re: The 100 Years of LSU Basketball Thread - your memories

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Extra points for whoever knows what the "freak" defence was.

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Interesting insight into the mind of Dale in that one game he told all of his players that if the media were to ask about the freak that they should say that they didn't really understand it but they just ran around and played as hard as they could.

The rub was that he filmed his locker room telling of this to his team on his t.v. show and it aired only days later.

Announcers always said it was simply a triangle and two or box and one. Dale always claimed it to be more.

I will say that it helped the '86 team that was a bit defensively challenged, but the athletic '87 team didn't really need the gimmick defenses because they could man up as well as anyone.

Bernard Woodside was Garrett Temple on steroids when it came to defense. And dat ain't no knock on Garrett.

Extra points for whoever knows what the "freak" defence was.


During the 1987 tourney run, a reporter asked Dale if he could explain the freak defense in 10 seconds....Dale's reply was " I couldn't tell you hello in 10 seconds."

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Bernard Woodside was Garrett Temple on steroids when it came to defense. And dat ain't no knock on Garrett.

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It ain't. Those two were every bit as offensively challenged if not more than Garret but they could D up.

As could Darryl Joe and Nikita. Joe overtook Fess for the starting point guard spot midway through the year. His 7 trey game against Ga. Tech was definitely a fluke but he could play some D.

I thought I'd won the lottery by being a freshman in the glorious 1980-1981 season. The intensity and passion in the Assembly Center was unbelievable.

Even counting football, yes I said it,I can't imagine too many games on campus that had the build-up and drama as the home game vs Kentucky in 1981. #3 Kentucky vs #6 LSU. Tipoff was at 7 and I got in line around noon and the line was already pretty long.

Every game was a hard sellout and for an SEC home game,generally if you weren't in line for the student section three hours or so before tipoff,you weren't getting in.

LSU won 81-67 and wouldn't lose until the return match in Lexington.LSU went 17-1 in the SEC. Only three teams during the period from 1967-1991 when the SEC regular season schedule consisted of 18 games went 17-1. Kentucky in 1969-1970 and 1985-1986 and the '80-81 LSU squad.

The LSU-Kentucky rivalry then was one of the hottest in America.Easily top 5. Kentucky didn't like one bit LSU trying to steal its thunder as the top dog and tweaking their nose and calling them on their arrogance.

One episode in the 1981 games reinforced this. During the Baton Rouge meeting in early January, during the starting lineups,when the Tigers were introduced Willie Sims was then called out as the "best 6th man in America" by PA announcer Sid Crocker and the place went nuts.

In Lexington to end the regular season on National tv on NBC after the Wildcats' starting lineup was introduced,Kentucky then announced senior reserve guard Chris Gettlefinger's name as 'the best reserve in America' or some such moniker as he ran through some blue circle with UK on it to the roar of Rupp Arena and laughter around the SEC.

LSU's Sims would have started for any other team in the SEC besides LSU and UK. While Gettlefinger's efforts and perseverance were noble, he was a "Jody Davis" look-a-like from 'Family Affair' and would have been hard pressed to have started for many Sun Belt teams.The attempt to link him with Sims was outrageous.

box score from the first 1980-1981 UK-LSU game:
LINK

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We host the 1988 SEC Tourney and man, was it ever a spectacle. This was back when the tourney rotated from campus to campus to the Omni.

Our first game was Friday afternoon - a 4 vs. 5 matchup with Will Perdue and Vandy, a team we had already beaten twice. We beat them again and it sets up a game with you guessed it - UK, a team that had handled us twice. That afternoon, after our game, some of the teams come into the PMAC - Auburn and Kentucky were sitting near my seats. I had a program and went to get it signed. My God, there are soooo many names on it...Ed Davender, Rex Chapman, Winston Bennett, Rob Locke, Chris Morris, and then, after LSU beats Vandy, I see Jose Vargas, Bernard Woodside, and Lyle Mouton down by the court, near the bleachers. I got them to sign, too.

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Don't forget about 4 days earlier ,Don Redden suddenly died. Not only was Redden only two years removed from the LSU team,but he was Ricky Blanton's best friend. Redden's parents were in attendance that day and in one of the most emotional moments in LSU history,after the game Blanton went into the stands and handed his parents the game ball.

Even though we lost the next day, that Kentucky-LSU was one of the finest LSU games I've ever seen. Kentucky was just better,but held our own until the last minute losing,86-80.

Not sure who else hung around for game two Saturday, but Florida and Georgia hooked up in a game similar to a football game. Florida had Dwayne Shintzius and Livingston Chatman and Georgia had Alec Kessler. Late in the game a scuffle broke out between a Gator and Kessler.

An overzealous official trying to prevent a true brawl made a form tackle on Kessler that would make any SEC DC jump up and down in ecstacy over.Only problem was the tackle knocked Kessler on his head giving him a nasty concussion.

Georgia upset Florida and met Kentucky in the title. LSU was on the NCAA bubble,so basically a Georgia win and subsequent automatic berth as SEC champion would eliminate LSU from consideration. Didn't matter to the crowd.

Kentucky,of course,had a very strong contingent,but most of the LSU/Baton Rouge faithful pulled against Kentucky and supported the Bulldogs.Kentucky escaped with a 62-57 and LSU snook in the tourney as a 9 seed only to lose to Georgetown in the East 8-9 game on a 35 ft shot at the buzzer.

FWIW,the SEC tourney was only at the Omni once, the 1987 one when Dale allegedly stayed up the whole tournament as LSU lost in the finals to regular season champion Alabama, 69-62.

Didn't Vernel dunk from the free throw line on a fast break back then?

My greatest 2 memories are:
1) Being in the superdome with the 80-81 team defeated WS in the Final 8. That was followed by my greatest disappointment of watching on TV as the Tigers lost in the Final 4 to Ind. I was around 10 yrs old and sat in my back yard crying and burned everything I got from the dome that day(yeah I'm a nut).
2) Was being at the PMAC that day in 2000 that LSU clinched 1st in the SEC. That was a miracle season. And it was awesome to have the team show up outside and shoot the shite with all of us students outside the PMAC that day.

I feel very fortunate to have been in school 3 years when Shaq was there. We started the Shaq Pack and camped out for all his games his Junior year, and had the same seats for every game...front row. Some seriously memorable games were the Arizona game with Dicky V going nuts after Pugh threw it to Shaq for the serious flush near the end of the game...maybe the loudest I've heard it in there...

The Duke game Shaq's junior year against Dukes huge lineup of Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, Davis, and Laetner, when we took the lead with about 6 minutes to go, even though we lost, I will never forget the noise the PMAC had at that moment.

Staying with the Shaq memories, I remember the SEC tournament against Tennessee where basically Shaq decided on court that he was leaving because the refs REFUSED to call hard fouls from the other team, and Shaq went crazy, Dale had to run from the bench to restrain Shaq after Carlos Graves and 2 others beat the hell out of Shaq under the basket...

Lastly, Shaq losing to Bobby Knight and Indiana...it was maybe one of his most complete games, and if I remember right, the big guy hit 12 for 12 on freethrows that game....

Shaq was an LSU Icon and NBA legend that I am glad to have met several times at LSU and recently at his golf tournaments...