"Todd Day and Dwight Stewart stay home to play for Memphis along side Elliot Perry and Penny Hardaway(if eligible his freshman year). "

The refusal of Larry Finch to sign Ted Anderson's kid to get Todd Day was the single biggest blunder in Tiger recruiting history. Todd and Penny would have been unstoppable. Not signing Dwight Stewart and Cory Beck at the same time compounded the mistake; thereby, giving AR its NC title.

Dana Kirk allowing Smokey Gaines to steal Micheal Cage. Micheal Cage and Keith Lee would have destroyed teams. My guess is that Smokey paid more.

The Tigers should have several titles.

Other choices that you could have added:

1. If cdr comes back for his senior year.

2. If david vaughn's knee doesn't blow out against arkansas.

3. If someone could have kidnapped bill walton before the 1973 championship game.

(12-28-2012 01:36 PM)Pressed Rat Wrote:  "Todd Day and Dwight Stewart stay home to play for Memphis along side Elliot Perry and Penny Hardaway(if eligible his freshman year). "

The refusal of Larry Finch to sign Ted Anderson's kid to get Todd Day was the single biggest blunder in Tiger recruiting history. Todd and Penny would have been unstoppable. Not signing Dwight Stewart and Cory Beck at the same time compounded the mistake; thereby, giving AR its NC title.

Dana Kirk allowing Smokey Gaines to steal Micheal Cage. Micheal Cage and Keith Lee would have destroyed teams. My guess is that Smokey paid more.

The Tigers should have several titles.

I have thought the same thing for a long time.

(12-28-2012 01:36 PM)Pressed Rat Wrote:  "Todd Day and Dwight Stewart stay home to play for Memphis along side Elliot Perry and Penny Hardaway(if eligible his freshman year). "

The refusal of Larry Finch to sign Ted Anderson's kid to get Todd Day was the single biggest blunder in Tiger recruiting history. Todd and Penny would have been unstoppable. Not signing Dwight Stewart and Cory Beck at the same time compounded the mistake; thereby, giving AR its NC title.

Dana Kirk allowing Smokey Gaines to steal Micheal Cage. Micheal Cage and Keith Lee would have destroyed teams. My guess is that Smokey paid more.

The Tigers should have several titles.

Michaek Cage's father told me he left because Kirk wouldn't promise playing time as a freshman and SDSU could. Cage wanted to start his freshman year.

(12-28-2012 02:40 PM)tmoneyinmphs Wrote:  Other choices that you could have added:

1. If cdr comes back for his senior year.

2. If david vaughn's knee doesn't blow out against arkansas.

3. If someone could have kidnapped bill walton before the 1973 championship game.

I didn't think CDR would have made the 2008-09 championship quality. Derrick Rose would have, but he would be a fool not to go when he was drafted #1. If Penny stayed, he probably would have been the #1 pick in the 1994 draft ahead of Glenn Robinson. Penny also had Memphis roots whereas we know why Rose was here. Unlike Derrick Rose, because of the financial situation for rookies in 1993 and 1994, Penny would have made more money being the #1 pick in 1994 than he made being the #3 pick in 1993. Orlando did not have cap room to sign Penny until it traded Brian Williams for nothing and paid Penny much less than market value, about $1.5 million. Penny was able to sign a $70 million that next year, but Glenn Robinson signed for more as the #1 pick in 1994. [i]Penny made more than Glenn Robinson every year they were both in the league.

I didn't put Vaughn's injury in because that wasn't a decision. The choices I put in was a choice someone made that affected our destiny. Penny could have gotten better grades. Penny could have stayed. Vaughn could have stayed. Hunt could have stayed out of 152. Williams and D-Wash could have stay. RC Johnson could have made the NCAA investigation public which would have scared Kentucky away from Calipari.

As far as the 1973 championship game, I was only thinking 1990 on, and I said 25 years as a nice round number. Basically the Finch years on.

