Wild About '88: The Rise of Arizona Basketball. Chapter 6: No. 3 Syracuse in the Great Alaska Shootout Championship.
This season marks the 35th anniversary of one of Tucson’s most beloved teams of all time, the 1987-88 Arizona Wildcats that finished 35-3 and went to the program’s first Final Four. We will celebrate that team by recapping each game during that unforgettable season by referencing newspaper archives and interviews conducted during the making of the upcoming documentary film ‘Wild About ‘88: The Rise of Arizona Basketball.’
After handling No. 9 Michigan in the semifinals of the Great Alaska Shootout, Arizona had a tough task ahead of them when they were to play No. 3 Syracuse in the championship game.
“At that point, if you thought about elite programs around the country, Syracuse is in the top five,” Buechler said in 2016. “How are we going to match up? And can we hang with the elite?”
Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim didn’t think the Cats would have trouble hanging with the elite.
“In my 11 years of coaching college ball, I have not seen a better team at this stage of the season,” Boeheim said.1
The previous season, Syracuse was a bucket away from winning the National Title. In 1987-88 they had one of the best point guards in the country returning in Sherman Douglas and a daunting front line with 6-10 Derrick Coleman and 6-11 Rony Seikaly. All three would eventually play for at least a decade in the NBA.
Seikaly played for Lute Olson in 1986 for the United States at the World Championships in Spain. His playing time dwindled during the tournament and did not play in the championship game against the U.S.S.R. He was the only U.S. player to not play in the game except for the injured Steve Kerr.
Did Seikaly feel slighted by Olson?
Sean Elliott didn’t help the situation when he was quoted in a local Alaska newspaper.
“We have a better front line than Syracuse. And I think Rony Seikaly is suspect,” Elliott said.
Elliott would later say his words were taken out of context and Seikaly and he were friends.
In 2014 this is how Coach Olson remembered Elliott’s comments.
“After our semi-final game, Sean Elliott talked to the press and said, ‘Oh, they have no chance against us. We're just too quick for them.’”
Olson wanted Elliott to simmer down.
“Let them find that out. You don't have to point it out,’” Olson said while laughing.
Seikaly and Coleman started the game with a bang.
“I think their(Syracuse) first four buckets were slam dunks and they were right in our guy's face,” Olson added.
With 15:40 left in the first half, Tom Tolbert picked up his third foul. Backup center Brian David was out for the year and Olson had hoped to redshirt big guys, Sean Rooks and Mark Georgeson. That gave senior Joe Turner a chance to shine.
“I think that not only Tom, but the entire coaching staff was like, 'we're done'. The entire team, we're thinking that 'we're done.' And I got into the game and I had no fear whatsoever,” Turner said in 2016.
Turner turned it up and had the half of his life scoring 10 points and grabbing 5 rebounds.
“I was able to go in there and get around them and get easy buckets, jump hooks over the top. And I just had that out-of-body experience. Like I was unstoppable,” Turner added.
Turner’s spark helped the Cats take a six-point halftime lead.
Right before the break, Kenny Lofton had a Sportscenter highlight play that inspired a mini brouhaha on the way to the locker room.
“Sherman Douglas tried to block my dunk and I dunked on him. And once I dunked on him, I said a couple of things to him,” Lofton said in 2016.
“I think it was near the tunnel somewhere and he(Douglas) said something and Kenny said something. They were popping off and a bunch of us separated them,” Harvey Mason said in 2016.
“I let him know ‘you don't come up here with this young stuff youngster,’ even though we’re the same age, but I felt like you can't get up with me,” Lofton added.
Once Arizona made it to the locker room, Olson considered breaking Rooks's redshirt year because of Tolbert’s foul trouble.
Craig McMillan remembered Olson telling the head trainer Steve Condon to get Rooks ready.
“‘Tape him up. Get him ready to go’, and he(Rooks) watched Coleman getting those dunks and stuff and I don’t think he was ready to step on the court,” McMillan remembered while chuckling.
While Condon was taping the big guy’s ankles, McMillan remembered Rooks pleading, “‘No, no, I don't want want to play! I'm gonna redshirt! I'm gonna redshirt!’”
Condon didn’t listen to Rooks. He kept doing as Olson asked by taping him up.
“It was like when Rain Man was supposed to get on the plane, he wasn't gonna go. Sean did not want to go in the game at that point,” McMillan added.
Fortunately for Rooks, Tolbert never fouled out and his redshirt year was saved.
In the second half, Arizona built their lead to 12, but Syracuse roared back.
With 7:21 left, another Coleman dunk gave Syracuse a one-point lead.
Arizona answered with a 9-0 run started by an Anthony Cook lay-in.
Soon after Cook’s bucket, Tolbert started a fast break by deflecting a pass to Lofton who flew the other way for another Sportscenter dunk. Douglas was trailing him and came up short again.
“When Kenny did that dunk,” Elliott said. “It was over.”2
Soon after the dunk, Lofton would nail a three, giving Arizona a six-point lead and all the momentum.
“I thought we made a great comeback against a team that’s tough to come back against,” Boeheim said.3
Arizona would defeat No. 3 Syracuse 80-69 and were the Great Alaska Shootout Champions.
Kerr had a quiet game offensively but ran the point to perfection with 6 assists and no turnovers.
Senior shooting guard Craig McMillan picked up the slack from the perimeter by shooting 4 for 6 from outside. He finished with 15 points.
Elliott would lead the team with 16 points and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Elliott, Tolbert, and Kerr were voted onto the all-tournament team.
Next Up: December 4th vs. Long Beach State
Blog content and original interview quotations © Waterfoot Films 2022.
Jay Gonzales, "Cats win Shootout: Arizona heads off Orange rally, 80-69” The Arizona Daily Star, December 1 1987, Page One—Section C.; Associated Press, “Orange Bows in Shootout Final,” The Buffalo News, December 1 1987, Page Two—Section D.; Jack Rickard, “Turner: ‘I went out, did the job,’” The Tucson Citizen, December 1 1987, Page 3—Section E.; Jack Rickard, “UA puts squeeze on Syracuse,” The Tucson Citizen, December 1 1987, Page One and Three—Section E.; Dana Cooper, Memories ‘88. Jack Rickard, “UA shoots for the best,” The Tucson Citizen, November 30 1987, Page One and Five—Section B. Jack Rickard, “Seikaly to even score with Olson,” The Tucson Citizen, November 30 1987, Page 6—Section B.
Jack Rickard, “UA shoots for the best,” The Tucson Citizen, November 30 1987, Page One and Five—Section B.
Jay Gonzales, "Cats win Shootout: Arizona heads off Orange rally, 80-69,” The Arizona Daily Star, December 1 1987, Page One—Section C.
Associated Press, “Orange Bows in Shootout Final,” The Buffalo News, December 1 1987, Page Two—Section D.