I am trying to get my hoops fix and I have watched a few of the old videos from 1987. It has actually been a lot of fun to look back. I had forgotten just how good Steve Alford was. That guy was phenomenal! Those teams played REALLY hard and you could see the strategy with each game. They definitely didn't try to "out athlete" teams like many teams seem to rely on. They had minimal depth with the starters playing about 35-38 mins a game. It's amazing that they were able to win it all.
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- Thread starter IndyMitchell
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moving offense at its finest. No 30 sec shot clock, no forced 25 footers. Sliding screens everywhere. And Alford, choir boy looks and all, was a stone cold killer.
And credit to Joe Hillman. We don't win the tourney that year without him.
VanPastorMan
Hall of Famer
I really enjoyed this game at the time. UCLA had beaten IU early in the year and were acting a bit gaudy. Oh how the might do fall.
i've rewatched this game many times. Was fun watching IU bitch slap those two soft moody MnM pricks on UCLA. We were unbeatable that day.
They played the same way in the 1st half vs Duke the next weekend. Unstoppable and heading towards banner #6 until the zebras starting blowing the whistles.
“Motion offense”? And every opponent used to rail on us for those “sliding” (moving) screens.
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motion offense...was thinking 'moving' screen as I typed it. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night.
I watched a game from the early 80s on B1G classic a few yrs ago. IU vs Minny...I think the Randy Bruer yrs. Was weird watching it. Players getting the ball, 17 feet out, free throw line extended (even guys like Whittman and Kitch) and no one looking to chuck up a shot...always looking to feed the post. It almost felt awkward watching it. Kept thinking..."why isn't he shooting that shot?" Showed me how much NCAA ball has changed.
I saw Breuer up close when they played in Bloomington one season. Freakishly tall. The shot clock changed things, but awarding another point for a slightly longer shot altered it far more, in my view. There was no “perimeter offense” prior to that, as teams pounded the ball into the paint at every opportunity. Today’s mid-range game was the perimeter, at least for most teams.
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I bet Randy B had a tough time finding clothes off the rack that fit.
3 pointer definitely change things more. Fast break defense- Watford was deadly at trailing the break for an easy uncontested 3. Lots of players do that now. Difficult to defend the fast break when you have to cover out to 22 feet. Back 'in the day', you'd give the other team a 22 footer on a fast break all night long. No one would dare take that shot. If they missed, there's a spot for them on the bench to watch the rest of the game.
VanPastorMan
Hall of Famer
What I want to know is how did IU score 106 pts when they had a .45 shot clock?
A friend's brother is a coach who is friends with SA and they golf together some. He said he's a better overall golfer but SA usually wins because he's so damn competitive.
the team was loaded with shooters and scorers. Even our 'bigs' like E Anderson and Alan could hit shots beyond the paint. So much talent on that team. Even Nover and Reynolds who weren't flashy but lunch pail guys who played their roles well.
F U Ted Valentine and that split ACC crew. Travesty.
Well, we had 105 and Lindeman made a free throw for 106.
VanPastorMan
Hall of Famer
Let me ask you a serious question. Do you think the faster shot clock at .30 means more points are scored than when it was .45? Now we do have a lot more 3's taken. But I question the percentage. Real good 3 pt shooters shoot 40%. How would that translate to a guy who shot mostly from two at 50%?
Those screens were such a big advantage. They even did that under Mike Davis as well. It really opened guys up. It was brilliant in opening up shooters or even getting guys open looks inside. I can't believe more teams don't do more of this.
You're right...Alford didn't look it but he was a killer. I had forgotten how competitive he was.
I looked up IU's big win versus Duke in 2002 as well. Wow, was that team loaded!! That was with them losing Kirk Haston to the draft the year before too. Starting 5 of Coverdale, Fife, Hornsby, Odle, Jeffries & Moye, Newton,& Leach coming off the bench! Moye and Newton were as good as the starters if not better in some of these games. George Leach got relatively little court time on this team and he would have started for just about any other IU team since then. This team could really shoot it...they hit like 15 or 16 3's versus Kent State in the next game.
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Odle started. George Leach...not Lynch.
IU and Purdue played a game last yr where neither team could score 50 pts....with a 30 second clock. Can't shoot, cant' score, regardless of the shot clock.
That cost us the 75 title almost as much as losing Scott May. Joe B was constantly bitching about it and several were called helping them build a lead we couldn't recover from. Speaking of that game, I was watching Basketball: A Love Story over the weekend. They showed some clips from that game and I had forgotten how rough the play was. Actually a fight almost erupted involving Radford.
JBH decided to rough us up that day and it worked. Without an effective SM, Bennie had to largely go it alone against Mike Phillips and Rick Robey and, though he was a warrior, those guys took a toll inside. An awful loss.
If anyone wants to watch a huge IU upset win...check out IU versus NC in the 1984 NCAA Tournament. The talent difference was not even close but the game plan worked.
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That was our year that didn't happen. Ditto for the '75 team. They were there for us to take, but for the Christian Laettner miracle shot against KY. followed by the refs against Duke in Minny. For '75, obviously, May's broken arm from the Purdue game and we still almost had enough to beat the sons-of-bitches in Dayton.
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