re: speaking of Taylor and leaping...remembering DeWayne Scales

He actually got the nickname "Astronaut" from a Morning Advocate writer who saw him at practice one day as a freshman swishing jump shots from almost out of bounds with ease and turning around to laugh at the bench after each one. The writer likened Scales to the character "Astronaut Jones" from Dan Jenkins' novel,"Semi-Tough", a best-selling novel at the time.

In the novel Astronaut Jones was a star basketball player who ran track, and once, after winning the city's 100-yard dash, released a small parachute from his shorts as he crossed the finish line. On the court he would launch jump shot after jump shot as soon as he crossed mid court and could be heard to say, "Tryin' one", and then, with the ball halfway to the hoop and knowing it was going in, would turn to those at the press table and say, "Y'all come back now."

The Advocate sportswriter thought the character was a good fit for Scales, who as soon as he touched the ball would spring as if on a trampoline high off the floor to launch long-range jumpers with a looping, outer space trajectory, and he would make the shots with incredible ease.

I remember reading that Advocate story in 1978. How Scales got his nickname and more is also described on page 7 in the Sonny Marks book: "Five: The Night Dale Brown's Bench Met the Best". See the link below.

LINK

Even though LSU had a loaded lineup in those days, Scales could flat take over a game single-handedly against the best. I love the memories of him posterizing Sam Bowie and laughing in his face when they faced off early in his junior year in a Tigers win at Kentucky. Then again in the 1980 SEC tournament title game he just posted up down low over and over against the much taller Bowie (by 5 inches) and absolutely destroyed him one-on-one at the end to give LSU the title. Scales was the MVP of that tournament.

I was able to see Scales in person that year against Ole Miss in the Assembly Center, and I have this vivid memory of a fast break where Scales, who outran the guards down the center of the court, went airborne running full speed to catch a lob from Ethan Martin AT THE FOUL LINE and actually flew in the air all the way to the hoop, double pumping the ball in the same motion while in the air before slamming it down with a vengeance to bring the house down. It was the most breathtaking moment I ever witnessed in a basketball game, and I was blessed to see a few live Tiger games from Pistol Pete through Shaq all the way to the current day.

I believe the 1981 team without Scales was the best team in Tiger history. They played so well together and dominated. They might not have been so cohesive with Scales, but he was one of the single greatest talents ever to play anywhere, not just LSU, and incredibly fun and entertaining to watch.

Willie Sims...best 6th man off the bench...I remember watching Greg “Cookie man”Cook , kneeing Sam Bowie for Ky the whole game... Bowie wanted no part inside becuz of that... Ethan Martin with his drive in the lane hitting the fade-away ...this team was special... those were the days...

Rumor was Scales could remove a coin from top of backboard.

Great team

Macklin hurt Scales’ last season, next year Tudor, Johnny Jones, Leonard Mitchell were freshman on LSU’s first final four team. Scales was gone, Macklin was back

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Willie Sims was Jewish, BTW. I think he ended up immigrating to Israel.

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and his daughter, Danyelle Sims, is fine as hell. She's married to Gal Mekel who had a brief run in the NBA.

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Then again in the 1980 SEC tournament title game he just posted up down low over and over against the much taller Bowie (by 5 inches) and absolutely destroyed him one-on-one at the end to give LSU the title. Scales was the MVP of that tournament.

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My freshman year of high school. That was a revenge game against losing the last game of the regular season at home to UK.

There are a few games from that year on Youtube - the loss at DePaul, the Elite 8 loss to Louisville, the loss to UK at the end of the year and maybe a few others. I wish I could find that SEC Tournament championship game because I remember Scales having the game of his life.

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Ethan Martin

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He could sneak thru the lane before they knew he had the ball.

Was a player when I went to my first LSU basketball game. Fun guy to watch.

LINK

one of the best if not biggest LSU upsets ever (in the good)

for the youngsters: MAIN FILES IN LSU --MUST BE
LSU vs Memphis 1986 83-81