SBNation.com User Blog: ZouDave

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: The Garnet Army And Owning The YMCA

ZouDave — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:41:54 -0000

Monday: If South Carolina Can Make It There...

South Carolina has been in four different conferences in their history. While I therefore don’t want to hear anything from them or their fans about being newcomers to the SEC (they’ve been there for just 20 years, barely longer than the Big XII existed with Missouri in it), it should be noted that the Gamecocks have won conference titles in three of their four memberships. Let’s take a look at the other Columbia, which will reunite us with a familiar, "friendly?" face.

A Short History

The Gamecocks played only one season in the decade of the 1900s, converting from a club sport and playing just three games, all at home. Those games, as well as two others in the next two seasons, were played outdoors. The first game came in October of 1908 against the Hurricanes of Furman. After the two squads fought to a 9-9 halftime tie, Furman got a late basket to secure a 21-19 victory over South Carolina. Junior captain JC Vassey of South Carolina scored 15 of the team’s 19 points, including 9 free throws. The Gamecocks went on to lose both of their other games in their inaugural season to the Columbia YMCA and Wofford. They played only one game in their second season, losing to Davidson 29-8. They finally would tally the program’s first win in season 3, dominating the Columbia YMCA team 31-18, and finished the season 1-1 after losing their other game to Newberry.

On January 17, 1912, USC officially opened the Carolina Gymnasium for varsity games, and USC crushed the visiting Olympia YMCA in their home-opener 33-5. Their first ever road victory, and first victory over another college team, came a week later as they defeated Wofford. They enjoyed their first winning season in 1913-14 when they posted a 5-4-1 mark, going a perfect 5-0 at home and recording the only tie in school history. USC had a number of coaches in its first few years of collegiate ball, but Dixon Foster made his mark on the court going 26-31 in four seasons between 1917-1920. Foster was also the football head coach of the Gamecocks (shocking, right?)

Things picked up in Columbia during the 1920s, however. A pair of other footsketball coaches, Sol Metzger and Branch Bocock, would lead the team to a combined 40-27 over 5 seasons of basketball (while also going 39-25 on the gridiron). In 1922 they got their first taste of conference-affiliated participation by playing in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) Tournament in Atlanta. The following season, South Carolina joined the Southern. After Bocock took over the team in 1924, the Gamecocks were led to three straight winning seasons including the successful 1926-27 season that saw them achieve a record of 14-4 including a 9-1 conference record and South Carolina’s first ever Conference Championship.

The decade ended under A.W. "Rock" Norman who would coach at USC from 1928-1935, and though his career record at USC was just 57-57 he backloaded that career with the most successful back-to-back seasons still in school history in ’32-’33 and ’33-’34. Led by two of the nation’s top scorers in All-Americans Freddie Tompkins and Dana Henderson, the Gamecocks would win the first ever Conference Tournament title in 1933 besting Duke 33-21 in the final. They finished the season 17-2, winning the SoCon Conference again, and on a 15-game winning streak. The winning continued the following season as USC won its first 17 games to put the winning tally at 32 straight (including a win over Presbyterian by a score of 84-9).

And it wasn’t another team that put a stop to USC’s run, it was the mumps. An outbreak of mumps took down Henderson as well as Freddie Tompkins and his brother, Bennie, as NC State took advantage and crushed an outmanned Gamecocks team in the first round of the SoCon Tournament. With everyone healthy, though, USC defeated Pittsburgh three weeks later, a team considered to be the best in the country. USC finished the season 18-1, undefeated in the SoCon and winning the Conference Title once again. Norman’s final season in Columbia finished 15-9 (5-7). Ted Petoskey began a five-year career with USC, posting winning seasons in his first two years before succumbing to losing campaigns the next three seasons. Finishing just 5-13 to end the 1940 season, the Gamecocks looked for stability within the system after World War II took many youngsters away to fight.

Along came Frank Johnson, who broke the three-year losing skid immediately with a 15-9 record and led South Carolina for 14+ seasons, the second longest ever in school history. In terms of winning seasons, the 1940s was the best yet and stands tied with the 1980s for the 2nd most successful decade ever for the school as they managed to notch seven winning seasons. High scoring became the norm, starting early with a forward named Preston Westmoreland who would lead USC in scoring in each of his three seasons (1940, 1941 and 1942). South Carolina would also see their first ever 1,000-point scorer in the 1940s. Henry Martin, a 5’9" guard from Columbia, SC, led the Gamecocks in scoring in 1943 before the war took him away from playing. Upon his return in 1947, Martin again was among the team scoring leaders for his final three years and finished his career with over 1,000 points.

Due to the war, coaching changes were customary. After leading USC to a 2-0 mark to start the 1942 seasons, Johnson was called to war and football coach Rex Enright coached the remainder of the season. Basketball success continued at USC, however, at Lt. Henry Findley (1944) and Johnny McMillan (1945) led the Gamecocks to 13-2 and 19-3 seasons, respectively, before Johnson returned midway through the 1945-46 season. The 1945 team once again finished undefeated in the SoCon and took home the school’s fourth and final SoCon Conference Championship. USC had two more winning seasons to finish out the decade, but it was one player who surfaced in the 1940s who would make an impact, Jim Slaughter. Slaughter is considered the first true "Big Man" for USC, and he averaged 16.5 rebounds per game his Senior season in 1951 (the first year rebounds were officially kept as a stat). He was selected an All-American by the Helms Athletic Foundation in 1951 and he scored 1,521 points in his career (still fifth all-time in school history) averaging 17.3, 20.0 and 22.8 ppg over his final three seasons.

High scoring was the benchmark of USC basketball in the 1950s, more-so than winning was, ultimately. The decade that started with Jim Slaughter posting consecutive 20+ ppg averages would also see Dwane Morrison, a JUCO transfer who averaged just less than 15 ppg, Joe Smith and Lee Collins who each tallied over 1,000 points for their careers, and Grady Wallace. Wallace still stands as South Carolina’s all-time two-year scoring leader with over 1,400 points and an average of 28.0 ppg. His 23.9 ppg as a Junior wasn’t good enough to help USC to wins as they finished just 9-14 that season, but they would improve to 17-12 the next year as Wallace led the nation in scoring at 31.3 ppg. Wallace also dominated the glass as he pulled down 14.4 rebounds/game in his Senior season.

The decade finished with Ray "Cookie" Pericola, who had made his name by racking up assists to Wallace during his first two seasons, and then averaging 15.1 ppg and 12.8 ppg over his final two season to finish with over 1,000 points in his USC career. But scoring wasn’t all that was on South Carolina’s minds in the 1950’s - a new conference was. Realignment in 1953 created the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and South Carolina would be members of that league until 1971. South Carolina would narrowly miss winning the ACC Tournament in 1957 after pulling back-to-back upsets against Duke and Maryland only to lose to eventual National Champions North Carolina in the finals led by coach Frank McGuire. That name would mean far more to South Carolina fans in the very near future.

After seasons of mediocre played ended the 1950s and followed them into the early 1960s, Gamecock basketball began to flourish under new head coach Bob Stevens. Stevens turned around four-straight losing seasons to go 15-12 in 1961-62 and capture ACC Coach of the Year honors. Stevens left after that season and just two years later the man that had eliminated USC in the ACC tourney finals would become their newest head coach. It didn’t take long for Frank McGuire to get things rolling in Columbia. After improving from 6-17 in his first year to 11-13 in his second year, McGuire returned USC to its winning ways with a 16-7 record and a semifinal appearance in the ACC Tournament in 1966-67.

That 16-7 season was the beginning of an amazing streak for the Gamecocks as they would reel off a total of 15 consecutive winning seasons, not suffering a sub-.500 season again until 1981-82. Things looked primed for a spectacular end to the decade after a stellar recruiting class that included John Roche, Tom Owens and John Ribock to start the 1967-68 season. McGuire and his team did not disappoint the fans as the 1968-69 squad, led by Roche and Owens who would average 40.0 ppg between them, became the first ever at USC to win 20 games going 21-7 and making their first ever post-season tourney as they advanced to the 2nd round of the 1969 NIT. Things were certainly looking up, and would lead to USC’s best decade ever in basketball.

South Carolina wasted little time getting on track in the 1970s. In the middle of UCLA’s string of national championships, preseason polls placed the Gamecocks at the #1 slot for the 1969-70 season. Unfortunately, USC lost its home opener and was knocked out of the top slot but still showed dominance over the rugged ACC. USC would outscore their opponents by more than 17 points per game and were an uncanny 14-0 on the road, including a sweep of ACC teams en route to a perfect 14-0 record in the league. Disaster struck in the ACC Tournament, however, as Roche severely sprained his ankle in a semifinal victory and NC State pulled out a double OT win in the finals to keep the Gamecocks out of the NCAA Tournament. USC finished the season with a remarkable 25-3 record.

A year later, spurred on by the emergence of sophomore Kevin Joyce, the Gamecocks got revenge. USC finished the season with a 23-6 record and won the Holiday Festival Tournament in New York City. But it was Joyce that most remember for that season. With time running out against North Carolina in the ACC finals and USC down 51-50, a jump ball was called with the 6’3" Joyce and UNC’s 6’10" center Lee Dedmon. Amazingly, Joyce outjumped Dedmon and tipped the ball directly to Owens under the basket for a layup and a 52-51 Gamecock victory. South Carolina had won the ACC Tournament in what would be its final year as members of the ACC.

The success South Carolina achieved on the court brought resentment and anger from fellow ACC schools, especially those on "Tobacco Road", as the conference members of the state of North Carolina were known. The hostility of the road crowds, the unfriendly behavior of coaches and athletic directors in the conference, and the discrepancies in eligibility standards led McGuire to support South Carolina becoming an Independent before the 1971-72 season. While South Carolina would see success in its first few years as an Independent, the program gradually declined. They would make the NCAA Tournament in three straight seasons, going 24-5 in ’72, 22-7 in ’73 and 22-5 in ’74. South Carolina would lose in the Sweet 16 in ’71, ’72 and ’73.

The University sought entrance into another athletic conference, but this proved problematic because most conferences required schools to have a single athletic director and South Carolina had multiple directors at this time. McGuire served as AD for the basketball program, and he would not relinquish his position. The University made several attempts to obtain McGuire’s resignation, but ultimately honored his contract through 1980. Though South Carolina would make no more NCAA Tournament appearances under McGuire after 1974, they would enjoy a winning season in each of his remaining seasons and would participate in the NIT in 1975 and 1978. McGuire finished with a 283-142 overall record at South Carolina and continues to be held in high regard by Gamecock fans. His six consecutive 20-win seasons from 1969-1974, which produced a 137.33 record, remain the benchmark for USC basketball. Great players also defined the decade of the 1970s, led by Roche and his three-year scoring record of 1,910 points and an incredible 56-point day vs. Furman his Senior season. Alex English came along in 1973 and set the all-time USC scoring mark with 1,972 points in four seasons while teammate Mike Dunleavy scored 1,586 points, also from 1973-76. Six other players from this decade would score 1,300 points or more in their USC careers.

McGuire was succeeded by Bill Foster, who had made himself well known by a national championship appearance with Duke in the 1978 season. Foster didn’t take long to learn the name of Zam Fredrick as Fredrick lead the nation in scoring with 28.9 ppg in 1980-81 as USC finished with a 17-10 mark. After suffering their first losing season since 1966 in 1981-82, the Gamecocks rebounded in ’82-’83 going 22-9 and advancing to the quarterfinals of the NIT. In 1983, the University became affiliated with the Metro Conference. The basketball program was placed on probation by the NCAA in the spring of 1987 for two years because of recruiting violations and the sale of complimentary player tickets. From 1987-1991, George Felton led the Gamecocks to an 87-62 overall record which included a 1989 NCAA Tournament appearance and a 1991 NIT berth. For three of Felton’s five seasons (1987-89), Tubby Smith served as an assistant coach before leaving to join Rick Pitino’s staff at Kentucky. South Carolina joined the SEC before the 1992 season and initially struggled, posting a 20-35 record in 1992 and 1993.

Eddie Fogler was hired away from Vanderbilt before the 1994 season and within a few years returned the Gamecocks to respectability. Under Fogler, South Carolina posted an impressive 66-28 (34-14) record during the 1996-98 stretch, which included the school’s first SEC Championship in 1997. The 1997 Gamecocks posted a 15-1 record in SEC play and defeated league rival Kentucky twice, but lost in the 1st Round of the NCAA Tournament to 15-seed Coppin State (who loses to a 15-seed, honestly? Oh, right.) Fogler stepped down after the 2001 campaign, going 123-117 in eight seasons as the Gamecocks’ head coach. His tenure included two NCAA Tournament appearances (1997 and 1998) and two NIT appearances (1996, 2001). Fogler retired as one of the most successful head coaches in SEC Basketball history, having won regular season conference championships at both Vanderbilt and South Carolina. Subsequent coach Dave Odom posted four 20-win seasons during his time at South Carolina. He led the Gamecocks to an appearance in the 2004 NCAA Tournament and consecutive NIT Championships in 2005 and 2006. Following the 2008 campaign, Odom resigned with a 128-104 overall record at USC.

On April 1, 2008, Darrin Horn was named the new head basketball coach at USC. In his first season, Horn led the Gamecocks to a 21-10 record (10-6 in SEC play), two victories over Kentucky, and a share of the 2009 SEC Eastern Division title. After a 10-21 campaign in 2011-12, his third straight losing season, Horn was fired on March 13, 2012, finishing his career at South Carolina with a 60-63 overall record (23-45 in SEC). On March 27, 2012, South Carolina introduced their new head coach, formerly of Kansas State University, Frank Martin. Martin, as we all well know, was very successful at KSU going 117-54 overall (50-32 in Big XII play) and leading KSU to the NCAA Tournament in 4 of his 5 seasons there. He also is very scary.

2012-13

South Carolina returns a slew of young players, including 2nd-leading scorer Bruce Ellington who averaged 10.6 ppg as a sophomore last season along with 3.0 apg. Ellington also plays football, however, so he will not be available until Steve Spurrier says so. The only player they lost to graduation was leading scorer Malik Cooke. South Carolina has no commits yet for the 2013 class, and the status of their 2012 class is a bit of an unknown as they have one player signed (Shaq Roland, a 6’1" SG from Lexington, SC, that is not rated in the Rivals.com database) but 4 other committed players remain unsigned. Three of these players are 3-star players in C Laimonas Chatkevicius of South Kent, CT, SF Thaddeus Hall of Brooklyn, NY, and PF Mindaugas Kacinas of Wichita, ks, with the other being PG Tarik Phillip of Charlotte, NC, who is unranked.

Best Of The Best

BJ McKie is South Carolina’s all-time leading scorer with 2,119 points from 1996-99, while Grady Wallace still holds the single-season mark with 906 points in 1957. Lee Collins owns the career rebounding record with 1,159 from 1953-56, and also owns the single-season record with 434 in 1955. Melvin Watson tops the assists list with 543 in his career from 1995-98, while Gerald Peacock holds the single-season record with 182 in 1983. Devan Downey is on top with a career record of 277 steals from 2007-10 and also holds the single-season mark at 103 in 2008. Sam Muldrow leads the Gamecocks all-time in blocked shots with 275 from 2007-11, and for some reason they don’t show single-season leaders in blocked shot. Rejected!

Two former Gamecocks are members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame: Coach Frank McGuire and player Alex English. South Carolina has had its share of NBA players as well, including Renaldo Balkman, Tom Boswell, Mike Brittain, Terry Dozier, Mike Dunleavy, Alex English, Jo Jo English, Jim Fox, Gary Gregor, Skip Harlicka, Cedrick Hordges, Kevin Joyce, Tarence Kinsey, Tom Owens, Brent Price, Carlos Powell, Tom Riker, John Roche, Ryan Stack, Jack Thompson, Jim Slaughter, Jamie Watson and Brian Winters.

The Arena

The Gamecocks play their home games at Colonial Life Arena, a mutli-purpose arena opened in 2002 that seats 18,000. It is the largest arena in the state of South Carolina and the tenth largest college arena. The student section has been nicknamed "The Garnet Army" which started with the arrival of head coach Darrin Horn in the 2008-09 season. The venue was built to host future NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament games. However, shortly before construction began, the NCAA barred venues in South Carolina and Mississippi from hosting such events due to protests from the NAACP. The NAACP and several other groups objected to the state hosting any NCAA-sanctioned tournament games due to the presence of a Confederate battle flag flying near a soldiers’ memorial on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds.

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: Florida Is The Chelsea Of Basketball

ZouDave — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:50:21 -0000

Tuesday: The Closers Talk Florida, Part I

For the soccer fans among this readership, this might mean something: Florida basketball is a lot like Chelsea. For those of you who don’t understand that, I guess I can explain it further. But while it’s not a perfect analogy, trust me…it’s not far off.

