San Diego State loses by 3 at home to UNLV. Last undefeated team this year falls. Hoosiers' record stands for another year.
'76 Hoosiers still the last undefeated
- Thread starter oldcougar77
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I tried watching your video but Michigan got ahead 18-10. Could not believe what I saw. Going to bed.
We were down 6 pts. at the half. Fortunately, IU had a strong second half of 57 pts scored. Sorry you missed it!
I'd forgotten how much Crews played in that game . . . and how early in the game Wilkerson got hurt.
Also, I haven't gotten used to the inside guy moving to the 2nd block on free throws . . . .
I graduated from IU less than three months after the Hoosiers went unbeaten and won the NCAA championship. What a great year!
Hopefully, no university will go unbeaten and win the NCAA until I pass about 35 or so years from now.
And Wisman. He played most of the second half and did his job.
Yeah, I posted that prior to halftime . . .
. . . I wonder what happened with Crews that he didn't play in the 2nd half. Was he too slow on defense? IU couldn't get over the hump with him in there . . . maybe that's what RMK was seeing too.
I couldn't believe my eyes either when I saw him go down just 5 min. into the most important game of my life. That just goes to show how strong this team was. Imagine if Michigan's Steve Grote had gone to the locker room then, never to be seen again. Let's just say, we wouldn't have been down 6 at the half or won the game by 18 pts.-more like 36 pts.
Was that the infamous "shirt grab" vision that haunts our minds? You mean it didn't scar Jimmy for life? He actually managed to survive the bullying incident and learned a lesson from it, being so impressed he performed better the next Michigan game and his entire life since? Is that game the photo? I remember seeing it in virtually every newspaper in America, back when IU basketball was big.
One thing that I don't want to see is our Program and Fan Base become the 1973 Miami Dolphins who break out the bottle and celebrate every time the last unbeaten NFL team loses its' first game. That said I don't think anyone will go undefeated again for several reasons.
1. Recruiting and Player Distribution is more widespread. You don't have a few teams stacking talent like UCLA, IU, and Kentucky did in that era. Kentucky stacks talent but only to audition players for a year or two before they move to the NBA.
2. There are more Division I programs and the teams are more widely recognized due to media and TV Coverage. There are more competitive programs that can beat anyone on a given night.
3 . There are more pre Conference made for TV matchups featuring marquee programs, plus the Conference vs. Conference matchups that guarantee that good teams will play each other early in the season.
4. In those days. only the ACC held a Conference Tournament. Now all major conferences do creating more opportunities for teams to lose.
5. The NCAA Tournament Field is larger than in those days with more competitive teams top to bottom creating a bigger possibility of upsets.
i was on Campus from 1974-1977. The biggest disappointment with Basketball was the Scott May broken arm in 1975 cost the team the chance to go undefeated and win a National Championship. Many of us believe that the 1974-75 team was stronger than the NCAA Championship Team. Had they accomplished back to back undefeated NCAA Championships, that would be a record up there with Dimagio's 56 game hitting streak. Almost impossible to see anyone breaking it.
1. Recruiting and Player Distribution is more widespread. You don't have a few teams stacking talent like UCLA, IU, and Kentucky did in that era. Kentucky stacks talent but only to audition players for a year or two before they move to the NBA.
2. There are more Division I programs and the teams are more widely recognized due to media and TV Coverage. There are more competitive programs that can beat anyone on a given night.
3 . There are more pre Conference made for TV matchups featuring marquee programs, plus the Conference vs. Conference matchups that guarantee that good teams will play each other early in the season.
4. In those days. only the ACC held a Conference Tournament. Now all major conferences do creating more opportunities for teams to lose.
5. The NCAA Tournament Field is larger than in those days with more competitive teams top to bottom creating a bigger possibility of upsets.
i was on Campus from 1974-1977. The biggest disappointment with Basketball was the Scott May broken arm in 1975 cost the team the chance to go undefeated and win a National Championship. Many of us believe that the 1974-75 team was stronger than the NCAA Championship Team. Had they accomplished back to back undefeated NCAA Championships, that would be a record up there with Dimagio's 56 game hitting streak. Almost impossible to see anyone breaking it.
I'd take the '81 team against the '76 team . . . I'd say that the '81 and '75 teams might be a push.
That's a good thought . . . but Isiah in '80 wasn't as good as Isiah in '81 . . . and Landon Turner in '80 wasn't the Landon Turner in '81. We had Woodson, which was extremely important . . . the rest of the team wasn't as ready . . . .
Yes and no. Woody and Butch were really good, but IT was much better and more consistent as a sophomore than as a freshmen. Ray Lee was a defensive stud both years, but Landon Turner was a totally different player and the catalyst in 80-81. IT and LT in ‘81 made that team better than ‘79-‘80.
What I said is pretty clear.
You can disagree if you want to . . . but you might want to do the match up analysis first . . . my view . . .
. . . Benson > Tolbert, but not by nearly as much as might appear on the surface . . . this would be a great match up to see . . .
Landon Turner > Scott May . . . I'd actually take Turner in this match up because of the size differential, but not by much . . . also a great match up . . .
Kitchel > Abernethy . . . because of Kitchel's ability to shoot it from outside . . .
Wilkerson v. Wittman . . . this is another tough one, largely because Wilkerson's defense was so good that I think he might be able to stifle Wittman's slashing and his outside shot . . . but I do think Wittman's size might neutralize Wilkerson's offense and offset Wilkerson's rebounding a good bit . . . I'd take Wilkerson first, and then see who the coach is and whether the schemes used favors one over the other . . .
Isiah > Buckner . . . this is the primary determinant for me . . . Isiah's defense and rebounding were just as good as Buckner's but Buckner's offense - especially his mid-range and outside shooting - wasn't anywhere close to what Isiah's was . . . plus Buckner couldn't be relied on to hit free throws . . . 43% as a senior IIRC . . . .
Bench . . . I'd take Jim Thomas, Grunwald, Risley, Isenbarger and Bouchie over Crews, Radford, Valavicious and Wisman . . .
May was the two time Big 10 MVP and National player of the year. Landon was a star performer down the stretch but not close to SM, who was much stronger than LT.
Abernethy wasn’t Kitchel’s offensive equal but was far superior on the defensive end, as well as a guy who snuck in points from a variety of spots.
QB and BW would’ve out “physicaled” IT and Wittman, both of whom were obviously good players but not used to the kind of smothering defense that IU played with Quinn and Bobby.
I think Ray would’ve held his own pretty well with Benson, though KB was very difficult on the low block and had a definite size and weight advantage on Tolbert
As for the bench, the ‘81 team was probably deeper, but they needed to be because they weren’t as good in the starting five.
Loved the ‘81 team, but they still had to have a lot go right for them, even late in the season and in the tournament, to win it all. The ‘76 team faced the best of the best in the tournament, including their nemesis (UM) for the third time, and rolled. Could the ‘81 team lost a starter early in the championship game and nonetheless go on to play one of the greatest pre-shot clock / three point line half of offensive basketball ever charted (57 points against an excellent Michigan team)? I don’t think so. ‘76 beats ‘81 by 8 to 10 points in hard fought game.
Of course.I get where you're coming from.
Can we disagree and still be friends?
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