coins
Sophomore
Posts: 195
Reg: 01-16-07
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01-23-17 01:48 PM - Post#219139
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/in-...
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32803
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-23-17 01:57 PM - Post#219140
In response to coins
I like the old grouchy guy who sarcastically comments that now we need a story on Gifford slipping a homeless guy $20 outside Toots Shor.
No one called them homeless back then.
I actually remember that season pretty well, as a student in NY with a GO card, we could go to any college BB game at the Garden for $2. I saw a lot of basketball, mostly St. John's (the Johnny Warren-Billy Paultz-Joe DuPre teams)and I have loved college basketball ever since, although getting to Penn and seeing the Big 5 took it up another notch.
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coins
Sophomore
Posts: 195
Reg: 01-16-07
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Re: For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-23-17 02:03 PM - Post#219141
In response to palestra38
My memory is bittersweet. Watching Fordham and Penn that year was great.
Bitter--With our record, we drew a terrific Duquesne team not far from Pittsburgh, then South Carolina in ACC county. Nova with a lot of losses got an average Hawk club followed by Fordham and had a big height advantage. And so it goes.
(Not to mention the game NOVA won at the fieldhouse when Ernie D missed a 1 and 1. And he shot 90%. It got them in).
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UPIA1968
PhD Student
Posts: 1120
Loc: Cornwall, PA
Reg: 11-20-06
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Re: For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-23-17 10:03 PM - Post#219183
In response to coins
In '69 before the season Digger was asked who his freshmen team would compare to the excellent Big Five champs of the year before (Wohl, Bisky, Wolf). They has lost just a few games. He simply said - "We are going to win all our games." They did (Calhoun, Morse, Cotler, Billingsley).
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mbaprof
Senior
Posts: 345
Age: 66
Reg: 12-24-11
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Re: For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-24-17 08:35 AM - Post#219188
In response to UPIA1968
Great article by the best sports writer around (John Feinstein)
Thought you might be interested in an excerpt from a recent email exchange I had with him re our 1978 loss to Duke in Sweet Sixteen
"You guys made the Final Four a year later with a walk-on concert-level pianist playing center as I recall. You should revel in that...(Not to mention playing in the best building in college basketball)..."
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32803
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-24-17 10:07 AM - Post#219190
In response to mbaprof
Stan Greene and I (and many other members of the Class of '78) still moan about that Duke loss--we were the better team and simply played 2 bad minutes that cost us the game. That team had come into its own in the latter part of the year and not only had everyone who was on the '79 Final Four team, but Keven McDonald, Stan Greene and Tom Crowley, 1 great player and 2 very very good players. Plus the field was notably weaker that year--the final game was a Duke team we should have beaten and the Jack Givens Kentucky team....neither was close to Magic, Bird, Aguirre (and us). We had an 8 point lead with 8 minutes to go before a shot clock. Had the situation been reversed, they would have gone 4 corners on us. But we tried to put them away, drove on Gminski and the rest was history.
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10Q
Professor
Posts: 23360
Loc: Suburban Philly
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 12:16 PM - Post#219205
In response to palestra38
I saw that Kentucky team play. They were great. Didn't they also have Kyle Macy, Rick Robey and Mike Phillips?
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penn nation
Professor
Posts: 21193
Reg: 12-02-04
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01-24-17 12:26 PM - Post#219207
In response to 10Q
Saw Kyle Macy recently do color commentary on a college game (ESPN?) He is now bald, which is pretty funny.
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32803
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 03:00 PM - Post#219217
In response to 10Q
Kyle Macy was a slow short guy who could shoot---Willis and Booney would have chewed him up. Robey couldn't run either. Penn would have run that team off the court. It was a weaker team than any of the 3 we had to deal with the next year.
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10Q
Professor
Posts: 23360
Loc: Suburban Philly
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 03:37 PM - Post#219220
In response to palestra38
They won the 1978 national championship and only lost 2 games all year. That was a great team.
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32803
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 03:43 PM - Post#219221
In response to 10Q
Penn also had a great team. And that KY team was nothing like Michigan State, Indiana State or DePaul the following year. All 3 were far better. Remember, we should have beaten Duke and Duke gave them everything they could handle. We had far greater speed than Kentucky and had a very good chance to win. Michigan State in '79? No chance. Here's the box---if Givens could be slowed, KY would lose. http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1978...
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10Q
Professor
Posts: 23360
Loc: Suburban Philly
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 04:14 PM - Post#219228
In response to palestra38
Spenarkel, Banks, Giminski, Dennard. Lot of great old names.
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32803
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 04:16 PM - Post#219229
In response to 10Q
Sure---but we were better--had much better team speed and in 1978, we were 4-5 players deeper. If you did not see those Penn teams, you would not believe our quickness--we had team speed that matched anyone in the nation.
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Buckeye Quake
PhD Student
Posts: 1601
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 05:28 PM - Post#219239
In response to palestra38
I spent three quarters of that game lamenting that Gene Banks had opted for Duke rather than us. And if he had graduated a year later he would have along with Vincent Ross. The last 10 minutes was heartbreaking. You'd think that after 39 years I'd be over that phantom Gminski call but I'm not. That Penn team was the best I've ever seen and honestly would have challenged for the national championship.
