2003 Top 50 List: Yes
Dan Collins List: Yes
Ralph Sampson arrived in Charlottesville in the fall of 1979. At that time, Virginia had been in the ACC for 26 years, and what did they have to show for it? Two winning records in conference play and one NCAA Tournament appearance with zero wins. Of the 130 first team All-ACC performers between 1954 and 1979, only six were from UVa (Buzz Wilkinson twice, Herb Busch, Chip Conner, Barry Parkhill, Jeff Lamp). Up to that point, UVa as a program was worse than Clemson, which is saying something.
But Terry Holland had something brewing. He coached the Cavaliers to their first ACC Tournament title in 1976 behind Wally Walker. The next year, the Cavaliers finished last in the regular season, then very nearly pulled off another tournament run before falling to Carolina in the final. 1978 marked the debut of Jeff Lamp, and Virginia started to climb the ACC standings. So when Sampson arrived, there was already optimism around the program.
Sampson had a great freshman year, but his impact on the team was not as much as might have been expected. The Cavaliers actually dropped from 8-6 in the league to 7-7. You can see his impact reflected in their team statistics. Virginia went from a smallish team that played fast and relied on forcing turnovers to a slower-paced team with very good FG% defense and strong rebounding margin, but the turnover margin went in the wrong direction. It seems that it took a year for them to figure out exactly how to play with Sampson and best utilize his skills. Sampson averaged 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 4.6 blocks per game. He easily outpointed Sidney Lowe for ACC Rookie of the Year. (As an aside, his season total of 157 blocks would be tied for 20th most all-time in a season in NCAA Division I, but I guess they didn’t officially count blocks until some time later.)
For the next three years, Virginia was one of the best teams in the country, and Sampson was at the center, literally and figuratively. In 1981, the Cavaliers started 22-0 and were ranked #1. Sampson was a year older and a year better, Jeff Lamp was still doing his thing, and the addition of Othell Wilson improved the Cavaliers’ ballhandling and defense. Virginia advanced to the Final Four where they lost to North Carolina behind Al Wood’s incredible 39-point performance. It was a breakthrough year for the program. The only blemish was an inexplicable blowout in the ACC Tournament semifinals at the hands of Maryland. Sampson was named National Player of the Year over DePaul’s Mark Aguirre and BYU’s Danny Ainge by both the AP and UPI in votes that were competitive, but not close.
1982 followed a similar pattern. Virginia started out 24-1 and was again ranked #1 in the country before losing at Maryland in the last game of the regular season. North Carolina was neck-and-neck with the Cavaliers all year. After splitting their regular season matchups, the Tar Heels eked out an ugly 47-45 win in the ACC Tournament final. Considering the Tar Heels were the best team in the country, this was perhaps excusable, but what wasn’t excusable was the Cavaliers’ Sweet 16 loss to UAB. However, looking back, there were some mitigating circumstances. First of all, the game was played in Birmingham on the Blazers’ home court. Now that’s ridiculous. There is no way that a #1 seed should be playing a road game in the regionals. In addition, first team All-ACC performer Othell Wilson was hurt and played just four minutes. With a healthy Othell Wilson and a reasonable draw, Virginia probably would’ve been in the Final Four again. But they weren’t. Coupled with the disappointments from the previous two ACC Tournaments, they started to gain a “can’t win the big one” reputation. Sampson was again named National Player of the Year over DePaul’s Terry Cummings, and this time the votes were not close.
In 1983, Virginia was preseason #1. They added Maine transfer Rick Carlisle to their core group. They went 25-3 in the regular season, with two losses to UNC and the infamous Chaminade loss. Going into the ACC Tournament they were ranked second behind the Phi Slamma Jamma Houston Cougars. The Cavaliers demolished their first two opponents by 33 and 29 points and figured to have gotten a break when NC State upset North Carolina in the other semifinal. But the Wolfpack surprised everyone by upsetting the Cavaliers in the final, flushing Sampson’s last chance to bring home an ACC Tournament title. Virginia was sent West as the #1 seed in that region. The main competition was expected to come from PAC-10 champions UCLA, but the Bruins were upset by Utah. Virginia survived a couple of tight games to advance to the regional final, where much to everyone’s surprise, NC State was waiting for the Cavaliers again. And we all know what happened; the Wolfpack broke Sampson’s heart one last time with a 63-62 win. The Cavaliers shot 63% from the field. How do you shoot 63% and lose? Answer: -11 in turnover margin and 10-19 from the line. Time and again during Sampson’s tenure, the Cavaliers were done in by missing clutch free throws. Sampson received another consolation prize as he was named ACC and National Player of the Year for a third time (although the ACC POY vote was surprisingly close with Michael Jordan).
How, then, do we summarize Sampson’s career? As a three-time national player of the year, he has to be regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of college basketball. And yet for many fans, his name is synonymous with unfulfilled promise and missed opportunity. Is it fair? I think we can attribute it to a little bit of bad luck, a little bit of running into the wrong team at the wrong time, and some genuine failure to perform in the biggest moments. One of the conclusions I have come to in reflecting on 1983 is that NC State was pretty doggone good. Call them a Cinderella if you want, but look at who they had. A couple of NBA players in Sidney Lowe and Thurl Bailey, a great shooter in Dereck Whittenburg, a future Top 100 player in Lorenzo Charles. Those upsets over Virginia and everyone else weren’t as surprising as they were portrayed at the time. In addition, Sampson’s supporting cast wasn’t good enough. Othell Wilson was a nice player, Rick Carlisle was a nice player, but they did not have a real complement to Sampson after Jeff Lamp graduated. Opponents in the postseason were able to design defenses around smothering Sampson and making the other players beat them, and they couldn’t do it.