I didn’t want to derail the Brandon McCoy thread any more than it’s already been but the Calipari talk led me to look for his UMass days and found a pretty cool article and trailer for a documentary on their Final Four run:
https://www.umass.edu/magazine/catching-lightning-in-a-bottle
I thought a general thread about what we remember (or never knew) about the history of the game could be fun. So here it is.
I remember when I was young turning on the Michigan vs Notre Dame game and being stunned to see five freshman starting for us! Even better they scored every single point!
Feels like just yesterday
Is this your father posting?
@DMB43 This one should be up your alley:
Starting at the 4:55 mark, we’ve got Calipari coaching UMass against Kentucky. Marcus Camby vs. Mark Pope. And it’s all happening at the Palace of Auburn Hills!
Camby (both college and pro) was such a fun player. One of the best college defenders I’ve ever seen and an EXTREMELY good pro defender - the young ‘uns won’t remember but he was basically Ben Wallace before Ben Wallace (but somewhat more offense). I grew up a Knicks fan, and remember him carryin them as an 8 seed through the ECF to that random finals where they got smeared (without Ewing) by the Duncan/Admiral Spurs. Had a 14/11 with 3 blocks and 3 steals per game in that series, coming off the bench
I watched this game as a kid and thought it was the most exciting game I’d ever seen:
Even though I liked Michigan and maybe attended my first game that year, I instantly fell in love with Phi Slama Jamma. I’ll have to watch the whole thing again and see if it holds up. I did just watch the first few minutes and the pace is still really fast for the most part, even though there wasn’t a shot clock. It’s also interesting to see that there’s a 3-point line but it’s not in use. I guess whatever conference New Mexico was in at the time had it in use.
Phi slamma jamma was awesome. TV was so different then that you rarely would see them. Maybe 2-3 times that season. Would typically have to read the sports section of the newspaper the next day to know if a team won.
ESPN was around but it was still pretty tough. There was certainly more college hoops to watch than NBA and I was probably watching more Cubs and Braves games than Tigers because they had “Superstations” that were on basic cable and the Tigers were just occasionally on channel 4, IIRC.
A fun find!
Maybe because the type is small and I might be missing his name but I’m surprised that I don’t see Demetrius Calip on here…and maybe more surprised that I do see Chris Seter’s name.
That’s an amazing find! I am stunned Chris Seter was on that list.
Wasn’t Demetrius Calip a year ahead of Seter? Seter was a senior on the first Fab 5 team but Calip had already graduated
I’m pretty sure that Seter redshirted, while both Calip and Higgins played as true Freshman.
I always joked that he was the player who replaced Magic Johnson with the Lakers, which may be technically true. I don’t think he would’ve made the roster if Magic hadn’t retired.
Something that I didn’t know (or maybe forgot) was that he was in the movie Blue Chips:
That list brings back memories.
Future Wolverine Sean Higgins checks in at #6. I will always remember his winning shot against Illinois in the 89 Final Four. I was nervous heading into that game because Illinois had already clobbered Michigan twice, including the regular season finale at Crisler.
I really wanted Michigan to land #23 Mark Macon from Saginaw, but he had his sights set on Temple. It is also interesting to see Texas/Xavier/Arizona coach Sean Miller on the list as a HS PG at #70.
I had totally forgotten that
If I ever go to a game at Illinois I will wear a Sean Higgins Jersey
The story of how we got Higgins was crazy. I view it as UCLA making amends for getting Sam Gilbert to scuttle Kareem transferring to us.
https://vault.si.com/vault/1987/02/23/signed-sealed-and-sorry
I’ve been to the flea market at his high school!
I chickened out from playing pick-up ball with Higgins, back when a lot of college hoopers ran at the Burns Park court by the warming house. He did use my basketball during the game, though. A brush with greatness!
A comparison of the Lane Kiffin situation and Bill Frieder/Steve Fisher.
