(01-25-2020 11:48 AM)TexanMark Wrote: Scenes like this made the Big East.
Georgetown was baddest team in America. You either loved them or hated them back then.
Cuse had the huge Dome and created a Final Four environment every big game they hosted.
St. John's had great teams and played in MSG. Louie was a trip and Chris Mullins could ball
Nova was so scrappy with Rollie and had that magical Natty.
Pitt had Jerome Lane
Even teams like Providence and Seton Hall made Final Four runs.
Big Monday had kids across the nation watching the spectacular scene every week.
A young ESPN Network gave the visuals and the Big East was off and running. 1985 Final Four cemented their aura and the gang of coaches became HoF'ers.
Not to disagree because I do agree with most of this. A glorious time for the BE.
But let's not overlook the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 1980s...
* State beating Houston with Jimmy V running wild
* Jordan's shot
* Ralph Sampson
* the dramatic Len Bias death after his being drafted by the Celtics
* and of course (IMO) the truly most hated program of any league in any decade ... Duke in the 1980s.
Of note, the BE had six different programs make the Final Four in the 1980s and the ACC had five.
80s most hated was Georgetown. Duke was more the 90s.
I hate what the Big East did to college basketball. It was a beautiful game and they turned it into a wrasslin' match or a mugging. Their form of referring took over the NCAA tourney. Think it was 1984 and they did mug Dayton in a game (Georgetown won title whatever year that was). Unreal what they were allowed to get away with. It was an advantage for the Big East because they didn't call fouls in the league, so come tourney time, they were ready.
Took the shot clock and 3 point line to save college basketball from what the 80s Big East did to it.
You are 100 percent correct on the ACC regarding Duke, which in the 1990s was hated much more so than in the 1980s and more so than any other program, period. My fumble. Good catch, Bullet.
I fully agree with you on the shot clock but would respectfully counter on the 3-point shot. In some respects, that has hurt the college game (more so the modest distance as opposed to the 3-point shot itself).
I agree on the 3 point distance. They need to move the college line to the international. Its gotten too easy.
(01-25-2020 11:48 AM)TexanMark Wrote: Scenes like this made the Big East.
Georgetown was baddest team in America. You either loved them or hated them back then.
Cuse had the huge Dome and created a Final Four environment every big game they hosted.
St. John's had great teams and played in MSG. Louie was a trip and Chris Mullins could ball
Nova was so scrappy with Rollie and had that magical Natty.
Pitt had Jerome Lane
Even teams like Providence and Seton Hall made Final Four runs.
Big Monday had kids across the nation watching the spectacular scene every week.
A young ESPN Network gave the visuals and the Big East was off and running. 1985 Final Four cemented their aura and the gang of coaches became HoF'ers.
Not to disagree because I do agree with most of this. A glorious time for the BE.
But let's not overlook the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 1980s...
* State beating Houston with Jimmy V running wild
* Jordan's shot
* Ralph Sampson
* the dramatic Len Bias death after his being drafted by the Celtics
* and of course (IMO) the truly most hated program of any league in any decade ... Duke in the 1980s.
Of note, the BE had six different programs make the Final Four in the 1980s and the ACC had five.
I think the “Jordan shot” to win the 1982 national championship is highly overrated.
It became a much bigger deal after Michael Jordan became AIR JORDAN. However, at the time, nobody was talking about that shot as the key play in that game.
I know that sounds absurd on its face because Jordan’s basket provided the winning points in the national championship game. Also, it was a beautiful jump shot in a big moment — the type of thing for which he would later become so famous. However, that is not what decided that game.
Fred Brown’s throwing the ball away to James Worthy, who was badly beaten on a back door cut that almost certainly would have won the game for Georgetown, was CLEARLY the play that decided that basketball game and that is what everyone talked about the next morning. They were talking about not Jordan’s relatively pedestrian jumper from the wing with 15 seconds left in the game.
