The 91 Team Article

Thanks Paultz. That brought back some sweet memories.

I attended the Ohio State and Puke games at the Elite 8 that year. I'll never forget the Detroit paper the morning after we beat down the Buckeyes: "Big Ten, big bodies, who cares - try the Big East". I was there with an OSU alum and must have repeated that to him a thousand times over the weekend.
 
I remember Tom Penders, Texas head coach at the time, mouthing off before our 2nd round NCAA  game with them, that they were going to run St. John's off the court.  Texas had been a final 8 NCAA team the season beofre.  Well, the game was the exact opposite as SJU ran Texas off the court.  The game was never in doubt as we shot 60% from the field.  Louie, not a fan of Penders from previous runs-ins when he coached Fordham (and never beat us), let the team do the talking for him with their performance on the court.   
 
Malik was a great Player!  One of our Elite for sure .  The rest of them weren't bad either . Werdann,  Scott , Buchanan , Billy Singleton , Cain , Chucky , etc .   It was often said , what kind of Player would Billy have been with 2 good knees?   
 
TheSummit" post=422912 said:
I remember Tom Penders, Texas head coach at the time, mouthing off before our 2nd round NCAA  game with them, that they were going to run St. John's off the court.  Texas had been a final 8 NCAA team the season beofre.  Well, the game was the exact opposite as SJU ran Texas off the court.  The game was never in doubt as we shot 60% from the field.  Louie, not a fan of Penders from previous runs-ins when he coached Fordham (and never beat us), let the team do the talking for him with their performance on the court.   
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Hate is a strong word but let's just say I loathe Tom "big mouth and big baby" Penders going back to his Fordham days.  We he had Dud Tongal (?) and Ed Bona they were supposed to be better than us.  They weren't.  When his star player at Texas, Dexter Cambridge was ruled ineligible by the NCAA, he told the story that someone connected to St. John's approached Cambridge when he was in high school and offered him a bag full of money to commit to St. John's.  When Cambridge was asked about it he denied it ever happened and never relayed such a story to Penders.
 
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SJU85" post=422945 said:
TheSummit" post=422912 said:
I remember Tom Penders, Texas head coach at the time, mouthing off before our 2nd round NCAA  game with them, that they were going to run St. John's off the court.  Texas had been a final 8 NCAA team the season beofre.  Well, the game was the exact opposite as SJU ran Texas off the court.  The game was never in doubt as we shot 60% from the field.  Louie, not a fan of Penders from previous runs-ins when he coached Fordham (and never beat us), let the team do the talking for him with their performance on the court.   
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When his star player at Texas, Dexter Cambridge was ruled ineligible by the NCAA, he told the story that someone connected to St. John's approached Cambridge when he was in high school and offered him a bag full of money to commit to St. John's.  When Cambridge was asked about it he denied it ever happened and never relayed such a story to Penders.
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I know Lou was super pissed about that incident. He told them to bring their people and he'd meet them at the NCAA offices.
 
I remember Werdann playing really well during that run to the Elite 8.  He was a gifted player who probably should have been more aggressive and dominant in his time at St. John's.  Still was a good player, thought he had talent to be All-Big East type player.  Scott and Werdann on same team.  Two pretty good big men 6-10 and 6-11.  It seemed like coach always had an upperclassman big and an underclassman big on same team ready to take over when the upperclassman graduated.  That's what we need now.
 
That Ohio State win is still one of the greatest in program history. 

1. SJU was the decided underdog. OSU was the No. 1 seed in that region led by the great Jim Jackson.

2. Louie shocked the world when he allowed the team to ATTACK the press from start to finish. We were running and gunning. Werdann was throwing baseball passes to Maliky Sealy and Chucky Sproling for uncontested dunks. Jason Buchanan and David Cain were just flooring it each time. 

3. Lightning struck and EVERYONE on that team was playing the best ball of their lives for those 3 tourney games. Malik was Malik. Buchanan was playing like one of the best PG in the tourney. Sproling was scoring from all over. Werdann was great in the post. Singleton was the junkyard dog and rebounder extraordinaire.

Would love to see this game uploaded to YouTube. 

 
 
MainMan" post=422984 said:
That Ohio State win is still one of the greatest in program history. 

1. SJU was the decided underdog. OSU was the No. 1 seed in that region led by the great Jim Jackson.

2. Louie shocked the world when he allowed the team to ATTACK the press from start to finish. We were running and gunning. Werdann was throwing baseball passes to Maliky Sealy and Chucky Sproling for uncontested dunks. Jason Buchanan and David Cain were just flooring it each time. 

3. Lightning struck and EVERYONE on that team was playing the best ball of their lives for those 3 tourney games. Malik was Malik. Buchanan was playing like one of the best PG in the tourney. Sproling was scoring from all over. Werdann was great in the post. Singleton was the junkyard dog and rebounder extraordinaire.

Would love to see this game uploaded to YouTube. 


My friend had the poor judgment to get married (and I was his best man) that night so I watched it on my VCR in the middle of the night.  As if his poor judgment wasn't bad enough on that date it is the gift that keeps on giving as his wife plans a weekend getaway every year to celebrate their anniversary which puts a crimp on his ability to follow March Madness. One year he was flying home and was in the air for the Duke-Kentucky overtime classic.


 
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MainMan" post=422984 said:
That Ohio State win is still one of the greatest in program history. 

1. SJU was the decided underdog. OSU was the No. 1 seed in that region led by the great Jim Jackson.

2. Louie shocked the world when he allowed the team to ATTACK the press from start to finish. We were running and gunning. Werdann was throwing baseball passes to Maliky Sealy and Chucky Sproling for uncontested dunks. Jason Buchanan and David Cain were just flooring it each time. 

3. Lightning struck and EVERYONE on that team was playing the best ball of their lives for those 3 tourney games. Malik was Malik. Buchanan was playing like one of the best PG in the tourney. Sproling was scoring from all over. Werdann was great in the post. Singleton was the junkyard dog and rebounder extraordinaire.

Would love to see this game uploaded to YouTube. 


 
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They tried to run again at the beginning of the next game and I remember Lou yelling at them to slow down./media/kunena/emoticons/grin.png

One game like that was apparently enough for him.
 
The '91 team was terrific, but my favorite Johnnies team (except for the Final Four team, of course) was the team the year before in 1989-90.  That team had Sealy, Werdann and Buchanan as sophs and also Boo Harvey at PG and Jayson Williams at power forward.  That team was really good, and if Williams hadn't gotten hurt at the end of the season that team was Final Four caliber.  As it was, even without Williams we played a great game against Duke in the NCAAs. 
 
RedmanMike" post=423032 said:
The '91 team was terrific, but my favorite Johnnies team (except for the Final Four team, of course) was the team the year before in 1989-90.  That team had Sealy, Werdann and Buchanan as sophs and also Boo Harvey at PG and Jayson Williams at power forward.  That team was really good, and if Williams hadn't gotten hurt at the end of the season that team was Final Four caliber.  As it was, even without Williams we played a great game against Duke in the NCAAs. 
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Two first-round picks and a 2nd round pick on that frontline. 

And Boo was the best player on that team! 
 
I've been a fan since 1983, and Boo Harvey is my favorite all-time Johnnies PG.  Unbelievable handle and totally clutch in the big moments - a true NYC point guard.

We've had some great true PGs, and we could all objectively agree that Mark Jackson and Erik Barkley were better.  But I always loved Boo.
 
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