Kids today would never believe this, but back in the old days, players stayed 3-4 years in college, usually at the same school – even good ones!
An in a span of just a few years in the 1980’s, four of the best big men ever roamed the paint: Ralph Sampson at Virginia, Patrick Ewing at Georgetown, Hakeem Olajuwon at Houston and David Robinson at Navy.
It’s unimaginable now but those guys were insanely good. Toss in Michael Jordan and Clyde Drexler and we were talking some very serious hoops.
In 1984, Olajuwon and Ewing squared off in the national championship game. Georgetown got there by putting one of the all-time great lockdowns on Kentucky in the semis but Houston was a tougher out. However, the Hoyas eventually put Houston down, 85-74 as the Hoyas won their only national championship.
It’s impossible to overstate how intimidating Ewing was in college and Olajuwon was still developing. He came to the US as an early African college player and was the first dominant player from the continent but certainly not the last. And by the way, Patrick Ewing was born in Jamaica and is the greatest basketball player ever to come out of that island.
Trivia note: one of the starters for Houston was Ricky Winslow. His son Justise would later help Duke win the national championship in 2015.
