Even though another team eventually tied their mark, the 1986 LSU Final Four team is still after all these years an 11th seed to remember.
It was 25 years ago that the 1986 LSU Tigers became the Cinderella of all Cinderellas in the NCAA basketball tournament.
The 1986 and 1981 LSU NCAA Final Four teams will be introduced one more time on the Pete Maravich Assembly Center court Saturday afternoon when the current LSU team hosts Ole Miss at 12:30 p.m. Members of the team will also be on the concourse prior to the game signing autographs for fans and will be at the gathering of the Sixth Man Club in the L-Club.
Tickets for the game are on sale at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office, online at www.LSUtix.net and on game day beginning at 11 a.m. at the ticket windows at the upper concourse of the PMAC.
The 1986 Tigers, at the time, became the lowest seeded team to make the Final Four at 11. This was a team that made it despite winning just eight of its last 19 games.
The 1981 team was supposed to be there. This team made it despite the longest of odds.
Now somewhere there is an old NCAA committee member laughing at the remembrance that LSU barely made the tournament as an at-large selection and found itself playing in the Assembly Center against much higher ranked teams.
First-round opponent Purdue wasn’t laughing. Especially when the Tigers won late in the night. The game went into double OT with the Tigers playing in front of a charged up arena full of Tiger fans, who had been revving up all day waiting for their chance to yell for their team. A neutral site for an NCAA Tournament? Not here. Not this year.
Then came an even unhappier Memphis team and how many thousands to this day claim to have been there for a miraculous shot heard throughout the college basketball world at the buzzer that gave LSU an 83-81 win.
“The shot was probably the defining moment of the tournament for us,” said shot maker Anthony Wilson. “I remember there was a mad scramble for the ball by several people. Ricky (Blanton) and Don (Redden) also went after it. I happened to be the one to come up with it. I just let it go and it happened to go in.”
It was the time of the freak defense of Coach Dale Brown and the will to do what no one thought possible. No one but Coach Brown and his Tigers. It was things like a sophomore guard who would have to bulk up and play center that mattered. It was overcoming a chickenpox scare. It was a belief and a drive that Tiger fans watched and clung to with joy.
Those were the stories told when this group had its 20th reunion five years ago. It all climaxed with plenty of memories of finally beating Kentucky after three losses earlier in the year. Even sweeter the win over Kentucky completed the dream of going to the NCAA Final Four.
“Never have I had a team that was so close-knit and (the players) loved each other,” said Brown. “This was just a feel-good team to be around.”
The Tigers had a run unmatched until 2006 when George Mason made it from the 11th seed as well. But no 11th seed would ever play on their home floor again. In fact, no one would again. It was never called the LSU rule, but it WAS the LSU rule.
Now 25 years later, we can still remember one of the greatest runs in tournament history with great fondness. One all LSU fans were happy to have a part in thanks to a weekend of Deaf Dome Magic at the Assembly Center.
Follow LSU Basketball on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball and on Twitter @LSUBasketball and @LSUCoachJohnson.
1986 Final Four Tigers
Coach Dale Brown
Associate Coach Ron Abernathy
Assistant Coach Bo Bahnsen
Assistant Coach Johnny Jones
Trainer Dr. Marty Broussard
Ricky Blanton – All-Century Team
Oliver Brown
Neboisha Bukumirovich
Chris Carrier
Ocie Conley
Zoran Jovanovich
Don Redden – All-Century Team
Derrick Taylor – All-Decade Team
Jose Vargas
John Williams – All-Decade Team
Anthony Wilson
Edwin Wilson
Nikita Wilson – All-Decade Team
Bernard Woodside