The Final Four of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will be coming to St. Louis from April 1-3 at the Edward Jones Dome.
Through the history of the Final Four, basketball players from the St. Louis area have played key roles in helping their respective teams reach the apex of college basketball. For the next month, the St. Louis American will take a look back at some of the talented area players who were fortunate enough to compete in college basketball’s greatest spectacle.
We will begin with that historic 1979 NCAA title game between Michigan State and Indiana State.
The 1979 National Championship Game between Michigan State and Indiana State in Salt Lake City is long remembered as the title game that brought college basketball and the NCAA Tournament into the national spotlight for good.
The game brought together the two greatest stars in the college game in Michigan State’s Earvin “Magic” Johnson, a wonderfully talented 6’9″ point guard, and a multitalented forward from French Lick, Ind. named Larry Bird. The college game was a prelude to their future rivalry that helped save the National Basketball Association.
Michigan State was the champion of the mighty Big Ten Conference while the relatively unknown Sycamores from the Missouri Valley Conference took the nation by storm by going undefeated in 33 games behind the extraordinary talents of Bird. The world was watching NBC on this particular night in record numbers.
This epic game also featured two players from the St. Louis metropolitan area, who played supporting roles to the dynamic duo of Magic and Bird. Senior guard Terry Donnelley of Michigan State was a sweet-shooting southpaw guard from Parkway North High, while junior power forward Alexander Gilbert of Indiana State brought his rebounding and shot blocking from East St. Louis Lincoln. He transferred to ISU from Coffeyville Junior College in Kansas. Both area players were starters and quite instrumental in helping their respective teams to great seasons and, ultimately, the championship game.
The 6’2″ Donnelley was the perfect compliment to Magic’s ball handling and playmaking wizardry. With Magic dictating every move of the game, Donnelley would sit on the perimeter and unleash that sweet left-handed stroke from 20 feet.
The 6’8″ Gilbert played an altogether different role for Indiana State. Bird took care of much of the scoring, as did junior guard Carl Nicks. Gilbert manned the inside for ISU with his explosive leaping ability. His job was to rebound and block shots, and he performed his tasks quite well. When Bird felt the double-team, he would feed Gilbert with a no-look pass for a resounding dunk. Gilbert was also an impact player of a rather dubious nature, as his free-throw shooting percentage hovered around the 25 percent mark.
In the final, it was Donnelley who came to the forefront in the second half when Indiana State mounted a rally that saw a 16-point deficit cut to nine. Donnelley then went to work as he buried four consecutive jumpers to lift the Spartans back to their double-digit advantage. Michigan State was not threatened the rest of the way as they won their first national title with a 75-64 victory.
The 1979 final drew the biggest television rating in history for an NCAA game at the time, and two St. Louisans were a big part of the show.
Alex Gilbert’s nephew, Phillip Gilbert, enjoyed an excellent career in the Missouri Valley Conference as a four-year starter at Bradley. Gilbert led the MVC in scoring in 2003 and is among the leading scorer’s in the school’s history.
