Looking back on the Runnin' Utes' historic 1998 Final Four season, 20 years later

(Ravell Call, Deseret News archives)


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SALT LAKE CITY — It’s been exactly 20 years since the Runnin’ Utes lost to Kentucky in the championship game of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

But the 1998 Final Four team remains the high mark in the state’s college basketball history, and brought notoriety to former coach Rick Majerus and a group of players that went on to lengthy professional and coaching careers.

It started with one of the best regular-season records in school history. With the help of some of those that were a part of that season, we look back at the magical year of 1998.

“Getting to the Final Four wasn’t really in any of our minds,” said former Utah star Britton Johnson, a freshman on the ’98 team. “You figured if you lose the No. 2 overall draft pick, that was your main reason for success the year before.”

But Andre Miller stepped up and carried the Utes further than they had ever gone.

“Little did we know that we had the greatest point guard in the history of the University of Utah basketball program,” said Bill Marcroft, the former radio voice of the Utes. “He was the engine that drove the Utah team, basketball acumen is unbelievable; the crossover fake, beat your man, the idea to know exactly who is going to be open and anticipate the movement.

“But he was always so humble and withdrawn. In that season, Andre emerged. Andre became himself. He became a man.”

The Utes finished 26-3 in the regular season, including a 12-2 mark in Western Athletic Conference play en route to the WAC title, and soared as high as No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25. They collected big wins over Oregon State and Wake Forest, among others, and went undefeated in Salt Lake City.

University of Utah's Andre Miller, left, and Head Coach Rick Majerus, right, watches from the sideline of 1998 NCAA Championship basketball game in San Antonio, Texas, March 30 against Kentucky. (Photo: Ravell Call, Deseret News archives)
University of Utah's Andre Miller, left, and Head Coach Rick Majerus, right, watches from the sideline of 1998 NCAA Championship basketball game in San Antonio, Texas, March 30 against Kentucky. (Photo: Ravell Call, Deseret News archives)

"I had to learn from everybody else that those wins were special," said Johnson, who prepped at Murray High. "As a dumb freshman who came out of high school winning a lot of games, I just thought this is what happened in my career in basketball.

"I learned later that you have to have really special players surrounding you … and I did in my freshman year."

One of those special players was Michael Doleac, the center who went on to a 10-year career in the NBA. Doleac, who is now the head basketball coach at Park City High School, averaged 16.1 points and 1.0 blocks per game in earning NCAA All-Tournament team honors.

“He doesn’t receive enough credit,” said former Ute Alex Jensen, who is now an assistant coach with the Utah Jazz. “He was a big man who could shoot, who could pass. He was smart.”

Doleac was lightly recruited out of high school. But what he lacked in immediate post presence he made up in shooting.

The 6-foot-11 center regularly won the squad’s annual preseason 3-point shooting title because of his pure stroke, Marcroft said.

“Doleac wasn’t a great player coming out of high school,” the play-by-play voice added. “But Rick had the genius of molding big men into NBA caliber — and that’s what he did.”

Majerus was the glue that held the Utes’ all-time great team together.

“Rick was the best coach I’ve worked with. He was the best … but he was the weirdest human being I’ve ever met in my life,” Marcroft said.

“He could coach, but he had blinders on everything else.”

Click the video above to re-live the entire season with several stars from the roster.

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