That’s Constantine ! Memories of him and Miami playing usually in the bottom tier of the BE Tourney at MSG . I would be surprised , without looking it up if Miami won a BE Tourney game with Connie . Later on , before they seceded from the BE they had some good teams with Hamilton as Coach .
Around the Big East
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One year at AH Popa beat us, I think it was in the 50s point wise and maybe their only BE win that season. Ah the memories!
43-42 in Miami. Only BE win their first year in conference.One year at AH Popa beat us, I think it was in the 50s point wise and maybe their only BE win that season. Ah the memories!
L J S A
Well-known member
Pretty sure it was 14-12 at the half. We set basketball back 70 years with that game.
I wouldn't have remembered that game if you didn't mention it but thanks anyway. It's probably age but some bad memories are fading away.
God how I remember that fiasco!
Not a fan of Dan Hurley but I respect his coaching ability. He is damn good at that. I also like what he said, calling the Big East the best conference in the country.
Hurley also integrates younger kids well like Hawkins last year w about 16 minutes/game who is now a star & their freshman big who is going to be a key guy next year w Sonogo gone
ronm
Well-known member
I think Clingan will declare for the draft after next year. He has the height and seems to have the skill set to have an NBA career.
Mullins Revenge
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Constantine popa???? Whats next? Artūras Karnišovas posts?
Alumni Hall
Well-known member
Quick recruiting story of Henefeld.
His first stop into the US was St. John’s. Louie had his trusted sidekick from the old days in his office, Red Sarachek, a prominent Jewish coach from Brooklyn. With Red present, Louie and Nadev started a conversation on expectations playing for SJU. After about 10 minutes, Nadev was asked if he ever played ball professional in Israel. He did not answer the question and moved on. 10 minutes later, Louie asked him if he ever received money to play in Israel. Again Nadov changed the conversation . Now Red smells a rat
. Then Red asked him point blank if he signed a professional contract in Israel. With that, Henefelds handler ended the recruiting visit. They hopped in a car and headed right to UCONN and Jim Calhoun. He signed with UCONN later that afternoon. Louie and Red “knew” he had already taken cash in Israel and did not want to go through another NCAA witch-hunt after the Marco Baldi ordeal in 1986, the Walter Berry lawsuit in 1983-84. And we would be back in the NCAA bullseye if he signed with SJU.Even in his bio, it mentions that he played professionally in 87-88 and 88-89 in Israel prior to playing at UCONN. Back then you could not even accept expense money from teams according to NCAA but the NCAA gave it the old
to UConn and never investigated.
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Awesome insider story !! The Alumni Hall walls keep talking great inside info !Quick recruiting story of Henefeld.
His first stop into the US was St. John’s. Louie had his trusted sidekick from the old days in his office, Red Sarachek, a prominent Jewish coach from Brooklyn. With Red present, Louie and Nadev started a conversation on expectations playing for SJU. After about 10 minutes, Nadev was asked if he ever played ball professional in Israel. He did not answer the question and moved on. 10 minutes later, Louie asked him if he ever received money to play in Israel. Again Nadov changed the conversation . Now Red smells a rat
I knkew SJU was a finalist for Henefeld was not aware of the backstory.Quick recruiting story of Henefeld.
His first stop into the US was St. John’s. Louie had his trusted sidekick from the old days in his office, Red Sarachek, a prominent Jewish coach from Brooklyn. With Red present, Louie and Nadev started a conversation on expectations playing for SJU. After about 10 minutes, Nadev was asked if he ever played ball professional in Israel. He did not answer the question and moved on. 10 minutes later, Louie asked him if he ever received money to play in Israel. Again Nadov changed the conversation . Now Red smells a rat
If that was the SEC as opposed to the collegiality of the BE Looie's first call would have been an anonymous one to the NCAA HQ in Indianapolis tipping them off to a recruiting violation in Storrs.
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BTW-WRT to Danny Hurley why isn't he coaching at SHU? Think about that for a second.
If SJU had a former player who was from the Tri-State area, was successful at say Manhattan College, then rose to an A-10 school and rebuilt them to back to back NCAA's.
You don't think he would be coaching at SJU at some point? I am pretty darn sure he would. Considering the list of failures at SJU over the last 3 decades I think it is pretty safe bet he would be. How about a similar scenario at say Georgetown? You don't think that guy would be coaching at Georgetown right now?
Can you imagine SJU going thru coaches like Mullin and Anderson and having 1 NCAA bid in 8 years and 1 BE winning season in 8 years and watching a fellow BE school become big time again with a former SJU player coaching them to the Final Four? Seriously think about that. We would be going nuts here.
That should tell you how good a job SHU is relative to other BE schools. It is not a good job. I mean Willard had been at SHU for 5 years with ZERO BE winning seasons and no NCAA bids. Wouldn't that have been a perfect chance to hire Hurley away from URI ( that would have been 2015 when SJU was looking for a coach and hired Mullin over Hurley). I will give you a hint even if Willard had left or had been fired Hurley had ZERO interest in that job let alone after he took the UCONN job which is CLEARLY Better than SHU. And again Hurley would've crawled to SJU in 2015.
