Men’s Final Four by the time this weekend
is complete?
As part of the Houston Cougars’ Phi Slamma Jamma crew, Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon was the man in the middle for all three of the University of Houston’s most-recent Final Four teams (1982, 1983, and 1984).
A native of Lagos, Nigeria, Olajuwon’s post presence – especially on the defensive end – immediately gave veteran Houston Coach Guy Lewis a legitimate shot at a NCAA Championship.
In Olajuwon’s first season, the Cougars fell to eventual champion, North Carolina (led by Michael Jordan), 68-63, in the semifinals. In this second season, Houston dispatched Louisville in the semis, 94-81, before falling to North Carolina State on Lorenzo Charles’ putback dunk of Dereck Wittenberg’s miss. In 1994, the Cougars reached the finals by beating Virginia, 49-47 in overtime, before losing to the Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown Hoyas, 84-75, in the title tilt.
Despite averaging a rather pedesterian 13.3 points per game during his three collegiate seasons, Olajuwon went No. 1 in the 1984 NBA Draft to the Houston Rockets where he went on to star for 17 years before finishing his career in Toronto during the 2001-02 season. Along the way he won the NBA MVP in 1994, won NBA championships in 1994 and 1995, was named to the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players in History in 1996-97, and the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in 2021-22.
during the 1983 NCAA Championship game in “The Pit” in Albuquerque, NM. NC State went on to win
on a putback dunk by Lorenzo Charles at the buzzer, 54-52. (NCAA Photo)
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