IMHO, with the new arena near McCormick Place, they've got a chance to at least field a program on par with Marquette -- and I say this as someone with tremendous respect for the Marquette program -- especially when you consider that the State's flagship program (The Illini) is down.
I actually also miss the San Francisco Dons as a power, too. While that may seem outlandish, this isn't the College Football landscape, where the system is designed to overly favor the bluebloods. As a comparison, who could have foreseen Gonzaga as a year-in/year-out National power a decade or so ago?
Yup. Without looking it up, I can tell you that Danny Young and Wake Forest retired Ray Meyer in an '84 Sweet 16 match-up. IIRC, the '87 team with Dallas Comegys (talk about a name from the past) was ranked #3 in the Nation pre NCAA tourney. I also found it amusing that we wound up with an '86 Sweet 16 match-up between the Blue Demons and the Blue Devils.
Anyway...It all seems like a lifetime ago. It should also be noted that (A) much like Paul Evans at Pitt, Meyer was railroaded by his own administration -- repeatedly promised upgrades to facilities that didn't come to fruition until years later -- and (B) Pat Kennedy left a ton of money on the table to jump ship from Florida State to succeed Joey Meyer in '97, which likely wouldn't happen today.
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Jeff Goodman
Verified account
@GoodmanHoops
DePaul beating the hell out of Iowa last night is further evidence that the Big East should be as good top to bottom as it’s been since the league realigned in 2013. I’ll be surprised if the conference doesn’t get at least 5 teams in NCAA tourney.
Last edited by Revering4Blue; 11-12-2019 at 12:38 PM.
Whatever you do, do your best to not allow the struggles of life to interfere with the pleasures of living.
Assembly Hall (11-12-2019)
@Rev
Yeah I miss the Don as well. I was at the ACC in South Bend back in the day when the Irish knocked them off when SF was ranked #1. Duck Williams against Chubby Cox. The good ole days for me.
Another school that has fallen off the map is UNLV.
Man I wish it was 1970 something in the world I grew up in...
Happy to see a former Cat with an upset, just not against Kentucky.
Kentucky was ice cold all game and Evansville laid out the blueprint for how to beat Kentucky this season. Amazing how dominant Kentucky looked against Michigan State and EKU and then laid an egg like this.
Rough few days for Kentucky fans...
That's glorious. Unfortunately I missed it as I was watching Xavier and Missouri set the game of basketball back several decades.
Just read something on Twitter that put it best:
Losing to Tennessee by mistakes and great effort sucks.
Losing to Evansville because of poor effort and getting outworked is embarrassing.
On a side note, I’m happy for Walter McCarty and especially glad he handled it with class, even in the postgame celebration. Compared to Orgeron last Saturday at LSU, complete difference.
Pitiful loss for Kentucky. Evansville was picked 8th in the MVC this year. I am happy for McCarty, Seems like a good guy and maybe a very good coach in the making.
It surprising in a way this hasn't happened more under Cal. With these very young teams every year you would think they would have lost to more mid majors than they have. Lots of close calls but this was the first mid major loss under Cal other than the NIT loss to Bob Morris.
This loss will probably resonate all season unless Evansville turns out to be much much better than thought. If UK goes on to have a good season it will pull them down at least a notch on the seed line in March. IMO they would have to almost run the table now to get a one seed. But with they way they looked last night there are no worries there. They are far from being good team. It's a typical Cal team of the last few seasons. Good athletes but poor basketball players. They can't shoot and lack overall good fundamentals. Injuries I'm sure have drug them down in practice. But that's on Cal too. I think he had a couple of scholarships left but didn't recruit anyone to fill them. Now he's paying for it with these injuries with having round up students and others to have a practice. We'll see how they rebound from this as this is a different problem Cal is facing now. Last year he could always fall back from the Duke loss as they were one of the top teams in the nation. But Evansville? He will have to come up with a big spin to overcome this one.
Reds Fan Since 1971
As much as hate to, I offer my condolences to the many UK fans on here. Alright, I am just trying to be nice. Loved the Evansville win because I used to party with Aces' legend Scott Haffner. I digress. Any way if it is of any consolation in my IU fandom when the General was in charge we very rarely re-loaded like you guys do on a constant and consistent basis these days. But one such year was the '83-'84 season. We were damn good in '82-'83, a natty caliber team. But we lost 4 starters off that team heading into the following season. The incoming recruits, on paper, looked just fine. We lost a bunch but still we were preseason #19 with our opening game at Assembly Hall against this cupcake, Miami(OH). The Redskins won every facet of the game as well as the final score. I was devastated. Geez, pitiful, a MAC school? But it turned out my Hoosiers had a stellar year...Elite Eight showing and beat Jordan in his last college game. As it turned out Miami was one fine squad. They reached the NCAAT as well that year as well as winning the MAC. They were led by this guy by the name of Ron Harper.
But anyways UK fans take heart in that you just never know.
Revering4Blue (11-14-2019)
2 pretty good games in the Big East/Big Ten challenge tonight: Villanova at Ohio State and Purdue at Marquette. Also, Providence at Northwestern, but if that's a good game something has gone horribly wrong for Providence!
It’s still freshman heavy but you are right. Four of their starters (when healthy) are either sophomores or a junior.
Nick Richards is the only interior presence this team has right now with Montgomery out. Evansville got him into foul trouble and forced Kentucky to go small. Tyrese Maxey can get hot and go equally cold just as well. Hagans played the worst game he’s ever played at Kentucky but that may have been due to injury. It’s a recipe for disaster.
Revering4Blue (11-14-2019)
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