Piscataway Mike
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Magic too! Wow.
All right let's start: Magic vs. Jordan. I take Magic in his prime.
Bill Cartwright
And Ronny perry from holy cross...the player that propelled holy cross and had the providence mob thinking holy cross over Boston college for the big east for a bit
And Ronny perry from holy cross...the player that propelled holy cross and had the providence mob thinking holy cross over Boston college for the big east for a bit
Photo caption...
1978-1979 ALL AMERICA TEAM: Standing, left to right; Ronnie Perry, guard, Holy Cross; James Bailey, center, Rutgers; Larry Bird, forward, Indiana State; Bill Foster, Coach of the Year, Duke; Bill Cartwright, center, San Francisco; David Greenwood, forward, UCLA. Seated, left to right: Mike O'Koren, forward, North Carolina; Darrell Griffith, guard, Louisville; Sidney Moncrief, guard, Arkansas; Jim Spanarkel, guard, Duke; Earvin Johnson, forward, Michigan State
1978-1979 ALL AMERICA TEAM: Standing, left to right; Ronnie Perry, guard, Holy Cross; James Bailey, center, Rutgers; Larry Bird, forward, Indiana State; Bill Foster, Coach of the Year, Duke; Bill Cartwright, center, San Francisco; David Greenwood, forward, UCLA. Seated, left to right: Mike O'Koren, forward, North Carolina; Darrell Griffith, guard, Louisville; Sidney Moncrief, guard, Arkansas; Jim Spanarkel, guard, Duke; Earvin Johnson, forward, Michigan State
Darrel Griffith AKA Dunkenstein---------not a bad athlete
Had a friend who used to scout for the Jazz back in the day and I was in Chicago on biz and he was getting me tickets for Bulls vs Jazz and invited me to the off day shoot around the day before late in the afternoon.
We were standing there at courtside just BSing and I saw John Stockton dribbling 2 balls beat Griffith the length of the floor dribbling one on a $ 10 bet.
One of the 3 most amazing athletic things I ever saw.
One the best games I've ever seen at the RAC was the 1978 NIT quarter-final when Jammin' James and the Scarlet Knights handed Larry Bird, a junior, his next-to-last defeat as a collegian. ISU wouldn't lose again till the Final Four in 1979. That was the year that the RAC opened and the place was bonkers that night. I remember seeing the few ISU fans there looking around them incredulous at how loud the place was.
Wow, great photo! Without doing research myself, I wasn't around when Bailey played...would anyone be able to share some story highlights?
Perry was a true rock star when I lived in Massachusetts back in the 80s. Perry. Flutie. It was the home of the mini white boys.The Cross ran a Princeton offense .Back door.Constant movement and passing. They beat a lot if teams with way more talent.
6th after Magic, David Greenwood, Bill Cartwright, Greg Kelser, and Sidney Moncrief.
I distinctly remember James as a rookie blocking a shot by Kareem early in a game. Put it into the seats as the home crowd went nuts. All it did was tick Kareem off. I think he went for 30-35 after that.
Yup. .correct facts. I was in the house that night. Abdel did a very good job defending bird that night. Plus, I’m bummed that we blew that game versus St. John’s in the sweet 16. If we win and take care of penn like I know we would have, being in the final four as the team last to played and heat Larry bird and Indiana state would have been great hype on top of major hype in that final four already
Also ...after Rutgers won the ECAC holiday festival ...beating St. John’s and Ohio state
We went on the road to Pauley Pavillon to play David greenwood and UCLA ...and laid a stinker
Dick enberg and al McGuire on the call.. NBC national game
The whole time ...an unprepared al McGuire was like ...”where is Rodney Duncan “...not knowing we won the Holiday festival without him...and he has been kicked off the team a month by Tom young
We went on the road to Pauley Pavillon to play David greenwood and UCLA ...and laid a stinker
Dick enberg and al McGuire on the call.. NBC national game
The whole time ...an unprepared al McGuire was like ...”where is Rodney Duncan “...not knowing we won the Holiday festival without him...and he has been kicked off the team a month by Tom young
This was my third all time favorite R U Hoops game that I ever attended after the Atlantic 10 championship win over State Penn and my number one 1976 final game at the Barn to go undefeated for the regular season. I U was an Amazing game with Jammin James sinking a fairly long corner jumper to win it if I remember correctly. I was sitting in front row on court in Indiana State Seats and many don’t know but as we stormed court, Bird decked and probably broke the jaw of a r u fan/student celebrating a bit to much for Larry and the cops took Bird behind bleachers to arrest him but of course let him go at some point. I can’t wait for Pike and company to lead us more of these incredible wins.
