Rook... story would have been better if it was about his neighbor's bush!
That comment doesn't say much for all the folks here who thought Archie was a "can't miss" coach...from "can't miss" to one of the worst coaches in IUBB history is quite a fall. Personally, I don't think Miller was that bad...bad, but not THAT bad. We were close to being there, just on the short side of the fine line. Now, Lou Watson with his front line of George McGinnis, Steve Downing and Joby Wright...that was a big coaching disappointment. After the disheartening Big Ten loss to Wisconsin late in the season, his likeness was dragged across campus in effigy with a noose around his neck. I know because I was one of 3-4 fraternity brothers who created the life-size dummy and started the march, shouting "Watson out of Bloomington NOW!" The whole scenario made the front page of the Indy Star the following morning.
I got a giant dead one too, I pray that lightning may take it down and fall in the woods. Jesus, I'm not paying a couple grand or more to cut the ****er down. It's so dead I don't think we could trade wood for labor.
IU fans were growing restless. The only thing that kept us going as fans was Big Mac’s 29.8 p/g average, an extraordinarily fine physical specimen, especially in such a young basketball player. George is quoted as saying he never lifted a weight in his life.
Experiencing Big George McGinnis, Long Steve Downing, and Jumping Joby Wright all on the court at the old fieldhouse was amazing. Such a presence! So very big and intimidating. And, yes, young.
It was Big George’s tradition to lead the team out of the locker room as the only one not wearing his warm up top, to better show the biceps, I imagine. He would take the first shot in warmups stopping to launch one from 30 ft. Sometimes he hit it, but if he didn’t you can bet he always got the rebound. “Man-child” was often heard to describe him.
Those of us crusty to remember that Indianapolis Washington team with Downing and McGinnis n the state final game on TV.....they wrote the book on Men vs. Boys.......no surprise expectations on the college level were so high.
In another one of those “what ifs”...what if George’s dad hadn’t fallen to his death at a construction site accident over the summer. McGinnis might not have been one of the few college players granted permission to leave early to turn pro under the NCAA’s “hardship rule”. He may have felt more compelled to play in the brand new AH with its brand new coach. Oh, what two years under Knight’s tutelage might have done for that undisciplined man-child’s game.
Funny coincidence about trees....was on You Tube...a guy and his girlfriend in Mississippi of all places, were enjoying a rare winter snow. They built a 9 foot tall snowman in the front yard adjacent to the driveway. Unbeknownst to the goober(s) in a pick up truck who drove up the driveway and into the snowman to knock it down while the people were gone.....they had built the snowman over a tall tree stump. The results are predictable. The guy was from up north, and knew how to build a snowman....A snow man with a large bumper indentation across his waist, otherwise intact.....who knew?
Reminds me of an incident up in Madison WI about 1981. Somebody kept driving up into my yard and going through some low evergreen bushes on an early Saturday morning post-binge. Happened a couple of three times in three months.
Didn't IW only beat Marion by 1 point, IIRC? 61-60? Then IW won it all by beating Gary Tolleston 79-76. This was FF history as Vincennes, Marion and IW were undefeated, and Gary Tolleston only lost one game, to Quinn Buckner's Chicago HS team. I hate class basketball.
Why don't you and Victorbear create your own forum where the two of you can just stroke each other over your superior ability to immediately recognize a good/bad coaching hire and how the rest of us morons lent blind support for years. Even though it's a completely false narrative. The two of you are broken records. There is nobody here who hasn't heard your screeching so you aren't educating anyone. You are, however the two most annoying people on the forum. Please STFU until you at least have something new to add.
I was a student from ' 68 to '71 and went to games the year you referenced. What I remembered were game scores of 106 to 102 , or 98 to 92. Still don't know how we lost 7 games with that group, probably little or no defense. ( Then in 1971 the General came in and scores started dropping into the '70's !)
I remember being upset we didn't get Billy Donovan when we hired Coach Miller. I don't think Miller is a bad guy. He was just in over his head, much like Coach Mike Davis. Davis even admitted that it was a shock to get the head coaching job. He admitted he didn't know what he was doing. He's a good man. I'm sure Coach Miller is a decent man too.
I saw only three games of Big George’s, in the old field-house my Soph year at IU...93-94 OT loss to KY, 113-112 win over Northern Illinois and a 81-85 defeat to the lowly PUkes. That second game remains the highest total score of any college game I’ve personally witnessed. Thank God and George they won it. George had 26 pts with God keeping score.
