You’ve heard of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, right? That they played against each other in college for the 1979 NCAA championship? And that they met a few other times in the NBA?

You’re familiar with all that, right, and how they became legendary rivals? There have been a few stories and books, and an hour-long special on HBO.

One shot, and all that could have been changed.

In a pre-practice reminiscence, Mad Ants first-year coach Joey Meyer looked across the Concordia Seminary floor and miraculously saw 31 years into the past, when he was an assistant at DePaul under his Hall of Fame coach father, Ray.

It was the second game of the national semifinals in Salt Lake City where, earlier March 24, 1979, Michigan State, with Earvin Johnson, had defeated Penn to advance into the title game. The other semifinal was DePaul against Indiana State, and Meyer had a front-row seat.

“We had a shot to win it,” said Meyer, whose Mad Ants will play Maine at 7 p.m. today at Memorial Coliseum. “People don’t know that the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson matchup almost didn’t occur. We had a shot to win the game and didn’t hit it.”

Trailing 75-74, DePaul freshman Mark Aguirre’s shot from the right wing with only seconds left hit the back of the rim and was rebounded by ISU’s Leroy Staley, who added a free throw for the 76-74 final score.

“It was a tough shot,” Meyer said. “That was (Aguirre’s) freshman year. He was unbelievable as a freshman.”

But Meyer said that Bird was even more unbelievable.

“Larry Bird went 16 for 19 against us,” Meyer said.

Bird finished with 35 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists.

“As much as you wanted to prepare and say, ‘Don’t Bird watch,’ we still did,” Meyer said. “We said he’s gonna get his, but don’t let the other guys get theirs. He was something special. … But we could have ruined that big thing. We were right there. We had the opportunity.”

stwarden@jg.net