I'm a bit older, but continued to follow MBIAC hoops through the glory years. Unfortunately, as the brain ages, the details of timing and order get fuzzy, even though I can still mentally picture the guys and their particular skills. There was one kid at Harding that just blew my mind, Phil Murphy. Offensive rebound machine in the mold of Marcus White and Johnnytime, but he was only like 5-10, if memory serves.
'3m wrecking crew' as in mckay (UConn), mathews, and murphy. can't find it, but i think wes was on the cover of SI with the words 'fastest man in college basketball' or something like that. jr is now with lebron on the team that his pop won two rings with.
coach McLeod was Chief's roomy at Centenary. i think he was on the Bulls for a bit.
playing in tourneys at sheen or hall neighborhood was nutz. way better locals than the westchester league, and knicks and nets players often turned up, sometimes just to watch.
when sir charles smith played at pitt long ago, he brought park city grit to that school in BE heyday. of course, gentleman that he is, the players made him something like vp of the nba players association later. meadowlark lived over in fairdale. bc hasn't been good since john bagleys time.
so many, soooooo many ballers. too bad many couldn't get a break. how good?
check this aboot bruce webster teams:
'Under his direction, the Purple Knights made a total of 12 NCAA National Tournament appearances (1968, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992), won five NCAA Regional Titles (1976, 1979, 1990, 1991, 1992) and reached the NCAA Division II National Championship Game in 1991 and 1992.'
norm taylor just passed.
Illawarra Hawks great 'Stormin' Norman Taylor dies aged 55 - ABC News
and then gminski, smitty ('the smitty shuffle!), harold jensen (hey villanova! he won the dang title for youse!), jim abromaitis coming down regularly from creampuff city to learn the real, and on, and on, and on... walt luckett averaged 25 ppg his last year at ohio, while shooting at 53%. no 3 ball then. john garris of bassick was the 27th pick of nba draft,
sir charles smith and john bagley, of Harding, both won Big East Player of The Year. how many high schools can say that?
lots of Bridgeport hoops luv here.
Hilltoppers rule.