The 1984 NCAA Men’s Championship Basketball Final — Georgetown and Houston

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By Ron Griffitts

Contributing columnist

On April 2, 1984 in the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington the Georgetown Hoyas (33-3) coached by John Thompson met the Houston Cougars (32-4) coached by Guy Lewis. It was the second consecutive final for Houston and featured two of the greatest centers of all time, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing.

The Hoyas got past Southern Methodist 37-36, Nevada-Las Vegas 62-48, Dayton who were led by Roosevelt Chapman and Ceric Toney 61-49, and Kentucky in the semifinal 53-40 to face Houston.

Georgetown was led by 7’ 0” junior center Patrick Ewing (16.4 ppg, 10.0 rpg), 6’ 5” sophomore David Wingate (11.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.7 apg), 6’ 7” junior forward Bill Martin (8.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg) and 6’ 2” sophomore guard Michael Jackson (10.2 ppg, 4.4 apg).

The Cougars defeated Louisiana Tech 77-69, Memphis 78-71, Wake Forest 68-63 and in the semifinal Virginia to get to the final.

Houston was led by 7’ 0” junior center Hakeem Olajuwon (16.8 ppg, 13.5 rpg), 6’ 7” senior forward Michael Young (19.8 ppg, 6.2 rpg), 6’ 2” sophomore guard Alvin Franklin (12.4 ppg, 4.2 apg), 6’ 8” freshman forward Rickie Winslow (8.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg) and 6’ 7” junior guard Reid Gettys (8.4 apg).

Georgetown got out to a fast start and a strong first half in which they out scored Houston 40-30. Even though Houston outscored the Hoyas 45-44 in the second half, the Hoyas came away with an 84-75 victory for Georgetown’s first NCAA title.

Patrick Ewing was named the tournament most outstanding player as he scored 10 points, had 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 blocked shots. Reggie Williams led the Hoyas with 19 points and 7 rebounds off the bench while David Wingate had 16 points, Michael Graham 14 and Michael Jackson 11.

Alvin Franklin led Houston with 21 points, Michael Young had 18 and Olajuwon had 15 points and 9 rebounds.

Georgetown returned the next year to the final while Houston has not been back to the NCAA final.

Olajuwon did not win a national title with the Cougars but in the NBA he teamed with Clyde Drexler to help win two titles for the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995.

Statistics for this article were from sports-reference.com and NCAA.com.

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