Jordan Was A Caged Lion In Final College Game

CLEVELAND - Today marks the 25th anniversary of Michael Jordan's final college basketball game, a day that still bothers him to this day.

Talk about March madness.

Jordan was a 21-year old junior at the University of North Carolina at the time and was the catalyst in the Tarheels' glittering 28-2 record. They went into a matchup with the Indiana Hoosiers with high hopes, given their roster full of talent besides Jordan. The Hoosiers were inferior, they had six more losses than UNC and only a couple decent players on the team.

None of that mattered.

Playing in the East Regional, the Hoosiers' rambunctious and controversial coach Bob Knight employed a highly effective strategy to counter Dean Smith's Carolina attack. Knight also assigned obscure guard Dan Dakich to defend the dazzling Jordan.

Talk about a mismatch.

Amazingly, Dakich was successful with his hard-nosed defense. MJ was tagged with two early fouls and spent most of the first half on the bench and frustrated. With Hoosiers star Steve Alford scoring at will and Jordan unable to find a smooth second half rhythm, Indiana stunned Carolina with a 72-68 victory on a searing 70% shooting.

Jordan finished with a meaningless 13 points and a very significant five fouls. Two weeks later, he announced his decision to forego his senior year and join the NBA. Dackich was relieved when the game was over, but didn't think much of his success against the 1984 College Player of the Year.

Until Jordan became what he became.

Once MJ became a super legendary basketball hero in the pros, Dakich's defense on him during that final game became something of a mythological event. "Dakich is the only guy that could stop Jordan," said countless people once Michael became an offensive juggernaut in the NBA.

Jordan looks back on that moment now and commends Dakich for his efforts, but maintains that it was his own fault for not knocking down the "good shots" that he had. Either way, the hyper-competitive Jordan walked away from that game with a broken heart.

I'm glad it didn't ruin his NBA career!