RIP Lou Carnesecca

Whoop-dee-damn-do.

 

And maybe the greatest one of all...Jim Calhoun, who laid the foundation that turned fucking UConn, located so far off I-84 that it's not even a pit stop on the way to Boston, into a six-time national champ.

 

Jim O’Brien at BC was no slouch in a nine-team league

 

When Maryland finally won the ACC Tournament, The Lefthander said he was gonna attach the trophy to the hood of his Cadillac and drive around North Carolina for a couple weeks. And I wouldn't have put it past him.

 

didn't he have a designated assistant coach/tactician for much of his tenure there?

 

Al LoBalbo from 1980-96

 

It's probably because I was in junior high at the time so your whole life is about being fanatical about sports because you damn sure can't do anything else as a 12-year-old (can't drive, can't go party, you can have a girlfriend at 12 but what are you honestly doing with them?) but every league had great personalities as coaches back then. I loved Big Monday not only for Big John, Rollie, Lou, Boeheim and Pitino but also the Big 10 games that included Bobby, Gene Keady, Jud, and Lew Henson and Big Eight games with Larry Brown, Billy Tubbs, Norm Stewart and Eddie Sutton.

 

The old SWC in the 1980s wasn't exactly populated by slouches. You had Eddie Sutton and Guy Lewis who dominated the early half of the decade, but you also had some long-timers like Abe Lemons, Shelby Metcalf, and Gerald Myers. The crooked Dave Bliss also won a few games.

Sutton's successor, Nolan Richardson, won a natty in the SEC in 1994 and almost won another in 1995.

 

The third game on Big Monday was the Big West. Tark at UNLV, of course, and Boyd Grant at Fresno State come to mind.

 

Games at Santa Barbara were good post-deadline entertainment with cold ones and herb.

 

The SEC had a murderer’s row of personalities, with Wimp Sanderson and Dale Brown at the top of the bill. Those two were about the only ones who could have eclipsed Sonny Smith and Norm Sloan. I don’t remember Hugh Durham being especially funny, but he kind of had the exaggerated facial expressions of a basset hound with PTSD. Ed Murphy would probably rank higher if anyone paid the slightest attention to Ole Miss, which they didn’t. I don’t remember Eddie Sutton being especially colorful, but that might have just been him caught in the UK pressure cooker.

 

Ed Murphy was awesome. Sonny Smith was good people. Hugh had his moments, he could be funny without trying. Dale could be self-righteous, obviously, but in hindsight I think his heart was in the right place. Nolan, the less I say, probably the better.