Pick the best starting frontcourt to play at Indiana.
- Thread starter H00SIER-Cat
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George McGinnis would beat those 3 by himself
1975: Benson, May, Green, plus Abernethy & Laskowski in reserve; Wilkerson could guard post players too
1976: Benson, May, Abernethy; Wilkerson could guard post players too
1976: Benson, May, Abernethy; Wilkerson could guard post players too
Going to be very hard to argue anything other than Benson, May, Green/Abernethy.
1975 team, full stop, it's the 76 team plus Laz and Green (who led the team in scoring).
Followed by the 76 team and then the 81 team (Turner, Tolbert, Whittman, and Kitchel
Followed by the 76 team and then the 81 team (Turner, Tolbert, Whittman, and Kitchel
71 team with Downey, McGinnis & Joby Wright was pretty darn good
The Cheaney/Henderson/Nover /Evans group in 92-93 was great, but have to go with the spirit of ‘76.
edit: bum luck on the Alan injury
edit: bum luck on the Alan injury
add Montross to that list and probably 2 more banners hanging in the hall....
wouldn't consider Cheaney a frontcourt player and I don't think Evans played much at all that year from what I recall. Henderson was great, but our record that year is really hard to believe with our frontcourt basically being Henderson and Nover.. and then Henderson got hurt.
Wasn’t CC a small forward ? 6-6 wing either way
Yeah, I guess by definition as a 3, he'd be considered "frontcourt" but I guess I think of did they play in the paint or wing and who did they guard. To me he was clearly a modern 3 that played on the wing.
I'd almost say 93-94 as well perhaps. But definately 92-93 for one. 91-92 Duke was B A
Tolbert and Turner were really, really good in the 81 title run. Like, on par with Benson and whomever we put next to him.
Not going to have a Bird McHale Parish NBA obvious answer here but Cheaney Nover Henderson w Evans as reserve is hard to find a better one.
Add Kitchell and again hard to argue against.
Larry Richardson what years was he here? Vaguely remember him having a great game against Purdue one time. And they always told the story of him outplaying Vince Carter one time in an AAU game
we had Duke's ass in the F4 in 92 until the whistles starting blowing.
I don't even want to go into that discussion again...too many times...too painful. Worse than the Crean Cuse 2013 debacle.
Todd Leary was so close to being a Hoosier legend in the last 3 minutes or so.
I rewatched that game recently. While the officials obviously played a role...it wasn't as egregious as I remembered it being. I was 14, and threw a baseball through my parents living room drywall at one point during that game...so obviously my emotions were a little different.
As much as the officiating...and I know this is blasphemy to many on this board, but I think Coach K made better adjustments midway through that game, and RMK never really was able to slow them back down.
It seemed, to me, that we surprised them early in that game with how good we were...they settle down, made some adjustments, and their stars took the game over. RMK and our stars weren't able to get that momentum back (outside those flukey last 3's by Leary).
Long story short...if the game had been officiated a little more evenly, we probably would have held them off or it would have been closer at the end...but even despite the officiating, we could have put them away, or at least slowed their momentum enough to keep the game tight all the way through. As it was, the game was basically out of hand before Leary's late game heroics.
The frontcourt of Downing, McGinnis and Wright led the country in rebounding, even though each of them was only 6-8. I saw them win 106-103 at ND. The Notre Dame players said later that McGinnis was fouling himself.
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1. 74-75 (Benson, May, Green)
2. 80-81 (Tolbert, Turner, Kitchel)
3. 75-76 (Benson, May)
4. 91-92 (Anderson, Henderson, Nover)
5. 92-93 (Henderson, Nover, Evans both year older and better)
6. 00-01 (Haston, Jeffries)
7. 12-13 (game had changed away from traditional 2 post, so Zeller/Watford was a great front court)
Others to consider...
01-02; Jeffries, Newton, Odle
15-16; Bryant and Anunobe
97-98; Patterson and Collier
21-22; TJD and Race
Any team George McGinnis was on *** 70-71 with McGinnis and Downing is easily top 5...missed this one.
Probably some others in the 80s I'm missing. Did Tolbert play with Turner more than 1 year?
2. 80-81 (Tolbert, Turner, Kitchel)
3. 75-76 (Benson, May)
4. 91-92 (Anderson, Henderson, Nover)
5. 92-93 (Henderson, Nover, Evans both year older and better)
6. 00-01 (Haston, Jeffries)
7. 12-13 (game had changed away from traditional 2 post, so Zeller/Watford was a great front court)
Others to consider...
01-02; Jeffries, Newton, Odle
15-16; Bryant and Anunobe
97-98; Patterson and Collier
21-22; TJD and Race
Any team George McGinnis was on *** 70-71 with McGinnis and Downing is easily top 5...missed this one.
Probably some others in the 80s I'm missing. Did Tolbert play with Turner more than 1 year?
3 years, but Turner wasn't Turner until that championship year.
79-80 had Kitchell, Risley, Grunwald, Woodson, Isenbarger, Bouchie & Wittman at the F spots in addition to Turner and Tolbert as F/C. If Woody doesn't go down...
That 78-79 team is the first one that I really remember.
I mean, FTs were 42-16 against a team that was at the top of the country for FTAs. That is a huge gap in a 3 point game. It also effected IU's ability to slow Duke down and get back momentum because of trying not to foul out.
Cheaney, Henderson, Bailey and G Graham all fouled out, which was pretty rare for any of them to foul out let alone all 4 in one game.
Much more athletic than Benson and May or Abernathy.
Cheaney picked up a foul on a terrible call that caused him to have to sit if I remember right
A more persuasive argument would have been McGinnis and two other guys.
That team was one year before I started following. How the hell did they ever lose?
If they all would have gotten their game rolling at the same time, Woody, Tolbert, and Turner had the potential to be as good as any. Athletic. Enough size. 2 premier defenders. 1 elite scorer with the other 2 being more than adequate scorers.
Bobby effing Hurley saved Duke's ass in the 1st half. He was the only Duke player ready for the environment. Laettner was pissing down his leg.
Yeah. And it was a factor. But there weren’t as many terrible calls as I remembered. Duke got very, very aggressive going to the basket. And they called the game very close. IU wasn’t nearly as aggressive offensively it didn’t seem.
It was an oddly officiated game: really tight and one-sided. IU started out almost perfect on offense, then the fouls and the style of play created by the refs got to IU. I don't think IU scored for 8-10 minutes to start the 2nd half, and they did take their foot off of the gas.
Any team derserves better officiating in the Final Four, especially when Bob Knight is going for #4.
Don't discount or downplay Walt Bellamy and Tom Bolyard back in the day. 1960-61? Bellamy besides scoring prowess was a windshield wiper on the boards and I believe still holds RB records for team/conference. Bolyard was stout as a mule, pretty smooth scorer too. Of course playing with Jimmy Rayl didn't hurt. Bellamy had a long and productive NBA career with several seasons selected All Star.
If I remember correctly Hurley was very clutch in that game.
I was about your age in that game. Devastated
Sadly, they didn't win a damn thing and their coach, Lou Watson, was fired because of their inability to play together. Subsequently, we got stuck with Bob Knight for awhile.
Couple old names worth mentioning is Don Schlundt, the Van Arsdales bros, and Branch McCracken was a Center!
