USA Today: 25th Anniversary of Loyola Marymount's Amazing 1990 Team
Interesting article in USA Today about the 25th anniversary of Loyola Marymount's amazing 1990 team:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2015/03/05/loyola-marymount-…
I'll never forget the way that team bulldozed us in the NCAAs, 149-115. We were a 3 seed and they were an 11 seed, and we had no idea what hit us.
cool article for those of us that can remember Loyola Marymount.
I can still remember Bo Kimble taking his first foul shot left-handed, made it too.
Frankie: Boy. You wanna talk about some pain? I bought one o' them linoleum knives the other day, you know?
Willie: With the double edge?
Frankie: Right.
Willie: Yeah?
Frankie: So, I go home, you know, and I spread my toes apart and I just start sawing, back and forth and back and forth, you know?
Willie: Mm hmm.
Frankie: And I take a little thing o' Tobasco sauce, you know?
Willie: Yeah.
Frankie: And just dump it on there. Talk about a hotfoot, mister! Boy, that was rough.
You know what's amazing? I bet a lot of people don't know that Paul Westhead was the coach that Magic won his first championship with, not Riley.
It's kinda sad how he got erased from Lakers memory after starting that 80s powerhouse just b/c Magic didn't like him or some petty crap.
I got those two guys confused since the names were so similar and both coached out west. He even coached in the WCC at Pepperdine so I really had no idea who was who.
I still don't know which one is which. They're the Iraq and Iran of basketball.
Wait can you explain what Westphal had to do with Westhead?
Edit: Nvm I got it.
That was a huge controversy at the time (I was barely old enough to remember it) and Magic - in a turn of events that now seems unthinkable - got booed at the Forum by Laker fans for appearing to spearhead the coaching change.
The reality is a *little* more complicated. Laker owner Jerry Buss was the guy who ultimately pulled the trigger and though his budding friendwith with the ascendant superstar certainly played a role, Westhead's firing wasn't all because of Magic. The offense was compartively stagnant and primarily was a half-court offense that featured Kareem and made the other four players feel stifled. The Lakers were 7-4 when Westhead got axed so his firing certainly and understandably raised eyebrows, but the winners get to write history - assistant Pat Riley was promoted, the Lakers went more up-tempo and won it all that year and three more times before the first Showtime era came to a close.
And Westhead himself apparently learned his lesson - after being fired for having too plodding an offense he then went on to coach some of the high-octane offenses of the 80's-90's, including the Nuggets and that unbelievable LMU team
No contest from the get-go.
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I started bitching the minute I saw the matchup. I knew that it would be a hostile road game for Michigan, that LMU would play the best game they ever played and that Michigan didn't have a prayer.
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I turned it off after the first 5 minutes. Our perimeter defense was terrible.
For some reason I always remember some kid on their team that the announcers kept calling "the human bruise" who spent the hole game diving around for loose balls. (or maybe he didn't, but in my memory that entire game was a highlight reel of threes and that kid diving into the stands and sliding around on his belly).
Is an awesome nickname. The Human Bruise.
hit an abdsurd amount of 3's against us?
The Paul Westhead/LMU 30 for 30 was really awesome a couple years ago. The team came before my time, but it was really cool to see how good Gathers was and how that team perfectly fit Westhead's style of ball.
Got to see Marymount play Xavier here in Cincy. Awesome game and X won due to their bigs Hill and Strong. I also had Gathers on my fantasy team that some friends and I did in high school. That was a bad day a few weeks later...
Most amazing stat ever. We score 115 points . . . and still lose by 34!!
It was devine intervention. Hank Gathers was still playing from the rafters, guiding all those LMU three's into the net.
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Wimp Sanderson was the Alabama coach. Slow it down, grind out every possession was his style. Essentially, he was the Beta-version of Bo Ryan.
That was a great game in its own right, they really challenged LMU, made the Lions play THEIR game. It was nip-and-tuck throughout.
At the end, LMU led by 2 before Alabama got one final possession. An Alabama player launched a 3-pointer at the end but missed. LMU advances.
The irony ....... what Alabama player launched that final 3-pointer? Robert Horry! BIG SHOT BOB!
Looking back at things 25-years later, and given Horry's NBA heroics, it really WAS destiny for that LMU team.
their 1st round game was against #6 seed New Mexico State, who was legitimately good. NMSU beat UNLV earlier in the year in Big West play.
Anyway, NMSU led by 5 w/ 4:00 left in the 1st half when Bo Kimble picked up his FOURTH foul.
Westphal kept him in the game --- permanently. He scored 35 (!!!) points while having 4 fouls, and LMU went on a crazy run and won that game by 20+ points. Kimble scored 45 (!!!) overall. He never did foul out.
But If Kimble had ever picked up a 5th foul --- (a) they don't beat NMSU, (b) there perhaps is no iconic left-handed free throw (THAT didn't happen until the 14:00 mark of the 2nd half), and (c) nobody remembers LMU quite so fondly (even though U-M was a part of their run).
RIP Hank.