Requiem for the Big East

[doc05]

You can hate Ewing for his competitiveness on the court but to say that he was a thug that never deserved to go to college you're straddling the line and end up sounding closer to the people who held those signs and spewed the venom at him in the first place.

You're better than that.

Thank you.

 

[LGO85]

I believe 30 for 30 does go to DVDs

I hope they include the follow up on espnu right now. This is good as well.

 

[44PRIDE]

Whatever you say sir. I'm a child of the 90's so I clearly don't have the hatred for Georgetown that you and many older posters on here do. But to say Ewing didn't deserve to go to college comes off like sounding very snobbish at the best, borderline prejudiced at the worst. Wonder what you would have said about Mullin. Seems to me I saw him throwing plenty of 'bows in that doc too.

Listen dude, just stop. You're off line on this one.

 

[OburgOrange]

Yup, I remember it like yesterday. I was stunned when Penn State was not voted in.We see the ramifications of that decision well documented tonight. Oh what could have been

 

[OrangeDW]

Not saying that was what bees meant here, but yes, often times it is. You're wrong.

It is often used that way, but not here. You're wrong.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

"ultimately Capitalism killed the Big East" Interesting.

Interesting? Only for it's ignorance. That was a galactically stupid comment by that guy.

Capitalism is what made the Big East. And capitalism would have not only saved the Big East, it would have made it perhaps the most dominant conference in the country. But they didn't vote in Penn State. Had they done that, they would have survived and thrived as a football conference. But those that didn't vote in Penn State wanted to keep making buggy whips.

Ignorance, stupidity, and lack of foresight and vision killed the Big East.

 

[OburgOrange]

Whatever you say sir. I'm a child of the 90's so I clearly don't have the hatred for Georgetown that you and many older posters on here do. But to say Ewing didn't deserve to go to college comes off like sounding very snobbish at the best, borderline prejudiced at the worst. Wonder what you would have said about Mullin. Seems to me I saw him throwing plenty of 'bows in that doc too.

You said it. You were too young to know . Bees is spot on

 

[JOC44]

Whatever you say sir. I'm a child of the 90's so I clearly don't have the hatred for Georgetown that you and many older posters on here do. But to say Ewing didn't deserve to go to college comes off like sounding very snobbish at the best, borderline prejudiced at the worst. Wonder what you would have said about Mullin. Seems to me I saw him throwing plenty of 'bows in that doc too.

If you equate Ewing and Mullin in terms of on-court behavior, based on a few clips from a documentary, you don't know what you are talking about.

 

[GoSU96]

Good posts--feel like it is definitely closure, at least to a degree.

Maybe its just that we've just "completed" our first full year [football and hoops] in the ACC, so in a sense we're already one year removed from the Big East.

Dang... I'm happy that we are benefiting from the stability of the ACC, but I'm really going to miss the Big East. The old Big East--the real conference. There won't be anything like it ever again.

The "real" BE was never going to hold. SU, BC and Pitt being football schools needed to have a place to land once football independence was no longer tenable, and without SU dragging the league into football it would have been a mid-major like the A1o in the long run.

SU being a football school was the core destablizing factor.

 

[rrlbees]

Whatever you say sir. I'm a child of the 90's so I clearly don't have the hatred for Georgetown that you and many older posters on here do. But to say Ewing didn't deserve to go to college comes off like sounding very snobbish at the best, borderline prejudiced at the worst. Wonder what you would have said about Mullin. Seems to me I saw him throwing plenty of 'bows in that doc too.

I could care less if they had let every kid in regardless of academic ability. But some weren't and some were. That's the prejudice, not by me but by them. And I don't equate thuggery to an elbow. Like others have basically said, you had to be there.

 

[HakAttack]

Listen dude, just stop. You're off line on this one.

Disagree. There's an ignore button. Feel free to use it. Sad that through the whole documentary some folks focus on the "Thuggery" of Georgetown.

They played physical tough ball. They recruited primarily black athletes. They were like the Oakland Raiders of the 80's. Clearly, some people were never able to get over that.

But I digress. It was a phenomenal documentary that I loved every second of. The big east died when they brought in Miami for the football $$, IMO. But seeing the footage of the BE glory years of the 80's was truly special.

 

[MGP]

Hard to explain if you didn't live through it...

 

[HakAttack]

I could care less if they had let every kid in regardless of academic ability. But some weren't and some were. That's the prejudice, not by me but by them. And I don't equate thuggery to an elbow. Like others have basically said, you had to be there.

