1979–80 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team

1979–80 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball
1979–80 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball
NCAA tournament National Champions; Metro Conference tournament champions; Metro Conference champions
National Championship Game, ; W 59-54 vs. UCLA
Conference	Metro Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 4
AP	No. 2
Record	33–3 (12–0 Metro)
Head coach	Denny Crum (9th season);
Assistant coaches	Bill Olsen; Wade Houston; Jerry Jones;
Home arena	Freedom Hall
	Seasons ← 1978–79 1980–81 →

1979–80 Metro Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 2 Louisville †	12	–	0	1.000	33	–	3	.917
Virginia Tech	8	–	4	.667	21	–	8	.724
Florida State	7	–	5	.583	22	–	9	.710
Memphis State	5	–	7	.417	13	–	14	.481
Saint Louis	4	–	8	.333	12	–	15	.444
Cincinnati	3	–	9	.250	13	–	15	.464
Tulane	3	–	9	.250	10	–	17	.370

† 1980 Metro Conference tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll^[1]

The 1979–80 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 1979–80 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, Louisville's 66th season of intercollegiate competition. The Cardinals competed in the Metro Conference and were coached by Denny Crum. The team played home games at Freedom Hall.

The team completed a 33–3 record and brought Louisville basketball their first NCAA national championship when they defeated UCLA 59–54, led by Darrell Griffith and his 23 points.

Roster

1979–80 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	5	Jerry Eaves	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	So	Ballard	Louisville, Kentucky
G	15	Greg Deuser	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	So	Floyd Central	New Albany, Indiana
F	21	Scooter McCray	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	So	Mount Vernon	Mount Vernon, New York
F/C	22	Rodney McCray	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	Fr	Mount Vernon	Mount Vernon, New York
G	23	Tony Branch (C)	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Sr	Elston	Michigan City, Indiana
F	24	Daryl Cleveland	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	Jr	Thomas County Central	Thomasville, Georgia
G	34	Roger Burkman	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Jr	Franklin Central	Indianapolis, Indiana
G	35	Darrell Griffith (C)	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	Sr	Louisville Male	Louisville, Kentucky
C	40	Marty Pulliam	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	225 lb (102 kg)	So	Mercer Country Senior	Harrodsburg, Kentucky
C	41	Wiley Brown	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	So	Worth County	Sylvester, Georgia
F	43	Derek Smith	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	205 lb (93 kg)	So	Hogansville	Hogansville, Georgia
G/F	44	Poncho Wright	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	So	Marshall	Indianapolis, Indiana

Head coach

Denny Crum (UCLA)

Assistant coach(es)

