I wasn’t old enough yet in 1971 to follow and appreciate the career of Notre Dame’s greatest basketball player ever, Austin Carr, but fortunately another Washington D.C. product came to 1973 to become the second greatest ever to don the Irish jersey.
Adrian Delano Dantley, better known as A.D., was one of the most deceptive players ever to take the basketball floor. He seemed awfully small for a power forward (listed at 6-foot-5, but some contended he was closer to 6-3), he wasn’t fast enough to play guard, he wasn’t a dunker or flashy enough to be deemed a human highlight reel. His game was methodical efficiency, all-around acumen and demoralizing a rival defender. His trademark head and shoulder fake, as if going up for a shot with the ball, made him one of the most fouled plays ever.
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Dantley cuts down the net following Notre Dame's classic win over UCLA.
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Dantley was Digger Phelps’ first big-time recruit as he lured him away from nearby Maryland and head coach Lefty Driesell, whose non-stop efforts to reel in Dantley only irritated the coveted high school prospect. In Dantley’s three seasons at Notre Dame, the Irish were bona fide Final Four contenders. Later, he would be the leading scorer for the 1976 U.S. Summer Olympics team that won the gold medal and earn NBA Rookie of the Year honors with the Buffalo Braves in 1977.
The six-time NBA all-star, and twice its leading scorer, wasn’t the most popular NBA player among players and coaches, resulting in playing for seven teams during his 15-year career. But no one could deny he was one of its greatest competitors and scorers ever. Here is a story we did in 2004, the 100th season of Notre Dame basketball.
As a ninth-grader at Maryland’s DeMatha High, Adrian Dantley earned a 99 on a history test when no one else scored above 80. Suspecting fraud, teacher/basketball coach Morgan Wootten made Dantley stand up and answer questions in front of the class. When Dantley responded correctly to each inquiry, Wootten was humbled.
“I never should have underestimated you,” Wootten told Dantley.
Wootten learned the lesson early; others did not.
Although a prep All-American while leading the esteemed DeMatha program to a 57-2 record. Dantley’s 6-foot-4, 245-pound didn’t earmark him as a prototypical forward. His baby fat in high school and early in his college career earned him the moniker “Baby Huey,” but Dantley would combine his skills with an indefatigable work ethic – and some psychology – to become one of the game’s all-time greats.
Dantley’s impact at Notre Dame as a freshman (1973-74) helped lift a program that was 6-20 in 1971-72 to 26-3 and a top 5 finish two years later, highlighted by snapping UCLA’s 88-game winning streak. That year the Irish also recorded road victories versus Final Four participant Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio State, Michigan State and South Carolina (ending the Gamecocks’ 34-game home winning streak), plus defeated national runner-up Marquette.
The presence of John Shumate, Gary Brokaw, Gary Novak and Dwight Clay augmented Dantley, who was equally lethal in the low post, as a perimeter shooter or with his dribble penetration.
After Shumate and Brokaw turned pro in 1974, Dantley still led the Irish to the 32-team NCAA Tournament in 1975 and 1976. As a sophomore, he finished second nationally in scoring (30.4 points per game) and as a junior he was fourth (28.6). In both years he also averaged 10 rebounds per contest, earning consensus All-America notice.
Deception played a role in Dantley’s game. Many defenders believed he wasn’t quick enough to get by them, so he deliberately dribbled high to lure them into a potential steal – and then use his body as a shield and roar by them for a lay-up. Phelps employed a “four to score” offense for Dantley, a variation of Dean Smith’s four-corner stall offense. The four-to-score set though had four Irish players stationed in the four corners past the half-court line, with Dantley isolated in the middle. A strong ball-handler, Dantley would overpower a smaller, quicker man down low on the dribble, or race past a bigger man, either for a lay-in, or draw a foul, or find someone off a flash pivot when another defender came over to double-team him.
Underneath the basket, Dantley was shorter than most forwards and loved to play possum, sometimes even allowing his first shot of the game to be blocked. Thus, Dantley developed his trademark: the head fake that consistently suckered opponents into the air. It usually resulted in 10 points per game from the charity stripe.
“At every level, guys thought they could block my shots,” explained Dantley, who led the NBA twice in scoring and four times in free throws made. “My goal was to get people into foul trouble. If you get two fouls on them early, either they’re not going to guard you as tight, or they’ll bring in a sub who isn’t as good.”
In the 1976 Summer Olympics, Dantley led the United States to a gold medal by averaging 19.3 points per game, highlighted by 32 points in 30 minutes in the championship versus Yugoslavia. Prior to the 2004 Games, Dantley and 1992 U.S. Dream Team member Charles Barkley were the only two U.S. players to score at least 30 points in an Olympics contest.
Although he left Notre Dame after his junior year to enter the NBA draft (he would become the 1977 Rookie of the Year), Dantley eventually earned his Notre Dame degree and proved skeptics wrong again.
When he retired from the NBA in 1991, Dantley, currently an assistant for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, was ninth in league history in scoring (23,177 points, 24.3 average) and fifth in free throws made (6,832) while shooting a remarkable 54 percent from the field and 81.8 percent from the foul line. Seventeen years later, he is still 18th on the all-time scoring list.
Wootten wasn’t the only one who learned not to underestimate him.