(12-27-2012 04:02 PM)Latilleon Wrote:  

(12-27-2012 03:51 PM)CKMcDan Wrote:  Penny's senior year would have been the 1993-94 season. That team had David Vaughn, and still finished with a losing record. So, as great a player as Penny was, I don't think that he makes a sub-500 team into a national championship contender.

Yet Ren joins the same team and it goes to the sweet sixteen.

That sub-500 team had two McD's All-Americans and no good experienced point guard. Marcus Nolan and Sidney Coles weren't doing it. If you don't have someone reliable to move the ball, you're doomed.

As bad as that team was, it beat 4 top 25 ranked teams.

If you think putting Penny with Chris Garner, Ced Henderson, Deuce Ford, Rodney Newsome, and David Vaughn wouldn't have led to a winner, I'm guessing you don't think Penny is the greatest player in Memphis history.

Quote:The problem with the 2005-06 team was that they relied too much on the 3-point shot. They played great defense against UCLA in the Regional finals, but we couldn't throw it in the ocean that game. Our miserable shooting had a lot to do with the UCLA taking us out of any sort of offensive rhythm . Yes, Jeremy Hunt was a 3-point specialist (the next year), but the 05-06 team was full of 3-point specialists, and no one was hitting. Missing shots, particularly long-range shots, is contagious. My guess is that Hunt would have been just as bad as everyone else was that particular game.

UCLA was an inferior team to us that year. The problem in that game is we played like crap, but so did UCLA. The only offense we had that game was D-Wash. It wasn't that Hunt was a 3 point specialist... It was the kid could score. Our guys played lethargically, and Jeremy Hunt probably would have taken over that game with his aggressiveness off the bench.

If UCLA were a better team, we would have lost that game by 20 or 30. We played as bad as we have ever played, and we were always on the wrong side of a hump.

despite the knee injury, hunt was good at penetrating and getting to the line and was just a gritty player. I feel pretty confident that he would've sparked us off the bench in that game. Hunt was just as good of a scorer as CDR in 06-07. we didnt need a lot of plays to over ucla, if hunt scores 8-10 we win that game. I don't think ucla's physicality would've bothered him as much as it did carney and cdr

(12-28-2012 01:36 PM)Pressed Rat Wrote:  "Todd Day and Dwight Stewart stay home to play for Memphis along side Elliot Perry and Penny Hardaway(if eligible his freshman year). "

The refusal of Larry Finch to sign Ted Anderson's kid to get Todd Day was the single biggest blunder in Tiger recruiting history. Todd and Penny would have been unstoppable. Not signing Dwight Stewart and Cory Beck at the same time compounded the mistake; thereby, giving AR its NC title.

Dana Kirk allowing Smokey Gaines to steal Micheal Cage. Micheal Cage and Keith Lee would have destroyed teams. My guess is that Smokey paid more.

The Tigers should have several titles.

I thought Todd Day was Ted Anderson's kid. Plus was it having a Keena, or what it having some money in an Swiss account?

(12-28-2012 02:57 PM)jgardne Wrote:  

(12-27-2012 04:02 PM)Latilleon Wrote:  

(12-27-2012 03:51 PM)CKMcDan Wrote:  Penny's senior year would have been the 1993-94 season. That team had David Vaughn, and still finished with a losing record. So, as great a player as Penny was, I don't think that he makes a sub-500 team into a national championship contender.

Yet Ren joins the same team and it goes to the sweet sixteen.

That sub-500 team had two McD's All-Americans and no good experienced point guard. Marcus Nolan and Sidney Coles weren't doing it. If you don't have someone reliable to move the ball, you're doomed.

As bad as that team was, it beat 4 top 25 ranked teams.

If you think putting Penny with Chris Garner, Ced Henderson, Deuce Ford, Rodney Newsome, and David Vaughn wouldn't have led to a winner, I'm guessing you don't think Penny is the greatest player in Memphis history.

