SU-BC from Feb 1985 on ESPN Classic...

[Forza Azzurri]

right now...turned it on just in time to watch Pearl penetrate, hang, score AND 1....

 

[Forza Azzurri]

right now...turned it on just in time to watch Pearl penetrate, hang, score AND 1...

OK...watched the rest of the game..

For those of you who remembered that game, and I am not one of them, SU was down late, went to the Press, turned BC over a couple of times to get back to within one.

Terrible 5 second call on Michael Adams which gave the ball back to SU down 1.

Addison took shot, Alexis corralled the offensive rebound and was fouled. Hit both free throws to put SU up one with 20 seconds left.

BC came down missed a jumper that Seikaly rebounded. Seikaly was fouled. Missed front end of 1 and 1. with 7 seconds left.

BC comes down against token pressure, throws ball away that Michael Adams manages to run down just before it goes out of bounds, grabs ball and launches desperation heave from the sidelines 30 feet from the basket while Andre Hawkins slides in to try and take a charge Oh Lord:bang: with one second left. (No, I'm not making this up and thank God the forum did not exist back then). Adams hit both free throws and we lose by one.

A few thoughts about the game:

Thank God for the three point shot. Both teams played zone and both teams had all five players with both feet in the paint.

If 1985 Seikaly played for 2016 Boeheim, he would lead the team in 3 second substitutions. Walk on the floor, do something stupid, sit back down. In fact, 2016 JB would probably call time out just to get him off the floor sooner.

If the NCAA really wanted to punish Boeheim, instead of suspending him, they should make him watch continuous reruns of his 1985 zone. Nobody on their toes, nobody's hands up - just some really, really bad defense. Guys sort of shuffling side to side as the ball moved. I love Pearl but playing D was not at the top of his priority list and you could have superglued Seikaly's feet to the floor and he still would have found a way to leave his feet every time on a pump fake.

Not one of Pearl's better games. BC played a very compact zone and emphasized taking away transition which limited Pearl's ability to dazzle in the open floor.

I have now seen a 1989 and a 1985 SU game and I must say that JB's teams in the mid to late eighties were very talented but pretty undisciplined and playing D was almost an afterthought. The number of runouts that Duke had in the 89 game because of guys not rotating back when Thompson would go to the basket and then not hustle back on D (absolutely terrible sentence structure here - I meant the whole team, and not just Thompson, not hustling back on D) was surprising. Granted, it is a small sample size but still...

2016 JB just seems to be so much more demanding of his players and so much more of a perfectionist.

For the rotation guys on the board we played 8. I missed the beginning and don't know who started but it was Michael Brown, Herman Harried and either Hawkins or Seikaly off the bench.

Few other tidbits:

Vitale was calling the game and always referred to JB as "The Professor" or a crybaby.

He did not yet have his shtick...no diaper dandies, no PTPer references...

There was a hash mark on the floor about 30 feet from the basket. Cross it with the dribble and the 5 second count was supposed to reset. Only reason I know that is that it came into play on the five second call on Michael Adams.

Guys from the same team could line-up next to each other on foul shots if nobody from the opposing team was there.

There was apparently a 45 second clock. They never showed it and I actually told my son, who was watching the game with me, that there was no clock. The only reason I found out there was one was that, on one of BC's possessions while milking clock at the end of the game, the PBP guy actually said there were 10 seconds left on the shot clock.

They rarely showed the clock and only showed the score after made baskets.

They rarely showed coaches as opposed to today when they are always cutting to the coach.

Michael Adams was really quick.

Rafael Addison was really good as was Wendell Alexis.

 

[Toga]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

***ing Froggy. :bang:

 

[Forza Azzurri]

One other thing...the date of the game was February 5th, 1985 exactly 4 days before my wife and I went on our first date...

 

[Forza Azzurri]

***ing Froggy. :bang:

He was definitely one of the crew. Not sure if he was the one who called the block on Hawkins...

 

[OrangeXtreme]

He was definitely one of the crew. Not sure if he was the one who called the block on Hawkins...

He was. Oh Lord

You don't forget some things.

 

[senorpalmer]

Did you see Michael Adams shoot any perimeter shots? He had that funky form in the NBA but I don't recall if it evolved at all from his college years.