1982 Virginia
Record: 30-4, 12-2 (1st place tie)
ACC Tournament: Lost in final
NCAA Tournament: Lost in Sweet 16
Final AP Ranking: 3
All-ACC Players: Ralph Sampson (ACC POY), Othell Wilson (1st)
All-Americans: Ralph Sampson (National POY)
1981 Virginia
Record: 29-4, 13-1 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Lost in semifinal
NCAA Tournament: Lost in Final Four
Final AP Ranking: 5
All-ACC Players: Ralph Sampson (ACC POY), Jeff Lamp (1st)
All-Americans: Ralph Sampson (1st, Naismith Award), Jeff Lamp (2nd)
Virginia from 1981 to 1983 had three teams that are very difficult to differentiate. The records were 29-4, 30-4, and 29-5; the AP rankings were 5th, 3rd, and 4th; and all three teams were built around the same player. I’m tempted to combine them and rank them as if they were one team. But, I’m not doing that for any other teams, so I guess I can’t do it here. And, if you look closely enough, while it does require some hair-splitting, I think some distinctions can be drawn.
The 1981 team had Jeff Lamp. Lamp was a great player in his own right and was actually the leading scorer ahead of Sampson on that team. The other double-figure scorer was senior Lee Raker.
The 1982 team lost Lamp and Raker. Their playing time was picked up by freshmen Tim Mullen and Jim Miller and sophomore Ricky Stokes. Their scoring became more balanced, but their style of play overall was similar to 1981.
The 1983 team swapped out departing senior Jeff Jones for transfer Rick Carlisle. Carlisle was a better shooter than Jones, but a lesser defender, at least from the numbers. This team played at a faster pace, scored and allowed more points, turned the ball over more, and didn’t get as many steals.
Here is where I come down on ranking them. I think the 1981 and 1982 teams are virtually indistinguishable, and 1983 is just a touch below. Here is my reasoning.
The 1981 team had just one bad loss, in the ACC Tournament, but they made up for it by getting to the Final Four. I also give them a few extra points because they had a second scorer in Jeff Lamp which the 1982 and 1983 teams lacked.
The 1982 team, there is really nothing to criticize until the NCAA Tournament. Prior to that, they lost two close games to Carolina and a one-point game at Maryland. Nothing to be ashamed of there. But then they went and lost a Sweet 16 game to UAB. I’m not going to completely excuse that, but I want to point out a couple of very important mitigating circumstances, 1) Othell Wilson was hurt; and 2) the game was in Birmingham. That’s right, #1 seed Virginia had to play a Sweet 16 game against UAB in Birmingham. That shouldn’t have happened. It’s absolutely unfair. And they had to play the game without their first-team All-ACC guard. You have to cut them some slack for that. They should have won anyway; they missed free throws, for one thing, and they turned the ball over 18 times.
The 1983 team though. Twice they were on the verge of something great, and twice they couldn’t beat NC State. Now let’s give the Wolfpack some credit; we call them a Cinderella team, but the truth is they were really good when Whittenburg was healthy. But I can’t put a team in the Top 50 that lost to Chaminade and then NC State twice when everything was on the line.
The narrative around Sampson (and by extension these Virginia teams) tends to focus on what he didn’t accomplish rather than what he did, and that’s unfair. The thing is, Virginia had every chance to change the narrative. All they had to do was beat NC State, and they got two chances to do it. I think if they had won either of those games, it would have transformed the way this team is viewed. The narrative would be about a great team that finally got over the hump after years of frustration.
A couple of questions I’ve had about the 1981 Virginia team for years:
1) Were they the best team in the country that season?
2) Are they the best team ever at Virginia?
(I admit I have done basically no research on these topics until tonight, so please, if I’m way off base, just tell me I’m nuts!)
Were they the best team in 1981? I look at the other top-ranked teams from that year and I think they were. They were the best team in the ACC and beat UNC 2 out of 3, just not in Final 4 when Al Wood had the game of his life. They beat #1-seed LSU in the last-ever 3rd place game at the Final 4. The other two #1 seeds, Oregon State and DePaul, both lost their first game in the NCAAs. Indiana was the national champ, but had 9 losses.
All 4 of Virginia’s losses that year were to teams that ended the season ranked in the AP Top 20, two on the road (Wake Forest and Notre Dame) and two on neutral courts (Maryland and UNC). Virginia was 9-4 vs ranked teams that year. DePaul and Oregon State combined to play 8 games total against ranked teams. Maybe there just wasn’t a great team in 1981, but I don’t see any reason to think that Virginia wasn’t the best team that season. They didn’t win it all, but the best team doesn’t always win.
And the presence of Jeff Lamp makes the 81 team better than the 82 or 83 teams.
Best team ever at Virginia? I know the 2019 team won the national championship so I certainly understand that they would be ranked higher. BUT (old man yells at cloud)….we all know1980s college basketball was better than 2019 college basketball. And I’ll take Ralph Sampson and Jeff Lamp over those 2019 Cavaliers whose names I barely remember.
Also, I think you’re short-selling 1982 UAB. Yes, the Blazers beating Virginia was an upset. But UAB wasn’t a 16 seed or a 12 seed; they were a 4 seed. They had been to the Sweet 16 the year before. They had a Hall of Fame Coach who led them to the NCAA tournament 7 years in a row from 1981-87. How about some respect for the Blazers and Gene Bartow!
Was 1981 Virginia the best team in the country? They certainly have an argument. Indiana has an argument, Oregon State has an argument, Carolina has an argument. But if they were, they certainly didn’t peak at the right time. The 23-point loss to Maryland in the ACC Tournament is a head-scratcher.
Best team ever at Virginia? It depends on your definition of best, I guess… obviously the 2019 team accomplished more, but no doubt college basketball in 2019 is diminished as compared to 1981. But then again, you can only play who’s in front of you, and 2019 Virginia did that and won it all. 2019 Virginia was the best team in the country that year in my opinion, either them or Gonzaga. They didn’t have a Ralph Sampson, or maybe even a Jeff Lamp, but Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy, and De’Andre Hunter were very, very good players whose names would be better remembered if they hadn’t bolted after 2019. Tony Bennett’s system doesn’t seem to produce the number of individual honors and accolades that you would expect from a program with so much success.