardy. Coach Dick Vitale reached into his pocket and pulled out a prayer card to St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes.
How can a Catholic school lose once the saints are involved? Not to mention Terry Tyler. Tyler took over the game, dominating the lane, blocking shots, grabbing rebounds, and scoring, as the Titans scored the next 8 points and never looked back, rocking MTSU 41-22 over the last 14 minutes of the game. The win was UD’s first ever in NCAA play. Tyler finished with 29 points and 15 rebounds. John Long supported Tyler with 20 points. The Titans, of course, lost an 86-81 heartbreaker to #1 Michigan in the next round, ending the season at 25-4, a school record for wins.
15. December 15, 1976: Detroit 70, #8 Arizona 68.
Starting his 4th season as Titan coach, Dick Vitale finally got a win over a nationally ranked opponent, defeating 8th ranked Arizona 70-68 on a 12 foot, turnaround jumper by Dennis Boyd at the buzzer. Detroit led throughout the first half and was up 37-30 at the break, but Arizona caught up with a run early in the second half and after that the lead changed hands several times. The Wildcats tied the game with 12 seconds remaining, setting up Boyd’s heroics. Boyd led the Titans with 19 points, John Long added 17 and Ron Bostick 10 before 6300 fans at Memorial Hall. The Titans, 6-1 with a loss only to Minnesota, hoped the win would propel them into the top 20, but it would take 10 more wins without a loss before UD finally entered the rankings at the beginning of February. Eventually, the Titans would finish the regular season 24-3 and reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since Dave DeBusschere’s senior season. Arizona finished the year at 21-6, losing in the first round of the NCAA.
14. December 16, 1968: #14 Detroit 71, # 10 St. Bonaventure 68.
Excitement was high as UD opened the 1968-69 season behind Olympic hero Spencer Haywood. The Titans opened the season by blasting the inferior competition of Aquinas, Windsor, Western Ontario and Hillsdale at home by an average score of 102-46, but shaky road wins over Western Michigan (106-99) and Eastern Michigan (74-72) left some doubt as to how good the Titans really were.
In Mid-December the Titans hosted St. Bonaventure, which entered the game on a 29 game regular season winning streak. The Bonnies had finished the 1968 season ranked 3rd in the country, led by massive 6’11” center Bob Lanier and point guard Jim Satalin. St. Bonaventure came into Detroit ranked 10th by the AP and 11th by UPI. The Titans entered the game ranked 14th in the AP and 17th by UPI.
In the match up of pre-season All Americans, Lanier outscored Haywood 19-15, but Haywood (who had entered the game averaging 35 points) outrebounded Lanier 16-12, and a tenacious defense by the Titans often forced Lanier outside. The Titans charged to an early lead and were up 31-20 at the half, but the Bonnies fought back in the second half and the game was tied 68-68 with 25 seconds to play. Sophomore guard Jim Jackson hit two free throws to give UD the lead, and Haywood captured the rebound after a miss by Satalin. Haywood was fouled by Lanier and sank the game clinching free throw with 3 seconds left. Beyond his key late free throws, Jackson picked up the scoring slack for Detroit, matching Lanier for game-high honors with 19 points, including 15 in the second half. By the way, the New York Times, reporting on this game, said that Memorial Hall looked “like a Tijuana jail.” Ouch. There are many reasons to hate the Times.
St. Bonaventure went on to a rather disappointing 17-7 season, but would still probably have made the NCAA tournament but for sanctions imposed late in the season for recruiting violations. The Titans advanced to 13th and 16th in the next week’s polls, and continued to dream big dreams for a time.
13. February 3, 1962: Detroit 93, #10 Villanova 89 (OT).
Midway through Dave DeBusschere’s final season, Detroit was struggling along at 11-6. Villanova, previously ranked as high as 5th in early January, came to town ranked 10th nationally at 15-3.
