(01-24-2019 09:16 AM)MemTigers1998 Wrote:  2 "old heads" explained it better than I could.

I wasn't alive yet in 1973, but I will say Finch and Robinson being the big stars on that team were hometown kids. So it was an extra sense of pride. I was around for Dana Kirk and his 1985 Final 4 team which had an entire roster of Memphis kids (except maybe 1 and Keith Lee was West Memphis, but same difference.) That will never be done again in college basketball. You will never see a team w/ an entire roster of kids from 1 city, much less one that makes it to the F4. But it still lingers today that Memphis fans want our best high school kids to stay home. Its a pretty unique situation, really. Kids leave other major cities all the time, but not many have got away from here. I don't see any doing that as long as PH is coaching.

Add in that back then, there were no major pro sports in town so Tiger basketball became the city's de facto pro team.

Just my $0.02

You left out Larry Kenon from the 1973 team. We "rented" him for one season, lol. He put that team over the top, much like Derrick Rose did in 2008.

In fact, I contend that Kenon may have been the best Memphis player ever, but he was only there one year, so he gets overlooked a lot.

He had one of the best pro careers, too.