Old balls to bounce again

On the heels of a similar decision by their counterparts in the National Basketball Association last week, the NCAA league offices announced yesterday that the Michigan and Princeton men's basketball teams will have to replay the final two minutes of their NCAA Tournament semifinal game from 1964.

This past Friday, the NBA ruled that the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat would have to replay the final 51.9 seconds of their Dec. 19 matchup after officials discovered a scoring error that led to Heat center Shaquille O'Neal being disqualified from the game after just his fifth foul.

The NBA's decision flipped a switch in the mind of Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walters '67 — the point guard for the Tiger squad that fell to the Wolverines, 93-76, on that fateful day over four decades ago.

Walters recalled how, with just under two minutes remaining on the clock against Michigan, he found himself backpedaling to the defensive side of the court as star Wolverine guard Cazzie Russell pushed the ball towards him on a fast break. As Walters planted his feet under the basket in the hopes of drawing an offensive foul, Russell elevated over him, throwing down a thunderous tomahawk jam while "teabagging" Walters mercilessly.

"Cazzie's tea was definitely not decaf," Walters recalled.

The practice of "teabagging" was banned by the NCAA in 1961 via a little-publicized rule change, in the midst of a horrific epidemic of genital herpes. By rule, Russell should have been immediately assessed a double-technical foul and ejected from the contest. The game officials, however, failed to make the call.

"They ate their whistles even worse than I ate Cazzie's," Walters said.

Walters filed an appeal to the NCAA late Friday night, arguing that the game's final minutes should be replayed with Russell disqualified from the game. The NCAA came back with its decision yesterday, scheduling a replay for Jan. 27.

Now, Walters and the rest of his former teammates will have to climb their sixty-plus-year-old bodies back into their old Tiger jerseys—which will still feature low-cut jersey necks and "short shorts" in order to simulate the original 1965 conditions and maximize the amount of body hair exposed on the court at all times.

Foremost among the Princeton heroes scheduled to participate in the replay will be all-time Tiger leading scorer Bill Bradley '65, who will take a break from campaigning for Democratic party presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Asked whether or not he felt the considerable amount of weight he has gained since his playing days would affect his performance against the Wolverines, Bradley stroked his chins.

"These jowls were made for dunking," Bradley said. "I'm 'bout to go Oliver Miller on their candy asses."

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Walters, for his part, is focused on helping his team rewrite history and pull off a come-from-behind upset. Michigan led Princeton by double-digits at the time of Russell's controversial dunk, and the replay will resume from that point.

"We just have to play Princeton basketball," Walters said. "Hopefully, one of us will still remember what that looks like."