CuseTroop
Vegas Mole Person
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
- 11,880
- Like
- 29,169
More proof that I get paid to do absolutly nothing. 
Colin- Jimmy I don’t know if you’re a historian with sports, its hard to explain Wilt, to someone who never saw Wilt play, do you have a Wilt Chamberlin story that you recall?
JB- I do, I was in the Garden, we were playing in NY and there was a day in between. Wilt was playing the Knicks. There was an altercation and Jim “Bad News” Barns was playing for the Knicks. He had an altercation with one of Wilts teammates, might have been Luke Jackson. Jim “Bad News” Barns was about 6’9 260, Wilt walked over, stood in between them, picked him up two feet off the ground, looked him in the eye and set him down. Jim “Bad News” Barns calmly walked away. True Story.
Colin- Yea well, Wilt was, people forget this Jim, he didn’t score 100, he scored 100, he also scored 81, and 77, 15 times he scored over 70 points, He was unbelievable. David Thompson of NC State was one player I saw collegiately that played the game at a vertical level that I had never seen. Who was the greatest individual talent you have ever seen, coached or played against in college basketball?
JB- When I was an assistant we went to UMASS I talked to coach Jack Lima before the game. At that time you didn’t know who people were. I said, “hows your soph playing?” he said “ya know, hes not doing much. He’s not moving, he’s not doing the things he should do” We had a 6’11 All American center, so I’m thinking ok, we’re ok. Well the guy gets 32 points and 36 rebounds against us, of course his name is Julius Erving. And I’m watching the second play of the game, our 6’11 center jumped as high as he could go and I saw this hand go right up over him, grab the ball and put it in the basket. I said “oops. We’re not going to do well here tonight”
Colin- You kind of escape from UNCA and I just wonder how much you have in your wallet, you might lose some money here, what do you make of the refs in that game?
JB- Well there was obviously the out of bounds call our guy did get pushed so I guess they missed both calls, I guess you gotta say it that way.
Colin- That’s a nice way to put it
JB- Yea, they missed those but they miss calls. The thing is, yea we did struggle, but we had an 8 point lead with two or three minutes to go, so we kinda took control of the game but they are a good team, they played well and I give them a lot of credit. I didn’t think they were a 16 seed from the beginning. You look at Lehigh play, they don’t look like a 15 seed either. Its hard to judge where those teams are seeded. I don’t think the committee made any mistakes but its hard to judge where those teams are. And as you look at teams in the tourney, and see where they are, you say, boy that teams pretty good. Lehigh is playing pretty good, I thought VCU again was a team that could have won. I think we are seeing what you normally see in the tourney, some surprises, The top seeds are in. In the other regions it looks to me that the tops seeds are going to have a good chance of getting through depending on how Marshall is at UNC. I think that’s going to be a question mark there.
Colin- So I wanna know Jim, when you lost Fab Melo, for every young coach that is coaching right now. You lose your star center, you recruited well, you have some depth here, you lose your star center before the tourney, this happened to Izzo with lucas a few years ago. What did you sit your team down and say?
JB- Well the good thing, we won at Cincy without him, so we beat a team that’s now in the sweet 16 on the road, with out him. So that was a fairly positive thing to say, and we had two guys who can play center, not one. We didn’t have to move a forward into a center spot. I think were a little bit better prepared. Two years ago we lost our center, we didn’t have a good back up we had to move our PF to center and I think it made it more difficult for us. Our players are confident, they think they can win, but anybody you play now in this tourney can beat ya, and we think we can beat anybody we play. The greatest thing about this tourney if your even a 15 or 16 seed, you talk to the kids on that team. They think they can win, and that was not true many years ago. They were just happy to be in the tournament. Now they think they can win, and as their proving, they can win.
Colin- Jimmy I don’t know if you’re a historian with sports, its hard to explain Wilt, to someone who never saw Wilt play, do you have a Wilt Chamberlin story that you recall?
JB- I do, I was in the Garden, we were playing in NY and there was a day in between. Wilt was playing the Knicks. There was an altercation and Jim “Bad News” Barns was playing for the Knicks. He had an altercation with one of Wilts teammates, might have been Luke Jackson. Jim “Bad News” Barns was about 6’9 260, Wilt walked over, stood in between them, picked him up two feet off the ground, looked him in the eye and set him down. Jim “Bad News” Barns calmly walked away. True Story.
Colin- Yea well, Wilt was, people forget this Jim, he didn’t score 100, he scored 100, he also scored 81, and 77, 15 times he scored over 70 points, He was unbelievable. David Thompson of NC State was one player I saw collegiately that played the game at a vertical level that I had never seen. Who was the greatest individual talent you have ever seen, coached or played against in college basketball?
JB- When I was an assistant we went to UMASS I talked to coach Jack Lima before the game. At that time you didn’t know who people were. I said, “hows your soph playing?” he said “ya know, hes not doing much. He’s not moving, he’s not doing the things he should do” We had a 6’11 All American center, so I’m thinking ok, we’re ok. Well the guy gets 32 points and 36 rebounds against us, of course his name is Julius Erving. And I’m watching the second play of the game, our 6’11 center jumped as high as he could go and I saw this hand go right up over him, grab the ball and put it in the basket. I said “oops. We’re not going to do well here tonight”
Colin- You kind of escape from UNCA and I just wonder how much you have in your wallet, you might lose some money here, what do you make of the refs in that game?
JB- Well there was obviously the out of bounds call our guy did get pushed so I guess they missed both calls, I guess you gotta say it that way.
Colin- That’s a nice way to put it
JB- Yea, they missed those but they miss calls. The thing is, yea we did struggle, but we had an 8 point lead with two or three minutes to go, so we kinda took control of the game but they are a good team, they played well and I give them a lot of credit. I didn’t think they were a 16 seed from the beginning. You look at Lehigh play, they don’t look like a 15 seed either. Its hard to judge where those teams are seeded. I don’t think the committee made any mistakes but its hard to judge where those teams are. And as you look at teams in the tourney, and see where they are, you say, boy that teams pretty good. Lehigh is playing pretty good, I thought VCU again was a team that could have won. I think we are seeing what you normally see in the tourney, some surprises, The top seeds are in. In the other regions it looks to me that the tops seeds are going to have a good chance of getting through depending on how Marshall is at UNC. I think that’s going to be a question mark there.
Colin- So I wanna know Jim, when you lost Fab Melo, for every young coach that is coaching right now. You lose your star center, you recruited well, you have some depth here, you lose your star center before the tourney, this happened to Izzo with lucas a few years ago. What did you sit your team down and say?
JB- Well the good thing, we won at Cincy without him, so we beat a team that’s now in the sweet 16 on the road, with out him. So that was a fairly positive thing to say, and we had two guys who can play center, not one. We didn’t have to move a forward into a center spot. I think were a little bit better prepared. Two years ago we lost our center, we didn’t have a good back up we had to move our PF to center and I think it made it more difficult for us. Our players are confident, they think they can win, but anybody you play now in this tourney can beat ya, and we think we can beat anybody we play. The greatest thing about this tourney if your even a 15 or 16 seed, you talk to the kids on that team. They think they can win, and that was not true many years ago. They were just happy to be in the tournament. Now they think they can win, and as their proving, they can win.
