Kentucky time machine: The Goose was golden and Cats won 1978 NCAA title

Editor’s Note: The Herald-Leader continues its series re-publishing the game stories from Kentucky’s eight national title contests in chronological order. These stories appear, with some light editing, as they read at the time in the Herald, the Leader or the Herald-Leader. We hope you’re enjoying them.

March 27, 1978

KENTUCKY 94, DUKE 88

At the Checkerdome

Lexington Herald headline:

Cats National Champs! Givens Pours In 41 as UK Keeps lid on Duke, 94-88

The Goose soared, the doctor danced and the coach beamed a baseline-to-baseline smile.

For Duke remained Duke. while Kentucky was King of collegiate basketball and wearing its fifth NCAA cage crown.

The Wildcats ascended the throne by defeating Duke 94-88 before 18,721 delirious fans at the Checkerdome here Monday night.

You want heroes on this special night of nights?

Get your hat pin and the box score, and be my guest.

All the Wildcats contributed in the biggest win in UK basketball history in the last 20 years. But of course, it was the Goose, Jack Givens, who literally laid the golden egg with a career-high 41 points, third-highest in NCAA championship play. (Bill Walton had 44 and Gail Goodrich 42.)

But it was a win which belongs to each member of this Kentucky squad, and most of all to UK coach Joe Hall, who can now walk in the sunlight, unencumbered by any lingering shadows.

Celebrating Begins

For a supposedly unemotional ball club, there were enough hugs and back slaps to qualify for any political convention.

The spontaneous victory celebration saw Rick Robey with the conventional laurels, in the shape of the net, around his neck.

There was Hall, snipping at the strings, but graciously leaving the last strand for Givens.

And there was football coach Fran Curci on the 50-yard, er, at midcourt offering his best.

“This has been one great year, hasn’t it,” Curci asked.

There was V.A. Jackson, Kentucky’s beloved team physician, abandoning his best bedside manner by doing a victory dance in the waning moments of the game.

And how about equipment manager Bill Keightley shedding his suit coat at halftime. And the oceans of fans which engulfed the 1978 NCAA champions. It sounds so good, I think I’ll write that again — the 1978 NCAA champions. Anyway, the fans were yelling, “Bring on Portland.”

The game itself was just what Kentucky ordered, except for the tight-fisted officiating.

Givens Was The Difference

The Cats ran, and the Blue Devils ran. Kentucky hit the boards. Duke hit the boards. But there was one major difference.

While the majority of the Duke ball club was entering high school, Jack Givens was signing a grant-in-­aid to play basketball at Kentucky.

To paraphrase a late cigar-chomping prime minister, this was Givens’ finest 40 minutes.

The cold statistics, as good as they are (18 of 27 from the field), don’t really reflect Jack’s magic last night.

That famed marshmallow touch was there. That patented southpaw softy, which has launched 2,038 points and allowed Jack to join Dan Issel in the exclusive club of UK players to top 2,000 was primed, to near-perfection.

There he was flashing across the high post.

No wait, he’s inside tipping in a missed shot.

And now, he’s at midcourt deflecting a Duke pass. Bill Foster must have wondered whether the entire Givens clan was on scholarship.

The smooth senior scored the last 16 points of the first half to boost the nation’s No. 1 team into a comfortable 45-38 lead.

And just when Duke worked out a defense to cut down the outside shot, why, there’s Hall telling the Goose to let loose around the free-throw line.

The Cats asserted their supper superiority from the outset, shooting over Duke’s 2-3 jumping jack zone, to assume a 17-12 advantage on a Givens jumper with just over 12 minutes left in the first half.

Duke Missed One Freebie

Duke, which cashed in an incredible 20 of 21 free throws in the first frame, countered on a half-dozen freebies by Jim Suddath and Gene Banks, and suddenly the lead was one, 19-18.

A jumper by Banks, blissfully ignorant of threats on his life, knotted the count for the only time of the evening at 22-22.

But Robey answered the challenge with a three-point play, setting the table for Givens’ feast.

For awhile, the contest evolved into a shootout between Givens and Duke’s fine guard, Jim Spanarkel.

Whatever Jack would do, Jim was there to balance.

But this night belonged to UK’s second highest all-time scorer as he ballooned a modest 39-38 edge to 45-38 on two jumpers and a pair of free throws.

Duke regrouped to score the first four points after intermission, but the veteran Wildcats refused to crack.

In fact, the Cats proved their championship mettle by enlarging a 55-48 cushion to 66-50, outscoring the blue-clad Blue Devils 11-2 during a lethal five-minute span.

Visions of the fifth national title danced in the heads of Wildcat fans everywhere as Kentucky seemed to score at will over a suddenly-porous Duke defense.

Devils Kept Coming

But the Blue Devils didn’t come this far to silently fold their tents and steal into the St. Louis night.

Spanarkel served notice that was still some hell to be raised by connecting on a three-point play with 12:20 — or an eternity to Kentucky followers — on the clock. A rebound by freshman Kenny Dennard made the things even more interesting. But this group of UK seniors wasn’t about to let down, and the margin still stood at 13, 88-75, with only 2:40 left in the contest.

Hall had to put his shock troops back in the game after the lead shrank to four, 92-88, but then James Lee ended the season as only James Lee can, by banging in a Grand Slam Super Dunk that left the final margin at six points.

‘’I’ve been rough on this group for four years,” said an emotionally spent Hall. “I hope it’s all worth it to them now. We won this for all the kids who have played for me — I just wish they could all be here.”

Then, in obvious reference to the tag that this is a mechanical ball club, devoid of any emotions, Hall said, “I think our guys had tremendous fun.

“They take their basketball very seriously in Kentucky. The people, the fans, wouldn’t allow me to take it lightly. This team came here to win,’‘ Hall concluded.

“They got ready early and ran in the heat of September, and pumped iron.

“They did all they could to prepare themselves for this national championship.”

This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 10:54 AM.