To play Devil's Advocate, some negatives of the 1989 team...
-Free throw shooting: no starters averaged over 70% from the line. The only player on the entire team that shot over 70% was Richie Manning and he only averaged 3 points per game.
-No bench. Dave Johnson/Manning/Harried/Tony Scott collectively averaged 12 points per game.
-Three point shooting: Roe was an excellent three point shooter, and Sherm was good for one per game, but after him there was absolutely nothing.
Some of those are valid criticims of that team. FT shooting was abysmal. We lost more than one game that season where we'd have 8 more field goals that the other team, but go 10-20 from the FT line and lose by a point or two. Even Sherman Douglas, who'd been a more effective shooter from the stripe earlier in his career wasn't immune; he only shot something like 53% from the line his senior year. DC was our most consistent shooter that season, at around 69%.
The bench thing is a bit overstated. Like many of our teams, we had numerous players who were capable of playing multiple positions, which helped to mask the lack of depth. Dave Johnson was the main bench guy, who got increasingly more run over Roe as the season went on. Sherman Douglas almost never came out of the game. Stevie, Billy, and DC rarely did, either -- guys were iron men. Players like Manning and Harried were deep reserves, at best.
We weren't a great three point shooting team, but that was a bit before the wave of three point shooting really took off in college basketball. Roe statistically was our best shooter, but he was often overmatched in games. Sherm could hit them. Billy could hit them. DJ every once in a blue moon would hit them. That was about it. It wasn't a big part of our offensive repertoire.
On the positive side, we were a GREAT rebounding team. Not just good, great.
We had unbelievable versatility, with players like DC, Owens, and even Stevie Thompson proving to be matchup nightmares for many teams.
We had the best point guard in college basketball, and the break neck pace we played really pushed the tempo and made for high scoring, fun games. Sherman Douglas elevated the alley oop to an art form, and he had several players who could go get his lob passes and convert with monster dunks.
Those teams had unbelievable savvy, with several players having tremendous basketball IQ -- Sherman, DC, and Owens.
We had lots of size. I've watched games that year numerous times, where we played teams with HUGE front lines like Georgetown [Mourning, Mutombo], Missouri [Doug Smith, Gary Leonard, etc.] and we would still kick butt inside. Our bigs were that good.
Fun team, albeit one with flaws. If that team had had Andy Rautins instead of Roe [i.e., a guy who could run and defend a little better than Roe was able to, to say nothing of providing a bit of three point firepower], they'd have gone further than the elite 8.
