Confession time: I did not fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket. In fact, I can't remember the last time I did. It's kind of sad really. I used to be among the biggest college basketball fans out there.
As a kid, I thought Phi Slamma Jamma was one of the most amazing sequences of words ever, right up there with Akeem Abdul Olajuwon; I used to say both out loud to myself pretty religiously, just to hear how cool they sounded. Illinois' Kenny Norman, Doug Altenberger, Bruce Douglas, and Efrem Winters were my boys. So were Wayman Tisdale, Walter Berry, and Armon Gilliam. I hated Uwe Blab with every fiber of my being. My friend Adam and I -- a huge (fair-weather) NC State fan -- used to re-create the Dereck Whittenburg/Lorenzo Charles sequence from the 1983 title game in his driveway. And other than the Cubs' soul-crushing meltdown in the 1984 NLCS, the defining moment of sports-fan disappointment in my youth was the Flyin' Illini's last-second national semifinal loss in the 1989 NCAA Tournament.
As the lone No. 1 seed in the Final Four and facing a Michigan team they had beaten by 12 and 16 points during the regular season, the Illini were the prohibitive favorites to win the title. If memory serves, with guard Kendall Gill in the lineup -- he missed 17 games with a broken ankle -- Illinois was unbeaten going in, and 31-4 overall.* And yet they lost to the Wolverines 83-81. Damn you, Steve Fisher! If Bo Schembechler hadn't canned Bill Frieder for not waiting until the season had ended to accept the Arizona State job, which forced Fisher to step in right before the tournament, I am convinced that the Illini would have won it all. But the coaching change somehow galvanized the less-talented Wolverines and they caught fire, taking the title without looking back and stealing what was rightfully mine. I mean, the Illini's.
* You'd be amazed how tough this shit is to research. It's a shame that it all occured pre-internet, because the online archives for college sports from the 80s are somewhere between nonexistent and god-fucking-awful. In fact, I just had to edit most of the section on the Flyin' Illini on the Illini Basketball Wikipedia page because it was completely inaccurate. "Lost on a last-second shot by Rumeal Robinson," it said. It was Sean Fucking Higgins, and it was a putback of a Terry Mills miss. Jesus, do I have to do everything around here?
Other than possibly that undefeated UNLV team that threw the Final Four rematch against Duke in 1991, the 1989 Illini have to be the best team of all time not to have made it to the title game. With Gill, Nick Anderson, Kenny Battle, Lowell Hamilton, Stephen Bardo, and Marcus Liberty -- all of whom were between 6-foot-5 and 6-8 -- the team was a collection of almost entirely interchangeable super-athletes. Versatile, athletic, and exciting, they were certainly the squad that got Dick Vitale worked up into his most Dick Vitalesque frenzy. With the constant activity on defense consistently leading to breakaway dunks, they were almost ludicrously entertaining. It's a real shame that Fisher screwed them because they were such a memorable team, but without an NCAA title to validate them, they've been almost completely forgotten in the annals of college basketball history.
Of course, when I rejected the University of Illinois and chose to attend UC-Berkeley, I largely forgot them too, as my college sports fanaticism moved with me to California and the Golden Bears. If I hadn't had so many friends go to U of I, I likely would have remained an Illinois loyalist, but it was just so much more fun to create my own little rivalry between the schools. So Cal immediately became the lone object of my collegiate affection, and even though supporting your alma mater above all else is a given, I'm still a little sheepish about having shifted my allegiance. It remains the only time in my life that I have done so.
But oh was it worth it. While at Cal, I was lucky enough to witness the Jason Kidd era in its entirety.** The guy was just unbelievable with the basketball in his hands. The astounding array of assists was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Three-quarter-court bounce passes with crazy english on them... Oddly angled lobs on the fast break... No-look behind-the-backs threaded between two guys... His court vision was otherworldly, and he played the game on an entirely different level from anyone else out there. I was also lucky enough to watch him in the cathedral that was Harmon Gym. Going to a college basketball game is just so superior the NBA experience, and Harmon was one of the places to see a game. Tiny and cramped, and louder than shit.
* Incidentally, Kidd and I both dropped out of school following the 1994 basketball season. He left to make literally hundreds of millions of dollars playing in the NBA, while I, uh ...
Fuck.