A Short History

The University of Florida began their basketball program in 1915, ten years after the University was formed when the Florida Legislature passed the Buckman Act, consolidating four predecessor institutions to form the "University of the State of Florida". The Gators went 5-1 in their first season under head coach C.J. McCoy (who, surprise surprise, was also the head football coach) but their next 3 seasons were cancelled thanks to World War I. When the team re-formed for the 1919-20 seasons, they didn’t actually even have a full-time coach. William G. Kline, now the Florida football coach, would coach the basketball team basically as a hobby from 1920 until 1922, never finishing with a winning record. Prior to joining the SEC as one of its 13 charter members in 1932, Florida recorded just 3 winning seasons and was on their 5th head coach. Florida wouldn’t have a coach last even nine consecutive seasons at the helm until John Mauer coached from 1951-1960, seeing eight coaches between Kline and Mauer. Almost all of the Florida basketball coaches during this time were also football coaches or volunteers from the physical education department.

For the first half-century of SEC basketball, the Gators were basically a complete non-factor. They only finished higher than 4th twice from 1932 – 1980. Though they would record 26 winning seasons during this stretch, almost all of those winning records were no more than 2 or 3 games above .500 overall and hardly ever above .500 in the conference. Not a single conference championship, conference tournament championship, NCAA Tournament appearance, and just a single NIT invitation following the 18-9 (12-6) season of 1968-69 (they lost in the first round to Temple). They were the very definition of insignificant. Like Chelsea of the English Premier League, they were members of one of the elite conferences but had absolutely no hardware to show off and no claim to any history for their first 50+ years of existence. People get ready, there’s a train a-comin’.

Things began to turn around in 1980 when Norm Sloan arrived in Gainesville after a successful 14-year stint at North Carolina State. Sloan had previously been Florida’s first full-time head coach, from 1960-1966. Stormin’ Norman Sloan from Indianapolis, IN, played basketball at NC State from 1947-1949 and then coached at the collegiate level from 1951-1989. During his first stint with Florida, from 1960-66, his teams tallied an 85-63 overall record including the school’s first victory over an Adolph Rupp-coached Kentucky team in 1965. After a stellar 266-127 record in his 14 years at NC State, he returned to Florida with the goal of turning the program around for a second time. Sloan’s Gators were invited to the NIT three consecutive seasons from 1984-1986 and would then appear in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1987 (then again in 1988 and 1989). Florida would also win the school’s first SEC Regular Season Championship in the 1988-89 season going 21-13 (13-5). His teams compiled a 150-131 record in these 9 seasons, giving him an overall record of 235-194 in fifteen total years with the Gators. His reputation as "Stormin’ Norman" continued as he feuded throughout his tenure in Gainesville with LSU Tigers coach Dale Brown. Sloan was forced to resign prior to the 1989-90 season in the wake of an NCAA investigation into the Gators program. He would leave Florida as the winningest coach in the program’s history, and that record stood until 2006.

The 1987 team was led by future NBA journeyman Vernon Maxwell. At Florida, Maxwell was the program’s first true superstar. He averaged more than 20 points per game as a junior and senior and still holds 15 Gators records. He left school after four years as the Gators’ all-time leading scorer (2,450 points) and the #2 scorer in SEC history behind Pete Maravich. The University of Florida would erase all the points Maxwell scored in his final 2 seasons due to Maxwell admitting to taking cash payments from coaches and snorting cocaine prior to at least one tournament game. The investigation by the NCAA into Florida and Norm Sloan resulted in two years’ probation from the program. Former Tennessee coach Don DeVoe led the team as interim coach during the 1989-90 season, and he would then be replaced by a successful former player and coach from Silver Lake, ks, by the name of Lon Kruger.

Kruger, born and raised in Silver Lake, played for Kansas State University from 1971-74 and led the Wildcats to back-to-back Big 8 Championships in 1972 and 1973, and would be named Big 8 Player of the Year in 1973 and 1974. He began his collegiate coaching record at Texas-Pan American in 1982 before taking over his alma mater in 1986. In his 4 seasons at KSU prior to coming to Florida, he led the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament in each season including reaching the Elite Eight once losing to arch-rival kansas (the eventual National Champions*). He was able to overcome the probation and problems at Florida and by his 2nd season his Gators reached the Final Four of the NIT in a 19-14 (9-7) season in 1991-92. After another NIT appearance in 1993, his 1993-94 Gators would finish the season 29-8 (12-4), good enough for 1st place in the SEC East and they would reach the school’s first ever NCAA Tournament Final Four. They reached the NCAA Tournament again the following season after a 17-13 (8-8) season, but Kruger would leave the school after an unsuccessful 12-16 (6-10) season in 1995-96 to go coach at Illinois, then UNLV, and now Oklahoma. His career record at Florida was 104-80 (51-47), making him another tough act to follow. Well, perhaps not that tough.

Florida’s Athletic Director, Jeremy Foley, looking for a young coach with a proven track record, hired Billy Donovan, then at Marshall, as Kruger’s replacement. William John Donovan, Jr., from Rockville Centre, NY, is the son of Bill Donovan, Sr., who is one of the three leading scorers in the history of Boston College Eagles basketball. Young Billy Donovan would go on to play college ball at Providence College as a guard. His first two seasons with the Friars were unimpressive; he scored an average of two points per game as a freshman and three points as a sophomore. His junior year, however, Donovan flourished in the system of new head coach Rick Pitino. "Billy the Kid", as Providence fans soon nicknamed him, averaged 15.1 points as a junior and 20.6 as a senior, when he led the Friars to the Final Four and earned the Southeast Regional Most Valuable Player honors. Donovan was drafted by the Utah Jazz in the 3rd round (68th overall) of the 1987 NBA Draft. He was waived after the preseason and played briefly for the Wyoming Wildcatters of the CBA. He then signed a one-year contract with the New York Knicks, coached by Pitino. Donovan averaged 2.4 points and 2.0 assists over 44 games with the Knicks. After working for a Wall Street investment firm before joining Pitino as an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky in 1989, he would soon see his success land him the head coaching job at Marshall University.

In Donovan’s first season at Marshall he saw the Thundering Herd double their wins from the previous season, going from 9-18 to 18-9 and win the Southern Conference North Division. His first full recruiting class at Marshall included a high-profile local recruit, point guard Jason Williams. In Donovan’s second season, 1995-96, the team went 17-11 and led the Southern Conference in scoring and three-point field goals. In two years at Marshall, his Herd teams compiled a 35-20 record and a conference division championship.

So in 1996, Donovan took over the head coaching duties at the University of Florida which had slipped from its peak during its 1994 NCAA Final Four appearance. Donovan took the Gators to the NIT in his second season, and the following seasons saw the team make its third-ever NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance and become only the second squad in school history to appear in the Top 25 of the final polls (#17 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll and #23 in the AP Poll). His recruiting prowess was evident early, bringing future NBA star Jason Williams with him from Marshall and having early recruiting classes with future NBA players Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, and Matt Bonner, among others. In the 1999-2000 season, Donovan lead the Gators to the SEC Championship and their second NCAA Final Four appearance, defeating Duke, Illinois (led by former UF coach Lon Kruger) and then North Carolina in the national semi-finals before falling to Michigan State in the NCAA Championship Game. During the next few years the Gators went to the NCAA Tournament every year, but each year they lost in the first or second round. The Gators however repeated as SEC Champions during the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 seasons. The 2004–05 team had the distinction of being the first to win an SEC Tournament Championship, when they beat rival Kentucky in the title game.

The 2005–06 team began the season unranked and went on a 17–0 winning streak for the best start in school history, surprising many with a young (four sophomores and one junior) but selfless squad following the graduation of David Lee and the departures of Matt Walsh and Anthony Roberson to the NBA. The trio accounted for sixty percent of their offense in 2005. The team faded late in the regular season, losing its last 3 games in February and entering the postseason with a 24–6 record, yet still managed to win its second consecutive SEC Tournament Championship. The Gators entered the 2006 NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed with a 27–6 record. They were ranked No. 10 by the AP and ESPN. They beat South Alabama and Milwaukee to advance to the Minneapolis regional. There, the Gators defeated the Georgetown Hoyas and upset the top-seeded Villanova Wildcats 75–62 to avenge their loss in the previous year's tournament and move on to their second Final Four under Donovan. Florida defeated the upstart George Mason Patriots 73–58 in the national semifinals in Indianapolis. On April 3, 2006, the Gators defeated the UCLA Bruins 73–57 in the national final to win the school's first men's basketball NCAA Championship. The University Athletic Association then purchased the floor used in Indianapolis for the Final Four, and installed it in the O'Connell Center where Florida plays its home games.

The Gators returned all five starters from their championship team to begin the 2006–07 basketball season ranked as the preseason No. 1 in both major media polls, a first for the university. The Gators locked up the SEC regular season Championship relatively early in the 2006–07 season and were in possession of a 24–2 record before going on a late-February 1–3 skid that mirrored their 0–3 run a year earlier. For the second season in a row, the losses in February would be their last. Florida closed out Kentucky on Senior Night to end the regular season 26–5, and won their third straight SEC Tournament Championship with relative ease, beating Georgia, Ole Miss, and Arkansas 77–56. Florida entered the 2007 NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, and they advanced to the Final Four after wins in the regional against No. 5 seed Butler and No. 3 seed Oregon. In a rematch of the 2006 title game, the Gators again eliminated the UCLA Bruins in the national semifinal. Florida defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 84–75, in a rematch of a game they won 86–60 three months earlier, to become the first team since the 1991–92 Duke Blue Devils to win back-to-back national championships and the first college team ever to repeat as national champions with the same starting line-up. Following the 2006–07 season, three of the Gators' starting five were drafted among the first ten picks in the first round of the 2007 NBA Draft: Al Horford (third), Corey Brewer (seventh) and Joakim Noah (ninth). Taurean Green and Chris Richard were both selected in the second round.

Donovan agreed to coach for the NBA's Orlando Magic on May 31, 2007. It was revealed on June 3, however, that Donovan had done an about-face and asked to be freed from his contract with the Magic to return to Florida. He was soon thereafter released from his contract and reintroduced as the Gators coach on June 7. The Gators failed to make the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, the Gators were eliminated by UMass in a semi-final game of the NIT. In 2009, the Gators were eliminated by Penn State in a quarter-final game of the NIT. In 2010, the Gators were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament by BYU in double overtime. In the 2011 NCAA Tournament, the Gators were the No. 2 seed in the Southeast region. In the Second Round of the Tournament, Florida beat UC Santa Barbara. In the third round, the Gators defeated the UCLA Bruins to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. On March 24, 2011, the Gators defeated BYU 83–74 in overtime to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2007. Their tournament run ended there against Butler. In the 2012 NCAA Tournament, Florida advanced to the Elite Eight and were defeated by Louisville, coached by Donovan’s long-time mentor Rick Pitino.

Once again, I remind you of Chelsea FC in the EPL. Chelsea is now one of the elite teams in all of European soccer, winning the EPL in 2005, 2006 and 2010 along with the Champions League in 2012. They were runners-up in the EPL in 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2011. People often think Chelsea has simply always been a world power, but the reality is this is a very new development in the grand duration of college basketball. While it’s likely that Billy Donovan can continue to lead Florida to great success, it’s not a foregone conclusion that they will forever be a dominant power in the sport.

Donovan’s 15 years absolutely define Florida Basketball. His record at Florida is a staggering 386-158, a .710 winning percentage, with a 160-96 record in the SEC, a winning percentage of .625. He is 28-10 overall in his career in NCAA Tournament games, 21-13 in SEC Tournament games. He was named ESPN.com National Coach of the Year in 2001, John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award winner in 2010 and SEC Coach of the Year in 2011. He has nearly triple the number of NCAA Tournament appearances (12) that Florida had in the 77 seasons prior to Donovan’s hire (5). He has 14 20+ win seasons to UF’s previous 5, with the only two 30+ win seasons in school history. He has 4 SEC titles compared to the previous 1, and the only 3 SEC Tournament titles in school history. Nine of the school’s 11 NBA First-Round Draft Picks have played for Billy Donovan. After averaging 11.5 wins per season for 77 seasons, under Donovan the Gators have averaged 24 per season. The only 6 times Florida has even been ranked #1 have been under Billy Donovan.

Four of Donovan’s assistant coaches have become college head coaches in recent years, including fellow-SEC head coach Anthony Grant at Alabama. Donnie Jones at UCF, Shaka Smart at VCU and Lewis Preston at Kennesaw State also served as assistants under Donovan at Florida.

2012-13

Florida has secured the commitment of the #7 overall player for the 2013 class in Kasey Hill, a 6’1" PG from Clermont, FL. The 2012 class is headlined by a pair of 4-star players in Michael Frazier, SG from Montverde, FL, and Braxton Ogbueze, SG from Charlotte, NC. Coming with them are 3-star SG Dillon Graham from Orlando, FL, and 3-star SF DeVon Walker from Winter Haven, FL. The Gators do return their leading scorer from last season in Kenny Boynton, who averaged 15.9ppg along with 2.6rpg and 2.7apg in 31.6 minutes/game but the departures of Bradley Beal to the NBA and Erving Walker to graduation will leave some gaping holes to fill.

Best Of The Best

The Gators boast 22 All-Americans, 93 All-SEC selections, 88 SEC Academic Honor Roll selections, 48 1,000-point scorers and 34 NBA Draftees. Former Gators that have played in the NBA include Matt Bonner, Corey Brewer, Andrew DeClercq, Jim Grandholm, Taurean Green, Orien Greene, Donnell Harvey, Udonis Haslem, Al Horford, Gary Keller, David Lee, Clifford Lett, Vernon Macklin, Vernon Maxwell, Mike Miller, Joakim Noah, Chandler Parsons, Rich Peek, Chris Richard, Anthony Roberson, Dwayne Schintzius, Marreese Speights, Neal Walk, Matt Walsh, James White and Jason Williams. Bradley Beal was selected 3rd overall in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards. Once again I’d like to thank Mike Anderson for his wonderful in-state recruiting skills.

Ronnie Williams officially leads Florida with a career high of 2,090 points from 1981-84. Andy Owens owns the single-season record for points with 676 in 1969-70. Neal Walk leads the all-time scoring average for career at 20.8ppg in 1967-69, while Andy Owens holds the single-season record at 27.0ppg in 1969-70. Neal Walk holds the career mark for rebounds with 1,181 from 1967-69 as well as the single-season mark in 1967-68 with 494. Ronnie Montgomery leads the Gators all-time with 503 career assists from 1985-88, while Nick Calathes holds the top season spot with 231 in 2008-09. Dwayne Schintzius’ 272 blocked shots from 1987-90 is the top mark for blocked shots in a career, while his 96 in 1986-87 is the best single-season ever for Florida. Eddie Shannon stands alone for career steals with 204 from 1996-99, while Dan Cross holds the single-season record with 76 in 1993-94.

The Arena

The Gators play their home games at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, also known as the O’Dome. The 12,000 seat multi-purpose arena is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O’Connell, who served from 1967 to 1973. The arena was built in 1980, but problems with the inflatable, Teflon-coated fabric roof required replacement with a permanent, hard shell dome on top of the structure in 1998. The O’Dome his home to the student section known as the "Rowdy Reptiles", and ESPN commentator Dick Vitale said after the Florida-Kentucky game in 2006 that the Rowdy Reptiles make the O’Dome one of the toughest places to play in college basketball.

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: A Program You Might Know Pretty Well By Now

ZouDave — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:08:54 -0000

Arkansas Week continues with a tour of Bud Walton Arena.

Monday: Broyles' Fingerprints All Over Arkansas Football
Tuesday: Coaching Hires And The Butterfly Effect

No dramatic phrases or poetic license needs to be taken to introduce this week’s team: it’s the Arkansas Razorbacks. Those rat bastards.

In actuality, as many of you probably already know, Arkansas is about as pedigreed and historically significant as any of our new SEC brothers when it comes to basketball. Are they Kentucky? No. Few are. But with their history in the SWC and now SEC, they take a backseat to few.

A Short History

Arkansas was a late-arriver to the sport of basketball, fielding its first team in 1924 which is a good 15-20 years after most other major schools had adopted the sport. But Arkansas wasted no time in making an impact and making themselves known in the basketball world. The program’s first coach, Francis Schmidt, lead the team from its inception in 1924 until after the 1929 season (during this time, of course, he also coached the football and baseball teams). In this time, Arkansas finished 1st in the Southwest Conference four of the first six years going 113-17 overall. With a winning percentage of .869, Schmidt has the highest winning percentage ever by an Arkansas coach. Francis Schmidt, from Downs, ks, was an exceptionally successful coach in both basketball and football for his career. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, where he played football and later received his Juris Doctor, he was an assistant football coach at Tulsa from 1915-1916 before his career was interrupted by World War I. Schmidt served in the US Army and rose to the rank of Captain. He would return to Tulsa as the head football coach and head basketball coach in 1919 and would remain there until after the 1922 season.

