Thursday, March 11, 2010

Glen Rice: the leader of Michigan's miracle run

Just before the 1989 NCAA Tournament was to start, Michigan Athletic Director Bo Schembechler fired head basketball coach Bill Frieder after Schembechler found out that Frieder already accepted the job to coach Arizona State the following season...Schembechler wanted a "Michigan Man" to coach a Michigan team, so assistant coach Steve Fisher stepped in...and amazingly, the Wolverines won 6 straight games to win the national title...

The Wolverines top player was Glen Rice...during the six game run, Rice scored 184 points, a record that still stands, which earned him the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament...

Rice finished his college career as Michigan's all-time leading scorer with 2,442 points...at the time, he also became the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer...

Rice played for 6 NBA teams but is best remembered for his days with the Miami Heat, Charlotte Hornets, and Los Angeles Lakers...

Rice's son currently plays for Georgia Tech and wears number 41, the same number as his father...

In January 2008, Rice was arrested in Miami on suspicion of felony battery for allegedly assaulting a man that he found hiding in his estranged wife's closet...the charges were later dropped...

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Michael Graham: Georgetown's enforcer

There may never have been a player with so much talent who performed so big in such a short amount of time than former Georgetown Hoya Michael Graham...Graham set the tone for the Hoyas to capture the 1984 national title with his animalistic offense and elbow flying rebounds...he was the epitome of Hoya Paranoia...

The Georgetown Basketball History Project website best describes Graham's play during the late season in 1984:

Graham's college statistics were not the stuff of legend: in his first 11 Big East games, Graham averaged 2.9 points and just over one rebound per game. Graham scored 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench in the season finale against Syracuse, but scored only one basket in the next two games, both of which were in the early rounds of the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden. The conference final, on March 9, 1984, began the Michael Graham legend.


He only played seven minutes in the game, failing to score a field goal. But down the stretch, with Patrick Ewing in foul trouble and Syracuse seeking to put the favored Hoyas away, Thompson saw how Graham had handled himself in the season finale with the Orangemen and placed him down low to protect Ewing from a fifth foul. Graham stepped it up defensively, bottling up Andre Hawkins and, in one memorable exchange, with the two tangled under the basket, Graham took a wild swing at him. Immediately ejected by one official, the referees conferred and issued a personal foul instead--other than the Manley finale, few plays still arouse such anger from Orange fans. Graham stayed in the game (ironically, it was his only foul of the game), but the Hoyas caught a second wind, got the game into overtime, and pulled away in a classic, 82-71.


The national spotlight fell squarely upon Graham, whose shaved head became a symbol of Georgetown's take-no-prisoners persona. By month's end, his 22 points and 11 rebounds in the NCAA Final Four won him All-Tournament honors. His 7 for 9 shooting against Houston helped the Hoyas while Patrick Ewing was in foul trouble, and Graham's late dunk sealed the game with just over two minutes remaining. The following week, it was Michael Graham, not Patrick Ewing or John Thompson, on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

With Patrick Ewing coming back for his senior season, the future looked endless for Graham to build on his post-season success...but the sudden fame went to his bald head as he missed taking final exam...eventually coach John Thompson got tired of Graham's act and threw him off the team for the 1985 season...Graham eventually transferred to the University of District of Columbia but never played a game there...he entered the NBA draft and was selected by Seattle in the 4th round...but Graham never played a minute in the NBA...he bounced around in European and South American leagues and eventually just faded away...

In 2005, Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl found Graham...Graham had fond memories of that national championship season with Georgetown and still considered himself a Hoya - for life...but he wondered how many titles Georgetown could have won if he stayed on the team...would Villanova had beaten the Hoyas in that epic 1985 title game if Graham was on the team...

No one will ever know...but what is known, Graham played a major role in Georgetown securing its only national title during a four week run that started in the Big East tournament...

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Jerry Tarkanian: the NCAA's least favorite coach

Throughout the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, it was a common site during tournament time to see a balding coach with hush puppy dog eyes in a short sleeved shirt and loosened necktie chewing on a towel...it was the one and only Jerry Tarkanian of UNLV...

During his career, Tark took four teams to the Final Four and 13 teams to the Sweet 16 but his name was always surrounded by controversy and NCAA investigations...for some he was "what was wrong with college basketball"...for others, like me, I cheered for Tark...one of Tark's biggest supporters is former coach Bob Knight...

In 1990, Tark finally broke through with a most deserving national title...after 22 years as a head coach, Tarkanian was finally a national champ as his Rebels thrashed Duke 103-73 in the finals...the Rebels finished the season 35-5...

Even though they were sure fired NBA lottery picks, All-Americans Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon both returned for their senior season in a attempt to win back-to-back titles...with an impending NCAA probation facing the Rebels in 1991, in an uprecidented move, the NCAA agreed to a compromise which allowed UNLV to defend its title, but would see the Rebels banned from the 1992 tourney...

Johnson and Augmon's decision almost paid off as the Rebels went 34-0 before Duke got revenge on them from the previous year's shalacking...led by Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner, Duke burst Tark's bubble of a perfrect season by winning 79-77 in the semi-finals...that would be the last time Tark would be on center stage in The Big Dance...Tark would coach the Rebels to a 26-2 mark in 1992 but was forced to resign amid all the NCAA problems...

Years later, Tark sued the NCAA, claiming it had harassed him for over two decades...he stated the harassment started after he wrote a newspaper column alleging that the NCAA was more willing to punish less-prominent schools than big-name schools...the NCAA never admitted guilt but settled out of court by paying Tark $2.5 million...

Tarkanian is married to Las Vegas city councilwoman Lois Tarkanian...his son Danny, is currently seeking the U.S. Senate seat held by Majority leader Harry Reid...Tark's granddaughter Dannielle Diamant plays for the Northwestern women's basketball team...

Tark also started a basketball school in Las Vegas, named The Tarkanian Basketball Academy...its mission is to provide opportunities for youth to develop leadership skills, work ethic, commitment, honesty and integrity through sport...it works with kids from kindergarten to 12th grade...

Monday, March 08, 2010

Jimmy Black: The 5th man on Carolina's title team

In 1982, North Carolina's Dean Smith finally won his first national title in a thrilling one-point win over Georgetown...the Tar Heels starting five was comprised of a freshman named Michael Jordan, two All-Americans in James Worthy and Sam Perkins, a blue-collor forward who later coached the Tar Heels in Matt Doherty...but most people forget the fifth member of this squad...the kid was point guard Jimmy Black (number 21 in above photo)...

People remember Jordan's game winning shot, but don't realize that Black was the player who got the assist on that play...

Black is now a financial advisor for Raymond James Financial Services...he also penned a book "Jimmy Black's Tales from the Tar Heels" along with Scott Fowler...

Sunday, March 07, 2010

New York City to host NFL biggest game?

The New York Daily News has a feature in Sunday's paper about the chance of New York City hosting a Super Bowl at the new football stadium...New York to host Super Bowl?