Quote:The problem with the 2005-06 team was that they relied too much on the 3-point shot. They played great defense against UCLA in the Regional finals, but we couldn't throw it in the ocean that game. Our miserable shooting had a lot to do with the UCLA taking us out of any sort of offensive rhythm . Yes, Jeremy Hunt was a 3-point specialist (the next year), but the 05-06 team was full of 3-point specialists, and no one was hitting. Missing shots, particularly long-range shots, is contagious. My guess is that Hunt would have been just as bad as everyone else was that particular game.

UCLA was an inferior team to us that year. The problem in that game is we played like crap, but so did UCLA. The only offense we had that game was D-Wash. It wasn't that Hunt was a 3 point specialist... It was the kid could score. Our guys played lethargically, and Jeremy Hunt probably would have taken over that game with his aggressiveness off the bench.

If UCLA were a better team, we would have lost that game by 20 or 30. We played as bad as we have ever played, and we were always on the wrong side of a hump.

despite the knee injury, hunt was good at penetrating and getting to the line and was just a gritty player. I feel pretty confident that he would've sparked us off the bench in that game. Hunt was just as good of a scorer as CDR in 06-07. we didnt need a lot of plays to over ucla, if hunt scores 8-10 we win that game. I don't think ucla's physicality would've bothered him as much as it did carney and cdr

I blame Jeremy for us not winning a championship in 2006 and I blame Andre Allen for us not winning a championship in 2008.

If Allen was in that game, Rose and CDR wouldn't have played as much in the final four and that might have made a difference at the end of the game.

All because Dre couldn't leave that weed alone for three months. I guess he's living at Ricky Williams' house now.

what about Kendrick Perkins coming here instead of going to the NBA or Drose and CDR staying one more year?

(12-28-2012 03:04 PM)T.I.G.E.R.S Wrote:  what about Kendrick Perkins coming here instead of going to the NBA or Drose and CDR staying one more year?

Perkins would have been a big help, but he wasn't a missing piece to the team or a franchise type player.

(12-28-2012 01:36 PM)Pressed Rat Wrote:  "Todd Day and Dwight Stewart stay home to play for Memphis along side Elliot Perry and Penny Hardaway(if eligible his freshman year). "

The refusal of Larry Finch to sign Ted Anderson's kid to get Todd Day was the single biggest blunder in Tiger recruiting history. Todd and Penny would have been unstoppable. Not signing Dwight Stewart and Cory Beck at the same time compounded the mistake; thereby, giving AR its NC title.

The Tigers should have several titles.

Not taking the Todd Day package deal was a serious miscalculation on Larry's part. Todd Day turned out to be a superstar, and Ted Anderson's son never played a minute for Arkansas. But, the more important side-effect of not taking the package deal was that it allowed Nolan substantial access to the Memphis recruiting market.

I can understand why Larry didn't take the deal. Ted Anderson was a high school coach, Larry was the college coach. Caving to Anderson's demand to sign an inferior player (Ted's son), and have him on scholarship for an entire year before Day graduated would clearly send the wrong message.

Of course, hindsight being 20-20, I think we can all agree that Larry should have taken that deal. Todd Day would not only have played with Elliot Perry, he would have played with Penny & David Vaughn. Another reason was that Todd Day graduated right after the Tigers' lost Gray & Alexander. Larry could have really used a player like Todd Day to help "right the ship".

The other reason was that Todd Day became a star at Arkansas. Arkansas was a juggernaut during Day's 4 years there. I expect that, without Day, they would have been good, but I doubt that they would have been as good without him there.

As for Corey Beck & Dwight Stewart.... I recall that the CA reported that Dwight Stewart signed with the TIgers, but that there was a problem with his paperwork, so he ended up at a Junior College. Neither he nor Beck had grades to play as freshmen anyway, and both had to go to Junior College to get to school. While these 2 guys would have helped the Tigers, they were role players at Arkansas. The stars on the Ark NC team were Corliss Williamson & Scottie Thurman.