After Arkansas, Schmidt coached at TCU (both sports) from 1929-1933, Ohio State from 1934-40 and finally the University of Idaho from 1941-42. His career record in football was 156-58-11 and he was known for razzle-dazzle offenses featuring trick plays involving multiple laterals and non-standard tackle-eligible, even guard-eligible, formations. His football teams were known for high scoring, earning him the nickname "Close the Gates of Mercy" Schmidt from the media. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

From 1930-1933 the Razorbacks were led by Charles Bassett. Though he led his team to another SWC championship in his first season, and would finish with an overall record of 62-29 there, he would not finish above third place with Arkansas in any of his remaining 3 years. Bassett’s departure made room for Glen Rose, and Arkansas would have its first true basketball mind at the helm.

Rose, who played basketball at Arkansas and was All-SWC from 1926-28 and an All-American in 1928 (the first Arkansas player to earn this honor), was an assistant coach under Schmidt and Bassett before taking over the head job after the 1933 season. From 1934-42, Rose’s Razorbacks would take first in the SWC 5 times and in 1941 Arkansas would make its first appearance in the NCAA Final Four. Arkansas won 154 games during this time, losing only 47. Not once did the team finish under .500, and only once did they lose even 10 games. During the 1941 Final Four season, the Razorbacks finished with an overall record of 20-3 including a perfect 12-0 season in the Southwest Conference. Rose would coach the Arkansas Razorbacks football team for two seasons during World War II (1944-45) and would then serve as the head basketball coach at Stephen F. Austin College from 1948-52 going 56-35 there.

Eugene Lambert took the helm for the 1943 season and would last until the 1949 season. Like Rose, Lambert played basketball at Arkansas prior to his coaching days. Lambert’s teams would finish no worse than 3rd in the SWC during his 7 seasons, winning the conference twice and appearing in two NCAA Tournaments, and going to the school’s second Final Four in 1945. Lambert would finish with a career record of 113-60 overall and 62-22 in the SWC. He would go on to coach at Memphis and Alabama in his career. Presley Askew took over for Lambert for the 1950 season but would only last until 1952. After winning the SWC in his first season, his results got progressively worse and he finished with a 35-37 overall record and did not reach the NCAA Tournament. In an attempt to resurrect the basketball program from its first real downturn, the Razorbacks would bring back Glen Rose. While Rose would last from the ‘53 season all the way until the end of the 1966 season, he was unable to repeat his earlier success. During these 14 seasons, the Razorbacks would only win 171 games (compared to 154 wins in 9 seasons during his first stint as head coach) against 154 losses. They tied for 1st in the SWC just once (1958) and reached the NCAA Tournament in that same season. Rose’s overall record for his time at Arkansas was 325-204.

So after the program’s fast start and great successes, Arkansas had fallen on hard times. After the NCAA Tournament appearance in 1949, the next 25 years were very unsuccessful and very forgettable. While the Razorbacks won 13 SWC Championships in their first 22 years, they would only win 1 in the next 25 (1958). After appearing in 3 NCAA Tournaments between 1941-1949, they would only appear in one between 1950-1976 (1958). Their first 26 seasons (1924-1949) all resulted in winning seasons, but only 10 seasons between 1950-1973 yielded above .500 results. Rose’s successors, Duddy Waller and Lanny Van Eman, were spectacularly unspectacular from 1967-1974. Arkansas failed to finish above second place during the tenure of these 2 coaches. But the man that came next would put Arkansas back on the map for a long time to come, even though his stay was relatively brief.

Eddie Sutton of Bucklin, ks, began his collegiate career at the College of Southern Idaho in 1967 where he founded the program. In their first ever season, the Golden Eagles posted a 33-4 record and quickly became a consistent national contender at the community college level. Sutton left CSI in 1969 to coach at Creighton and would take them to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1974. Following that season, he was lured away by the University of Arkansas. Sutton was charged with reviving a once proud basketball power, and revive them he did. Over the next 11 seasons, Sutton compiled a record of 260-75 and would win give SWC championships. He would lead the Razorbacks to nine NCAA Tournament appearances including the school’s third Final Four appearance in 1978. In fact, after two seasons to begin his tenure in Fayetteville that did not result in Tournament bids, the Razorbacks would be invited to the NCAA Tournament during every remaining season under Sutton.

Not only did Sutton never have a losing season at Arkansas, he had 9 straight seasons of 20+ wins including a 32-win season in 1978. His record against SWC opponents was truly impressive, only winning less than 10 conference games once (9 in 1976) finishing his stellar Arkansas career with a 139-35 record against SWC competition. In addition to the 1978 Final Four, Sutton’s Razorbacks went to the Elite 8 in 1979, and the Sweet Sixteen in 1981 and 1983. Sutton would be lured away by SEC powerhouse Kentucky following the 1985 season. His stay in Lexington was short, somewhat unsuccessful, and filled with controversy and he would was ousted from the program in 1989. He would take over the reins of his alma mater, Oklahoma State, in 1990 and would go on to be one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history. He retired following the 2007-08 season as coach of the San Francisco Dons with a career mark of 888-342.

While Eddie Sutton had done exactly what Arkansas had hired him to do, which was to revive the program, the next coach in line is the name most readily associated with Arkansas basketball: Nolan Richardson. Under Richardson, the Razorbacks would reach their highest of highs, join a new conference and have their longest run of success since the early days of the program.

Nolan Richardson, from El Paso, TX, was not handed an easy path in life. His mother died from a mysterious disease in 1944 when Nolan was only 3 years old, and his father battled alcoholism for most of his adult life so he often did not live with the family. Instead, Nolan and his two sisters (one older, one younger) were raise by his grandmother Rose Richardson, or as they called her, "Ol’ Mama". Nolan would go on to play college basketball at Texas Western College, now UTEP, playing his senior year under the school’s new coach, future Basketball Hall of Famer Don Haskins. After beginning his coaching career at Bowie High School in El Paso, TX, he moved to Western Texas College where he won the National Junior College Championship in 1980. Richardson was the head coach at Tulsa from 1981 to 1985, leading Tulsa to the NIT Championship in ’81 and becoming the first black head coach to win the NIT Championship. Richardson was also the first coach in NCAA history to win 50 games in his first two seasons, and he led Tulsa to Conference Tournament Championships in 1982 and 1984 along with Conference Championships in 1984 and 1985. His tradition of wearing polka dot ties during games eventually led Tulsa students to wear polka dots during home games.

Following the 1985 season, Richardson became the head coach at the University of Arkansas and inherited a team and program that used to a slow tempo style that Eddie Sutton had implemented with great success. Richardson’s style was anything but slow, and his first season was anything but successful. After finishing just 12-16, many Arkansas fans questioned whether this style of basketball would work at this level. Work it would, and well. In just the second season under Richardson, the Hogs were back in the post season with a NIT berth. By year three, Arkansas returned to the NCAA Tournament. The Hogs would stay there for 13 of the next 15 seasons. In all, Arkansas under Richardson enjoyed 15 post season appearances during the 17 seasons of his tenure. Nolan Richardson built the Razorback program into a national power and spoke out often about the unjust stereotyping that he and other black coaches faced. Richardson took the University of Arkansas to the Final Four three times, losing to Duke in the semifinals in 1990, then winning the National Championship in 1994 over Duke, and losing in the Championship game to UCLA in 1995 (obligatory Tyus Edney hatred here). He was named the National Coach of the Year in 1994.

Richardson’s Arkansas teams averaged 27 wins per season during the decade of the 1990s, there were the winningest team of the decade until 1997, and their 270 wins from 1990 to 1999 were more than all but four programs in the NCAA. Nolan’s legendary Arkansas teams recorded a 20-win season twelve times as well as four 30-win seasons during his 17 years.

When Arkansas joined the SEC prior to the 1991-92 season, Arkansas had just come off of two consecutive 30+ win seasons and had gone to a Final Four and Elite Eight. They had won the SWC three consecutive years, winning a combined 42 conference games in those 3 seasons. Joining the SEC didn’t slow them down much. Arkansas would win the SEC West in each of its first 4 seasons in the conference, winning the SEC outright in 1992 and 1994, and wouldn’t finish below .500 in-conference until the 1999-2000 season.

His teams typically played an up tempo game with intense pressure defense - a style that was known as "40 Minutes of Hell." In 2012 his coaching philosophy was featured in the documentary "40 Minutes of Hell" on ESPN as part of the network's SEC Storied series. He is the winningest Basketball coach in Arkansas history, compiling a 389-169 (.697) record in 17 seasons. He is the only head coach to win a Junior College National Championship, the NIT Championship, and the NCAA Championship. Nolan Richardson is also among an elite group including Roy Williams, Denny Crum, Jim Boeheim, and Tubby Smith as the only head coaches to win 365 games in 15 seasons or less. He was the 1994 Naismith Coach of the Year, 1994 NABC National Coach of the Year, 1995 USBWA Most Courageous Award winner, 1998 SEC Coach of the Year, was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.

It went south quickly for Richardson. After 15 consecutive winning seasons with Arkansas, the 2001-02 seasons resulted in disaster. On the court, the Razorbacks were 13-14 (5-10) before Nolan was replaced before the season was even over. In February 2002, Richardson spoke out against the administration at the University of Arkansas and its fans. He claimed that he was being mistreated because he was African American, and challenged Athletic Director Frank Broyles by declaring "if they go ahead and pay me my money, they can take my job tomorrow." Shortly thereafter, Arkansas dismissed Richardson as head coach. In December 2002, Richardson filed a lawsuit against the University, the Board of Trustees, and the Razorback Foundation, citing a racially discriminatory environment. Coach Richardson's lawsuit was dismissed in July 2004. He left Arkansas with a 389-169 overall record, a winning percentage of .697. He was 108-67 in the SEC, a .617 winning percentage. His overall coaching record in college was 508-206 (.711).

From 2005 to 2007, Richardson, (who speaks fluent Spanish) served as the head coach of the Panamanian national team. In March 2007, Richardson was named as the head coach of the Mexican national team. In the middle of 2009, Richardson was named as head coach and general manager of a prospective WNBA expansion team in Tulsa. While it seemed unusual to hire a coach before securing an actual berth in the league, the investors behind the expansion effort claimed this proved they were serious about wanting a team. On October 20, 2009, the Tulsa group bought the Detroit Shock and moved it to Tulsa as the Tulsa Shock. It was Richardson's first time as a professional head coach, as well as his first time coaching women.

Richardson's tenure with the Shock was far from successful. His first season ended before it began when key players who had led the Shock to three WNBA titles opted, for various reasons, not to make the move to Tulsa. This forced Richardson to try to build the team around disgraced Olympic track star Marion Jones, who hadn't played a meaningful basketball game since her college days 13 years earlier. The players also found it difficult to adjust to Richardson's frenetic style. A lack of continuity plagued the team as well; all of the players who had come from Detroit had left the team by the middle of the season, and Richardson seemingly juggled the roster on a game-by-game basis. The final result was a dreadful 6-28 record, dead last in the league. Richardson tried to rebuild the team by coaxing Sheryl Swoopes out of retirement, but after a 1-10 start, Richardson resigned on July 8, 2011.

Stan Heath would take over for the 2002-03 season and would last through the 2006-07 season. During his five seasons, Arkansas would not be able to enjoy the success that they achieved under Richardson. They would not finish above third place in the Western division of the Southeastern conference. They were invited to the NCAA tournament for his final two seasons, although they were eliminated in the first round both times. Heath's final record was 82-70. John Pelphrey was hired as the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks in 2007. He was hired after Dana Altman accepted the job and resigned within a day. Arkansas went 23-12 in Pelphrey's first season, reaching the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament that year. The Razorbacks had an SEC regular season record of 9-7. In his second year, John Pelphrey’s team struggled in conference play after starting the season 12-1 in non-conference games with two notable wins over the nationally ranked Oklahoma Sooners (#4) and the Texas Longhorns (#7). Conference wins were few and far between giving the Razorbacks a final conference record of 2-14. On March 13, 2011 John Pelphrey was dismissed as the head coach of the Razorbacks after an 18-13 season despite an impressive incoming recruiting class.

Pelphrey was replaced 10 days later by Mike Anderson, a long-time assistant under Nolan Richardson, and…well, if you don’t know about Mike Anderson already then I venture you’re on the wrong blog.

2012-13

Arkansas has already received an outstanding commitment for the 2013 class in 5-star Center Bobby Portis from Little Rock, AR (look at that, Mike Anderson can recruit in-state talent again!). The 2012 class was comprised of a quintet of 3-star players, a very typical Mike Anderson class. Anthlon Bell, a Memphis, TN, SG, Michael Qualls, SF from Shreveport, LA, Dequavious Wagner, PG from Alexandria, LA, and JaCorey Williams, the PF from Birmingham, AL, have all signed and do not appear to be related to Mike Anderson in any way. Coty Clarke, a SF from Lawson State CC, committed to Arkansas on 5/9/12 but has not signed his LOI yet. Anderson’s Razorbacks are poised to take the next step in his 2nd season at the helm, returning all but one player from last year’s roster including all 5 top scorers. Former 5-star recruit B.J. Young from Florissant, MO, (thanks, Mike!) led Arkansas in scoring as a freshman with 15.3 ppg and is considered one of the top pro prospects for the 2013 NBA Draft.

Best Of The Best

The University of Arkansas has had a number of players reach the NBA after their time as Razorbacks: Corey Beck, Patrick Beverley, Ron Brewer, Ronnie Brewer, Tony Brown, Todd Day, Courtney Fortson, Scott Hastings, Stephen Hill, Derek Hood, Joe Johnson, Joe Kleine, Andrew Lang, Lee Mayberry, Clint McDaniel, Mel McGaha, Oliver Miller, Sidney Moncrief, Isaiah Morris, Jannero Pargo, Alvin Robertson, Dean Tolson, Darrell Walker, Sonny Weems and Corliss Williamson. A handful of others have played professionally in other leagues.

Todd Day holds the single-season record for scoring with 786 points in 1990-91. He also holds the career mark at 2,395 set from 1988-92. Derek Hood tops the list for rebounds in a season with 349 in 1998-99, while the career mark belongs to Sidney Moncrief with 1,015 from 1976-79 (just 13 more than Hood’s career number). Kareem Reid’s 219 assists leads the way for a season, set in 1995-96, and his 748 career assists from 1995-99 is tops all-time at Arkansas. Oliver Miller holds the record for most blocks in a season with 112 in 1990-91 and a career with 345 from 1987-92. Clint McDaniel’s 102 steals in a season is not only an Arkansas single-season record, it’s the SEC single-season record, and was set in 1994-95. Lee Mayberry holds the career mark for steals with 291 set from 1988-92.

The Arena

The Razorbacks play their games at Bud Walton Arena, also known as the Basketball Palace of Mid-America. The arena is named after James "Bud" Walton, co-founder of Wal-Mart, who donated a large portion of the funds needed to build the arena which opened in 1993. The arena seats 19,368 and is the fifth largest on-campus arena in the United States. In its early years, Nolan Richardson's teams frequently attracted standing-room-only crowds of over 20,000. In consecutive seasons, 1993-94 and 1994-95, the AVERAGE attendance was nearly 1,000 over capacity and ranked 4th in the national for total attendance.

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: Dale Brown's Story Stands Alone

ZouDave — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:52:49 -0000

Dale Brown, from Minot, ND, was a standout high school athlete that once posted the highest scoring average in state basketball history and also set a school record in the quarter mile. In college at Minot State Teacher’s College, he earned 12 varsity letters in football, basketball and track; he was the only person to accomplish this in these three sports. He was the head basketball coach at two North Dakota high schools between 1957-1964, with a brief interlude as the head basketball coach at Fort Riley, KS, serving in the US Army as a Sgt. He coached basketball at the middle school and high school levels, then was an assistant coach at Utah State and Washington State before getting his first head coaching job at LSU in 1972. He would remain the head coach in Baton Rouge until 1997, being forced into retirement following a scandal involving a name that will be familiar to Mizzou fans.

Still, for 25 years Dale Brown led his teams to 448 wins against 301 losses, would go to 15 straight post-season appearances between 1979-1993, including 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, two Final Fours, two more Elite Eights, and another Sweet Sixteen, 4 SEC Championships and 1 SEC Tournament Championship. Brown is the only SEC coach to have ever appeared in 15 straight national tournaments and only 11 coaches in NCAA history have made more consecutive NCAA appearances (10). Only the legendary Adolph Rupp of Kentucky has won more games in SEC history. Brown and Rupp are the only SEC coaches that had 17 consecutive non-losing seasons. Only 3 coaches in the SEC have won more conference championships: Adolph Rupp, Joe Hall and Tubby Smith. Only 6 coaches in the SEC have led their teams to two Final Fours or more: Dale Brown, Billy Donovan, Joe Hall, Rick Pitino, Noland Richardson and Adolph Rupp.

On nine occasions Brown was selected as the SEC Coach of the Year or Runner-Up. He was twice chosen as the National Coach of the Year. Brown has the distinction of beating Kentucky more than any coach in the nation. 110 of his 160 players received their college degrees. He is a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. In 2004 he was inducted as an SEC Living Legend. In 2010, the Tiger Rag, the Bible of LSU sports, ranked Brown in the top 5 of the most influential people in LSU athletics history. A movie about Dale Brown, Man in the Glass: The Dale Brown Story, came out in 2010.

