Old Guys Talking Hoops

[Dal975]

I recall as a wide-eyed 9 year old witnessing some pretty aggressive confrontations between SJU fans and security as fans poured out from under the basket to try to storm the court at the final buzzer of SJU's 82-80 OT win at the garden over Pearl and the orange in January 1985.  Court ultimately remained pretty clear I believe.  Granted I was viewing things through little kid lens and I'm sure time has distorted my memory, but in all my trips to the garden, including the Knicks in the 90s I have never experienced such craziness as when Berry hit that funky foul line jumper to force OT.  Place was bananas.  

 

[Eric]

I remember a time when St. John's fans tried to storm the Court at MSG, and the security was locked down so tight, they stopped it from happening, and it was a bit ugly with the security guards (and some burly ushers) pushing and shoving the kids back off the Court. Some of the students were knocked to the ground.

Don't recall the game, maybe when we beat #1(?) Pitt that Saturday when Hardy almost stepped out of bounds.

Best atmosphere I've ever experienced at MSG (missed the Golden years) - but Pitt was #4

The garden was physically shaking that day against pitt.  Really was incredible.  

 

[lawmanfan]

If you folks don't like getting your posts moved, the easy solution is to make some effort to stay on topic. 

 

[Johnny Rapper]

https://twitter.com/team980/status/1499025000082427907?s=21

 

Wow, if this was to happen St Johns not hiring Pitino would just be another in a long line of St Johns screw ups….added to such infamous ones as….

Firing Lapchick when many believed that Lew Alcindor (Kareem) was about to commit

A StJohns assistant not showing up to meet Olajuwon at the airport as he then went elsewhere

Not hiring Calipari

Canceling Gary Peyton’s scholarship 

Not pursuing Rick Barry as Looie stated “he wasn’t good enough to play for the Johnnies.

There are many more, I just can’t remeber them all, but each impacted the hoops program greatly and put it where it is today. 

 

[bamafan]

Umas interesting program they were the elite of the A10 with Temple back during the Calipari era, but never really turned the corner since. Which leads me to the greatest player in the history of Umass basketball Dr. J , does any of the old timers on here know if Louie recruited him ? I read that Umass was the only school that offered him a scholarship? how did we miss out on the great Dr J?

Yes Looie heavily recruited Doc and he chose UMASS over us.

 

[GardenCity62]

As a guest on Michael Kay’s show a number of years ago Dr. J related how he spoke to Looie telling him he was going to UMass instead of SJU and how he broke down when talking to Looie. What he didn’t talk about was his reasons for se letting UMass,
They had hired an asst coach from one of the Hempstead/ Roosevelt basketball programs on LI who Julius was close to. Now obviously Dr J would have gone to SJU had they hired that coach but again SJU kept its lily pure status of not hiring anybody to get a recruiting advantage.

 

[RedmanMike]

Looie did recruit Julius Erving and thought he was coming to St. John's.  Erving had forged a close bond with UMass coach Jack Leaman and chose to play there. He like Looie so much (as did his mom) that he actually broke down and cried when he called him to say he chose UMass.  I have seen this reported many times - most recently in RISE, an autobiography of Dr. J.

In my mind that is one of the three great "what-ifs" in Johnnies history, along with:

1) What if Lew Alcindor choose the Johnnies over UCLA, and
2) What if Jarvis took the Wizards job after the 2000 season and we hired Jay Wright.  (It was one year before the Villanova job was open, and Hofstra was coming of its first NCAA bid.)

You could also add "what if we hired Bob McKillop instead of Norm in 2004" to the list as well...

 

[19854ever]

Thanks for the info on Dr J, also another thread we could do are the top 10 what if’s in  SJU hIstory.

 

[Johnny Rapper]

Looie did recruit Julius Erving and thought he was coming to St. John's.  Erving had forged a close bond with UMass coach Jack Leaman and chose to play there. He like Looie so much (as did his mom) that he actually broke down and cried when he called him to say he chose UMass.  I have seen this reported many times - most recently in RISE, an autobiography of Dr. J.

In my mind that is one of the three great "what-ifs" in Johnnies history, along with:

1) What if Lew Alcindor choose the Johnnies over UCLA, and
2) What if Jarvis took the Wizards job after the 2000 season and we hired Jay Wright.  (It was one year before the Villanova job was open, and Hofstra was coming of its first NCAA bid.)