Agree to disagree. Thanks for the history lesson.

 

[OrangeDW]

The extras has been almost solely focused on Cuse. This is awesome!

 

[rrlbees]

Are you familiar with Reggie Williams famous post game interview? Not all of those players were legitimate student athletes. Thompson was a huge opponent of minimum qualification standards--with good reason.

Exactly.

 

[SUfaninAZ]

Nothing was better than the Big East in the 80's.

 

[44PRIDE]

Interesting? Only for it's ignorance. That was a galactically stupid comment by that guy.

Capitalism is what made the Big East. And capitalism would have not only saved the Big East, it would have made it perhaps the most dominant conference in the country. But they didn't vote in Penn State. Had they done that, they would have survived and thrived as a football conference. But those that didn't vote in Penn State wanted to keep making buggy whips.

Ignorance, stupidity, and lack of foresight and vision killed the Big East.

This documentary changed my view of the Penn State issue. Its easy to be a visionary 30 years after the fact.

But the Big East was started as a basketball conference and didn't see the value of adding a rural football school with no bball history. TV contracts were not part of the discussion at that time.

While I don't agree with it, I understand the decision a bit more.

 

[MSOrange]

Hak, I think you are right in the main with the social statement you are trying to make. But in this instance, I'm not sure that you are.

Are you familiar with Reggie Williams famous post game interview? Not all of those players were legitimate student athletes. Thompson was a huge opponent of minimum qualification standards--with good reason.

I've heard reference to the Williams interview several times over the years but that's one of the few notable Big East things I have never seen before.

 

[Full_Rebar]

However the Big East was founded solely for television. If anything killed Penn State's chances, it was the tv market. Let's face it, every school would have gladly taken a losing program that made them more money.

 

[mountaincuse]

My take aways:

Making kids stay four years is great

I love that Calhoun was on there talking about "we" and how the BE built his team but his team got no airtime.

Pitino still talks about how we left for money but his team was never on and he's not even in the conference now.

The old Georgetown AD still doesn't get it.

To the schools who voted no to Penn State: you made your bed. you.

The Pearl made me more of a fan. "Best feeling".

After all that Jimmy is all that was left.

I hope the basketball onlies watch this and realize it could still be, but I don't think they will.

Gavitt was a visionary, but if he really wanted this conference why the heck did he leave for the nba?

I had more but didn't write them down! Great documentary.

Oh yeah, let's freaking win some games in the tourney!

 

[Full_Rebar]

Gavitt left because it was the Celtics and I'm sure he knew that the league wasn't going to last. I mean he knew it when he tried to add Penn St that he had to account for football at SU and BC.

 

[HakAttack]

If you equate Ewing and Mullin in terms of on-court behavior, based on a few clips from a documentary, you don't know what you are talking about.

So know you call out my basketball knowledge because I'm calling out a mod for a comment that quite frankly was stupid and childish? Cool. Clearly Mullin was not nearly the aggressive, "physical" player that Ewing was. Ewing wasn't called the Hoya Destroya for nothing.

The point I was making was that Georgetown's play wasn't that much out of the ordinary for a rough, upstart, physical league. The only difference was that Georgetown was made up of majority black players.

Why did so many people have a problem with Georgetown's Kente cloth shorts in the 90's?

Coincidence? Sure. But when you call black players "thugs," don't try to tell me that there's not some racial message there. Just ask Richard Sherman what he thinks. He'll tell you. And quite frankly, I agree with him.

 

[PoppyHart]

There's a lot of revisionist history and controlled ignorance going on here if we don't acknowledge guys like Coleman and Brower in the "thug" department then, and guys who should never have been allowed to play another game. But I'm sure there's a logical distinction between the choke hold by Ewing and the Cornell fracas.

 

[Halo]

Good lord...anything that happens on a basketball court is pg compared to hockey fights every night, baseball brawls, pitchers throwing fastballs at heads, and stuff going on in a football pile.

 

[RenoHeel]

Great special and very informative. I watched the BE form and evolve from a comfortable seat in the ACC. It brought back some great memories. It also brought back memories of Transghese and UConn and why many older ACC fans like myself have very strong feelings about them to this day.

This is hardly news to many of you but some may find it interesting in light of Transghese's interviews.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/20...40264_1_tranghese-acc-s-commissioner-swofford