It seems to go without saying, then, that Dale Brown was one of the best and most positive people that has ever graced LSU and certainly LSU basketball. But not everything was always perfect in Baton Rouge. By 1982, 10 years into his career there, Dale Brown had established himself and LSU as belonging among the elite in the sport, but Brown’s Tigers experienced a decline in the next two years. While still having some star players, LSU would not make the NCAA tournament in ’82 and ’83 and would lose in the first round of the NIT in both seasons. While getting back on track the next few years, underachievement marred the overall successes of the teams.

In 1984, the Tigers were upset by #10-seed Dayton in the NCAA Tournament. 1985 was even more embarrassing, seeing #4-seed LSU lose in the first round to #13-seed Navy (led by a then-unknown David Robinson). It was also during this time that Brown, a vocal, outspoken, relentless critic of the NCAA, began having some of his most notorious run-ins with the governing organization of college sports. He began publicly calling them "hypocrites" and even "The Gestapo" and consistently argued that the NCAA should be more compassionate when enforcing rules governing compensation for student-athletes especially in situations involving athletes who are truly in need. The NCAA began conducting a four-year investigation into Brown and the LSU basketball program in the early 1980s. The investigation yielded only some minor infractions, but the tension between Brown and the NCAA would remain.

1986 should have been a disaster for LSU and Brown, but instead it is known to many Tiger fans as the greatest season in the school’s basketball history. The Tigers lost their best player from the previous season, Jerry "Ice" Reynolds, to the NBA draft, and incoming freshman, Tito Horford, was kicked off the team two months into the season. Their starting center, Zoran Jovanovich, injured his knee in December. Nikita Wilson was academically ineligible after the fall semester. Brown was forced late in the season to move shooting guard Ricky Blanton to starting center. In addition to all these troubles, some LSU players contracted chicken pox during the SEC regular season, including star player John Williams. In spite of all these troubles, LSU jumped out to a 14-0 start and finished with a 22-11 record. They made it into the NCAA Tournament as an 11-seed, a decision some were critical of because of their late-season slump. But thanks in part to an unusual, confusing defense Brown devised, which he called the "Freak Defense," the Tigers overcame their lack of talent and depth to make an unlikely run.

After a 2OT victory over #6-seed Purdue, LSU had to beat the top three seeds in its region to reach the Final Four. The Tigers did just that, defeating #3-seed Memphis on a last-second shot by Anthony Wilson, #2-seed Georgia Tech and top seed Kentucky (which had already beaten LSU three times that year). The Tigers, however, lost to #2-seed Louisville in the Final Four. Louisville went on to win the National Title. The ’86-’87 season was almost a carbon copy of the previous season, except that Dale Brown finished just seconds away from taking LSU to another Final Four. The Tigers lost to #1-seed Indiana in the Elite 8 despite holding a 9-point lead with 5 minutes remaining. The Hoosiers won the National Championship, and it was the fifth time in 9 years that Dale Brown’s Tigers were eliminated by the eventual national champion. Brown had established his reputation as the "Master Motivator", and was now considered a coach who could get the best out of his least-talented teams through inspiration, sheer will, and the "Freak Defense". This reputation afforded him the opportunity to see what he could do with bona fide superstars in the coming years. Unfortunately for Brown, these years arguably proved to be the most disappointing of his LSU career. It was during these years that the "Master Motivator" label backfired on him and by the end of the 1992 season, Brown was now known as a coach who could get the least out of his most-talented teams.

The next few recruiting classes to sign with LSU were simply loaded with stars. In 1988, the Tigers signed Stanley Roberts (1991 1st Round NBA Pick) and Chris Jackson (who you may remember better as Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, 1990 1st Round NBA Pick). In 1989, they signed Maurice Williamson (the son of former NBA star John Williamson), Geert Hammink (1993 1st Round NBA Pick), and a towering big man with an even bigger personality from Robert G. Cole High School in San Antonio, TX, named Shaquille O’Neal. While Jackson (Abdul-Rauf) was the first of these recruits to become a star, earning All-American honors in his freshman season after leading the nation in scoring with a still-standing freshman record of 30.2ppg, it was Shaquille O’Neal that would define the early 90s at LSU before his dominating 19-year career in the NBA.

Despite this abundance of talent, LSU would see a dearth of success especially in the post-season. After a 20-win season in 1989, the Tigers would lose their first round NCAA Tournament game to UTEP, led by future NBA Star Tim Hardaway. The 1990 team, that featured 4 future first-round NBA players, began the season ranked #2 but failed to meet those lofty expectations. Finishing the season 23-9, LSU lost a heartbreaker in the second round of the 1990 NCAA Tournament to Georgia Tech, led by future NBA players Kenny Anderson, Dennis Scott, Malcom Mackey and Brian Oliver. The 1991 team, led by National Player of the Year Shaquille O’Neal, won 20 games but lost badly to UConn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament (O’Neal was out with an injury), and the 1992 team won 21 games only to fall to Indiana in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. During these years, LSU won 72% of its SEC games, won one SEC conference title and finished 2nd twice.

There’s probably very little to tell you about Shaquille O’Neal that you don’t already know. He had first met coach Dale Brown years earlier in Europe, as O’Neal’s stepfather was stationed on a US Army base at Wildflecken, West Germany. Shaq took LSU to new heights of popularity as the 7’1" superstar became a national celebrity in the days of saturation coverage of basketball. He earned his celebrity status with great play and an intimidation factor that made him the envy of coaches throughout the country. He was a two-time consensus SEC Player of the Year and 1st-team All-American in 1991 and 1992. He was the AP as well as the UPI National Player of the year in 1991, and was also named World Amateur Athlete of the Year that year. He set the SEC record for most blocks in a season three consecutive years (115 in 1990, 140 in 1991 and 157 in 1992). He also set the SEC record for career blocks with 412, and blocked 5 or more shots in a game 45 times in his 90 games. He was the first player to lead the SEC in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and blocked shots in the same season (1991). He nearly repeated that feat in 1992 but finished 2nd in scoring. He was the first player to lead the SEC in rebounding three straight seasons since Charles Barkley of Auburn, 1982-84. He finished his college career with 1,217 rebounds, seventh all-time in the SEC and second all-time at LSU, and was the first LSU player to record back-to-back 400+ rebound seasons.

Shaq Highlights More Shaq Highlights A TNT halftime report on Shaq and OH MY GOD ERNIE JOHNSON HAS BEEN AT TNT FOREVER. Triple Double versus Loyola Marymount in 1990 Shaq destroys Arizona in 1990 LSU unveils a Shaq statue.

O'Neals 1,941 career points is fourth all-time at LSU behind only Maravich, Durand Macklin and Howard Carter. He was the fourth LSU player to have his number retired. His professional career is one of pure legend. After being the #1 overall pick by the Orlando Magic in 1992, Shaq would go on to be Rookie of the Year (1993), a 4-time NBA Champion (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006), 3-time NBA Finals MVP, NBA MVP (2000), 15-time NBA All-Star, 3-time NBA All-Star Game MVP, 2-time NBA Scoring Champion, 8-time All-NBA First Team, and would win a Gold Medal in the 1996 Olympics. He finished his career with 28,596 points (23.7ppg) and 13,099 rebounds (10.9rpg). He ranks 6th all-time in points scored, 5th in field goals, 13th in rebounds, and 7th in blocked shots. But perhaps his most notable and momentous achievement of his life came in 1994 when he was the star of a Sega Genesis/Super NES 2D fighting game called Shaq Fu.

O’Neal went pro following the 1992 season, and though the Tigers still managed 22 wins in the 1993 season they once again saw their season end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on a last second shot from then Cal superstar Jason Kidd. The 1993 NCAA Tournament appearance would be the last post-season appearance of the Dale Brown era, and the school’s last until 2000.

Dale Brown's final four years at LSU were mostly forgettable. All four seasons ended in losing records. Brown was still bringing talented players into the program, but things did not work out due to the loss of numerous star players because of injuries, dismissal from the team, or leaving early for the NBA. In 1996, Brown brought in his last star recruit: Baton Rouge high school phenom Lester Earl. Earl lasted 11 games at LSU before he was suspended. He transferred to the University of kansas soon afterward. While at kansas, Earl said that an LSU assistant coach gave him money when he was at LSU. The NCAA quickly began an investigation into LSU and Dale Brown. While it found no evidence that Brown or his assistants paid Earl, it did find that a former booster paid Earl about $5,000 while he was attending LSU.

LSU was placed on probation in 1998. The probation remains a sore subject for many people in Louisiana, as many Brown and LSU supporters were angry with the NCAA’s decision. They were convinced that the NCAA unfairly came down hard on LSU only because Dale Brown had long been a thorn in its side. They were also angry that Earl received immunity, never had to repay the money, and would eventually regain the eligibility he lost when he transferred from LSU. In August 2007, Lester Earl issued an apology to Brown, then-assistant head coach Johnny Jones, and LSU in general for his role in the NCAA investigation. Earl now claims that the NCAA pressured him into making false claims against Dale Brown or else he would lose years of NCAA eligibility.

"I was pressured into telling them something. I was 19 years old at that time. The NCAA intimidated me, manipulated me into making up things, and basically encouraged me to lie, in order to be able to finish my playing career at Kansas. They told me if we don't find any dirt on Coach Brown you won't be allowed to play but one more year at Kansas. I caused great harm, heartache and difficulties for so many people. I feel sorriest for hurting Coach Brown. Coach Brown, I apologize to you for tarnishing your magnificent career at LSU."

The NCAA has declined additional comment on the situation. Dale Brown, who says he has forgiven Earl, retired from LSU in 1997. Fortunately for many, he was not done contributing his leadership and time in areas of need. Dale Brown kept a low profile in his involvement with LSU athletics. He stayed in Baton Rouge after his retirement and created his own business, Dale Brown Enterprises. Brown has also worked as a college basketball analyst and is a motivational speaker and author of several books. He is also the CEO of the Dale Brown Foundation, established in 1986 to help those in need. The Foundation was very active after the hurricanes devastated Louisiana in 2005.

After a couple of fruitless attempts by many in North Dakota to get him to run for the United States Senate, Brown suffered a stroke on April 24, 2003. He made a strong recovery and was back at work a month later. In 2004, former LSU athletic director and basketball player Joe Dean, who announced many LSU games as a television color commentator during Brown's tenure as a coach and later selected Brown's successor, John Brady, submitted a letter to a Baton Rouge newspaper saying that he believes that the basketball floor at the LSU should be named after Brown. In addition, LSU honored Brown and his 1986 team in February on the 20th anniversary of their improbable run to the Final Four.

Many fans consider Brown to be one of the best human beings and better coaches they have seen in the college ranks. In the summer of 2007, Brown appeared on the ABC show Shaq's Big Challenge to offer words of encouragement to Shaquille O'Neal about helping obese children. He also was an advisor to Matthew McConaughey, who played the role of Marshall University football coach Jack Lengyel in the movie We Are Marshall.

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: LSU Basketball More Storied Than Successful

ZouDave — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:49:51 -0000

LSU Week continues with a look at one of the most fascinating basketball schools in the country. The Tigers are rarely just average -- they are either spectacular, spectacular underachievers, or just spectacularly bad.

Monday: Earthquakes And Badgers On The Bayou

LSU doesn’t have the banners and trophies to claim to be a basketball power. LSU doesn’t have the pedigree to make themselves a player for the big-name coaches or recruits. But LSU has an amazing story to tell about its basketball history, and it’s full of names you either already know or absolutely should. Call the affiliates, this one is running long tonight.

A Short(ish) History

LSU was definitely a very good early basketball program in the early days of the sport following their first season in 1909. And when Harry Rabenhorst took over the program in 1925, things would go from good to great.

Rabenhorst, who would also be a very successful baseball coach at LSU in his time, put the Tigers on the map as a dominant basketball power as he coached in Baton Rouge from 1925-1957, taking a brief vacation to tour Europe from 1942-1945 as a member of the United States Army. In his 29 seasons of coaching LSU he led them to an overall record of 340-264. While he started off slowly, only having two winning seasons in his first 7 years, things got better when LSU joined the SEC prior to the 1933 season. Over the next 3 seasons, LSU would post 15-8, 13-4 and 14-1 records including a combined 38-10 in the SEC. In 1935, LSU was 12-0 in the conference claiming their first ever conference title. They completed the season by winning the American Legion Bowl and were later awarded a Helms National Championship for that season. While this championship is not officially recognized by the NCAA since it did not sanction a tournament, LSU officially claims this championship and displays a banner in their home arena.

LSU is the only school that officially claims an American Legion Bowl championship. Harry Rabenhorst’s teams would continue playing well, being at or above .500 every single season (both in the conference and overall) all the way until his departure to go serve his country in World War II. When he returned, the LSU program had been treading water for basically two seasons and Rabenhorst quickly got them back on track going 35-7 (16-2) in the next 2 seasons but somehow did not win the SEC Championship in 1946 despite being 8-0. Things continued going well for LSU over the next few years, posting mainly winning seasons before another two-year burst of success, the last ones Rabenhorst would see, in 1952-53 and 1953-54. LSU would run up incredible numbers going 42-8 overall and an astounding 27-0 in the SEC during these two seasons, winning back-to-back SEC Titles and reaching the NCAA Final Four in 1953 thanks in large part to the leadership of a basketball great named Robert Lee "Bob" Pettit, Jr.

Pettit, who also went by "Dutch" in college, was a three-time All-SEC selection and two-time All-American in his time at LSU. He averaged 27.8 points per game over his career, putting up an eye-popping 31.4 points per game with 17.3 rebounds per game during his senior season. His number 50 was retired in 1954, making him the first Tiger athlete in any sport to receive this distinction. He was selected in the first round of the NBA draft by the Milwaukee Hawks (who would move to St. Louis following Pettit’s rookie season). Pettit was NBA Rookie of the Year after averaging 20.4 points and 13.8 rebounds per game in his initial season, and Pettit would go on to win the NBA scoring title in just his second season (averaging 25.7ppg). He was the key player on the NBA Championship team of 1958, he was a 2-time MVP, 4x NBA All-Star Game MVP, 11-time NBA All-Star, 10-time All-NBA First Team, 2-time NBA Scoring Champion, and a member of the NBA 25th Anniversary, 35th Anniversary and 50th Anniversary teams. He scored 20,880 points in his pro career (he was the first player in NBA history to score more than 20,000 points), grabbing 12,849 rebounds (the 2nd highest career total at the time) and adding 2,369 assists. He is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, inducted in 1970.

Rabenhorst’s final 3 seasons were unspectacular to say the least as his teams managed just 19 wins against 54 losses. His replacement, Jay McCreary, wasn’t able to fare much better getting just a single winning season in his 8 years at LSU. McCreary was replaced for a season by Frank Truitt who managed a 6-20 record, and then LSU would hire someone who would put them on the basketball map for all-time.

Petar "Press" Maravich played professional basketball with the Youngstown Bears (1945-46) and then the Pittsburgh Ironmen (1946-47) following his standout college career at Davis & Elkins College. He coached at West Virginia Wesleyan College, Davis & Elkins, Clemson, and NC State before coming to Louisiana State University in April of 1966. He immediately made an impact signing after offering a scholarship to his son, Pete. Upon offering the LSU scholarship to his son, he told him "If you don’t sign this…don’t ever come into my house again." It’s fair to say that Press Maravich is best known for being the father of Pete Maravich.

You simply cannot exaggerate enough the skills and talent of Pete Maravich. He was born in Aliquippa, PA, a small steel town in the western part of the state. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age, and he enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Pete played varsity basketball in high school in Central, SC, a year before being old enough to attend the school. After moving with his parents to Raleigh, NC, after his dad’s job change to coach at NC State, Maravich would see the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if he were holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol Pete". Maravich averaged 33 points per game as a senior in HS.

While Pete would admit later in life that he always dreamed of playing for West Virginia University and was all set to be a Mountaineer, his father’s offer was not one he could pass up. In his first game on the LSU freshman team Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists. In only three years of varsity ball at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points (scoring over 1,100 points in each of his 3 seasons) while averaging 43.8, 44.2 and 44.5 points per game. In his collegiate career, this incredible player averaged an incomprehensible 44.2 points per game over 83 career games and led the NCAA in scoring in each of his three seasons. The fact that his career points record still stands now 42 years later is astounding when you consider, again, that he only played 3 seasons of varsity competition and that he played before the advent of the three-point shot.

Years later, long-time LSU head coach Dale Brown charted every college game Maravich played, taking into consideration all shots he took. Brown calculated that at the original NCAA 3-point line of 19’9" from the rim, Maravich would have averaged thirteen 3-point scores per game, lifting the player’s career average to 57 points per game. But perhaps his most mind-boggling stat of all comes when you examine his career statistics in the NCAA Tournament: zero appearances. Despite being the most prolific scorer and one of the best players of all-time, Pete Maravich never appeared in the NCAA Tournament, never won the NIT Championship, never won the SEC Tournament, never won the SEC Championship. He was a 3-time consensus First-Team All-American, 3-time SEC Player of the year, 2-time USBWA Player of the Year, Naismith Player of the Year, Helms Foundation Player of the Year, UPI Player of the Year, Sporting News Player of the Year and AP College Player of the Year.

