Got this from another board and liked it enough to post here for discussion: Damn, I loved that run through the tourney. If only Fess hit the front end of that one and one late against Indiana...you think the Superdome woula been rocking for that Final Four? If that'd happened, the answer to the question, "Who was Keith Smart?" would have been, for all eternity, simply, "Who?"
...if Dale hadn't gone to the four corners against Indiana with Isiah on the bench in the first half in 1981, LSU would have taken a double digit lead into the locker... ...if Kyle Macy wasn't such a...
seems to me the main difference is leadership/experience. from memory, weren't irvin, wilson, and vargas seniors? blanton a junior (his next year being his last year--CJs first)? Redden on that team?---if so a senior. its very tough to replace seniors for talent. if the current team had a few seniors, then maybe. but i dont see a run happening. i see three wins tops in ncaas. and thats with good matchups (draw and upsets in same bracket) and lotsa luck.
Our biggest contributers in 1987: Ricky Blanton, jr Nikita Wilson, sr Anthony Wilson, sr Darryl Joe, jr Jose Vargas, jr Bernard Woodside, jr Ollie Brown, sr Fess Irvin, fr Our biggest nemesii in 1987: Keith Smart Bobby Knight Clearly intimidated referee who swallowed his whistle instead of teeing up Knight for his telephone tirade
thx. i missed a year in there. one year between 87 and cj. but still an experienced team. what happened to irvin? wasnt with cj.
Irvin ended up transferring to James Madison. If my memory serves me correctly, the '87 team got into the tourney with a 16-12 record or so, mostly based on the prior year's run to the Final Four. They beat Ga. Tech in the first round and proceeded to beat a #3 seeded DePaul team led by a great name player, Dallas Comegys, then they beat the #2 seed, Temple before losing to Indiana. Led that game by 12 with about 10 mins to play - Irvin missed the front end of his free throws and then Chris Calloway had a put-back on a miss to win the game... it was tough... :cry:
Actually, they went into the SEC tourney w/ an 18-13 record, went 3-1 in the SEC Tourney (tough 88-82 OT loss to a great 'Bama team in the CG), then went 3-1 in the NCAAs for a final total of 24-15.
Ahhh, I stand corrected. Was about 13 then and remember how fun the '86 and '87 tourneys were for LSU... :grin: in '88 when they lost in round 1 to Georgetown on Charles Smith bank-shot 3, I was shocked - was spoiled and thought we were supposed to make a run every year... :bncry:
Some easy 1981 Final Four trivia for you (shouldn't be a need to look this up): The 1981 Final Four had the distinction of being the last Final Four to do...what? Hint: LSU was involved with this event, which was discontinued after that season.
