The Cedric Maxwell Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Thursday, June 12th, 2002
March 26th, 1977: There are three seconds
left in the NCAA National Semifinal between
UNC-Charlotte and Marquette. You hit a big shot to tie
the game at 49. Tell me what happens next.
Butch Lee of Marquette flung a length-of-the-court
inbounds pass toward Bo Ellis. The ball deflected off
of Ellis’ hands and went directly to his teammate,
Jerome Whitehead. Whitehead bumped me – I still think
it was a foul [laughs] – but I was able to partially
block his dunk. The ball hit the backboard and bounced
off the rim before dropping, but there should have been
a goaltending call [laughs]! Jerome clearly touched the
ball over the cylinder. The shot goes in and the
referees confer before ruling in Marquette’s favor.
Marquette and Al McGuire get the victory and continue
their Cinderella run to the NCAA Championship.
Very few people realize what I was prepared to do if I’d stolen that long inbounds pass. I was prepared to call timeout immediately after the steal, which wouldn’t have been a very smart thing to do in that situation. Do you know why?
No, why?
Because we didn’t have any timeouts left [laughs]! If I
had called timeout I would have been Chris Webber before
Chris Webber. Chris became infamous for calling the
timeout that he didn’t have, so in that respect I have
to thank Jerome Whitehead for sparing me that indignity
[laughs].
If you were asked to select a signature game from either
of those tournaments, which one would it be and why?
That’s an excellent question – I’ve never been asked
that before. If I had to select a signature game it
would have to be the 1977 Mideast Regional Final against
Michigan. The Wolverines were the number one seed and
the heavy favorite to knock us out of the tournament.
We went into this game and played with tremendous
confidence, and because of this we were able to beat
them convincingly. I think the final score was 75-68.
I’d select this game because of the work I did on the
boards.
You and senior teammate Melvin Watkins can boast of
never losing a home game. The 49ers won all 58 games
played in the Belk Gym and former Charlotte Coliseum.
Where does this accomplishment rank in terms of your
overall athletic achievement?
It’s a great accomplishment – how many players can say
that they’ve never lost a home game? It’s a remarkable
statistic because we played a mixture of teams during
that run, some of them very good. Robert Parish played
us in Charlotte, and Centenary was very tough at that
time. I remember that it was a close game, and that we
ended up beating them by 2 points. We first faced
Robert in the 1975 NIT Tipoff Tournament, and we won
that game as well. It was ironic playing against him in
college and then playing with him later as teammates in
Boston.
You are the only player in collegiate history to average
more than 20 points and 10 rebounds for an NIT
semifinalist one year and an NCAA semifinalist the next
season. Were you aware of this?
No, but that’s very interesting to hear – I didn’t
realize that I held that distinction.