Pete Maravich would go on to be selected with the 3rd overall pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. After four seasons in Atlanta, he would return to Louisiana with the New Orleans (and then Utah) Jazz, before finishing his career with the Boston Celtics. He was a 5-time NBA All-Star, 2-time All-NBA First Team, 2-time All-NBA Second Team, NBA All-Rookie First Team, a member of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, his #7 is retired by New Orleans Hornets and the Utah Jazz, and he finished his career with 15,948 points (24.2ppg) and 3,563 assists (5.4apg). Maravich is one of the youngest players ever inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and is cited by the Hall as "perhaps the greatest creative offensive talent in history." Pete Maravich died suddenly at the age of 40 in 1988 of an undetected congenital heart defect. He was playing a pick-up basketball game in Pasadena, CA.

Ultimate Pistol Pete Maravich Mix LSU vs. Alabama, starring Pete Maravich Pistol Pete Maravich, The LSU Years (40 minutes)

In spite of coaching his prolific son for half of his coaching career for the Tigers, Press Maravich had an overall losing record at LSU. But, he can still be credited with turning around a program that had hit hard times in the years before his arrival and his lasting legacy, and his son’s, at LSU would be long-remembered. Press Maravich was replaced in 1972 by Dale Brown, and LSU was once again destined for the bright spotlight and all of the good and bad that can bring.

NOTE: We'll have more on the Dale Brown years tomorrow. The short version: in 25 seasons under Brown, LSU won 20 or more games 10 times, attended 13 NCAA Tournaments in a 15-year span, made two Final Fours, made two more Elite Eights, finished seven seasons ranked in the Top 25, signed Shaquille O'Neal, underachieved, overachieved, and ran into trouble with the NCAA. It was a crazy, eventful time for LSU basketball, and it warrants its own post. Stay tuned for that tomorrow. For now, we'll pick up the story in 1997, after Brown's departure.

Brown’s replacement, John Brady, had great overall success in his 10+ seasons at LSU. He coached the team to an overall 167-111 record between 1997-2008, his teams would win the SEC twice (2000 and 2006) and would also reach the Final Four in 2006. His teams also went to the NCAA Tournament in 2000 (Sweet Sixteen), 2003 and 2005 (1st round losses). They would also go to the NIT twice, losing the in 1st and 2nd rounds. Brady would be dismissed midway through the 2008 season, just two years after another unlikely run to the Final Four, and is currently the head basketball coach for the Arkansas State Red Wolves. Brady’s replacement the following season was Trent Johnson, who coached at LSU just 4 seasons going 67-64 overall but did go 27-8 in his first year, winning the SEC and advancing to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.

After two 11-win seasons to follow, his final season in 2011-12 resulted in a 18-15 finish and a loss in the 1st round of the NIT. Replacing him is Johnny Jones, a former LSU player (from the ’81 Final Four team) and assistant coach (from the ’86 Final Four team) under Dale Brown. He had coached at North Texas from 2001-2012, going 190-146 there and making two NCAA Tournament appearances with the Mean Green in 2007 and 2010 (both resulting in 1st round losses).

2012-13

Only one player who averaged double-digit points returns to LSU for 2012-13, and that is JR Guard Andre Stringer. Stringer averaged 10.1ppg on just 34.9% shooting for the year. He adds 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game. LSU did sign a number of players in the 2012 class that should help immediately, including 4-star SG Malik Morgan from River Ridge, LA and a pair of JUCO Forwards from Howard JC in Big Spring, TX, both of them 3-star players in Shavon Coleman and Calvin Godfrey. Corban Collins, a 3-star PG from Woodstock, VA, and Massanutten Military Academcy signed just a couple of weeks ago, and Shane Hammink, son of former LSU great Geert Hammink, comes in as an unrated legacy ready to follow in dad’s footsteps. The 2011 class included 4-star Center Johnny O’Bryant III, who played 21.4 minutes per game as a freshman, and 3-star SG John Isaac who contributed 14.2 minutes per game in his first season.

Best Of The Best

LSU boasts 58 First-Team All-SEC selections in their history, along with 60 Academic All-SEC honors. 12 players have earned SEC Player of the Year, 8 have been First-Team All-Americans. They’ve had 13 NBA First-Round Draft Picks, 1 overall #1 pick, 2 #2 picks and 2 #3 picks. Three former Tigers were members of the NBA at 50 Team, they’ve had 2 College National Players of the Year and currently have 2 Hall of Fame members with Shaquille O’Neal sure to join in a few years.

Many LSU players have made it to the NBA: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Brandon Bass, Ricky Blanton, Frank Brian, Howard Carter, Maurice Carter, John Chaney, Glen Davis, Ronald Dupree, Geert Hammink, Glenn Hansen, Dan Hester, Kenny Higgs, Tito Horford, Steffond Johnson, Randy Livingston, Rudy Macklin, Pete Maravich, Bill Newton, Shaquille O’Neal, Bob Pettit, Anthony Randolph, Jerry Reynolds, Stanley Roberts, Al Sanders, DeWayne Scales, Jabari Smith, Stromile Swift, Collis Temple, Tyrus Thomas, John Williams and Nikita Wilson.

Pete Maravich has all of the scoring records at LSU, with 69 in a game, 1,381 in a season, and 3,667 in a career. Al Sanders set the season mark for rebounds with 474 in 1970 and Durand Macklin owns the career record with 1,276 from 1976-1981. Kenny Higgs is all things assists with the record for a game (19), season (235 in 1977) and career (645 from 1974-78). Darryl Joe had 93 steals in 1987 to set the single-season mark, while Clarence Ceasar has the career record with 310 from 1991-95. Shaq of course wrote the book on blocked shots with 12 in a game, 157 in a season and 412 in a career.

The Arena

The Tigers play their home games in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, a 13,215-seat multi-purpose arena that opened in 1972. It was originally known as the LSU Assembly Center, but was renamed in memory of Pete Maravich shortly after his death in 1988. It is known to locals as "The PMAC" or "The House that Pete Built", or by its more nationally-known nickname "The Deaf Dome", coined by Dick Vitale. Prior to the building of the Assembly Center, LSU played its games at John M. Parker Agricultural Coliseum, aka "The Cow Palace".

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: Yale Blue And The Tad Pad

ZouDave — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:34:12 -0000

Ole Miss Week continues with a move to the Tad Pad.

Monday: Ole Miss And College Football's Most Underrated Coach

One really odd thing I learned about Ole Miss during my research for this piece was that the Rebels’ official colors are Yale Blue and Harvard Crimson. I just … I don’t even … it’s … do you have your own identity, Ole Miss?

Well yes, Ole Miss does have its own identity. It’s not one of historical greatness or big names and high peaks, but it’s one that shows under the right conditions this is a program that can sustain success.

A Short History

Things did not start off with a bang for the Rebels’ basketball program. Their first game took place in 1909 and resulted in a 12-11 loss to the Memphis Physicians, a game in which the Rebels are said to have blown a 7-6 halftime lead due to Memphis "having the wind at their backs" for the second half. Their only win in their first season came in the season finale against Mississippi College, 28-11, to finish the year 1-4. Ole Miss would experience four winless seasons between 1910 and 1919, going 51-50 through the end of the 1920 season. Things picked up under first notable coach R.L. Sullivan (who, as SEC tradition would have it, was also an Ole Miss football coach) who led the team to a 66-32 record from 1919-1925. The program achieved its 100th victory in 1925 as members of the Southern Conference. Sullivan’s teams would never finish below .500, and he oversaw two of the best seasons in Ole Miss history as his teams went 16-6 and 17-8 in 1923-24 and 1924-25. In 1926, under new head coach Homer Hazel, the Rebels achieved a 12-game winning streak, including 9 consecutive wins away from home, that was snapped in the Southern Conference Tournament Final. This 12-game winning streak would remain a program best until it was finally broken during the 2007-08 season when the squad put together 13 straight wins. Hazel would lead the 1928 Rebels to wins over NC State, LSU, Kentucky and finally Auburn to make Ole Miss the Southern Conference Tournament Champions. The team finished the season 10-9. The Rebels would not win another conference tournament championship until 1981.

It remained difficult for Ole Miss to put together any kind of meaningful success for quite a long time. After putting up overall winning percentages in the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s, the Rebels would not again experience a winning decade until the 1990’s. From the formation of the SEC in 1932 until the end of the 1980s, Ole Miss would finish as high as 2nd in the conference twice (1938 and 1983) and as high as 3rd just two other times (1937 and 1945). During this stretch, Ole Miss would finish 10th or worse in the conference an astonishing 21 times. Thirteen coaches in 57 seasons produced just 15 winning seasons. Four times, the Rebels suffered losing streaks of 12 games or more with the worst being a 16-game skid in the 1975-76 season. The first Ole Miss coach to reach 100 wins was B.L. "Country" Graham in 1958. Graham took over the Rebel program in the 1949-50 season and coached until the end of 1962. He had just 3 winning seasons and never finished higher than 4th in the conference. Win #700 for the program came in 1982, some 73 years after the program began, just one year after their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1981. Their first appearance in any post-season tournament, outside of a conference tournament, took place in 1980 in the NIT. Ole Miss has gone on to appear in the NIT in 1982, 1983, 1987, 1989, 2000, 2007, 2008 and 2010, and reached the NIT Final Four in 2008.

The brightest star along the dark path of pre-modern era Ole Miss basketball was Forward Johnny Neumann, an All-American in his first and only season as a Rebel in 1970-71. In that season, Neumann drew comparisons to Pete Maravich after averaging an NCAA-high 40.1 points per game. His strongest performances included a 63-point game against LSU and a 60-point game against Baylor. Neumann earned All-America and SEC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year honors at the end of the season. Neumann would score an Ole Miss single-season record 923 points on the season, he holds the top 3 (and 5 of the top 6) individual scoring games in Rebels history, holds the career scoring average mark at 40.1 (a full 14.0 ppg over 2nd place) as well as the season mark (by 10.0 ppg). He set the season mark for field goals made in a season at 366, and field goals attempted in a season with 792 (incidentally, he still holds down the top 9 spots for FGA/game in the Ole Miss record book). Neumann would play in both the ABA and NBA, playing for six different ABA teams as well a s the LA Lakers and Indiana Pacers in the NBA.

So while things weren’t exactly stellar for the first 8+ decades of Ole Miss basketball, the last 20-ish years really haven’t been that bad. The Rebels sported winning records in the 1990s and 2000s, as well as going 20-14 in 2011-12. Rob Evans took over as coach of Ole Miss in 1992 after having served as an assistant at Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and New Mexico State. In his 6 seasons in Oxford, Evans led his teams to a 86-81 overall record and would win the SEC West twice in his final 2 seasons with the program. He also would lead Ole Miss into the NCAA Tournament in those two seasons, resulting in first round losses and would oversee Ole Miss’ first appearance in the AP Top 25 after the Rebels defeated Kentucky in 1997 to climb to #20. Evans would leave to take a job at Arizona State and would be replaced by Rod Barnes who had served as an assistant under Evans since 1993 after playing basketball for the Rebels from 1985-1988. He earned All-SEC and All-America honorable mention honors in 1988 and served as head coach for Ole Miss until the end of 2006. During this time, Barnes accumulated a record of 141-109 and was named Naismith College Coach of the Year in 2001 as well as being SEC Coach of the Year in the same season. Barnes’ teams would reach four consecutive post-season tournaments in his first four seasons, 3 of which were NCAA Tournaments. The 2000-01 season was the high point for Ole Miss basketball as they finished the season 27-8, once again finishing 1st in the SEC West, and ultimately reaching the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament for the first and only time. Ole Miss achieved win #1000 as a program on 12/28/2002, just 20 years after win #700 which took 73 years.

Barnes would eventually be ousted as coach after a series of disappointing seasons and would be replaced by current coach Andy Kennedy in 2006. Prior to the Ole Miss job, Kennedy had been an assistant and then interim head coach at Cincinnati. Kennedy was a 1986 Parade All-American in high school and was a member of Jim Valvano’s 1987 ACC Championship Team at NC State. Kennedy also played briefly for the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. During his six seasons at the helm at Ole Miss, Kennedy has led Ole Miss to five 20-win campaigns and five post-season berths, with seven post-season victories in those appearances (all of which have been in the NIT). He has the most victories by an Ole Miss coach in a 5-year period, he is the first coach in school history to record four or more 20+ win seasons (he has over half of Ole Miss’ total 20-win seasons in program history), as well as many other notable marks.

2012-13

Ole Miss is coming off of consecutive 20-14 seasons and is poised to return four of their top five scorers from last season, all of which averaged double-figures. Awesomely named Dundrecous Nelson leads returning scorers with 11.6ppg while big man Murphy Holloway contributed 11.2ppg and 9.0rpg. Five new players join the Rebels in the 2012 recruiting class, headlined by 4-star Martavious Newby, a SG out of Memphis, TN, ranked #26 at his position and #104 overall by Rivals.com Newby had offers from 9 other schools, including Missouri. Joining him are a quartet of 3-star players in SF Terry Brutus of Spring Valley, VA, PF Jason Carter from Chipola J.C. in Marianna, FL, SF Anthony Cortesia from Montverde, FL, and SG Marshall Henderson from South Plains C.C. in Levelland, TX.

Best Of The Best

Forty-six players have gone on to play in the pros from Ole Miss, most of which have been overseas. NBA players include John Billups, Denver Brackeen, Carlos Clark, Patrick Eddie, Joe Gibbon, Gerald Glass, Cob Jarvis, Johnny Neumann, Justin Reed, Ansu Sesay, Roger Stieg, John Stroud, Sean Tuohy, Elston Turner, and Terrico White.

Incidentally, Ansu Sesay is apparently of absolutely no relation to former Mizzou TE Victor Sesay. Unfortunate.

Thirty-two players have scored over 1,000 points in their careers for Ole Miss. The career record for points is held by John Stroud at 2,328 from 1977-1980. The single-season mark, of course, belongs to Johnny Neumann at 923 in 1971. Chris Warren holds the record for 3-pointers made in a season with 111 in 2010 (he is also #2 on the list with 103 in 2008 and #4 on the list with 95 in 2011). Warren also holds the career mark for 3-pointers at 334 from 2008-2011. Dwayne Curtis set the record for rebounds in a season with 337 in 2008, while the career record is held by Walter Actwood with 945 from 1974-77. Sean Tuohy is the beginning and end of the list for assists at Ole Miss. He holds the career record with 830 from 1979-92 and is 374 ahead of 2nd place. Tuohy holds the top 3 spots for single-season assists with 260 in 1980, 215 in 1982 and 182 in 1981. He also had 168 in 1979, good for 6th best. He also holds 7 of the top 8 spots for assists in a single-game with his best being 15 against Auburn in 1980. Reginald Buckner set the career mark for blocked shots just last season by upping his total to 228 from 2010-2012. He now also holds the top 3 spots for a single-season with 95 in 2011, 69 in 2012 and 64 in 2010. Buckner returns for his Senior season in 2012-13 with eyes on setting the career mark unreachably high. Gerald Glass holds the single-season record for steals with 89 in 1989, while Jason Smith set the career mark at 211 from 1996-99.

The Arena

Ole Miss plays their games at C.M. "Tad" Smith Coliseum, which was opened in 1966 and seats 9,061. The building opened during the 1966 seasons as Rebel Coliseum, but was renamed on March 25, 1972, to honor C.M. "Tad" Smith, a former three-sport letterman, coach and athletic director at the university. Ole Miss is 436-194 in 46 seasons at the "Tad Pad".

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: Bulldog Basketball Worthy Of The Big Screen

ZouDave — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:18:22 -0000

Mississippi State Week moves from Davis Wade Stadium down the road to the Humphrey Coliseum. You could write a screenplay about what happened in Starkville in early 1963.

Monday: Mississippi State Football Caught In The Undertow

The Mississippi State Bulldogs basketball program lacks an overall historical identity, but that’s mainly due to the vacancy of quality in the program from its inception in 1909 through the hiring of Mississippi State alum Babe McCarthy in 1955. Of its first 10 coaches, only one managed a record that really catches your eye and that was E.C. Hayes who won 124 games in 12 years, losing just 54. But from 1955 to now, Mississippi State not only has a program on the rise, they also have a history to be very proud of.

A Short History

With an overall record of 1272-1056 in their 97-year history, the Bulldogs have won 908 of them since the hiring of the aforementioned James Harrison “Babe” McCarthy in 1955. McCarthy, from Baldwyn, MS, was sometimes called “Magnolia Mouth” and is often remembered best for MSU’s appearance in the 1963 NCAA Tournament when...well, we’ll get to that in a moment. McCarthy’s 169 wins, earned over 10 seasons, stood as the all-time high for the Bulldogs until he was passed by the two most recent coaches in Starkville. And while MSU had won regular season conference championships early in their history (1912-1914 and 1916 as members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association), as members of the SEC they’d been a complete non-factor. Under McCarthy, the Bulldogs sported an impressive 88-54 record in the SEC including conference regular season championships in 1959, 1961, 1962 and 1963. Mississippi State would see its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1963, in which they advanced to the Sweet Sixteen by virtue of their SEC Championship. McCarthy was named SEC Coach of the Year 3 times, all in years when he coached against Adolph Rupp.