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Buckeye Quake
PhD Student
Posts: 1601
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 05:29 PM - Post#219240
In response to Buckeye Quake
Boonie Salters, Kenny Hall, Bobby Willis. We'll never see that kind of quickness and talent at Penn again.
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TheLine
Professor
Posts: 5597
Age: 60
Reg: 07-07-09
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01-24-17 05:41 PM - Post#219241
In response to Buckeye Quake
Tony Price.
Wasn't Banks the one who was recruited by Penn but wound up going to Duke instead for some stupid league rule reason?
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Buckeye Quake
PhD Student
Posts: 1601
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 05:47 PM - Post#219242
In response to TheLine
Yeah of course Price and Timmy Smith another West Philly Sppedboy. I was just talking about our backcourt.
Yes Gene told Chuck Daly that he would have come to Penn if they had gotten ride of the freshman rule a year sooner. That was pretty common knowledge at the time.
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32803
Reg: 11-21-04
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For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-24-17 06:15 PM - Post#219244
In response to Buckeye Quake
Believe me---all of us in the Class of '78 knew that that was our big chance to win it all. And yes, it kills me every time I think about it that we had it in our hands and let it get away. It was a miracle to get to the Final Four the next year---it would have been no miracle to beat Duke, get to the Final Four and win the title that year. No Magic, Bird or Aguirre---yes, Givens was a good player but not in their class and we were light years faster than that Kentucky team.
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SteveChop
PhD Student
Posts: 1154
Reg: 07-28-07
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Re: For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-24-17 08:28 PM - Post#219249
In response to palestra38
Another aspect of that Duke game, which I attended too, at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence was that, had Penn won, we would have faced Villanova in the Eastern final (they had already won the first game that evening). Those of us from the Class of 1971 wanted revenge for the defeat that Villanova had over Penn in the 1971 Eastern finals. I will conveniently forget the score of the 1971 game - it's one that I won't ever forget.
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Penn7277
PhD Student
Posts: 1365
Loc: Lancaster, PA
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-24-17 11:38 PM - Post#219260
In response to SteveChop
I still wake up in a cold sweat with that score on the scoreboard of my dreams. My cousins who were watching with me never let me forget it.
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Ted
Junior
Posts: 222
Reg: 12-23-12
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Re: For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-25-17 12:17 AM - Post#219261
In response to SteveChop
To get to that Duke game, the Quakers beat a very good St. Bonaventure team, in the 2nd game of an opening round (Sunday afternoon) doubleheader at the Palestra. Keven McDonald "went off" for 37 points. The first game featured Michael Brooks' LaSalle team vs Villanova. Brooks was great also, but the Explorers ended up losing a tight one to the Cats. It was a vintage Palestra experience.
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coins
Sophomore
Posts: 195
Reg: 01-16-07
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01-25-17 12:59 PM - Post#219294
In response to Buckeye Quake
I spent the game lamenting the prior round when Duke beat Rhode Island by one. Rhode Island had it iced when Sly (NY Knick Sly) Williams went up for an open layup very late in the game. He missed. The rest his history. The Rams would not have beaten us.
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weinhauers_ghost
Postdoc
Posts: 2137
Age: 64
Loc: New York City
Reg: 12-14-09
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01-25-17 03:04 PM - Post#219315
In response to palestra38
I was a freshman JV player in '78-'79, and I remember seeing Bobby Willis put an open court move on Temple's Walt Montford that left the poor guy looking for the rest of his uniform.
We had quickness, all right.
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32803
Reg: 11-21-04
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01-25-17 03:43 PM - Post#219322
In response to weinhauers_ghost
I was an XPN broadcaster and my last play by play game was St. Bonaventure. We utterly destroyed a very good team in the second half by running rings around them.
And we had Duke down, too.....
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dperry
Postdoc
Posts: 2214
Loc: Houston, TX
Reg: 11-24-04
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Re: For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-25-17 06:38 PM - Post#219341
In response to Ted
To get to that Duke game, the Quakers beat a very good St. Bonaventure team, in the 2nd game of an opening round (Sunday afternoon) doubleheader at the Palestra. Keven McDonald "went off" for 37 points. The first game featured Michael Brooks' LaSalle team vs Villanova. Brooks was great also, but the Explorers ended up losing a tight one to the Cats. It was a vintage Palestra experience.
Yeah, tells you how different things were back then; it was a Big 5 doubleheader in the first round of the freakin' NCAA's.
David Perry
Penn '92
"Hail, Alma Mater/Thy sons cheer thee now
To thee, Pennsylvania/All rivals must bow!!!" |
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Lefteroo
Senior
Posts: 398
Reg: 02-12-05
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Re: For Us Older Foks-a memory
01-26-17 04:35 PM - Post#219546
In response to Ted
I made the trip up for that tourney doubleheader where McDonald scored 37 against the Bonnies. A friend of mine, who grew up in Buffalo rooting for the Bonnies, made the trip with me and said McDonald's performance was the best he had seen all year.
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