![]() ![]() “A great game - probably his greatest ever,” Orr said that night.īy the time Downing left IU, he’d had a few greater. When Indiana and Michigan played the first time at Ann Arbor, “I thought he stunk,” Michigan coach Johnny Orr said later - significantly later, after Downing had made his big collegiate breakthrough with the 28-17-10 contribution to IU’s Bloomington victory. He started some games, not all didn’t score in a few. He never approached McGinnis’s muscular bulk, but by college Downing was strong.Ĭollege freshmen were ineligible then, and when the two became eligible as sophomores, McGinnis was an instant star. Downing’s size came later: 5-11 as a freshman, 6-3 as a sophomore, 6-7 as a junior, topping out at 6-8. McGinnis as an eighth-grader was big, strong, unbelievable - probably could have started for Washington in both football and basketball. Downing came back with 20 (McGinnis 35) as Washington slipped past Tolleston for the title, 79-76. The Butler Fieldhouse clock had gone wacky and the game was finished with a stopwatch, but Downing (who had just 6 points that game) was the hero, not McGinnis (27). No one knew exactly how many seconds were left. Marion had Washington on the hook in the afternoon semifinals until Downing’s late-seconds basket teetered the Continentals ahead for 61-60 survival. Marion and Vincennes were the other unbeatens, with Washington. That was the year the “Final Four” field came in 104-1 - unbeaten against Indiana teams, the only loss by Gary Tolleston in a midweek game against Chicago Farragut when some Tolleston starters were out with flu. Basketball” McGinnis led to a 31-0 state-championship season in 1969. George McGinnis, his friend from early high school days and on into life now as senior citizens, had 33 points as the focus of Michigan’s defense - plus 15 rebounds of his own.īut for the first time, the college spotlight found Downing, too.ĭowning had averaged more than 20 points and 20 rebounds a game for the Indianapolis Washington team that “Mr. ![]() Really, Downing wasn’t even IU’s star that night. 12 Michigan team that came in 8-0 in league play, more than halfway home in the 14-game Big Ten schedule. Steve Downing got his triple a considerably different way: 28 points, 17 rebounds, 10 blocked shots, in an 88-79 payback against a No. 23, 1971, in the fourth-to-last time what is now Gladstein Fieldhouse served as IU’s temporary basketball home. Juwan Morgan’s artful performance against Jacksonville a week ago tonight - 10 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists - of course called back memories of the only other “triple double” in IU’s 119 basketball seasons.
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