A sellout crowd watched as DeBusschere tied the game at 79-79 with 18 seconds to go, forcing overtime. In OT, Nova took a 4 point lead, but UD tied it back up and a steal by DeBusschere and long pass to Frank Chickowski for the breakaway layup put the Titans up for good. DeBusschere sealed the Titan win with a 3 point play with 50 seconds to go. Wally Jones had 32 for Nova, while DeBusschere finished with 29 points and 27 rebounds.
The game was instrumental in the Titans post-season fortunes. The Titans pushed their record to 15-7, but after getting an NCAA bid in February (in those days they were announced before the season end, in part because the NCAA and NIT were in hot competition to sign up the best teams) lost their last 4 regular season games, to Canisius, Bowling Green, Seton Hall and Marquette. An earlier loss in this game would likely have caused them to miss out on their first NCAA bid. Unfortunately, the Titans dropped a 90-81 decision to Western Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA. Villanova went on to a 21-7 finish and a spot in the NCAA’s “Elite 8” (though of course in those days no one called it that).
12. February 28, 1985: Detroit 71, #4 Memphis 66.
The rejuvenated Titans had won 10 of their last 12 as #4 Memphis, 23-2, came to Calihan to close out the 1985 regular season.
Before a crowd of 8133, the largest at Calihan in six years, the Titans jumped out early, leading 41-29 at the half. Memphis kept chipping away in the second half, cutting the lead to 65-62 with two minutes to play, but the Titans hit their free throws down the stretch to seal the win. Greg Wendt scored 23 and Keith Gray 21 for Detroit, but the key to the win was the play of sophomore Brian Humes, who held Memphis All-American Keith Lee to just 5 of 18 shooting from the floor, while scoring 13 points himself.
With the win, the Titans had reason to hope for an NIT bid, but a first round loss to Xavier in the MCC tournament killed that possibility. The Titans’ win has also been tainted over the years by allegations that Memphis threw the game. There is some belief that Memphis players were initially trying to simply make sure that the Tigers won the game without beating the spread, only to have the Titans nab the whole thing. Arguably Memphis coach Dana Kirk’s post game comments - “Sometimes you come into a place like Detroit and the players don’t know what to expect, so they don’t play hard” – support the idea that Memphis players simply seemed lazy in the early going. However, the point-shaving allegations were never proven.
The Titans finished the year at 16-13, their only winning season between 1981 and 1993. To date, this game remains the Titans’ last victory over a Top 10 ranked team – far and away our longest drought ever.
11. January 21, 1950: Detroit 67, #4 Bradley 54
On January 16, 1950, 4th ranked Bradley crushed Detroit 71-50 in Peoria. The two squads met again just 5 days later in Detroit. The Titans entered the rematch with a 9-3 record, but most of that had been compiled against a sub-par non-conference schedule, except for a home victory over Michigan State. Detroit was 1-3 in its inaugural Missouri Valley Conference season. Given the thrashing Bradley had given UD earlier in the week, the 15-2 Braves, led by All-Americans Gene Melchiorre and Paul Unruh and 6’7” center Elmer Behnke, entered the game as heavy favorites. But the Titans had reasons not to be cowed. They had stayed with Bradley through the first half in the first game, leading at one point 18-16 and trailing just 31-28 at the half before Bradley had pulled away in the Second half. And the Titans had been nearly invincible at home, winning 8 straight and 15 of 16 in Detroit over the past two years.
Like the earlier game in Peoria, this game was again close through halftime (it was 24 all at the break), but this time it was Titans’ turn to open the second half with a blistering run, and the Titans won going away. Brendan McNamara led the Titans with 15 points.
The loss was Bradley’s only defeat in conference play that season (they also lost to Purdue and Kentucky during the regular season), and the Braves actually finished the season ranked #1. In the post-season, Bradley and City College of New York made history by playing each other in the finals of both the NIT and the NCAA tourney, with CCNY winning each time. The perked up Titans went on to finish 7-5 in the Missouri Valley, their best finish in their 8 seasons in the conference, and 20-6 overall. There was considerable speculation about a post-season bid for the Titans but in the end none was not forthcoming.
Detroit’s starting five were Norm Swanson, John Kirwan, McNamara, Don Berner and Skippy Gleeson.