Thing former athletes get over the mistakes they make on a big stage? Ask Dan Dakich.
In 1984, Dakich threw up in his hotel room when Bobby Knight told him he’d be guarding Michael Jordan in the Sweet 16. But he did a great job, and Indiana knocked off the defending national champions. As he says in the clip above, though, he hurt his team with a costly turnover two nights later in a 2-point elite 8 loss against Virginia.
I have a piece going up about the game later on Grantland, but I thought this was a rare and fascinating insight into the athlete’s mind. All those years later, it still stings. You can hear it in the details- “On my dad’s birthday.”
And it should come to no surprise that while Dakich still thinks about the worst game of his life, Jordan still thinks about Dakich’s best. The great and mediocre alike never forget.
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N.C. State was the defending National Champion in 1983-84.