The Bulldogs had won the SEC title four times in 5 seasons, but did not appear in the NCAA Tournament until after the 4th title. The reason for this is mired in the murky history of our country’s south, but the result stands as a point of pride for Babe McCarthy, Mississippi State University and its fans. During this time of the segregated south of the 1950s and 1960s, Mississippi state law barred college teams at state schools from playing games against racially integrated teams. The Bulldogs had been forced to turn down three previous NCAA Tournament bids for this reason.

On March 2, 1963, MSU President Dean W. Colvard decided to accept the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as SEC Champions regardless of the prospect of playing an integrated team in Loyola University Chicago. On March 7, 1963, the Jackson Daily News printed a picture of Loyola’s starters to show that four of them were African Americans. As a caption to the picture, Daily News editor Jimmy Ward wrote that “readers may desire to clip the photo of the Loyola team and mail it today to the board of trustees of the institution of higher learning” to prevent the game from taking place. On March 9, 1963, the College Board of Mississippi met and upheld Colvard’s decision. But on March 13, just a day before the team was scheduled to travel to East Lansing, state senator Billy Mitts and former state senator B.W. Lawson sought and obtained a temporary injunction against the team leaving the state.

While sheriffs were on their way to Starkville, MS, to serve the injunction, the team was participating in a pep rally the night before their departure, where effigies of racist state senators Mitts and Lawson were hung. The team’s original plan was to leave Starkville at 8:30am on Thursday morning. But learning that sheriffs would be expected to arrive at 11:30pm Wednesday night, MSU put their sophisticated contingency plan into effect.

McCarthy, along with the athletic director and the assistant athletic director, drove to Memphis and then flew to Nashville. The team itself sent the freshman squad to the airport as scheduled, posing as the varsity team. The real varsity team hid in a dorm on campus. The next morning, they boarded a private plane at the airport and flew to Nashville to meet up with the coach and team officials. From Nashville, the whole group took a commercial flight to the game at East Lansing, MI. Loyola U. won the game 61-51 and would go on to win the National Championship over Cincinnati while MSU won their Regional Third Place game over Bowling Green 65-60.

McCarthy departed MSU to coach George Washington University for a season and then coached in the ABA from 1967-1974. Babe McCarthy died in 1975 after losing a battle with colon cancer.

Dark days returned to the Bulldogs basketball program following McCarthy’s departure. From 1965-1986, MSU put together a record of 255-303 over the career of 5 coaches. But everything changed for the better, and seemingly forever, with the hiring of Richard Williams, another MSU alum, for the ’86-’87 season.

Williams had to revive a program that had basically been left for dead. With only 8 winning seasons in a 21-year span, Mississippi State hadn’t won a conference championship or appeared in the NCAA Tournament since 1963. Their only post-season appearance in that time came in the 1979 NIT which resulted in a first round loss. Williams’ first three seasons continued that trend, but in the 1989-90 season his team finished 16-14 and was selected to the NIT where they lost in the Second Round. The following year, MSU went 20-9, winning the SEC and returning to the NCAA Tournament. They would again return to the NIT in ’93-’94, and then win the SEC West in consecutive years in ’94-’95 and ’95-’96 going 22-8 and 26-8, respectively. The Bulldogs reached the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 1995, and then reached their first and only Final Four in 1996 before losing to National Runner-Up Syracuse (who would lose to SEC powerhouse Kentucky). When Richard Williams left MSU following the 1998 season, he left as the Bulldogs’ winningest coach in history with 191 wins and, 3 of the school’s 4 NCAA Tournament appearances, the school’s only SEC Tournament Championship and the school’s only Elite Eight and Final Four appearance. The best, mostly, was still to come.

Rick Stansbury was Richard Williams’ top assistant starting in 1990 and served as head coach at Mississippi State from 1998-2012, amassing a record of 293-165 and is the only MSU coach to record more than 100 SEC wins. In fact, he’s the only coach with a winning record for his career in the SEC besides Babe McCarthy. His teams would win the SEC Regular Season Championship in 2004 and 2009, the SEC Tournament in 2002, and the SEC Western Division in 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2010. He was also the 2004 SEC Coach of the Year. His teams reached the post-season 9 times in 11 seasons, including 5 consecutive post-season appearances which makes him the only MSU coach to accomplish that feat. Stansbury also own’s MSU’s record for consecutive 20-win seasons with four from 2001-05 and again from 2006-10. Only his 1999-2000 squad finished below .500 at 14-16.

Rick Stansbury retired following the end of the 2012 season at the age of 52. In his place, Mississippi State hired Rick Ray, formerly a Clemson assistant coach, making him the first black head coach in MSU history. This is his first collegiate head coaching job.

2012-13

The Bulldogs return two of their top three returning scorers in Arnett Moultrie, a 6’11” forward who averaged 16.4ppg and 10.5rpg as a Junior. Former 5-star player Rodney Hood stood out as a star Freshman guard averaging 10.3ppg along with 4.8rpg and 2.0apg. Five talented players are set to join MSU this season, headlined by 4-star SG Craig Sword from Montgomery, AL, and 4-star C Gavin Ware from Starkville, MS. Rounding out the class are 3-star players SF Andre Applewhite from Memphis, TN, PF Colin Borchert from Scooba, MS, and SG Fred Thomas from Jackson, MS. Already committed for 2013 is 3-star PG Imara Ready from Little Rock, AR.

Best Of The Best

The greatest name in MSU basketball history belongs to Bailey Howell, who was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997. Howell played at Mississippi State from 1956-1959 and was a two-time All-American and three-time 1st-Team All-SEC. He ranked in the nation’s Top 10 in both scoring and rebounding during all three varsity seasons at MSU, averaging 27.8ppg and 27.5ppg in his final 2 seasons. He owns MSU’s career records for scoring average (27.1), rebounds (1,277), rebounding average (17.0), FT made (682), and FT attempted (892). He ranks 2nd at MSU with 2,030 points. He starred for 12 years in the NBA, having ranked among the all-time Top 10 leaders in nine statistical categories upon his retirement in 1971. He was a six-time NBA All-Star and named to the All-NBA Second Team in 1963. He won two titles with the Boston Celtics in 1968 and 1969 after having been the 2nd overall pick in the 1959 draft by the Detroit Pistons.

Other MSU players who’ve played in the NBA include Raymond Brown, Rickey Brown, Joe Courtney, Erick Dampier, Tang Hamilton, Dontae Jones, Jeff Malone, Leland Mitchell, Wiley Peck, Lawrence Roberts, Red Stroud and Derrick Zimmerman. 23 total players have been drafted to the NBA out of MSU (6 in the first round).

Mississippi State boasts 18 All-Americans in its history, along with 9 SEC Coaches of the Year, 6 SEC Players of the Year, 2 SEC Newcomers of the Year and 4 SEC Defensive Players of the Year (three of which are Jarvis Varnado from 2007-2010).

Jeff Malone holds the single-season and career marks for points with 777 from 1982-83 and 2,142 from 1980-83. Bailey Howell holds the records for rebounds in a single-season with 492 in 1956-57 and in a career with 1,277 from 1956-59. Chuck Evans holds the single-season record for assists with 235 in 1992-93, while Derrick Zimmerman holds the career record at 514 from 2000-03. Jarvis Varnado holds the record for blocked shots in a game (10), season (170 in 2008-09 & 2009-10) and career (564 from 2007-10).

The Arena

The Bulldogs player their home games in the Humphrey Coliseum, a 10,575-seat arena that is nicknamed “The Hump”. The building is the equivalent of seven stories high and is in the shape of an oval 318’ long by 268’ wide. Built in 1975, it is named for George Duke Humphrey, former President of Mississippi State. The Hump is generally regarded as one of the loudest arenas in all of the SEC. Corey Brewer, former University of Florida player, was quoted as saying about The Hump: “It gets loud. I don’t know why. It’s a different kind of loud. So loud that you can’t think.”

Missouri's All-Time Series Versus Mississippi State

Mizzou leads the series, 2-1.

December 7, 1974: Missouri 102, Mississippi State 78 at the Show-Me Classic in Columbia
January 2, 2007: Missouri 83, Mississippi State 75 in Columbia

If Howie Mandel had stumbled upon Missouri basketball Coach Mike Anderson before the season with a "Deal or No Deal" proposal of an 11-2 nonconference record, there would have been no discussion, debate or deliberation.

"Write the check, man. I’ll take that," Anderson said last night after his Tigers beat Mississippi State 83-75 at Mizzou Arena to move within one victory of last year’s season total. […]

[Stefhon] Hannah, who leads the nation in steals, added five to the pile last night to go along with 27 points, five assists and five rebounds. Mississippi State spent a fair portion of the game with forward Jamont Gordon bringing the ball upcourt, and he committed seven turnovers. The Bulldogs had 24 turnovers overall.

"It’s not unusual for anybody to come in here and turn it over 24 times," MSU Coach Rick Stansbury said.

Stansbury said his team’s defensive focus was to prevent Hannah from creating easy baskets for his teammates. But the Bulldogs couldn’t stop Hannah from creating scoring chances for himself. In the final 2½ minutes, with Mississippi State trying to make one last run in a game that had several scoring binges, Hannah twice worked the shot clock down to the nub, drove to the basket and hit runners.

"It’s choose your poison with him," Stansbury said. "He’s an exceptional guard."

It’s pretty handy to have the best player on the floor be a point guard who is wearing your uniform. That’s one reason this team looks like it’s built to last into March. That part isn’t necessarily a surprise, although the postseason tournament in question is. An NIT bid seemed a reasonable goal two months ago. Now, the NCAA Tournament is a realistic target.

That’s a deal any of us would have taken in November.
December 30, 2007: Mississippi State 87, Missouri 75 in Starkville

Missouri’s basketball players left the visitor’s locker room staring blankly ahead as they trudged down the hallway, heading for a bus and then an airplane that would take them back to Columbia after a fruitless road trip.

It all looked familiar.

They had made the same unpleasant trek out of Bud Walton Arena, Haas Pavilion and the Scottrade Center, and yesterday they took it from Humphrey Coliseum after an 87-75 loss to Mississippi State.

As in those other games at Arkansas, California and on a neutral floor against Illinois, the Tigers were in position to win heading into the final five minutes only to unravel down the stretch. They missed too many shots and made too many defensive mistakes to keep up with the Bulldogs, who finished the game on a 19-9 run.

"The other team seems to step up, and our guys just haven’t stepped up and made plays," said junior guard Matt Lawrence, who scored a career-high 28 points. "We kind of need to check ourselves. … If we don’t, it’s going to be the same result the rest of the year." […]

Missouri, which hasn’t won a nonconference road game since a 63-58 victory at Indiana on Dec. 6, 2003, dropped to 1-5 away from Mizzou Arena this season. The Tigers’ only win away from home came against Maryland in front of a pro-Missouri crowd in the consolation game of the CBE Classic in Kansas City.

"We’re not giving up," Carroll said. "We lost. We’re going into a new year, and I guess we’ve got to have a new mind frame, set goals and have everybody look themselves in the mirror and be like, ‘Am I giving my all when I get out there?’ ’

"I think Marshall Brown and Jason Horton are doing a good job of leading, but I think they’re going to have to put their foot down even more to get players to respond."

Bo Knows Live Threads!

ZouDave — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:12:09 -0000

Monday: Auburn Football, From Sullivan To Beasley To Cam
Tuesday: The Round Mound And Short Successes
Wednesday: The Closers Talk Auburn, Part I
Wednesday: Auburn's Other Sports Are Pretty Strong
Wednesday: Rock M Roundtable, Auburn Edition
Thursday: The Closers Talk Auburn, Part II

We round out Auburn Week with a celebration of one of the most transcendent pure athletes of our lifetimes.

Personally, I was lucky enough to be a kid in Kansas City when the Bo-nomenon was taking place so I had a great view of the entire thing. I remember my dad calling me into the room once in 1985 on Thanksgiving weekend to watch this kid at Auburn and the first time I saw him he ran for a touchdown. I was sold. Just a month earlier I had seen my baseball team win their only World Series, and my 9-year old brain decided "I want this guy to play for Kansas City!"

Well, I got my wish. In baseball.

There aren't enough superlatives to describe Bo Jackson, and now matter how you try to exaggerate him you never really seem to be able to go overboard. He personified awesome, and there was nothing he couldn't do.

So what are your memories of Bo Jackson? What was his greatest strength? His greatest moment? Should he be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? What kind of impact could he have made on baseball if he hadn't gotten hurt dabbling in his hobby? Share your thoughts as we end Auburn week talking about the single greatest athlete I've ever seen in my life, both in reality and even in video games.

Caption for the above photo: 1985: Bo Jackson #34 of Auburn University carries the ball during a game in the 1985 season. ( Photo by: Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: The Round Mound And Short Successes

ZouDave — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:28:29 -0000

Auburn Football, From Sullivan To Beasley To Cam

Auburn Week continues with a look at the basketball court, where the Tigers have seen sporadic success and enormous personalities.

If you ask people who the best athlete to ever come out of Auburn University, most of them will tell you it was Bo Jackson. If you ask Bo Jackson, he’ll tell you it was Charles Barkley.

Incidentally, if you ask Charles Barkley that question…he’ll also tell you it was Charles Barkley.

While Auburn is far from a storied program when it comes to basketball, they certainly have their history and their achievements are revered mightily by the orange and blue faithful.

A Short History

Under the guidance of "Iron Mike" Donahue, the Auburn basketball program was born in 1905. Donahue, who played quarterback at Yale University before graduating from the prestigious Ivy League school in 1903, became Auburn’s head football coach in 1904. And though he served as the head football coach at Auburn from 1904-1922, he also found the time to coach the basketball team as well from 1905-1921. As a basketball coach, he excelled at football. In his 16 seasons in charge of the action on the hardwood, his teams compiled a 74-80 record. Conversely, his football teams at Auburn racked up a more than impressive 105-35-5 record, earning two Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles in 1913 and 1919 and his 1913 squad was retroactively recognized as a National Champion.

After Donahue departed Auburn to move on to LSU, Tiger basketball would see a number of head coaches in a revolving door of non-success. From 1921 to the end of the 1933 season, Auburn would go through 6 different head coaches compiling a record of 89 wins against 96 losses. In 1932, a young man from Selma, AL, named James Ralph "Shug" Jordan (pronounced JURD-an, fyi) graduated from Auburn University after lettering in football, basketball and baseball while also being voted Most Outstanding Athlete in 1932. The following year, Ralph Jordan became the head basketball coach at Auburn (and, just because it was apparently the custom, he was also named assistant football coach). He coached the Tigers from 1933-1942 and then again from 1945-1946. During his "time off", Jordan served in the United States Army as an officer, seeing action in North Africa and Sicily before being wounded in the invasion of Normandy and receiving a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. After recovering from his wounds, he continued his served in the Pacific serving at Okinawa. During his 10 years as Auburn’s basketball coach, Shug Jordan compiled a record of 95-77 and is 5th all-time in wins for Auburn basketball. Now, the name Jordan should be familiar when it’s mentioned with Auburn, and that’s because Ralph Jordan would return to Auburn in 1951 (after serving as Georgia’s head basketball coach from 1946-1950) to go on to become Auburn’s winningest football coach of all-time. The football stadium, formerly Cliff Hare Stadium, was renamed Jordan-Hare Stadium in his honor in 1973.

The next 5 years were business as usual for Auburn basketball, until former Tiger basketball player Joel H. Eaves was hired prior to the 1949 season and Auburn would enter its best, longest stretch of success it would enjoy in basketball. Eaves coached the Tigers for 14 seasons from 1949-1963, amassing a 213-100 record and winning the school’s first regular season Conference Championship in 1960, clinched by defeating arch-rival Alabama 63-61 in overtime. The 1960 team sported a record of 19-3 (12-2) and finished the year ranked #11 in the final AP poll. Eaves still stands atop the Auburn list of wins for a coaching career and only Mike Donahue coached more seasons for the Tigers.

Each of the next 2 coaches would compile winning records overall, but only just. The Tigers went 200-185 from 1963-1978 before Charles H. "Sonny" Smith, former Milligan College standout and East Tennessee State coach, would usher in a new era of success for Auburn.

Under Smith’s leadership, Auburn would win their only SEC Conference Tournament, make their first 5 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, advanced to the Sweet Sixteen twice and Elite Eight once. Smith was also named SEC Coach of the Year in 1984 and 1989 and is the only Auburn basketball coach in history to have three consecutive 20-win seasons (1984-86). Not coincidentally, it was during this time that Auburn had its two most celebrated basketball alums: Charles Barkley (1981-1984) and Chuck Person (1982-1986).