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correct....Bailey hit a base line jumper with less than 5 seconds to go to put RU in front.....
after that, Bird got the ball and launched a near half court shot that hit the rim, and scared the hell out of me.....looked like it was going in......it was a hell of a game.
a little known fact, or paid attention to, is that James Bailey probably is the all time leader for dunks, both for a season, and career total, in college history.
dunking was not allowed in his freshman year, in an attempt to
stop Lew Alcindor from dominating basketball games....
when it was allowed again, Bailey had 88 dunks as a soph, 116 as a junior, and 79 as a senior, totaling 283 for his three years when it was allowed..... his senior year had many teams really concentrating on stopping him, double teaming etc.....and he still put up a number that would be incredible today....He also had been advised to put on some weight for his senior year, in order to get ready for the NBA.... many fans thought the added weight was a factor in him actually not playing up to his junior year numbers
as mentioned above, the Louisville team liked to call themselves, "the doctors of dunk",...........
when St Johns was to play Louisville, and the announcers asked coach Lou Carnesecca how he
liked playing against a team that dunked so much, he told them that his team already played against a player that had more than the entire Louisville team....... and he was correct.
RU had a tiny guard playing for a year or so, named Rodney Duncan, who really specialized in setting up the alley op to James for the jam......
In what I call the greatest game that RU played against a ranked team, RU took apart the
Cincinnati team at MSG, Duncan to Bailey over and over.....RU jumped out front early and cruised to an easy win..... we were ahead by well over 20 the entire second half, and I was actually pissed that we
allowed them to only lose by 19, when the bench was emptied late in the game
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One of my all-time favorite RU games as well, along with Cincinnati at MSG, the Holiday Festival in December 1978, West Virginia in 1982 and Syracuse in 1978.(Syracuse sucks)
Joe Boylan confirmed the Bird story.
Shack, like the teenage idiot and crazy happy R U fan I was that night, I was slightly further away then the kid who got hit and I was probably screaming something like go back to Indiana you hick and just so thankful to this day that it wasn’t me that Bird hit. He would have surely messed up my pretty face.
Let's put picture and caption together for easier identification.
1978-1979 ALL AMERICA TEAM: Standing, left to right; Ronnie Perry, guard, Holy Cross; James Bailey, center, Rutgers; Larry Bird, forward, Indiana State; Bill Foster, Coach of the Year, Duke; Bill Cartwright, center, San Francisco; David Greenwood, forward, UCLA. Seated, left to right: Mike O'Koren, forward, North Carolina; Darrell Griffith, guard, Louisville; Sidney Moncrief, guard, Arkansas; Jim Spanarkel, guard, Duke; Earvin Johnson, forward, Michigan State
1978-1979 ALL AMERICA TEAM: Standing, left to right; Ronnie Perry, guard, Holy Cross; James Bailey, center, Rutgers; Larry Bird, forward, Indiana State; Bill Foster, Coach of the Year, Duke; Bill Cartwright, center, San Francisco; David Greenwood, forward, UCLA. Seated, left to right: Mike O'Koren, forward, North Carolina; Darrell Griffith, guard, Louisville; Sidney Moncrief, guard, Arkansas; Jim Spanarkel, guard, Duke; Earvin Johnson, forward, Michigan State
Yes, I believe Holy Cross beat Michigan in the NCAA tournament in 1977 or 1978, could be wrong...correction- just looked it up and they lost 86-81. I remember them playing UM tough that day.