Just a thought.
If SJU had a former player who was from the Tri-State area, was successful at say Manhattan College, then rose to an A-10 school and rebuilt them to back to back NCAA's.
You don't think he would be coaching at SJU at some point? I am pretty darn sure he would. Considering the list of failures at SJU over the last 3 decades I think it is pretty safe bet he would be. How about a similar scenario at say Georgetown? You don't think that guy would be coaching at Georgetown right now?
Can you imagine SJU going thru coaches like Mullin and Anderson and having 1 NCAA bid in 8 years and 1 BE winning season in 8 years and watching a fellow BE school become big time again with a former SJU player coaching them to the Final Four? Seriously think about that. We would be going nuts here.
That should tell you how good a job SHU is relative to other BE schools. It is not a good job. I mean Willard had been at SHU for 5 years with ZERO BE winning seasons and no NCAA bids. Wouldn't that have been a perfect chance to hire Hurley away from URI ( that would have been 2015 when SJU was looking for a coach and hired Mullin over Hurley). I will give you a hint even if Willard had left or had been fired Hurley had ZERO interest in that job let alone after he took the UCONN job which is CLEARLY Better than SHU. And again Hurley would've crawled to SJU in 2015.
Just a thought.
Alumni Hall
Well-known member
Another GREAT player we missed out on was Drazen Petrovic.
In 1982, Louie took a team of Big East All Stars to Yugoslavia and Spain to play each countries National teams. The first game was played on a outdoor court right on a resort beach on the Adriatic. The Big East team got SMOKED by the Yugos With Drazen lighting up for like 24 pts. The next night, same results. Team moves to Belgrade and same results. Louie now started calling him the Yugoslavian Pistol Pete Maravich. Lou had early talks with the Yugoslav coaches about the possibility of him coming to the US and playing collegiately. They gave him the old, thanks, but no thanks. No way was their brightest star ever leaving the country. Later that same summer, the NIT All stars coached by Coach Powers met up with the Yugos again in Bologna Italy. It was NIT team, Yugoslavia, Italy’s Bologna pro team and a team from France. Again, Petrovic smoked everyone in the tournament.
In 1986, Louie again took his SJU team on a tour of Italy and Spain, playing in several tournaments. This time, Petrovic was now playing for the famous and powerful Cibona team of Yugoslavia. The look,on Louis face when he faced off against them again was priceless. LSU’s Dale Brown also tried to get the Yugos to let him play in US, but were turn down too.
In 1982, Louie took a team of Big East All Stars to Yugoslavia and Spain to play each countries National teams. The first game was played on a outdoor court right on a resort beach on the Adriatic. The Big East team got SMOKED by the Yugos With Drazen lighting up for like 24 pts. The next night, same results. Team moves to Belgrade and same results. Louie now started calling him the Yugoslavian Pistol Pete Maravich. Lou had early talks with the Yugoslav coaches about the possibility of him coming to the US and playing collegiately. They gave him the old, thanks, but no thanks. No way was their brightest star ever leaving the country. Later that same summer, the NIT All stars coached by Coach Powers met up with the Yugos again in Bologna Italy. It was NIT team, Yugoslavia, Italy’s Bologna pro team and a team from France. Again, Petrovic smoked everyone in the tournament.
In 1986, Louie again took his SJU team on a tour of Italy and Spain, playing in several tournaments. This time, Petrovic was now playing for the famous and powerful Cibona team of Yugoslavia. The look,on Louis face when he faced off against them again was priceless. LSU’s Dale Brown also tried to get the Yugos to let him play in US, but were turn down too.
Akeem Henefeld and Drazen we can have an all foreign missed out on team
But we did get Abe Keita
Ah, thanks for the back story. If I remember correctly it was pretty “well known” that Henefeld had played professionally in Israel and in fact was paid. Kind of an open secret. Like you said they just ignored looking into it. I also thought his “age” was sketchy as well to mask the deception. Wasn’t there mandatory military service in Israel? Little late now but Good to learn Yukon was cheating even back then.Quick recruiting story of Henefeld.
His first stop into the US was St. John’s. Louie had his trusted sidekick from the old days in his office, Red Sarachek, a prominent Jewish coach from Brooklyn. With Red present, Louie and Nadev started a conversation on expectations playing for SJU. After about 10 minutes, Nadev was asked if he ever played ball professional in Israel. He did not answer the question and moved on. 10 minutes later, Louie asked him if he ever received money to play in Israel. Again Nadov changed the conversation . Now Red smells a rat
Even in his bio, it mentions that he played professionally in 87-88 and 88-89 in Israel prior to playing at UCONN. Back then you could not even accept expense money from teams according to NCAA but the NCAA gave it the old
Don’t get everyone started on the Olajuwon JFK Airport follies again!
