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(More customer reviews)As a Loyola Marymount alum, this game is one of my most cherished sports memories: my nationally-ranked, run and gun Lions from the little Catholic school on the hill going toe to toe with big, bad defending national champion Michigan, and blowing the Wolverines out of the arena. It was, for me, the high point of an incredible two seasons that culminated in Loyola's run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. This DVD finally allows those of us who treasure those amazing weeks for LMU to relive that incredible game. The solidarity, determination, intensity, and emotion of the LMU team, just two weeks removed from the shocking on-court death of teammate and leader Hank Gathers, is all on display along with the pinball-style, attack-the-basket fury of the Lions' relentless offensive assault. It's all there: Bo Kimble's one-handed free throw shot with his left hand in honor of his fallen friend Gathers; Jeff Fryer's bombarsion of 3-pointers from way downtown; Per Stumer leaving everything on the court; the heroics of Chris Knight and Tom Peabody. I'd almost forgotten that these guys weren't just run-and-shoot wizard-kids having fun in Coach Paul Westhead's pedal-to-the-metal scheme. They were superior athletes, mentally tough kids playing great team basketball and executing Westhead's game to perfection. And the sheer guts and pride of the Michigan team are not to be overlooked. They were not going to give up their championship without a fight.
I was pleasantly surprised with the production of the DVD and with the completeness of the game. Commercials are cut out, while free throws are left in, and segues in and out of time outs are also retained. But Greg Gumbel and his partner's halftime commentaries are left out, and hanging on for a minute or three of post game wrapup, if it was available to NCAA On Demand, would have put a nice ending on things. Much more important, after halftime the game skips forward with about 8 minutes of pivotal game action completely missing. Michigan is starting to show signs of wearing down, then suddenly we skip ahead and Loyola has already taken the game by the throat. That gap is the only reason I don't give this five stars.
Considering how long and dearly I've wanted to find a tape or DVD of this game (and how inexplicably I failed to tape it myself the day of the game), I'm thrilled beyond belief to have found this, even with the one gap in game action.
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