Was watching that 1988 Michigan game. Wow what a different experience than today's games.
Some observations:
- The dome was absolutely rocking for that entire game. When you think of that in context it is quite amazing. Syracuse was a near unanimous #1 in the preseason polls and then stumbled out to a 14-5 record, then was down 8 early to Michigan and the crowd never wavered. Today, the dome would probably be pretty subdued in a similar scenario.
- The pace of the game was absolutely off the charts. Both teams just attacked at full speed at all times. Situations that shouldn't possibly be fast breaks were fast breaks. On one play, Sherm kind of ties a guy up in the half court for a brief moment and manages to get the ball. He instantly just heaves it (almost behind him or behind his head - basically with no vision) and it is caught by Stevie Thompson who is already at the opposite foul line when he catches it and dunks it. There is just no way you would see that pass made to today and there is no way you would ever see that converted into two points today. Everybody on both teams, it seems, could run the break. I saw Matt Roe, Sherm, Stevie, Coleman all run breaks that led to points.
- Seikaly was an absolute beast in this game. Holy cow.
- The interior play (like Rony's) was far less footballish than today. There were lots of big bodies and lots of strong competition but absolutely nothing like the wrestling match you saw this year with Rak, for instance. It didn't look anything like that.
- Our team clearly had amazing talent but there wasn't anything like the discipline of today. On one play, Coleman stole the ball, dribbled full court and flushed it. The crowd went nuts and he is basically cruising back down court at 50% speed on the sideline/out of bounds doing a WWF crowd pump up, while Michigan is on a full on fast break going the other direction! There were tons of plays where they basically tried what would be globe trotter type stuff while protecting a 12 point lead (which they lost). Both teams seemed to do this though, kind of going for home run plays about every 90 seconds.
- Brower had more skill than I remember. I remember his as basically a lunk headed out of shape guy. He did some nice things in this game.
- At one point in the first half, in a tight game in which we were down to a Top 10 opponent, Boeheim had Sherm Douglas and Derrick Coleman both on the bench and not due to foul trouble!! Would you ever see anything like that today??
