The Perfect Game: How Villanova’s Shocking 1985 Upset of Mighty Georgetown Changed the Landscape of College Hoops Forever

The Villanova Wildcats’ victory over the Georgetown Hoyas in the 1985 NCAA men’s basketball championship remains one of the greatest surprises in sports history. The Hoyas, ripe with an NBA-ready roster of talent, was practically guaranteed to win the title—until Wildcats coach Rollie Massimino’s defensive schemes and sizzling shooting rewrote the script. The improbability of the win masked uncomfortable racial dynamics. Georgetown’s all-black squad, led by inscrutable African-American coach John Thompson, was all too easily cast as the heavy, with superstar center Patrick Ewing a frequent target of fan cruelty. Also, basketball, which was becoming increasingly popular, was about to get a major face-lift: the Hoyas-Wildcats game was the last one played without a shot clock, so teams could no longer employ 40 minutes of keep-away as a strategy. Veteran sportswriter Fitzpatrick (And the Walls Came Tumbling Down) is at his best weaving the stories of the two schools and their basketball personnel with these developments. Though he can’t maintain the momentum—the original reporting runs dry, giving way to play-by-play—there’s just enough insight to keep basketball-savvy readers engaged. (Jan.)