The No. 12 Virginia men's basketball team begins postseason play Firday in the ACC Tournament. For the first time since the 1996-97 season - after which the Cavaliers struggled for even the easiest ACC win - the team is likely to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The turnaround is remarkable, but it is no match for Virginia's rise to national dominance just two decades ago. Today, Travis Watson and Donald Hand are responsible. Back then, it was a lanky 7-foot-4 phenom named Ralph Sampson.
Throughout much of its early history the Virginia men's basketball team, consistently finished near the bottom of the ACC standings. However, on May 31, 1979, the program's fortunes changed when Sampson, a towering high school center from Harrisonburg, Va., announced his intentions to play for the Cavaliers.
Over the next four years, Sampson vaulted Cavalier basketball to an unfamiliar territory - the national spotlight. During his stay, Virginia posted an overall record of 112-23, including an impressive 50-2 mark at University Hall.
Traditional powerhouses Kentucky and North Carolina first recruited Sampson as a high school sophomore. Then-Virginia coach Terry Holland not only recruited Sampson, but also tried to convince his family of the benefits of attending the University.
"I looked at a number of schools," Sampson said. "I decided on Virginia because it was a good school with a good coach, and it was close to home."
Sampson entered school his first year amid a whirlwind of hype, joining a team with a solid group of veterans that included Lee Raker and two-time All-American Jeff Lamp. The team came together by the end of the season and concluded the year by defeating a solid Minnesota team led by Kevin McHale to win the NIT Tournament.
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Virginia's charge through the NIT in the spring of 1980, served as a catalyst for the 1980-1981 season, when the Cavaliers jumped to a 23-0 start and ascended to No. 1 in the Associated Press poll.
"It was fun," Sampson said. "We were the talk of the country. We focused on doing the best every game and we played at a very high level."
"It was a continuation of our play from the NIT," Holland, who now serves as Virginia's director of athletics, said. "The enthusiasm for the team built, but as a coach, I didn't worry about rankings during the season because I wanted to be No. 1 at the end of the year."
As Sampson led Virginia basketball to the top of the polls, the enthusiasm for the team spread. University Hall, which has a seating capacity of 8,394, packed in 11,000 on many nights. The area behind the scorer and press tables filled with chairs and fans sat in the aisles to watch the top-ranked Cavaliers. However, the Charlottesville fire marshal soon ended this tradition of packing the fans in for safety reasons.
"There wasn't a seat to be got," Sampson said. "It was chaos to feel the atmosphere and pandemonium of 11,000 jammed packed fans."
The team went on to capture the ACC title with a 13-1 in-conference record and advance all the way to the Final Four. There it met North Carolina, who Virginia swept during the regular season. However, Tar Heel Al Wood scored 39 points to help defeat the Cavaliers, 78-65.
In the following year, Virginia won 27 of its first 28 games. However, the team was without All-ACC guard Othell Wilson in the final eight of the NCAA Tournament, where they lost, 68-66, to Alabama-Birmingham.
In Sampson's final year at Virginia, he had the opportunity to face another 7-foot star, Georgetown's Patrick Ewing. A Sports Illustrated cover, portraying both centers with the headline "I'm waiting for you Patrick," gave the encounter national attention. Virginia traveled to Landover, Md. where Sampson scored 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to lead the Cavaliers to a 68-63 victory.
Virginia was only able to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, where it fell to eventual national champion N.C. State, ending Sampson's bid for a national title.
"When the last curtain calls, you have to get up and look forward," Sampson said. "I didn't win but I had a good run."
However, the mark Sampson left in Charlottesville was greater than any national championship banner. Sampson joined the exclusive company of Oscar Robertson and Bill Walton as the only three-time winners of the National Player of the Year award. With the current influx of young talent into the NBA, Sampson perhaps will be the last player to earn this distinction.
While Sampson was talented enough to dominate and score 40 points a game, he instead sacrificed his numbers to help the team win. Sampson still holds a high place with many Cavalier records, including being the top rebounder and shot-blocker in school history by a wide margin. Additionally, he is fourth overall in total points with 2,228.
"Ralph was a team player," Holland said. "He was unselfish because he wanted to play on a good team. He was tremendous because he could dominate a game defensively and yet he was very accomplished offensively."
While Sampson was a student at Virginia, he was a legend in sneakers. One year he was forced to move into Holland's basement because of the amount of autograph seekers who staked out at his apartment. Sampson, though, did move out of the basement during his fourth year and into a Lawn room.
"It was a good experience," Sampson said of living near the Rotunda. "To live in a place Thomas Jefferson built was a prestigious honor. Few people get that experience and I was one. It showed that I left my mark on Virginia basketball and the country."
Sampson had several opportunities to leave college for the riches of the NBA. Following his first year, he spurned an offer from the Boston Celtics, and the next year the Detroit Pistons and Dallas Mavericks offered him $3.8 million to start. These actions prompted the NBA to adopt a rule that prohibits teams from contacting college undergraduates before they declare for the pros.
"I had to always weigh the decision after each season," Sampson said. "I asked myself, 'Is my family alright, could I win, and was I happy?' and the answer each time was 'yes.'"
Following his career at Virginia, Sampson was the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft by the Houston Rockets. He instantly became a star and claimed the NBA Rookie of the Year award in 1984 and the NBA All-Star Game MVP his second year. He teamed with Hakeem Olajuwon to form the "Twin Towers," and Sampson hit a game winning shot against the Lakers to send the Rockets to the 1985 NBA Finals.
Even though Sampson's career was cut short by knee injuries, no one can take away his magical four-year run at Virginia where he was unquestionably the greatest player ever to don the orange and blue.
"The U.Va. college experience was a once-in-a-lifetime thing," said Sampson, who currently resides in Atlanta. "I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."
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