"When I dunk, I put something on it. I want the ball to hit the floor before I do." Darryl Dawkins
Tiger Basketball Den
Snapshot: The Dark Knight Strikes
Anthony Wilson
Bernard Woodside
After finishing the regular season 21-14, the 1987 Tigers went on a magical run in the NCAA tournament as the #10 seed. They came within one point of reaching their second straight Final Four.
Georgia Tech 85-79 @ Rosemont IL
Temple 72-62 @ Rosemont IL
DePaul 63-58 @ Cincinnati
In addition to 3-point specialist Anthony Wilson, PG Darryl Joe began hitting from beyond the arc, as did the other G, Bernard Woodside. And the team played outstanding D, especially Oliver Brown. Quick C Nikita Wilson rounded out the starting five.
That brought Dale Brown's crew into the Regional Final against Bobby Knight's Indiana Hoosiers, the #1 seed. The Tigers led most of the game only to lose in the last seconds, 77-76.
In his book Dale Brown's Memoirs from LSU Basketball, the coach recalled a key incident in the game.
Anyone who's ever kept up with college basketball remembers that Bobby Knight incident ... He intimidated the officials and slammed down the phone at the scorer's table – and they did nothing. If I had that instance to do over again, I wouldn't have assumed such a passive posture as I did. I had made up my mind if there was going to be a controversy, then I wanted to be the cool-headed one, which didn't come easy for me.
The NCAA fined Knight $10,000 and dropped those referees from the rest of the tournament. It was too late to help LSU any, though. ... Indiana went on to win the national championship in the Superdome, and had there been three stronger officials, it could have been us.
After the game, Knight told the media, "I wasn't sure we could beat this team. Coach Brown got all he could out of them." However, Bobby changed his tune after Dale told Bob Costas that Knight had acted like a bully. In a book about the Hoosiers' 1987 season, Knight told the author, "I was worried about losing the game until I looked down the floor and saw Dale Brown. Then I knew we had a chance."
Arrange the following rules from the earliest to the latest in terms of when they were implemented in men's college basketball.
(A)3-point shot
(B)Shot clock
(C)Three-second limit for offensive players in the lane
(D)Alternating possession for jump balls except at beginning of the game
Basketball Snapshot: When the Magic Returned to the Forum
Magic Johnson Before His First Retirement
Magic Johnson After His Return to the Court
He was 4 1/2 years older and 30 lb heavier than when he last appeared in an NBA game. But he still instilled electricity in the crowd when he reported to the scorer's table in the Great Western Forum on January 29, 1996 to take the court again for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Golden State Warriors.
After a 12-year Hall of Fame career with the Lakers, 31-year-old Earvin "Magic" Johnson had shocked the sports world on November 7, 1991, when he announced that he was HIV positive. Given the limited medical knowledge about his condition at the time, he retired from the game for the sake of his own health and the peace of mind of his peers. Some of his teammates wept because they figured he would not live long.
Magic did play on the Dream Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, but when he tried a comeback that fall, the fears of outspoken players forced him to back off.
Johnson took over as coach of the Lakers for the second half of the 1994 season but "quit after finding it was harder to communicate with the modern player while wearing a suit rather than a Laker uniform."
During the next four years, AIDs research and AIDs education progressed to the point where Magic not only was still alive but also healthy enough to play basketball again. The Center for Disease Control set the chance of a basketball player contracting AIDs from incidental touching at 1 in 85 million. Gone also was the notion that vigorous participation in athletics would somehow weaken Johnson and accelerate the onset of AIDs. "They said basketball would kill me. Well, not playing basketball was killing me."
Before he could be reinstated to the roster, Magic had to sell the 5% of the team he had purchased from owner Jerry Buss.
Johnson's journey to reactivation began when he worked out with the Lakers, "a young and talented but leaderless team."
First, guards Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones, then coach Del Harris, and finally executive VP Jerry West "put a full-court press on Johnson, asking him to return, telling him that he was just what the team needed."
When his wife Cookie gave her blessing, Magic signed a contract for $2.5 million for a half-season of play. At the news conference, Johnson claimed he was "five steps slower" and joked, "I'll be doing my Larry Bird imitation now."
Magic's return gave a shot in the arm to the entire Los Angeles area which had experienced a devastating earthquake, a riot, and the O. J. Simpson trial since Magic had retired.
The Forum was sold out for only the second time all season. #1 Laker fan Jack Nicholson was away making a movie but other stars, such as Rob Lowe, attended.
The crowd rose as one and cheered when Harris put Johnson in to replace Elden Campbell with 2:21 left in Q1. After missing his first shot, Magic quickly got an assist, a right-handed running shot, a left-handed hook and then he faked a pass and moved past Latrell Sprewell for a layup.
When he entered the game, the Lakers led by only 3. When he left, the margin was 17. He played some more in the second half and his example of unselfish play caused the Lakers to register an NBA season-high 44 assists for the game.
Johnson played in 32 games in his final half-season before permanent retirement. His per-game averages were:
29.9 min, 6.9 assists, 14.6 pts., 5.7 rebs.
LA finished second in the Pacific Division, 11 games behind the Seattle Supersonics. The fourth-seeded Lakers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in four games by the Houston Rockets.
6'11" Manhattan College freshman Kevin Laue needs only one hand to play college basketball. He was born without a left hand because the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his neck in the womb. Fortunately, his left arm had become wedged between the cord and his throat which kept him from choking but also stunted the growth of that arm.
Laue is thought to be the first one-armed player to earn a Division I basketball scholarship.
Despite being steered toward soccer as a small boy, Kevin gravitated to basketball. He pursued rebounds and blocked shots aggressively as he grew and grew. He learned to catch the ball by pinning it with his left arm and right hand.
