Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The good old days - they really were

I have told my sons for years that they are not likely to see college basketball like I saw it unless something fundamental changes to keep players in college for four years. What is the likelihood of seeing Maravich and Calvin Murphy both averaging over 40 ppg in the same season? Can you imagine seeing Elvin Hayes and Alcindor go head-to-head twice in one season? Not likely.

In 2007 ESPN ranked the ten greatest college teams of all time. Two were from the 1990’s, none more recent than 1996 – 12 years ago. All the rest were 1982 or before. Seven of the Top 10 teams were 1976 or before. Doing the math, that is 32 years ago – an entire generation – and thus my contention that we probably will never see college basketball like that again.

In 1956, Bill Russell had FIFTY rebounds in the semi-finals and finals of the NCAA tournament. Imagine that today! The 1972 UCLA Bruins averaged winning by a margin of 32 points per game. All of the 1960 Ohio State starters played at least two years in the pros – including Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek and Larry Siegfried. Sometimes the good old days really were the good old days.

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