Alabama Basketball History (Watch the Teasers!)

[C Earl]

Re: I wasn't aware of this

My Dad said the Rocket 8 was the best team in the nation. I believe their coach was Johnny Dee, who went on to Coach for many years at Notre Dame.
Somehow they didn't make the National Tournament even though they were undefeated(As I recall). I believe it was because they played freshmen or something like that.

But they were unbeatable according to my Father, who always listened to every Bama Radio Broadcast .

I can attest for a fact, because I was there in the 70's........that from the early 70's to the late 80's overall, Bama was easily one of the top five basketball programs in America in my opinion.

The 76 team, under Coach C.M. Newton, with Leon Douglas, TR Dunn, Amp Murray, Rickey Brown,Reggie "Mule" King, and Keith McCord was the most talented team in America. I remember Tennessee legendary Coach Ray Mears saying, "Alabama is head and shoulders above anybody". And that was the year he had Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld.
That year Bama lost in the closing seconds to an undefeated Indiana team in the semi finals of the Mid East Regional. Bobby Knight still say's it was the best team he ever coached against.

They ended up 30-0 and won the national title. Honestly, we should have beaten them.

Wimp Sanderson also, had some pretty terrific teams in spite of himself....lol....

But in retrospect, he may have been the best recruiter in Bama history.

I just can't get over his philosophy when we were playing Loyola Marymount in the Sweet 16. They were the highest scoring team in college basketball.

We ran a stall. A complete stall, and lost a close game in the final seconds.

After the game Wimp explained that he ran the stall because he didn't think we had the talent to run with them.

Our starting line up was Robert Horry, Latrell Sprewell, Hollywood Robinson, Jason Caffe...and a little point guard whose name I can't remember.

Our sixth man was Keith Askins.

Five of those six players were drafted in the first two rounds of the NBA draft. Marymount didn't have a player drafted.

Yet we didn't have enough talent to run with them.

I'm not a Wimp fan.

But yeah....Bama had quite a run in the 70's and 80's.

We've had our stellar moments since.....but at one time...we were pretty darn scary.

I think we're getting close to that point again. Grant is an outstanding coach.

Sip

Bo Kimble was a lottery pick off of that Marymount team. Still think Bama could have run with them though.

 

[rolltide2213]

Re: I wasn't aware of this

that's interesting!

 

[TexasBama]

The team that lost to LMU did not have Horry, Robinson, and Sprewell

Horry was a sophmore.

LMU 62, Alabama 60 - Loyola Marymount Official Athletic Site

 

[day-day]

I've always thought Bama could have run away in the Loyola Maramount game as well; just like UNLV did in the next round of the tourny. LM could not handle Bama's defense. Bama had the athletes to match up with Johnson, Augmon, and their guard (can't remember his name) on UNLV while most teams in the country did not; maybe the only team in the county that could match up to the unbeaten Runnin Rebels. Cheatum was the leading scorer and a very fine college player but didn't have NBA talent like Horry, Benoit, and Askins. Sanders was the point; another of the very good point guards under Coach Sanderson. (Robinson, Sprewell, and Caffey weren't at Bama yet.)

I stand corrected....lol...I guess my time machine blew a gasket Thanks for the info. But YES....we could have blown them out of the gym just like UNLV did.

The team that lost to LMU did not have Horry, Robinson, and Sprewell

Horry was a sophmore.

LMU 62, Alabama 60 - Loyola Marymount Official Athletic Site

TexasBama, you're a little late...:wink:

 

[Alasippi]

Re: I wasn't aware of this

I agree with Wimp's philosophy in the LMU game. They would have worn us out by mid-way through the 2nd half just like they did every other team they played that year. UNLV had the talent and stamina to hang with them. We had the talent but not the stamina. Of course, who knows what actually would have happened had Wimp turned them loose but IMHO his strategy was correct. The year prior we lost to USA in the first round due to horrible officiating. In the next round we would have faced Michigan who went on to win the NC. I feel like if we had beaten USA we would have also beaten Michigan because they had not yet caught fire and we were playing some very good basketball. I'm not sure if we could have won it all that year but we definitely could have made some noise.

We all agree to disagree here and that's cool .

We could have beaten that team by 50 points as UNLV almost did after we gave the game away.

When they played us they had not seen a team that even compared to our athletic ability.

We dropped ourselves down to their level.

I really didn't like Wimp as a strategist. Great recruiter, and that's as far as i'll go.

sip

 

[Alasippi]

You're a little late...:wink:

I acknowledged that I made a mistake in my "time machine" of players....lol

But when a team, trailing by one at the half, hits 65% of their shots in the second half ...and loses to a team that hits less than 36% of their shots in the second half, and only 43% of their free throws....there's only one explanation....

We slowed the game down to the level they were playing and gave them a chance when we could have blown them out of the gym.

We were hot, they were cold, and rather than seizing the moment, we stopped it, or slowed it down so much that they could recover.

We played scared. Not our players....but the Wimpster.

UNLV, under Jerry Tarkanian simply laughed, chose to blow them out of the gym and did.

Quite convincingly.

I remember the commentators saying..."What a matchup it would be between Bama and UNLV"...

Wimp sabotaged it. That simple.

Sip

 

[day-day]

I acknowledged that I made a mistake in my "time machine" of players....lol

Fixed my post, the lateness wasn't aimed at you...

I guess I'm like you on the LMU game. That loss has stuck to me like no other even though there are a couple of other games that come close.

Bama had a large number of turnovers (the difference in the game). I remember a crucial one late against LMU's press but I suspect many came from trying to run a half-court offense after passing up higher percentage fast-break or secondary break opportunites.:conf2: The stats show Bama with 9 blocked shots and there may have actually been more than that. Bama was blocking shots inside and outside.