With NCAA title game on tap, Cavs' Jim Boylan was a national champ in '77

As Villanova and Michigan square off in the NCAA Tournament title game tonight in San Antonio, somewhere, Jim Boylan will be watching.

And it's a good bet the assistant coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers will take a journey or two down memory lane.

Four decades ago -- 41 years and five days, to be exact, on March 28, 1977 -- Boylan was a starter for the Marquette Warriors (now the Golden Eagles), who defeated North Carolina, 67-59, at the Omni in Atlanta to win the championship.

In what was the final game of legendary coach Al McGuire's career, Boylan started opposite Butch Lee in the backcourt and scored 14 points.

He was also tasked with defending the Tar Heels' standout point guard, Phil Ford, who thanks partly because of Boylan's efforts, finished with only six points.

“People forget that Phil was hurt, though,” Boylan said in an interview in 2011 with Dave D'Alessandro of The Star Ledger, downplaying his role in Ford's six-point performance. “He took a spill in the Regionals and hurt his elbow, and it was causing him discomfort, so I was lucky he was limited.”

The game featured several big-name players on both sides.

Lee (19.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists), Bo Ellis (15.6 points, 8.3 boards) and Jerome Whitehead (10.5 points, 8.2 rounds, 1.2 assists) all averaged double figures for Marquette.

Gary Rosenberger (7.3 points), Boylan (7.0 points, 2.8 rounds, 3.6 dimes), Ulice Payne (4.5 points, 2.6 rebounds), Bernard Toone (4.4 points, 2.2 rebounds) and Bill Neary (1.7 points, 2. 8 rebounds) all averaged almost 14 minutes a game.

“I loved playing with Butch, and we had Gary Rosenberger coming off the bench to stretch the defense,” Boylan said. “Great memories.”

The Tar Heels (28-4) featured Ford (18.7 points, 1.9 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 1.7 steals), Walter Davis (15.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.4 steals), Tom LaGarde (15.1 points, 7.4 boards, 1.6 blocks), Mike O'Koren (13.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.5 steals) and Kuester (9.7 points, 2.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.0 steals).

Lee and Ford were both All-America point guards. Ellis, Davis and LaGarde were all NBA first-round draft picks.

The game was truly a different game back then. There was no 3-point line and no shot clock, either.

North Carolina's legendary coach, Dean Smith, had a trademark devastating weapon -- his Four Corners offense -- which featured four guys standing in the four corners of the halfcourt and either Ford or John Kuester dribbling and throwing and receiving return passes. The Tar Heels would drain entire halves of games with it.

But Marquette dominated the first half of the title game, leading at the half, 39-27.

In the second half, though, North Carolina came out on fire, going on an 18-4 run to take a two-point lead with 13:48 to play.

It was then Smith went to his vaunted Four Corners, which McGuire termed as a "Mickey Mouse" tactic.

However, for one of the few occasions, it didn't work. And it was Boylan who scored perhaps the biggest bucket of the game, driving past Davis for a hoop that put Marquette up by four points with less than six minutes to go.

From that point on, the Warriors' ability to cash in from the free-throw line was the difference, Marquette making 23 of 25 down the stretch to pull away for the 12-point win.

Jersey boys

Boylan and O'Koren, who squared off in that memorable title game, actually grew up in the same New Jersey neighborhood.

To Boylan, O'Koren will alway be the chatterbox ninth-grader, who was tolerated because the 6-foot-5 freshman spilled his guts while on the floor.

To O'Koren, Boylan was the guy everyone looked up to, the son of a cop whose brother, Mike, may have been the best players ever from that part of Jersey City.

O'Koren shared a story in a 2011 interview about a camp they both attended.

"I was an incoming freshman at Carolina, Jimmy was a junior at Marquette," O'Koren said. "And when we left, he said, 'See you in the NCAA Finals.'

"To this day, he busts my chops. But can you believe that?"

Boyland proved prophetic, too. Two guys from the schoolyard on Pavonia Avenue did indeed play on opposing sides for the national championship.