Interestingly, Georgetown had roughly the same colors as North Carolina at the time and John Thompson said that Brown’s mistake happened because he was confused by the colors. In reality, Brown just choked. However, that is why Georgetown switched to the navy blue and gray uniforms for which they would become so famous in the 1980s.
It was an incredible game full of future NBA Hall of Famer‘s. However, Jordan’s jump shot only became seen as the key moment in that game many years after the fact.
Mind you, it’s all good. It was one of my favorite college basketball games of all time and it was the height of the greatness of college basketball – the 1980s. However, I just hate revisionist history and that is a blatant historical revisionism often perpetrated by people who profit from it (Nike, CBS, ACC, UNC, etc.). And, of course Georgetown would rather have that narrative as well because otherwise the focus would be on how they quite literally threw away a national championship.
Everyone was talking about the mistake, not about Jordan's shot. There was incredible talent in that final 4. Houston with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler lost to UNC in the semis.
01-26-2020 12:10 PM
bill dazzle
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(01-25-2020 11:48 AM)TexanMark Wrote: Scenes like this made the Big East.
Georgetown was baddest team in America. You either loved them or hated them back then.
Cuse had the huge Dome and created a Final Four environment every big game they hosted.
St. John's had great teams and played in MSG. Louie was a trip and Chris Mullins could ball
Nova was so scrappy with Rollie and had that magical Natty.
Pitt had Jerome Lane
Even teams like Providence and Seton Hall made Final Four runs.
Big Monday had kids across the nation watching the spectacular scene every week.
A young ESPN Network gave the visuals and the Big East was off and running. 1985 Final Four cemented their aura and the gang of coaches became HoF'ers.
Not to disagree because I do agree with most of this. A glorious time for the BE.
But let's not overlook the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 1980s...
* State beating Houston with Jimmy V running wild
* Jordan's shot
* Ralph Sampson
* the dramatic Len Bias death after his being drafted by the Celtics
* and of course (IMO) the truly most hated program of any league in any decade ... Duke in the 1980s.
Of note, the BE had six different programs make the Final Four in the 1980s and the ACC had five.
I think the “Jordan shot” to win the 1982 national championship is highly overrated.
It became a much bigger deal after Michael Jordan became AIR JORDAN. However, at the time, nobody was talking about that shot as the key play in that game.
I know that sounds absurd on its face because Jordan’s basket provided the winning points in the national championship game. Also, it was a beautiful jump shot in a big moment — the type of thing for which he would later become so famous. However, that is not what decided that game.
Fred Brown’s throwing the ball away to James Worthy, who was badly beaten on a back door cut that almost certainly would have won the game for Georgetown, was CLEARLY the play that decided that basketball game and that is what everyone talked about the next morning. They were talking about not Jordan’s relatively pedestrian jumper from the wing with 15 seconds left in the game.
Interestingly, Georgetown had roughly the same colors as North Carolina at the time and John Thompson said that Brown’s mistake happened because he was confused by the colors. In reality, Brown just choked. However, that is why Georgetown switched to the navy blue and gray uniforms for which they would become so famous in the 1980s.
It was an incredible game full of future NBA Hall of Famer‘s. However, Jordan’s jump shot only became seen as the key moment in that game many years after the fact.
Mind you, it’s all good. It was one of my favorite college basketball games of all time and it was the height of the greatness of college basketball – the 1980s. However, I just hate revisionist history and that is a blatant historical revisionism often perpetrated by people who profit from it (Nike, CBS, ACC, UNC, etc.). And, of course Georgetown would rather have that narrative as well because otherwise the focus would be on how they quite literally threw away a national championship.
Everyone was talking about the mistake, not about Jordan's shot. There was incredible talent in that final 4. Houston with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler lost to UNC in the semis.
On the Houston theme, I don't know that many fans realize how appealing that program remains in some respects. The Cougar program can still lure quality coaches and players. It was down for many years but seems to be making a comeback under K. Sampson.