You could also add "what if we hired Bob McKillop instead of Norm in 2004" to the list as well...

Dr J was and has always been a class guy. Once as a student, while playing in the little gym, I had the opportunity to play in a pick up game with the likes of Dr J, Mike Riordan, John Shumate and others. I was too in awe of the players then to make any sort of contribution. On one play, I went up for a rebound, and the next thing I know I was on the floor looking up with Dr J looking down at me. It appears that I went for a rebound at the same time that 6’10” John Shumate did…. Yikes. While the other players shrugged their shoulders and walked away, Erving kept asking me if I was OK and could he get me anything? I said yeah….. “your autograph”. Even with a slight concussion I still remember that day.

in terms of what ifs….. there were many others….. like

….What if Looie offered Rick Barry

…..what if Looie didn’t take back Garry Peyton’s Scholarship offer 

…..what if the St Johns official who was supposed to meet Hakeem Olajuwon at the airport actually showed up

……what if St Johns hired John Calipari

and the list goes on. 

 

[beast of the east]

redmen4life wrote:

FWIW his mom is "liking" a lot of pro-Mike Anderson comments on twitter....

Always a good thing to have a Mom on your side. 

Inevitably when you mention the name Bobby Knight, you get into this would you want your son to play for him debate.

With CMA there's no debate. I'd trust him with my kid hands down.

 

[otis]

Inevitably when you mention the name Bobby Knight, you get into this would you want your son to play for him debate.
With CMA there's no debate. I'd trust him with my kid hands down.

____

Not sure that it is fair to compare coaching style of the Indiana vintage Bobby Knight which began 50 years ago with the accepted conduct of coaches today.

At any rate no one can say that Coach Knight did not recruit quality players as evidenced by the fact that during his 29 years at the Indiana his teams won 662 games, while losing 239, a 73.5% winning percentage.   In 22of his 29 seasons at Indiana his team had 20 or more wins,

Coach Knight's Indiana teams appeared in 24 NCAA tournament in his 29 seasons winning 42 of 63 games (66.7%),

Coach Knight's Indiana team won NCAA National Championships in 1976, 1981, and again in 1987 while losing in the semi-finals in 1973 and 1992.

So yeah, the world has changed since the days Coach Knight coached at Indiana but understand that Coach Knight was not the only coach in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s that utilized coaching methods which would not be accepted today.  

 

[beast of the east]

Inevitably when you mention the name Bobby Knight, you get into this would you want your son to play for him debate.
With CMA there's no debate. I'd trust him with my kid hands down.

____

Not sure that it is fair to compare coaching style of the Indiana vintage Bobby Knight which began 50 years ago with the accepted conduct of coaches today.

At any rate no one can say that Coach Knight did not recruit quality players as evidenced by the fact that during his 29 years at the Indiana his teams won 662 games, while losing 239, a 73.5% winning percentage.   In 22of his 29 seasons at Indiana his team had 20 or more wins,

Coach Knight's Indiana teams appeared in 24 NCAA tournament in his 29 seasons winning 42 of 63 games (66.7%),

Coach Knight's Indiana team won NCAA National Championships in 1976, 1981, and again in 1987 while losing in the semi-finals in 1973 and 1992.

So yeah, the world has changed since the days Coach Knight coached at Indiana but understand that Coach Knight was not the only coach in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s that utilized coaching methods which would not be accepted today.  

You see what I mean?

 

[mkras99]

Can we stay on topic, please?

 

[lawmanfan]

Can we stay on topic, please?
 

Seriously.  You guys have got to be kidding me at this point.  You have to know that your off-topic posts are going to get pulled and dropped here, all you're doing is making extra work for the moderators.  Please stop.

 

[beast of the east]

 

 

[BrookJersey Redmen]

a reverse what if...................

What If Chris Mullin had followed his mother's wishes and gone to Duke instead of St. John's?

What if Joe Lapchick had not decided to come back to St. John's, two stints and overall winning .720%

I am sure there are others.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

 

 

[espken]

a reverse what if...................

What If Chris Mullin had followed his mother's wishes and gone to Duke instead of St. John's?
 

1952 would be our lone Final Four appearance.