During Kidd's first season (my sophomore year), he got the coach fired; led the nation in steals with an NCAA freshman-record 110; established single-season school records for steals and assists; led the team to just its second NCAA Tournament bid in 33 years; hit a crazy, contested, last-second pretzel shot to beat LSU in the first round; and knocked out two-time defending National Champion Duke to advance to the Sweet 16 (where the team lost to Kansas).The next season, Kidd was just as brilliant, leading the nation in assists while breaking his own school record, earning first-team All-American honors, and becoming the first sophomore ever to be named Pac-10 Player of the Year. Unfortunately, the team battled injuries all year long and bricked its way out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round, after which Kidd bolted.
As did I, though I would return 12 years later to complete my degree. I suppose that brings the score to Jason Kidd $165,853,968; me 1.
*****
But I digress (for only 936 words). The point being that I used to be a HUGE college basketball fan. While I have remained a loyal Cal follower -- sticking by the team even during the mostly-dreadful Ben Braun era -- somewhere along the way, I lost my ardor for the sport.
So what has caused this to happen? Check back later for the shocking reveal!
Posts
That Illini team would have been killed by the 1980 DePaul Blue Demons. Mark Aguire, Terry Cummings, Clyde Bradshaw and company are the most talented college team not to make the final game.
ReplyDeleteHey James Frey, the Three Pointer didn't exist in college hoops when NC State won the NCAA. Credibility, meet window.
ReplyDeleteI prefer "Jayson Blair." But you're right, it was just a 30-foot two. It's been fixed.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, Damon. The '80 Demons. A very talented team, no doubt. But wouldn't the outcome of that game depend in part on whose style won out? If it was played at Illinois' preferred pace, I don't think the Demons could've kept up. As good as Aguirre was he wasn't an elite athlete; to a lesser extent, the same is true for Cummings.
ReplyDeleteAnd while both of those guys might have been better than any individual on the Illini, Anderson, Gill, and Battle (I think people forget what an effective college player he was) were a more formidable threesome than Aguirre, Cummings and anyone else, and Illinois had very little dropoff from 1-through-6. This is borne out by the fact that Aguirre and Cummings were the only two '80 Demons to play in the NBA, while five of the Flyin' Illini made it to the Association. I think Illinois' depth would've carried the day, especially if either of DePaul's big two got in foul trouble.
And finally, the 1980 Blue Demons LOST IN THE FREAKIN' SECOND ROUND. By six points, to a nine-loss 8-seed. That didn't go on to win the title. Illinois fell in the semis on a last-second shot to the eventual national champs. DePaul might have been talented, but they sure didn't show they were a great *team* when it mattered.
One of my most memorable moments was watching Jason Kidd and company take down Duke that famous year. Do you remember where we where Dan, I still have the Sports Illustrated with Jason Kidd on the cover in mint condition... Thanks for the drive down memory lane
ReplyDeleteI love college hoops. Ray Meyer and his '79(I think) final four team got me hooked. I watched Blue Demon 30 point blowouts on Channel 9 from start to finish; never changing the channel. My most heartbreaking college hoop moment was watching Iowa blow a huge half-time lead to UNLV in the 1987 Elite 8. Now I just watched Pitt lose to Nova....FUCK!
ReplyDeleteYou're forgetting that 85 Georgetown team was pretty hot shit too. Nova shot nearly 80% and still barely squeaked by them. The Big East was a fucking leviathan that year with St. John's, Nova, Pitt, and Syracuse all fielding some of their best teams in their histories.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm not sure I'd call the Braun era mostly dreadful. Underwhelming maybe. Vanilla, yes. Those pre-Kidd years were surely dreadful. Just a few years earlier to the Kidd/Campinelli fiasco, Campinelli was seen as savior for merely taking the team to the NIT and promptly losing to Loyola Marymount. No college basketball program could have been more irrelevant in those years between Newell and the arrival of Kidd. No one. Northwestern-like futility.
ReplyDeleteBTW. Hw come know one is covering the CBI?: http://www.gazellegroup.com/events/cbi/index_main.htm
Bub, '85 Hoyas lost championship game; that was the caveat about the Illini, that they were the best that didn't make title game.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about Braun though. The last few years, however -- basically since the Shipp/Weathers team -- were pretty depressing. Even with Powe.
Sorry, I misread. I thought it was best team that didn't win the title.
ReplyDelete