When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [23]
The now famous Spartans team meeting is often cited as a catalyst to the team's turnaround, yet Heathcote believed that his decision to remove Ron Charles from the starting lineup and replace him with the smaller, quicker Mike Brkovich, who was a better shooter, had as much to do with the resurgence of his team as anything.
Teams had begun to recognize how damaging it was to allow Magic to grab the rebound off a miss and start the break himself. They adjusted by assigning a player to him with one specific goal in mind: block him out.
Brkovich provided another outlet pass and ball handler to facilitate the transition game. Heathcote also intended to make another change—to send Terry Donnelly to the bench and insert the freshman Busby into the starting lineup. But before Heathcote could promote him, Busby abruptly quit the team. He was homesick, bothered by his coach's gruff demeanor and his constant use of profanity. Busby decided a change of scenery was in order.
He transferred to Ferris State and performed well there, but Busby never came remotely close to winning a national championship—or making his projected jump to the pros.
"I'll always wonder what Gerald Busby was thinking," Magic admitted.
After the meeting and the lineup change, the Spartans ripped off wins in 10 of their final 11 games.
The lone loss down the stretch came when Wisconsin's Wes Matthews (who would later become Magic's NBA teammate for the 1987–88 championship in Los Angeles) connected on a wild last-second bank shot at the buzzer in the season finale, 82–80.
Initially, the last-second defeat stung the Spartans, who truly believed they were not going to lose another game. Kelser remembers that his teammates were uncommonly deflated before Magic started to work the room, pounding backs and whacking shoulders.
"It's okay, their season is over," Johnson told them. "We still have business to take care of."
Knocking off Indiana State was at the top of their list. Bird's team was the number-one overall seed in the field of 40, an astounding transformation for a school that had averaged less than 3,000 fans a game before he arrived.
Indiana State knew its fortunes had changed when the students who used to play on the courts after practice began showing up earlier and earlier. After a while, the number of people watching them work out had swelled to over 100 and Hodges was forced to close practice. That did not deter the "gym rats" from showing up anyway.
"I'd look through the windows on the gym doors, and you could see all these heads jostling to get a look," said Dr. Bob Behnke, the team trainer.
By the end of the season, fans were lining up outside the Hulman Center at 3:30 P.M. for a 7:30 game. Since the student section did not have assigned seats, when the doors opened at 6:00, there was a mad rush for the open spots. The fans were allowed into the gym in the middle level of a three-tier building. Bird and his teammates would stand in the tunnel on the first level and watch as their fellow students stampeded one another to get a better view of their beloved basketball team.
More often than not, the effort was worth it. Early in the season in a two-point game against Illinois State, Hodges called a time-out in the final seconds with the score tied and Indiana State in possession of the ball. Behnke remembered watching Hodges draw up an elaborate play on his chalkboard that involved double screens and back picks.
Nicks was assigned the task of inbounding the ball. As he and Bird walked out of the huddle and toward the court, Behnke heard Bird say to his friend, "Hey, Carl, just get it to me."
"So I did," Nicks said. "And you know what happened. Larry scored to win it."
The most titillating victory of the year, however, featured Bird in a supporting role. By February 1, 1979, Indiana State had won 18 in a row, but in a game with New Mexico State they were trailing by 2 points with 3 seconds to play. The Aggies'