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| Home / College Guide / Quick Discussions… |
| Posted on Monday, April 06 @ 00:00:04 PDT |
So, we are now watching replays…is this OK??!?
Not when we got Game 6 of the 2006 NBA Finals, Games 5 and 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, and Texas and USC from 2006.
Everyone knows that I’ve had my beef about Miami and Dallas in 2006–the slightly scurrilous officiating the last four games of that series. ESPN’s love affair with LeBron is getting a little overboard–but this is something I was warning about last year. Between 2015 and 2018, Cleveland and the Warriors played 30 games between their regular season and Finals matchups. It’s hard to ignore that Golden State won 21 of those games along with the three titles. But this is where I’ve suspected that some have started to write the narrative that 2015, 2017, and 2018 were the outliers in the series of games while 2016 was the one true result–a way to protect LBJ’s legacy.
Of course, EVERY TIME I SEE TEXAS AND USC, I get angry. It takes me back to 2004–California going 11-1 in the regular season, losing by six to USC in Los Angeles, and by all rights should have been playing Michigan at the 2005 Rose Bowl–except Mack Brown whined at the BCS about Texas’ “tradition†over what Cal had done (Remember–Berkeley had a chance to win at USC; Texas only got a safety in getting beat up by Oklahoma…) that season.
The computer got finagled, and the Longhorns got Michigan in Pasadena. Plus, Texas and USC established Pete Carroll’s capacity for blowing double-digit leads late in big games. Fight On led the game by 12 with five minutes left–a little like Seattle leading New England by 10 at the start of the fourth quarter nine years later…but most importantly, I still wonder how Carroll–who was supposed to by, by reputation, a defensive coach–doesn’t figure out some way, maybe the whole game but definitely in the fourth quarter–to stop Vince Young from rolling right. Everything VY did in that game was rolling right, therefore the USC defense should have been forcing Vince into cutbacks if not cutting him off from going right altogether.
You use that Texas/USC game to parallel Clemson/Alabama, don’t you??!?
That 2005 National Championship Game was the end of USC’s domination of college football, which had essentially run from 2002 to that January evening in 2006. What Clemson did to Alabama here last year was far worse. The Trojans were in the game until the bitter end. What the Dabos did to the Crimson Tide was criminal, and one of the reasons why–aside from his injury profile–I’m not in love with Tua Tagavaiola.
The Clemson defense just had Tua horribly confused from the start. Mix in the breakouts of Trevor Lawrence and Justyn Ross, and Alabama had the look of an exposed program in an exposed conference.
It’s official for Springfield. Kobe. Duncan. KG. But this was prohibitive, right??!?
Obviously.
But with the uncertainty of an Induction Ceremony in this current state…I mean, I was going to miss not have Bryant there–and I almost don’t want anyone to speak for him that evening. I don’t want a “Lakers’ representative†(Read: MAGIC), don’t want a family member…as is, I suspect the Hall Of Fame would be lucky to get five minutes out of Timmy (Per the norm…), while KG likely F-bombs everyone and everything for 20 minutes (Per the norm…).
What about Rudy Tomjanovich going in??!?
The unusual thing is that Tomjanovich was probably CLOSE as a player to going in before the Kermit Washington incident, which I felt left him internally damaged–spinal fluid leaks for years. Rudy was a GREAT jumpshooter, a recidivist user of the glass on his shot and he had some hops.
But obviously, he’ll go into Springfield primarily because of the back-to-back titles the Rockets won in 1994 and 1995; but if one goes back to the Seattle series in the 1993 Playoffs, the Rockets only lost ONE win-or-go-home game–an OT loss in Game 7 to the Sonics.
In ’94, the Rockets went down 2-0 to Phoenix in the second round–losing both home games to start the series–before evening the series in Phoenix, and then won Game 7 at home. In the Finals, the Rockets had to win Games 6 and 7 against the Knicks in their best ugly-up-the-game mode. The next year, the Rockets won all four of their postseason series without homecourt advantage–the last time that’s ever been done by a title winner. They had to advance winning Games 4 and 5 against Utah in the best-of-five first round, winning games three straight with two of them in Phoenix against the Suns (By the way–the last time a playoff series had games on back-to-back days, since Games 3 and 4 were played in Houston…), the demolition of David Robinson’s MVP season by Hakeem Olajuwon in the Western Conference Finals, and then the humbling of the Magic in the Finals.
For the most part, Tomjanovich oversaw the best period of Olajuwon’s career–but also had to manage Vernon Maxwell, and when he had to suspend Vernon Maxwell in the 1995 Playoffs since Mad Max was upset at losing playing time to Clyde Drexler. But Rudy also was one of the early coaches to really use the “Inside-Out†methodology on offense; utilizing Hakeem to clear shooting space for Maxwell, Sam Cassell, Kenny Smith (Yes, kids…when you see Kenny Smith on TNT, realize that this is the guy who spent two years in the North Carolina backcourt with Michael Jordan…), and even Drexler and his two-hands-behind-the-ball jumper.
Plus, Houston also saw the beginning of The Legend Of Big Shot Rob–Horry’s first stop was with the Rockets, and he actually holds the Finals record for steals in a game (9 against the Magic in Game 3 in 1995…).