Charles Barkley from Leeds, Alabama, came to Auburn in 1981 and would spend 3 years dominating the SEC boards. In each of his three seasons, he led the SEC in rebounds. Earning the name "The Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley’s lack of height and overweight frame would never keep him from crowd-pleasing with blocked shots or defensive rebounds that led to him dribbling the length of the floor to finish with a 2-handed dunk. He was SEC Player of the Year in 1984, a 3-time All-SEC selection and was Second Team All-American once. He would later be named the SEC Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Birmingham Post-Herald. He averaged 14.8 points per game for his career on 68.2% field goal shooting, 9.6 rebounds per game, 1.6 assists and 1.7 blocks. His lone NCAA Tournament appearance finished with him scoring 23 points on 80% shooting, grabbing 17 rebounds, chalking up 4 assists and adding 2 steals and 2 blocks. Barkley went on to be selected 5th overall in the 1st Round of the 1984 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers and would enjoy a marvelous NBA career resulting in his enshrinement in the Basketball Hall of Fame. During his illustrious NBA career he was MVP once (1993), an All-Star 11 times, named to the All-NBA First Team 5 times, All-NBA Second Team 5 times, was a member of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, scored 23,757 points, grabbed 12,546 rebounds and added 4,215 assists. He was also a member of the 1992 USA Dream Team.

Chuck Person of Brantley, Alabama, was not heavily recruited out of high school but Auburn took a chance on him in 1982. After serving as mainly a reserve player to start his career, he blossomed into a starter at forward teamed with Charles Barkley at Center. Even after Barkley’s departure in 1984, Person still made Auburn a relevant team and led the Tigers to be the first team to ever win 4 games in 4 days to win the SEC Tournament (Auburn’s first and only SEC Tournament title) in 1985. As a Senior, Person led Auburn to an upset victory over No. 1 ranked St. John’s University on its way to an Elite Eight appearance before losing to eventual National Champion Louisville. Person holds Auburn’s single-season scoring record with 747 points in 1984-85 as well as the career record at 2,311. His 108 double-figure scoring games in his career is also an Auburn record, racking up a mind-blowing 68 consecutive games with at least 10 points from the final 3 games of the ’83 season through the end of the 1985 season. Chuck would go on to be drafted 4th overall in the 1986 draft by the Indiana Pacers and would play in the NBA until 2000. He was voted Rookie of the Year in 1987 and scored 13,858 points in his NBA career with 5 different teams.

Sonny Smith left Auburn following the 1989 season with a career record of 173-154.

The other notable Auburn basketball coach came in Cliff Ellis who coached there from 1994-2004, leaving with a record of 186-125. He would take Auburn back to the NCAA Tournament 3 times (1999, 2000 and 2003), making the Sweet Sixteen twice and winning Auburn’s only other SEC regular season Conference Title in 1999. The 1999 team finished 29-4 (14-2) on the season, with a #4 ranking in the final AP poll.

All told, Auburn’s record in 106 seasons of basketball is 1231-1079, a .532 winning percentage. They are 557-655 in SEC play, a winning percentage of just .459.

Current head coach Tony Barbee has been at Auburn since 2010 so he will be entering his 3rd season this year with a record of 26-36 (9-23). Barbee was a successful coach at UTEP for 4 seasons prior to being hired at Auburn where he led the Miners to a 82-52 mark and made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2010 after winning the Conference USA championship. He was named Conference USA Coach of the Year following the 2010 season.

The current Auburn Tigers return the majority of their team coming off a 15-16 season, including leading scorer Frankie Sullivan who scored 12.8 ppg from his SG position. Sullivan also led the team in steals with 1.4 per game. The Tigers signed 5 players in the 2012 class, headlined by 4-star SF Jordan Price out of Lithonia, GA who Rivals.com ranked as the #16 player at his position and #79 player overall. Joining him are a quartet of 3-star players in 6’11" C Asauhn Dixon-Tatum from Chattahoochee Technical College, SG Brian Greene Jr. from IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL, SF Shaquille Johnson from Alpharetta, GA, and 6’7" PF Jordon Granger from Florrisant, MO.

Tigers In The NBA

Five players have had their jersey retired at Auburn: #34 Charles Barkley, #15 John Mengelt, #23 Rex Frederick, #45 Chuck Person and #11 Wesley Person. In addition to Barkley and Chuck Person in the NBA, Auburn has had 18 other players go on to the league: Jamison Brewer, Pat Burke, Bobby Cattage, Marquis Daniels, Adam Harrington, Eddie Johnson, Darrell Lockhart, John Mengelt, Mike Mitchell, Chris Morris, Mamadou N’diaye, Moochie Norris, Myles Patrck, Stan Pietkiewicz, Wesley Person, Chris Porter and Aaron Swinson. Auburn boasts 11 All-Americans, 85 All-SEC selections, with two SEC Players of the Year, 7 SEC Coaches of the Year and one National Coach of the Year.

Best Of The Best

Auburn’s single-season leading scorer is Chuck Person with 747, who also holds the career mark at 2,311. The highest average per game scoring in a season goes to John Mengelt in 1970-71 with 28.4 ppg, and Mengelt also holds the career record for average at 24.8 from 1968-71. Korvotney Barber holds the record for rebounds in a season, set recently in 2008-09 with 347 (133 of which were offensive). The career mark is held by Mike Mitchell with 996 from 1974-78. Gerald White holds the season and career marks for assists with 221 in 1985-86 and 624 from 1983-87. Kyle Davis owns the blocked shots records for game (13), season (126 in 2002-03) and career (288 from 2000-04). The single-season record for steals is held by Marquis Daniels in 2002-03 with 78, and Quantez Robertson holds the career mark at 210 from 2005-09. The career mark was tied by DeWayne Reed from 2006-10.

The Arena

Auburn plays its home games at Auburn Arena (creative name…oh, wait), which was opened in 2010 and seats 9,121. Auburn lost the inaugural game at Auburn Arena to UNC Asheville, losing 70-69 in overtime.

Missouri's All-Time Series Versus Auburn

The next time Mizzou and Auburn play will actually be their first.

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: Tigers Take Down The Bear

ZouDave — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 20:40:39 -0000

Images Via The Savitar

Monday: Alabama Is Good At Football
Tuesday: Alabama Basketball Has Had Its Moments
Wednesday: The Closers Talk Alabama, Part I
Wednesday: Rock M Roundtable
Thursday: The Closers Talk Alabama, Part II
Thursday: Alabama's Other Sports Are Mostly Strong

For this piece, I enlisted a special guest: my father.

-----

I was fortunate enough to attend two of Mizzou's victories over Alabama in 1968 and in 1975.

In 1968 I was a Marine Corps 1st Lieutenant who returned from Vietnam in August of 1968, got married in late August and moved to my next duty station at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. I should be clear here: I am an alum of what is now Missouri State, but I have been a Tiger fan since seeing my first game in 1958. My wife is an MU alum (Theta, class of '68) so we shared our Tiger fandom.

When we found out Missouri would be playing in the Gator Bowl, I volunteered to be Officer of the Day for the base in return for a 48-hour pass so we could attend the game. I'm not sure if I wrote MU or the Gator Bowl for tickets (this was way before the electronic age), but we got them and drove from the base to Jacksonville, Florida, for the game.

My wife had an MU cowboy hat and wore it proudly to a restaurant the night before the game. We were immediately accosted by an inebriated Alabama fan who assured us we were about to absorb the ass kicking of our lives. Marines are civilized and do not slap drunks silly every time one tries to abuse us, so I let it pass, only telling him that we (the TIgers) would show up and hopefully give them a game.

The game itself was truly a thing of beauty. I can only compare it to the win over Oklahoma in 2010. I know we did not complete a pass, and I'm not sure we even threw one. Unfortunately I did not see the fan from the restaurant again, so I was unable to shove the 35-10 score up his ass.

We made some good friends in the Marine Corps, a couple from Montgomery, Alabama, that are still our good friends today. They are Auburn people and think of Bama like we abhor kU. We were all out of the Corps by then, but when we found out about the Alabama game in Birmingham in 1975, we decided this would be a great time to get together. We flew to Montgomery a couple of days before the game, and our friends (the Elliots) had a party for us. We again suffered the taunts of the Bama fans, but they were just talking smack and it was all in good fun. It was a night game, so we drove up to Birmingham the morning of the game and stayed at a motel there which provided us a bus ride to the game. We again endured the chatter about how we were going to die. I reminded them of the Gator Bowl and was assured this would be a different game.

It wasn't. Missouri simply beat their ass. It was almost as much fun as the kU game in 2007. The Elliots enjoyed it almost as much as we did. When we got back on the bus to the motel, it was a sad looking bunch, and I announced I would be the quietest winner they had ever witnessed. The entire bus could not have been more gracious and complimentary. That's when I really came to believe in Southern Hospitality.

As a side note, when counting back, I believe that was the night my son, Zou Dave was conceived. So all things considered, a great weekend. I have raised him correctly, that is to live and die with Tiger football. Though not an alum, I am a Tiger in my heart and ZD and I are season ticket holders and look forward to joining the SEC.

MIZ-

(I thought maybe I was a Tiger good luck charm against Alabama until we played them in Columbia a few years later but they rolled us. My wife wasn't with me, Maybe she was the charm.)

Mizzou Moves To The SEC: Alabama Basketball Has Had Its Moments

ZouDave — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:45:16 -0000

Monday: Alabama Is Good At Football

Alabama Week continues with a look toward the hardcourt.

Living in the mammoth shadow that Alabama football casts simply can’t be easy. Football season arguably never ends in the SEC, and basketball is at best a second fiddle into January until after the bowl games are over and honestly for probably another month until after National Signing Day. But for those who have paid attention, there’s a well-kept secret in Tuscaloosa in the Crimson Tide basketball team.

A Short History

Alabama began playing basketball 1912, some 20 years after the football program began and 20 years prior the formation of the SEC. Alabama’s first long-tenured, successful coach was Hank Crisp from Crisp, NC. After lettering in football, basketball, baseball and track at Hampden-Sydney and VPI as a college athlete, Crisp coached the Tide beginning in 1924 and would coach there until 1942, and then again from 1945-1946. He amassed a sterling record of 264-133 in his coaching career, winning the Southern Conference championship in the 1929-30 season going 20-0 overall for the season. Crisp would then lead Alabama to SEC titles in 1934, 1939 and 1940. But even basketball success at Alabama wasn’t enough, as Hank Crisp was also Alabama’s offensive line coach from 1921-1941, head baseball coach in 1928 and head track coach from 1921-1927.

After Crisp’s departure, Alabama basketball disappeared into mediocrity. From 1946-1973, Alabama would win just 1 SEC title (1956) and finished ranked in the AP Top 25 only twice (12th in 1955, 5th in 1956). Once again, it was up to football to bring out the best in Alabama basketball and this time it was with the assist of a man named Paul William "Bear" Bryant.

In 1968, Bryant called Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp looking for someone to turn around Alabama’s basketball program. Rupp recommended C. M. Newton, a former backup player at Kentucky who had been at Transylvania University for 12 years. Over the next 12 seasons, Newton would lead Alabama to a 211-123 record and would win 3 consecutive SEC titles (1974, 1975, 1976) making them the only program besides Kentucky to accomplish this feat. Between 1971 and Newton’s final season in 1979-80, Alabama finished no worse than 4th in the SEC and finished in the AP Top 25 four times. They also would appear in four NIT tournaments and two NCAA tournaments under Newton. Newton resigned as head coach in 1980 to become assistant commissioner of the SEC and was succeeded by his top assistant, Wimp Sanderson. Sanderson, who had been at Alabama since 1960 as a graduate assistant and full-fledged assistant, would continue the winning tradition by leading the Crimson Tide to 267 wins in 12 years, winning the SEC title in 1987 and also winning five SEC tournaments (1982, 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1991). Sanderson’s squads played in one NIT and nine NCAA Tournaments making the Sweet 16 five times (Alabama made the NCAA tourney field 6 straight years, though their 1987 appearance has since been vacated). Sanderson is the only coach in Alabama history to win 200 games or more in his first 10 years, and he was SEC Coach of the Year in 1987, 1989 and 1990 along with being National Coach of the Year in 1987.

In the years since, Alabama has found their place mainly in the 2nd tier of SEC basketball. They’ve won just one SEC regular season title since Wimp Sanderson’s tenure, and that was in 2002 under former Tide standout Mark Gottfried. Their last SEC Tournament title was in 1991. Gottfried led the Crimson Tide to six straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2002-2006. In 2002, Alabama reached the #1 spot in the nation in the AP Poll and then in 2004, Alabama advanced to the Elite Eight. Both of these events occurred under Mark Gottfried and both mark the highest pinnacle ever achieved by Crimson Tide basketball.

Current head coach Anthony Grant has been at the head of the Alabama program since the start of the 2009 season. In his 3 seasons the Tide are 63-39. They reached the NIT Final in 2011 and were back in the NCAA Tournament in 2012, suffering a first round loss to Creighton.

Overall, Alabama holds winning records against every SEC basketball team except for Arkansas (23-27) and Kentucky (36-101). It trails only Kentucky in basketball wins, SEC tournament titles, and SEC regular season titles. In 99 seasons, Alabama is 1543-935, a .622 winning percentage. In 5 all-time games against Mizzou, Alabama is 4-1 with their only loss coming in the 2001 Guardians Classic with the #5 Tigers defeating the #22 Crimson Tide 75-68.

The current Crimson Tide basketball team appears poised for continued success. After finishing the 2011-12 season at 21-12 (9-7) and making the NCAA Tournament, Alabama loses just one departing Senior in leading scorer JaMychal Green. Though his 14.0 ppg and 7.4 rpg will certainly be missed, Tony Mitchell (not that Tony Mitchell) was right behind him about 13.1ppg and 7.0 rpg. Former Mizzou-recruit and Kansas City metro area native Trevor Releford also returns as the Tide’s other double-digit scorer at 11.9 ppg on 48.2% FG shooting and 2.8 assists to 2.0 turnovers per game. On June 1, Alabama secured a huge commitment, and their only commitment for the 2012 class, in Devonta Pollard from Porterville, MS. Pollard, the #7 SF in the 2012 class and #22 player overall, is a 5-star player that had also been heavily considering Missouri. They have already secured a pair of big commits for the 2013 class in 6’9” 4-star PF Jimmie Taylor from Greensboro, AL, and 6’8” 3-star PF Shannon Hale of Johnson City, NC. In 2011, Alabama signed one of the top classes in the country gaining commits from 5-star SG Trevor Lacey, and a quartet of 4-star players in SG Rodney Cooper, C Moussa Gueye, C Nick Jacob and SG Levi Randolph.

Tide In The NBA

Alabama has put more than its fair share of players into the NBA in their history. 42 former Crimson Tide players have been selected in the NBA draft, 14 of which have been first-round picks. Robert Horry played at Alabama from 1988-1992 and was selected 11th overall by the Houston Rockets. He would go on to play 16 seasons in the NBA and is one of only two players to have won NBA Championships with three different teams. He has won the most NBA Championships (7) of any player in history to have not played on the 1960s Boston Celtics. Latrell Sprewell, who played at Alabama from 1990-1992, was selected 24th overall by the Golden State Warriors. Sprewell played in the NBA All-Star Game four times and was named to the All-NBA Team in 1994. He scored 16,712 points in his career, adding 3,664 assists and 1,294 steals.

Despite his accomplishments, Sprewell's career was overshadowed by a 1997 incident in which he choked coach P.J. Carlesimo during a practice which eventually resulted in a 68-game suspension. Antonio McDyess, a member of the 1993-1995 Alabama teams, was selected 2nd overall by the Los Angeles Clippers and would play for 5 different teams in his career. He was a NBA All-Star in 2001. Mo Williams was a 2009 NBA All-Star and played for Alabama from 2001-2003. He currently plays for the Los Angeles Clippers. Gerald Wallace, himself a 2010 NBA All-Star, is a current member of the New Jersey Nets and played for Alabama 2000-2001.

Best Of The Best

Among Alabama’s history you will find 132 All-SEC selections, 39 All-Tournament selections, 18 All-Americans, 14 All-Freshman Selections (9 since 2000), 5 SEC Coaches of the Year, 5 SEC Players of the Year, 2 SEC Tournament MVPs and 1 SEC Freshman of the Year. Reggie King holds both the single-season record for points scored with 747 in 1978-79 as well as the career mark with 2,168 from 1976-79. Jerry Harper tops the list for rebounds in a season with 517 in 1955-56 and career with 1688 from 1953-56. Terry Coner holds the single-season record for assists with 241 in 1985-86 as well as the career mark with 664 from 1983-86. Roy Rogers set the record for blocks in a season with 156 in 1995-96 while the career mark is held by Robert Horry with 285 from 1989-1992. Anthony Murray’s 79 steals in 1977-78 still stands as the single-season mark with Senario Hillman holding the career record at 176 which was set from 2007-10.

The Arena

The Crimson Tide play their home games at Coleman Coliseum which seats 15,383 and was opened in 1968. The arena was named for Jefferson Jackson Coleman, a prominent alumnus that until his death in 1995 was known as the only person that had attended every Alabama bowl game starting with the Rose Bowl game in 1926. Yes, even the arena itself simply must have a football tie.

