Bowling Green State University Athletics
Hoosier Was Unlikely Hero
March 24, 2004 | Men's Basketball
March 24, 2004
Atlanta, Ga. - The NCAA basketball tournament's most memorable character may be the unexpected hero, the David who comes out of obscurity to take down Goliath.
Playing that role in Atlanta 20 years ago was Dan Dakich, a gap-toothed, queasy guard for unranked Indiana. In 33 minutes, he became a tournament legend.
In the NCAA East Regional, his Hoosiers faced No. 1-ranked North Carolina, which some called the best college team ever. The giant: Michael Jordan, appearing in his final college game.
Coach Bobby Knight picked junior Dakich, his 6-5 team captain and sometimes starter, to guard Jordan.
Dakich, plagued by a stomach bug that he was trying to hide, went back to his room and threw up.
The scouting report on Dakich: "Plays a physical game but has no known vertical leap," Sports Illustrated would write later. The book "A Season on the Brink" characterized him as "the prototype slow white kid . . . a nonathlete who knew lots about playing the game."
In the locker room before the game, Dakich flipped open a game program to the tournament record page. The most points scored by one player was 60.
"Honest to God, no way I'm letting this guy get 60," Dakich, in a recent phone interview from his Ohio office, recalled telling himself. "I don't want my son someday to say, 'Didn't you play for Indiana when Michael Jordan got 72 points?' "
Knight instructed Dakich to keep Jordan from any offensive rebounds and backcut baskets.
The simple plan started badly. In the first minute, Jordan scored four points.
In front of 16,723 fans, "I ran down the court at the Omni, doing the math: 40 minutes in a game, he's going to have 160 points. I better do something," Dakich recalled.
The plan kicked in. Jordan picked up two early fouls. Denied the rim, he flew up and over, his muscles bulging in a preview of what would transform the NBA.
Dakich remembered one turnaround jumper: "He jumped so high that I thought, 'Kareem Abdul-Jabbar couldn't block this shot. Holy [blank], look how high this guy got!' "
But Dakich cut off Jordan's favorite shots. For 13 minutes in the second half, Jordan failed to score.
Dakich fouled out with 4 minutes left. He grabbed a bucket, put a towel over his head and vomited again.
Jordan scored four points as Indiana's 12-point lead slipped to 2.
But the Hoosiers hung on for a 72-68 victory heralded as one of the biggest NCAA upsets. Dakich had made sure no one wanted to be like Mike this night: 13 points on 6-for-14 shooting with one rebound.
Dakich "would lose to most of the guys on our team playing one-on-one in the park," UNC forward and future coach Matt Doherty said after the game, tears on his face. "But he knew just what he was supposed to do, and he did it."
Dakich laughs about his goofy postgame TV interview. A tooth had been knocked out in practice a month before. "I looked like Hillbilly Slim." As to how he stopped Jordan, Dakich cluelessly replied, "It just wasn't that hard."
After the Hoosiers lost 50-48 to Virginia, Dakich went home to a stack of fan mail. The attention mystified him. He didn't believe Jordan would become arguably the best basketball player ever.
"There wasn't the hype there is now," Dakich said. "Michael created the hype. He became the Beatles."
Dakich and Jordan met again a few months later in Bloomington, when Jordan tried out for the U.S. Olympic team. The day Jordan signed a Nike contract, Dakich beat him golfing. Jordan never paid the bet.
"I sent him a couple of sarcastic notes, that if he would show up at [my summer] camp, the debt is cleared," Dakich said. Jordan never did, but Dakich visited him in Chicago and considers him a friend. "A guy's guy," Dakich said of the star.
Today Dakich, 41, coaches at Bowling Green State. His small office/recruiting room features photos from his famous performance. The pictures are more of a conversation icebreaker. He's amused by and somewhat proud of his footnote in NCAA lore. "If you've got to be remembered as a player, being remembered as the guy who stopped Michael Jordan ain't all bad," he said. That's exactly how people in Indiana introduce him.
Once he tried to forget a Bowling Green loss by watching the 1984 Atlanta game tape with his son, who was 7. Son's observation: "Dad, you and Michael Jordan had more hair then."
Much has changed in two decades. With the Omni gone, this weekend's NCAA East Regional will be played at the Georgia Dome. High seeds Duke and Texas are favored.
Yet the promise of drama still pulls. Will there be a Dan Dakich who steps up for Illinois or Xavier? The possibility is what makes this tournament so madly memorable.