Setting the stage

“It was a great time for our Jersey City friends — for all of Hudson County, really,” Boylan said. “There was something magical about that whole weekend. My only regret was Al kept us 20 miles outside of Atlanta, so I had to watch Mike on TV go crazy in the semifinal.”

Boylan was referring to Carolina's 84-83 nail-baiting win against the country's highest-scoring team, the Nevada-Las Vegas Runnin' Rebels, coached by Jerry Tarkanian. O'Koren scored 31 points in the one-point win.

Marquette, too, had more than its share of drama in its semifinal. Officials ruled Whitehead beat the final buzzer after taking a 75-foot pass from Lee and scoring on a layup to give the Warriors a 51-49 win over North Carolina-Charlotte, which featured Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell.

Boylan admitted the final play, with Lee heaving the pass with three seconds on the clock, "might not have counted if we had today's technology."

It did, though, which allowed the childhood friends to play on the biggest stage for the national title.

The loss, though, hit O'Koren hard. He said he could not watch a replay of the game until ESPN began playing it basically on a loop when McGuire died in 2001.

"The great irony that nobody remember was that Jimmy wanted to come to Carolina, but Coach Smith didn't accept transfers," O'Koren said. "So he encouraged Jimmy to call McGuire, and he became Marquette's leader (after transferring from Division II Assumption College).

"And in that final, Jimmy ends up killing us. He was lethal."

Love of the game

Boylan's senior season at Marquette was not nearly as successful. McGuire had retired and assistant Hank Raymonds moved into the big chair.

Even though the Warriors still featured Lee, Whitehead, Toone, Payne, Rosenberger and Boylan, they were upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Miami of Ohio in overtime, 84-81, the winners featuring future Ohio State coach Randy Ayers, who scored 20 points and grabbed 10 boards that night, Boylan finishing with 15 points, four rebounds and five assists in his final college game.

After graduating from Marquette, Boylan was drafted in the fourth round (68th overall) of the 1978 draft by the Buffalo Braves, who became the San Diego Rockets after the 1977-78 season.

Boylan played for the Tucson Gunners in the Western Basketball Association in the 1978-79 seasons, earning second-team all-league honors and helping the Gunners to the WBA championship.

He then went overseas, playing in Europe for Alvik Basket of Stockholm, Sweden in the 1979-80 season.

However, his Marquette experience had an effect on him, guiding him into coaching, doing so as a player-coach in Switzerland from 1982 through 1986, leading Vevey Basket to its first championship in the 30-year history of the franchise.

“Since I started playing in grammar school, I was fortunate to be around people who loved the game and could really teach it,” he said. “That was certainly true at Marquette with Al and Hank Raymonds and Rick Majerus.”

At 31, Boylan returning to the United States and the college game, as an assistant for Jud Heathcote at Michigan State (1986-1989), and later as head coach at New Hampshire, succeeding Gerry Friel.

In 1992, Boylan began his NBA coaching career as video coordinator and advance scout for the Cavaliers. Since then, his stops have taken him to Vancouver (1997-2001), Atlanta (2003-2004), Chicago (2004-2008), Milwaukee (2008-2013) and then back to Cleveland, where he was part of the championship team if 2016.

He had two stints as an NBA head coach. After Scott Skiles was fired as Bulls coach in December 2007, Boylan became interim coach for the rest of the season, posting a 24-32 record. After Skiles hired him as an assistant in 2008 in Milwaukee, Boylan again took over as interim coach when Skiles resigned in January 2013, posting a 22-28 record but getting the Bucks to the playoffs, where they were swept by LeBron James and the Miami Heat en route to winning the NBA title.

Friends to the end

In the waning moments of that championship game, O'Koren, who scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds fouled out with a minute left.

In an unforgettable gesture, O'Koren, a freshman, looked up from his seat on the Carolina bench to see Boylan, a junior, standing in front of him, his right hand extended.

"We're still great friends," O'Koren said in 2011. "We loved the fact that we were both from Jersey City, and in a way, we helped put the city on the basketball map.

"But that friendship is going on 40 years, and it always be strong."