22-23 Opponent Tracking Thread

Wolfpack Ram

Wolfpack Ram

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share the ball said:
actually regular season conference winners were the norm to go to the basketball tourney for the majority of the conferences that had automatic bids from the 50s on (until the mid 70s when multiple bids to conferences occurred)- the two major outlier back then were the Southern conference and the ACC (which broke off from the Southern conference) the two to award their automatic bid to the conference tournament winner . in the 50 and 60s there were like 10 conferences that got automatic bids to a much smaller NCAA tournament -

back then they also had teams for all four regions and divided the country regionally making it a cake walk for years for UCLA to make final 4 having only to win the Western regional or whatever it was called

now their was an unwieldy ECAC back then that had more of a play-in tourney to have bids based upon a group selecting the best teams- VCU beat Georgetown but lost to St Bonaventure in 77-78 and fell one game short of making NCAA tournament (instead got invited to NIT and played Detroit)

basketball history back then was pretty fascinating
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That Detroit team that VCU lost to in the NIT was also coached by Dick Vitale.
 
AlienAiden

AlienAiden

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Wolfpack Ram said:
That Detroit team that VCU lost to in the NIT was also coached by Dick Vitale.
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I have seen people mention this but didn't Vitale quit coaching Detroit in 1977? Smokey Gaines replaced him as head coach for 1977-78, and led Detroit to a stellar 25-4 record and a #18 ranking with Tyler, Duerod, and Long leading the team, but were denied a NCAA bid and played in the 1978 NIT. In 1976-77 Vitale took them to the NCAA. He became the Athletic Director before leaving to coach the Pistons.
 
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share the ball

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Wolfpack Ram said:
That Detroit team that VCU lost to in the NIT was also coached by Dick Vitale.
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Vitale stepped down the prior year and was the AD at Detroit when VCU played them
He did a great job there while he was coach and had a great team the prior year and left the new coach 3 players that had careers in the NBA.

Little known trivia was that Detroit used to have one of those turn off all the lights and have a big light show to try and intimidate the opponents - Dana Kirk knew this and kept his team in the locker room to forestall the show
 
VRam

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Vitale's last year coaching the University of Detroit was 76-77, the year prior to our game against them in the NIT. He coached the Pistons in 78-79 and was fired early the next season.
 
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bighornn

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Wolfpack Ram said:
Actually, the story on Minnesota was they thought they were scheduling UVA - until they pulled up in front of Franklin Street Gym.
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Do you really believe that, Wolf? If that is anything near correct, the Gophers' AD should have been fired on the spot. I was there -game went to OT and then Ram freshman Reggie Cain nailed a couple of jump shots to assure VCU's first bold-letter victory. Another freshman, Greg McDougald, was 1-for-10 at the foul line but held his own in the paint against the great Jim Brewer.
 
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