Jerry Jones
Bill Olsen
Wade Houston

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Schedule

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Regular Season
December 1*	No. 10	South Alabama	W 75–73	1–0	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
December 5*	No. 14	Tennessee Chattanooga	W 87–63	2–0	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
December 8*	No. 14	at Tennessee	W 77–75	3–0	Stokely Athletic Center Knoxville, Tennessee
December 13*	No. 12	UNC-Charlotte Holiday Classic	W 93–76	4–0	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
December 14*	No. 12	Western Kentucky Holiday Classic	W 96–74	5–0	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
December 19*	No. 11	No. 2 Ohio State	W 75–65	6–0	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
December 22*	No. 11	at Utah	L 69–71	6–1	Jon M. Huntsman Center Salt Lake City
December 28*	No. 12	vs. Princeton Hawaii Rainbow Classic	W 64–53	7–1	Honolulu, Hawaii
December 29*	No. 12	vs. Illinois Hawaii Rainbow Classic	L 65–77	7–2	Honolulu, Hawaii
December 30*	No. 12	vs. Nebraska Hawaii Rainbow Classic	W 65–58	8–2	Honalulu, Hawaii
January 3	No. 15	at Tulsa	W 78–58	9–2	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
January 5	No. 15	Kansas St.	W 85–73	10–2	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
January 8	No. 11	St. Louis	W 94–65	11–2 (1–0)	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
January 12	No. 11	at Memphis St.	W 69–48	12–2 (2–0)	Mid-South Coliseum Memphis, Tennessee
January 19	No. 7	at Tulane	W 76–59	13–2 (3–0)	Avron B. Fogelman Arena New Orleans
January 22	No. 7	Marquette	W 76–63	14–2 (3–0)	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
January 25	No. 7	at St. Louis	W 99–74	15–2 (4–0)	Kiel Auditorium St. Louis
January 27	No. 7	Florida St.	W 79–73	16–2 (5–0)	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
January 31	No. 7	Tulane	W 64–60	17–2 (6–0)	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
February 3	No. 7	at No. 9 St. John's	W 76–71	18–2 (6–0)	Alumni Hall Queens, New York
February 4	No. 7	Memphis St.	W 88–60	19–2 (7–0)	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
February 6	No. 3	Cincinnati	W 88–73	20–2 (8–0)	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
February 9	No. 3	at Providence	W 79–73	21–2 (8–0)	Providence Civic Center Providence, Rhode Island
February 11	No. 3	at Virginia Tech	W 56–54 ^OT	22–2 (9–0)	Cassell Coliseum Blacksburg, Virginia
February 14	No. 3	at West Virginia	W 90–78	23–2 (9–0)	WVU Coliseum Morgantown, West Virginia
February 16	No. 3	at Cincinnati	W 61–57	24–2 (10–0)	Riverfront Coliseum Cincinnati, Ohio
February 18	No. 3	Virginia Tech	W 77–72	25–2 (11–0)	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
February 21	No. 2	vs. Iona	L 60–77	25–3 (11–0)	Madison Square Garden New York City
February 24	No. 2	at Florida St.	W 83–75	26–3 (12–0)	Tallahassee, Florida
1980 Metro Conference tournament
February 29	No. 4	Memphis St. Metro Conference tournament Semi-Final	W 84–65	27–3 (12–0)	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
March 1 Tanner Sports Network	No. 4	Florida St. Metro Conference tournament championship	W 81–72	28–3 (12–0)	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
1980 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
March 8	No. 2 (MW2)	vs. No. MW7 Kansas St. Second Round	W 71–69 ^OT	29–3 (12–0)	Devaney Center Lincoln, Nebraska
March 14	No. 2 (MW2)	vs. No. MW6 Texas A&M Midwest Regional Semi-Final (Sweet Sixteen)	W 66–55 ^OT	30–3 (12–0)	The Summit Houston, Texas
March 16	No. 2 (MW2)	vs. No. 3 (MW1) Louisiana St. Midwest Regional Championship (Elite Eight)	W 86–66	31–3 (12–0)	The Summit Houston, Texas
March 22	No. 2 (MW2)	vs. No. E5 Iowa National semifinal (Final Four)	W 80–72	32–3 (12–0)	Market Square Arena Indianapolis
March 24*	No. 2 (MW2)	vs. No. W8 UCLA National Championship Game	W 59–54	33–3 (12–0)	Market Square Arena Indianapolis
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Rankings

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Final
AP	10	14	12	11	12	15	11	7	7	7	3	3	2	4	2

NCAA basketball tournament

Midwest region

First round			Second round			Regional semifinals			Regional Finals

8	Alcorn State	70

9	South Alabama	62
			8	Alcorn State	88

			1	LSU	98



						1	LSU	68

						5	Missouri	63



			4	Notre Dame	84*

			5	Missouri	87
5	Missouri	61

12	San Jose State	51
									1	LSU	66

									2	Louisville	86
6	Texas A&M	55

11	Bradley	53
			6	Texas A&M	78

			3	North Carolina	61**



						6	Texas A&M	55*

						2	Louisville	66



			2	Louisville	71

			7	Kansas State	69*
7	Kansas State	71

10	Arkansas	53

Final Four

National semifinals			National Finals

E5	Iowa	72

MW2	Louisville	80
			MW2	Louisville	59

			W8	UCLA	54
ME6	Purdue	62

W8	UCLA	67	National third-place game


			E5	Iowa	58

			ME6	Purdue	75

^[2]

Awards and honors

Darrell Griffith, NCAA Men's MOP Award^[3]
Darrell Griffith, All-America selection

Team players drafted into the NBA

Year	Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
1980	1	2	Darrell Griffith	Utah Jazz
1983	2	36	Scooter McCray	Seattle SuperSonics
1983	1	3	Rodney McCray	Houston Rockets
1982	2	35	Derek Smith	Golden State Warriors

^[4]

References

^ sports-reference.com 1979-80 Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference Season Summary
^ "1980 NCAA basketball tournament Bracket and Results". Retrieved February 6, 2012.
^ "Final Four Most Outstanding Players". cbs.sportsline.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2008. Retrieved March 31, 2008.
^ "1980 NBA Draft on databaseBasketball.com". Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012.

[1] sports-reference.com 1979-80 Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference Season Summary

[2] "1980 NCAA basketball tournament Bracket and Results". Retrieved February 6, 2012.

[Tourney_History-3] "Final Four Most Outstanding Players". cbs.sportsline.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2008. Retrieved March 31, 2008.

[4] "1980 NBA Draft on databaseBasketball.com". Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e Louisville Cardinals men's basketball
Venues	Belknap Gymnasium (1933–1944) Jefferson County Armory (1945–1956) Freedom Hall (1956–2010) KFC Yum! Center (2010–present)
Rivalries	Cincinnati Kentucky Memphis
Culture & lore	Billy Minardi Classic Cardinal Bird The Rivalry: Red v. Blue
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NAIA and NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics