GATORZONE MARCH MADNESS FLASHBACK
On this day in Florida's NCAA basketball history: March 13, 1987
Welcome to the party!
The 1986-87 Gators, by virtue of their 19-9 regular-season record and 12-6 mark in the Southeastern Conference, received an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, the program's first in the 47-year history of the event.
Coach Norm Sloan's squad was given the No. 6 seed in the East Region and drew NCAA postseason regular and 10-seed North Carolina State, four years removed from its historic and stunning run to the '83 national title. The Wolfpack, of course, were coached by Jim Valvano. The game was at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.
UF had lost three straight heading into its debut Big Dance, so no one really knew how the Gators would react on the Big Stage.
That was 25 years ago today.
The Wolfpack, with red-hot forward Bennie Bolton bolted to a nine-point lead with just over 12 minutes to go when the Gators dashed off for 17 unanswered points, with a steal and layup by guard Andrew Moten (top right) giving UF a 51-49 lead that the Gators slowly built to double-digits down the stretch to put the game away.
Final: Florida 82, NC State 70.
Junior guard Vernon Maxwell led Florida with 26 points, including 14-for-21 from the free-throw line. Moten, who along with Maxwell made up the other half of the “M&M Boys,” finished with 19. Dwayne Schintzius (bottom right), the 7-foot-2 freshman, scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds and had four assists.
For NC State, Bolton finished with 20 points and Charles Shackleford had 12 points and eight rebounds. Vinny Del Negro, now head coach of Blake Griffin and the Los Angeles Clippers, scored 12.
With the win, the Gators won their first-ever NCAA Tournament game, advancing into the second round to face Big Ten Conference champion Purdue, a 104-95 winner over Northeastern.
We'll tell you about that in two days.
If you don't remember, you'll want to know what happened. During the game and after.