Missouri's All-Time Series Versus Alabama

December 10, 1977: Alabama 75, Missouri 71 (in Tuscaloosa)
December 18, 1978: Alabama 65, Missouri 58 (in Columbia)
December 30, 1986: Alabama 91, Missouri 82 (in Kansas City at the BMA Holiday Classic)
March 18, 1996: Alabama 72, Missouri 49 (in Tuscaloosa in the NIT)

Only one of Missouri's towering twins saw action, and he was a non-factor as 6-foot-10 center Roy Rogers led Alabama to a 72-49 victory and into National Invitation Tournament's third round.

Rogers finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds and nine blocks as the Crimson Tide (18-11) advanced to tomorrow's game against South Carolina, with the winner heading to the tournament semifinals in New York.

Missouri's 7-foot center Sammie Haley finished with just two points. His twin brother, 7-1 Simeon Haley, was suspended for the game by coach Norm Stewart. No reason was given.
November 20, 2001: Mizzou 75, Alabama 68 (in Kansas City at the Guardians Classic)

Fifth-ranked Missouri lost Kareem Rush midway through the second half. Then the Tigers lost the lead - but only for a short time.

Clarence Gilbert scored 18 points and Missouri beat No. 22 Alabama 75-68 Tuesday night in the semifinals of the Guardians Classic.

Rush, a preseason All-America pick, missed the final 7:50 after being hit in the face by an inadvertent elbow from Alabama's Demetrius Smith.

Rush, who scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half, was helped from the Kemper Arena court and to the dressing room. He returned to the bench for the final minutes, holding an ice pack over his left eye.

"It swelled up really fast," Missouri coach Quin Snyder said. "He was a little dizzy. He was scared. He took a shot. It wasn't an intentional thing."

That's right, Missouri has a better all-time win percentage versus Alabama on the football field than on the basketball court.

ZouDave Presents ... Mizzou to the SEC: A Road Map

ZouDave — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:06:14 -0000

[UPDATE from Bill: "Number of playbacks exceeded." This is our first time embedding videos through google docs, and that was something we didn't see coming. Will fix.]

To me, it still seems a bit inconceivable. If you'd told me a mere 10 years ago that when the 2012 football season started Missouri would not be facing Nebraska, Colorado, Texas nor Oklahoma, K-State, Iowa State, or kansas, I'd have been very confused. There's simply no way you'd have gotten me to believe that the reason we wouldn't be facing them is that, instead, Missouri would be proud members of the SEC.

The SEC? The SEC is football royalty. The SEC is the model inspiration and prime example of why college football is the best athletics product this country has to offer. The SEC is to fanatics in America what 'futbol' is in Europe. It's borderline unhealthy. It's unbridled passion. And it's a conference where the haves and the have-nots stand on equal ground as equal members and keep the best interests of the group in front of their personal greed.

What would Mizzou be doing in the SEC? How would we ever even hope to compete on that level? What is going to happen in the next 10 years that is going to make that remotely possible?

Well, we all know the answer to that now. Mizzou is going to the SEC, and this is a small part of just how we got there. Just imagine where we're going to be 10 years from now.

Larger version after the jump.

Media Names Frank Haith Big XII Coach of the Year

ZouDave — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:32:15 -0000

Media Names Frank Haith Big XII Coach of the Year

Well, at least the media got it right.

Mizzou's 48 wins from 2007-2011...in picture form.

ZouDave — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:21:31 -0000

Mizzou's 48 wins from 2007-2011...in picture form.

New Helmet?

ZouDave — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:45:38 -0000

New Helmet?

So this picture exists. If these are fake, it's pretty convincing.

Thoughts?

Mizzou vs Texas A&M Highlights

ZouDave — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:48:11 -0000

"When your back's against the wall, you can't go nowhere but forward."

Grammar aside, the words of Randy Ponder are exceptionally true. At 3-4, Missouri was facing a series of must-win games if it wanted to salvage their season and become bowl eligible. The task started in College Station against the A&M Aggies, a team so loaded with talent that most Missouri starters wouldn't even be on the two-deep there.

That's what we're supposed to believe, right?

Larger version included after the jump, though that isn't really necessary with a YouTube video! And make sure you watch it in its High Def goodness!

Embiggened below:

I don't appear to have enough words yet, so I'm just going to keep typing until I see a green check mark. You can stop reading. Seriously, stop reading. Why are you still here? Are you expecting something interesting or funny? It isn't going to happen. I'm neither of those things. But, with that sentence I am done!

Farewell, Big 12: Parting Shots

ZouDave — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:06:41 -0000

(I've stolen this idea from a friend on Tigerboard, but I'll at least try to be original in my thoughts)

To the Big XII as a conference:

I never loved you, but I always accepted you. I was much more of a professional sports fan in my younger days, prior to 1996, so I don't remember the Big 8 as well as many do. And my memories of the Big 8 are almost strictly basketball, because Mizzou was basically never relevant in the Big 8 for football in my lifetime. I didn't understand why the Big 8 was taking on 4 schools from Texas, and later I didn't understand why the conference offices were leaving Kansas City and REALLY didn't understand why the conference basketball tournament was ever held anywhere besides Kansas City. I miss the Big 8 basketball days, not only because of how awesome that conference really was but because it was always so contentious and up-for-grabs. Every school played each other twice, we knew and hated each other but there was respect beyond the borders; Big 8 schools WOULD support other Big 8 schools when they were facing other conferences. That died in 1996.

And while Missouri has seen some of its best ever days in football in the Big XII, I do not give your conference credit for that. In fact, I think we did it in spite of you. You will not be missed by me, and I think you are doomed to fail completely in the near future.

(I've stolen this idea from a friend on Tigerboard, but I'll at least try to be original in my thoughts)

To the Big XII as a conference:

To Iowa State:

I've never had a problem with the Cyclones, other than their choice to use a cardinal mascot costume to represent them. The only explanation I was ever given was because "the cardinal has our colors, red and gold." When I then asked "Wouldn't it then be just as logical for you to use a tugboat painted red and gold?" I was met with stunned silence. Thank you, Cyclone fans, for always traveling so ridiculously well to everything played outside of Ames. You always represented well in Columbia, I always saw TONS of you in KC for the basketball conference tournaments, and your fans in general were always polite, passionate, magnanimous and fun. Thank you for the EPIC 4OT basketball game in 2001, that was one of the best basketball games I've ever watched. Thank you for Jamaal Tinsley and Marcus Fizer. Thank you for the OT game at our Homecoming in 2005 where we were introduced to a little magician named Chase Daniel. Best of luck to you, and I sincerely hope we meet again someday in a post-season game.

To Kansas State:

I live among many of your fans, and I don't have a problem with 90% or more of you. In fact, two of my closest friends in the world call KSU their school. I hope one day you will give Willie the rest of his costume, because it seriously looks weird. Bill Snyder has never gotten enough credit in the college football world for what an utterly amazing job he has done with K-State. I know that you know this, but I know that very few outside of your state recognize his genius. He is a treasure, and should have his name on hundreds of things in Manhattan. Thank you, Wildcats, for helping to take Nebraska down, even just for awhile, in the 2000s. You started it, we finished it, and then all of a sudden they got better again. Thank you for always being our brothers-in-arms against the hated jayhawks. Thank you for Michael Bishop, Darren Sproles, Mitch Richmond and Jacob Pullen. And thank you for Pervis Pasco, just because. I will be cheering for you this coming Saturday and in every game for the remainder of the year, and if Missouri and KSU never face each other in football again I will always hope you win every single game. Keep beating those jayhawks. Beat them like it's your job.

To Colorado:

I never had strong feelings of any kind for Colorado, but I could muster hatred for them pretty quickly. I almost never interacted with your fans, and can't necessarily prove that you have any. My lasting memory of your fans comes after the football game against you in 2004 in Columbia (unfortunately one of the last games we won that year). After defeating you and walking out of the stadium, some dumb girl wearing Colorado gear was 'bragging' to her friends that "Yeah, well, Missouri is 2-2 and we're 3-1 so we're still better than them." First off, she was wrong. We were 3-1 at that point. But even so...how is that your measure of worth? Even though we'd just beaten you, you were still better than us? I didn't get it then, I don't get it now, and you left us after last season and I barely notice you're not here other than we could really use a win right now. I thank you for nothing. Screw you for 5 downs. Screw you for unleashing Rashaan Salaam on the world. Screw you for having such thin air. But I did think it was pretty funny in 2007 when you gave us such great bulletin board material before the football game that year, talking about how our receivers couldn't get past your secondary. We proceeded to score 113 straight points on you between 2007 and 2008. So thanks for that, I guess. Hope you're enjoying being the doormat in the PAC-12.

To Texas Tech:

Another school I've never had strong feelings for, but I also don't know that I can muster any hate for. I don't know a single Texas Tech fan, personally. I don't remember interacting with any on your trips to Columbia. For awhile there, we were lumped together as these high-flying teams, shucking conventional football ways and trying to take down the big boys. In that, I've always found a mutual respect. So good luck to you, Red Raiders. Thank you for Mike Leach. Thank you for Michael Crabtree. Thank you for Brad Smith's 291-yard, 5-TD day (ON THE GROUND) in 2003. Thank you for being GREAT wins for us in back-to-back years in 2006 and 2007 and being two of my favorite highlight videos I ever made. I hope when the Big XII ultimately fails, you get what you want whether that be landing in the PAC-## or getting away from Texas.

To Baylor:

To steal a line: "meh." You're a strange one, Baylor. I can't believe your basketball program survived what it went through a few years ago with the murder and the coach covering stuff up, etc. I also can't believe your basketball program is as good as it is without committing major violations. It's not your fault that you never belonged in the Big XII, but you never belonged in the Big XII. After Mizzou beat you in 2008 by a last-second FG in Waco, I went to a Baylor message board to congratulate the fans on being an obvious up-and-coming team, to admit my own personal relief in winning the game and to express my admiration for RG3 (aka, HOT TUB!). I was met with what I would describe as passive venom, as the general response seemed to be "Don't come here and pity us, we're not interested." So...thanks for Hot Tub Griffin, and thanks for being our victim in the Big XII tournament a few years ago. Also, thanks for closing the door on Quin Snyder's era at Mizzou. Now get yourselves to the MWC where you belong.

To Oklahoma State:

You know what? I've always liked Oklahoma State. I feel like OSU and Mizzou fans "get" each other. You guys have that perpetual reputation of being the "little brother" to OU and you just hate it, and we've had a similar stigma for a long time whether it was to kansas in basketball, Nebraska in football, or just in sports in general. Even after this past weekend's beating at your hands in football, I sincerely enjoyed interacting with Cowboys fans and found them to be good, passionate fans interested more in cheering for their team instead of against my own. Thank you for some wildly entertaining football games between us over the years. Thank you for Barry Sanders. Thank you for "I'm a MAN! I'm 40!" But oh how I HATED "Big Country". You guys are AWESOME this year in football. Keep winning, beat OU like they owe you money (get it? OU money?) and get yourself a Big XII crown. You have my support, and will into the future should we never meet again.

To Oklahoma:

You are the ever-present thorn in our collective sides. While I will admit I'm jealous of your success in both football and basketball, I don't respect nearly anything about your programs, your coaches or your fans. I've rarely seen an OU fan that could find humility in a dictionary, or anywhere else for that matter. Your band needs to figure out that there's a page 2 in that book of music. Bob Stoops may be a great coach, but he's a giant douche. I hate you for ruining our run to a Big XII Tournament title in 2003. I hate you for beating us in the Elite 8 in 2002. I hate you for running a fake field goal against us in 2002 to prevent a monumental upset. I hate you for not beating kansas in the finals in 1988. I hate you for more last-second basketball losses than I can count. I hate you for Kelvin Sampson. I hate you for Eduardo Najera. I hate you for EVERYTHING in 2007. In short, I disrespect the hell out of you. You are the Boston Red Sox of college football. You pretend you're the little guy up against big, bad Texas (New York Yankees), but you're just as bad and maybe even worse. But thank you for Homecoming, 2010. It's in my top 3 sporting events ever attended, and probably will be for awhile.

To Texas:

You see everything I said about Oklahoma? I mean it about you, too. If there was a crayon named Arrogance, it would be burnt orange colored. You destroyed the SWC. You destroyed the Big 8. You're about to destroy the Big XII. What is the opposite of Midas? Texas. It's such an odd insult, but it's so terribly true: how are you not better than you are? You couldn't have more advantages, though that doesn't stop you from trying with your Longhorn Network and your personal slaves as conference commissioner, and yet you still perpetually fall short. You select 25 of the best high school football players in the nation every single year, and do what with them? You have every opportunity to be a basketball power, and you're just not. But still you take and take and take and take and expect other schools to thank you for the privilege of being taken from. And your feigning indignation when being called on your BS (which stands for Bevo $hit) just makes it worse. I wish nothing good for you, even though I know nothing bad will ever happen to you. You'll continue finding schools willing to let you do whatever you want, you'll bully everyone into getting your way, and you'll still do only things that benefit you directly and then try to take away any ancillary benefits others might receive from those actions. $#&@ you, Longhorns.

To Nebraska:

Your fans are some of the worst I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Whether it's proclaiming yourselves the best fans in the country, golf-clapping as if you mean it when you've beaten some team into submission, crying and calling everyone "CHEATERS" when you lose, or supporting your law-breaking athletes or soon-to-be-serial-killer coach, you're just some of the worst people I've ever dealt with. Every player you've ever had is the best ever. Every player you've ever lost was never worth having. Every team you've ever faced is beneath you. Every loss you've ever taken is washed away with excuses. Your band knows as many songs as Oklahoma's. Your basketball team is a joke. Your state is a boring South Dakota. Your mascots are ridiculous, and you should've stuck with "Bugeaters". I hate you for Matt Davison. I hate you for Kellen Huston. I hate you for every Piatkowski that has ever walked the earth. I hate you for Bo Pelini. I hate you for Lawrence Phillips. I hate you. If we never face you again in sports, it will still be too soon. And it's odd for me to say that, because few things gave me greater pleasure than beating you. It's unfortunate it couldn't happen more often, but at least I know my entire life doesn't hinge on whether or not Nebraska wins a football game this week. What a sad existence you must lead. But you've earned it. And the Big Ten will never consider you one of their own.

To kansas:

My hatred for you and your fans can never be summed up in words. You are without a shadow of a doubt the worst group of people I've ever been forced to know. Everything about you is wrong. The closer and closer we get to not having to face you in sports, the more and more accepting of that I become. The only thing I respect about kansas is how much I hate your school, your fans, your players, your coaches, etc. Anything that can make me so consistently and universally hate people based on that kind of affiliation deserves at least some respect. But your lies, your cheating ways, your revisionist history, your unapologetic myopia and your cult-like following leave me with nothing but this: I loathe your very existence. I hope your University fails at every level. I hope your sports teams lose every single game they play by as much as possible. I hope your donors dry up and your coffers become empty. I hope your enrollment continues dropping and your academic reputation goes with it. I hope you end up a 1AA football team competing in the West Coast Conference for basketball with Gonzaga. I hope you become insignificant in every sense of the word. And I hope you choke on that insignificance.

To West Virginia:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Good luck, dude!

2012-13 Big XII includes West Virginia...not Missouri?

ZouDave — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:05:15 -0000

2012-13 Big XII includes West Virginia...not Missouri?

"Beginning with the 2012-13 season it is expected that the Big 12 Conference will be comprised of 10 Universities – Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech and West Virginia. The Big 12’s footprint will encompass five states with over 36 million people. More than 4,100 student-athletes from across the United States and around the World compete annually in the 23 sports sponsored by the Conference."

SEC Accidentally Announces Missouri To SEC

ZouDave — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 04:57:24 -0000

SEC Accidentally Announces Missouri To SEC

This is, uh...interesting to say the least.

Already Gone

ZouDave — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:11:43 -0000

This is what the BoC and Missouri should send to the Big XII this afternoon...

To the tune of "Already Gone" by Kelly Clarkson

Remember all the things we wanted?
Now that further growth is stunted…
The time has come for us to say goodbye

Even though we kept on winning
We’re never given equal bidding
We were never meant for do or die

I didn’t want this to fail, but…
I didn’t come here to kowtow to a cow

I want you to know
That it doesn’t matter
What you say, Bevo…
Someone’s gotta go

And I want you to know
I hate the Longhorn Network
But you want it to live on
So I’m already gone.

Beebe was an epic blunder
But I know that you’ll find another
That’s always on your side when there’s a fight

Started in 2007
Even though we’d won 11
You didn’t even try to do what’s right

You know that we have no choice, right?
You left us no option but to go

I want you to know
That it doesn’t matter
What you say, Bevo…
Someone’s gotta go

And I want you to know
I hate the Longhorn Network
But you want it to live on
So I’m already gone.

I’m already gone
Already gone
You can’t be forced to play nice
When the rules are all wrong

I’m already gone
Already gone
There’s no mooing gone
So I’m already gone.

Already gone, already gone, already gone
Already gone, already gone, already gone