1987 was an interesting year for basketball. It wasn’t yet clear that Mike Krzyzewski was going to go on to an unprecedented career. Dean Smith was still in high gear at UNC. The brief Georgetown dynasty was nearly over. The Hoyas made the Final Four as a one seed but the Ewing era was the high water mark.
UNLV made the Final Four as well but everyone was aware that Jerry Tarkanian had, at best, a questionable program but one that was undeniably competitive.
The Finals were between Bob Knight’s Indiana and Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse.
The Big East was very much on the rise in the 1980’s and Boeheim was racking up big-time recruits and going toe-to-toe with Georgetown.