(09-10-2017 10:06 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 09:54 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(09-09-2017 08:26 AM)58-56 Wrote:  

(09-08-2017 10:52 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Can anyone recall for me why the Great Midwest Conference formed?

As I recall the Metro had just lost South Carolina and Florida St but why did Cincinnati and Memphis feel the need to bolt and join the Midwestern Catholic schools and UAB?

Did it have something to do with a feud with Louisville?

Gene Bartow's frustration with the Sun Belt.

The old Sun Belt (only South Alabama is still there) was a very good basketball conference in those days, putting two or three teams in what was then a smaller NCAA field every year (UAB, ODU, VCU, WKU were all good). They had a CBS (real over-the-air CBS) game of the week, and a UAB dancer (my ex) was the opening shot for their pre-game show before every NCAA game. But some programs made what Gene considered no effort, and others did not want to make the investments to step up the conference.

Gene was tight with Ray Meyer at DePaul, and they hatched the plan. Gene was also revered in Memphis. He was the glue holding together seemingly very different institutions. He believed the conference needed DePaul (still a national program then), Louisville and Notre Dame to succeed, or at least two of the three.

So the SBC had an OTA CBS game of the week? How did they manage to score something like that?

Because back then the Sun Belt was a serious basketball league. UAB went to the NCAAs for 7 straight years in the 80s, Western KEntucky went 4 times in the 80s, UNCC had gone to the Sweet 16 in 1977, VCU went 5 years out of 6 (with Charles Oakley).

You're right about the 5 out of 6 (peaking with a No. 2 seed in the 1985 NCAAs) but wrong about which Richmond school had Oakley. It was Virginia Union, a Division II powerhouse that also produced Ben Wallace, Terry Davis and A.J. English.

But yes, 80s Sun Belt was no joke. ODU and South Florida also had respectable teams back then (and Jacksonville with Dee Brown). It was an interesting setup for a conference — schools in decent-sized metros with arenas (many municipal) that seated in the 10,000 or more range. It probably wasn't sustainable, and it had a weird footprint (two Virginia schools, two Florida, two Alabama, and a Kentucky and North Carolina), but it was fun while it lasted.