![]() ![]() The championship elevated spidery 6'9 1/2" center Ed Pinckney to the 10th pick in the NBA draft, launched a workmanlike 12-year professional career and eventually steered him back to Villanova, where he is now a first-year assistant coach under Jay Wright. “I’ve had some challenges, some health challenges, not life-threatening, but difficult times in my life,” he says, “And I called upon the perseverance I learned back in that season.”) “It taught me to believe in myself, and I’ve taken that through my whole life.” (Jensen stands by that, 11 years later. ![]() ![]() Four years later, at the age of 24, Jensen and a partner started Showtime Enterprises, a marketing company that now employs 125 people in six offices (Showtime was subsequently acquired by Sparks Marketing Group, for which Jensen is an Executive Vice President.) “That season, that tournament was a turning point in my life beyond the sport,” says Jensen. Harold Jensen, a sophomore head case recruited from Trumbull (Conn.) High to shoot from the outside, conquered his self-doubt only during the tournament run and made the most important shot in Villanova history, an 18-foot jumper that gave the Wildcats a 55-54 lead with 2:37 to play in the title game, a lead they did not relinquish. “Just talking about it, right now, the hair is standing up on the back of my neck,” says Wyatt Maker, a reserve sophomore center on the championship team, who sat on the bench during the title game, clutching the hand of junior teammate Chuck Everson, twin seven-footers willing balls into the basket like schoolgirl cheerleaders. 1 seed, yet lost to North Carolina State in their second tournament game.) The memory of the game moves many of the 85s to the edge of tears. The 14 Villanova players who dressed in blue that night in Lexington, Ky., are immortalized in a 150-foot-long mural just inside the main entrance to The Pavilion, where present-day Wildcats play their home games and are measured against the images in tight shorts on the wall, usually falling short (including this year's edition of the Wildcats, who were awarded a No. ![]()
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