There will be those who say that Tomjanovich received the benefit of having Hakeem in the better part of the two seasons that Jordan was out of the NBA. I don’t disagree–but Rudy T. got the Rockets to win BOTH years. That says something, regardless.
What about Tamika Catchings going in??!?
She seems in an unusual place in women’s basketball/WNBA history. Unique in that her father Harvey was a NBA player–but Tamika had a far better offensive game. But she ultimately has the feel of a ‘tweener–she came to prominence at Tennessee after the rise of Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Chamique Holdsclaw on the national level and Lauren Jackson/Ticha Pinichiero at the international level; but before Sue Bird/Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash and the UConn generation. And Tamika last for a while–as she fell into her own period of time, so was her game–she wasn’t a small woman player, but she was a better ballhandler and shooter than most her size (Again–a far better offensive player than her father…).
Since Final Four Weekend would have been upon us this weekend, what are your three greatest upsets??!?
I tend to diminish Duke and UNLV in 1991 if only because it was a National Semifinal game. I realize the impact of the Dookies reversing the 30-point drubbing they had taken from the Rebels the previous year, but Duke still had a game to play after beating UNLV. They finished the job against Kansas.
Which is why I elevate North Carolina State/Houston in 1983 and Villanova/Georgetown in 1985–those were National Championship games that were played after presumptive “National Title†games in the semis; Louisville/Houston in 1983–the legendary dunkfest between the Cardinals and Phi Slamma Jama–and St. John’s/Georgetown in 1985. In the case of NC State–Jim Valvano’s Magnum Opus coaching performance through that tournament really was more a manifest of the Wolfpack’s season. For those who want the history lesson, 1982-1983 was the year the Atlantic Coast Conference instituted the three-point line–at 16’6″. Valvano essentially let Derek Whittenburg, Sidney Lowe and Terry Gannon feast as much as they could outside; let Thurl Bailey run his pop-outs for jumpers and had Cozell McQueen and Lorenzo Charles clean up all messes inside.
When NC State hit the NCAA Tournament, Valvano didn’t really adjust their game–they were much more attentive with the ball throughout, and it played out against Houston, since the Cougars couldn’t get out and run, and weren’t particularly good at free throws.
Of course, many remember how that game ended–Whittenburg’s jumper falling short, and into Lorenzo Charles’ hands for a dunk at the buzzer…but many will also remind you that Tweety’s jumper (Whittenburg’s nickname…) WAS ON-LINE….
Villanova and Georgetown is noted for two things in NCAA Basketball History–the last game played without a shot clock or a three-point line. But what irritated me the most about that game was ‘Nova missing five shots the whole game–23 for-28–with the collection of THE WORST SHOOTING MOTIONS IN THE BIG EAST. Gary McClain’s shoulder launch, Dewayne McClain’s lefty shots, Ed Pickney’s strange motion…the only member of Rollie Massamino’s rotation who had anything resembling a normal shot was Harold Jensen–who stuck the late jumper that put the Wildcats in the lead for good.
Of course, it also came out later that Gary McClain played that game higher than a kite on cocaine…
So, I would pick the 1985 Final over the 1983 Final. Guy V. Lewis could always be outcoached. The 1985 Final was, in many ways, the beginning of the end of The Myth of John Thompson…
WILLIAM HARRISON WITHERS, JUNIOR??!?
There was something…PLAIN about Bill Withers. When one thinks of his contemporary performers in the early-to-mid 1970s…he wasn’t Motown-flashy like Marvin Gaye or David Ruffin. He wasn’t CLOSE to The Sound Of Philadelphia performers–Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes, then Teddy Pendergrass by himself. His studio/backup band was the Watts 103rd Street Rythym Band–but there never seemed to be a lot of mixing with his albums other than his singing background. In my mind’s eye, I see Bill sitting on a stool on stage, wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt (Maybe a button-down long sleeve…), and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar–except when he played piano for “Lean On Me.†Oddly enough…the only performers in that time I might compare Withers to was Jim Croce or Harry Chapin.
Because of his West Virginia upbringing, Withers had a close-to-the-heart, close-to-the-earth way of storytelling in his songwriting–thinking of “Grandma’s Handsâ€, or his magnificent breakthrough, “Ain’t No Sunshineâ€.
Obviously, his second album–“Still Billâ€â€“contained his legendary signature piece, which has always seemed almost country gospel in presentation.
But what really strikes one is Withers’ relatively short period as a performer. He really wasn’t wedded to the music business, neither as writer nor performer. After “Still Billâ€, the only notable performances he really had were the remixing of “Lovely Day†in 1988 and his lead on “Just The Two Of Us†from Grover Washington, Jr. He didn’t embrace the life–which seems to have made Bill more legendary over the years. He wasn’t reclusive by any means–when Pete Carroll was at USC, he surprised an injured player in front of the football team at a meeting by bringing in Withers to the meeting–and everyone KNEW who he was.
Bill Withers just seemed to fit into his own niche at that time, and such is the way that his long-term legacy seems secured.
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