Twenty years after the worst call in NCAA championship game history, the one that almost surely cost Seton Hall the 1989 national title and left Pirates fans bleeding blue for the rest of their lives, former coach P.J. Carlesimo refuses to point fingers.
“If I could have picked the refs to work that game, I got two of the three I would have picked,” Carlesimo told The Post. “John Clougherty was one of the best. Mickey Crowley knew us, knew how we played. Tommy Rucker we didn’t really know, but two of three, I thought we’d get a whistle.”
Instead, Carlesimo, and his underdog Pirates got the worst whistle at the worst time. Michigan’s Rumeal Robinson drove into the paint and rose for a short jumper. Seton Hall’s Gerald Greene looked at Robinson the wrong way. Clougherty blew his whistle.
That’s how the 1989 national championship game was decided – with 3 seconds left in overtime no less.
Carlesimo will tell you that Robinson might have made the shot. He will say the Michigan guard, a 64-percent free throw shooter, stepped to the line with 3 seconds left in overtime and knocked two of the most pressure-packed free throws ever attempted in the history of March Madness to give Michigan an 80-79 victory. He will tell you the Pirates could have run their last-gasp play better and Daryll Walker could have made a game-winner for the ages.
He’s correct, but it still doesn’t cover for Clougherty calling a ticky-tack foul in the NCAA’s marquee sporting event.
Carlesimo has had ample opportunity these days to finally say what a lot of Seton Hall fans have yearned to hear: Yep, we got hosed.
He will be the Prudential Center today for a 20-year reunion of that team. They will be honored at halftime of The Hall’s Big East game against Georgetown. Seton Hall is 9-9 overall and 0-6 in the league. The Hoyas are 12-5 and 3-3.
Earlier today, Carlesimo will be at Wagner College, where they will honor his 1979 team, which went to the NIT. This Carlesimo guy is getting old in the tooth but not sour in the gut.
“It was a great tournament and a really great championship game,” said Carlesimo, who was fired earlier this season as coach of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder. “They played well. We played well. You’d like to see a game like that end with someone making a great shot. That would have been a better ending.”
That’s it. That’s as close to bitter as Carlesimo will go, especially today. Today he will reunite with the players and coaches that gave the Hall their greatest moment. No whistle can shatter that reverie.
