What happened in 1983?

[idhoya]

As you all know, sandwiched in between the '82 final loss to UNC and the glorious win versus Houston in '84, was the 1983 team that loss to Memphis State, if memory serves correctly. Don't remember a whole lot about that tourney. I think Ewing was hurt. Can someone recap?

[aggypryd]

Someone wrote a very good post about this in the past two years.

[Elvado]

Ewing was not hurt. We beat Alcorn state in the first round then played Memphis at Freedom Hall.

Ewing had foul trouble, but had one of his signature blocksof his career when he met Keith Lee about 1 1/2 feet above the rim for a clean block while saddled with four fouls.

That team was very young; had effectively lost Anthony Jones to confidence problems (and then to transfer); and sorely missed the veteran savvy of a hobbled Fred Brown. The team was so thin that David Dunn (later to UGA) got mahjor minutes in the BET and NCAA tourney.

[NorthCarolinaHOYA]

Elvado i think you are correct. Memphis eventually lost to Houston (PHI SLAMA JAMA) and we know what happened to Houston once they got to New Mexico. But check this speaking of 1983 does anyone remember when channel 5 WTTG use to show the BE tournament. In them days they would only show the GT tourney games and Channel 7 would with jefferson pilot would show the ACC tournament. Also remember when that public channel i think it was channel 53 or 56 would show SEC, METRO and other conferrence tournaments. They would ask for donations during the commerical breaks.

[blueandgray]

In 1983, we were just young and inexperienced. We lost our floor general, Sleepy Floyd, to the NBA. We had a freshman backcourt in Wingate and Jackson. Ralph Dalton was still coming back from a catastrophic knee injury and Patrick was averaging somewhere around 14 points a game. While we were solid defensively, especially with Gene Smith coming off the bench, offense was a huge struggle.

With regard to David Dunn, he later became a very good player for the Bulldogs and was 2nd team All-SEC by his senior season averaging 12 and 9. Again, he, like the rest of the crew, was only a freshman. Its pretty hard to believe that we went from losing to Memphis St. in the 2nd round to winning it all the next year.

[AvantGuardHoya]

I recall that season as being filled with frustration. There were two big factors that contributed to our difficulties: youth and lack of quality depth. As blueandgray said, we started a freshman backcourt. No doubt Fred Brown would have started over Jackson, but Freddie had sustained his knee injury before the start of the season and was a non-factor all year. Gene Smith was our only other experienced guard (apologies to Mr. Kaull) and while he was a defensive terror, he was something of an offensive liability. We were similarly hampered in the frontcourt. Ewing, Martin and Anthony Jones were sophomores, but didn’t have much help off the bench. Again, Dalton was still recovering from his devastating knee injury that had wiped out his freshman year and then Jones, who I still think was the most athletic member of the class of ’85, sustained a shoulder injury in December (vs. ‘Bama?) and never returned to form (he transferred to UNLV in the spring, paving the way for Reggie Williams to come to the Hilltop). The other frontcourt players included Victor Morris, David Blue and Dunn. ‘Nuff said.

Youth and lack of depth meant much inconsistency. Immediately after the epic Ewing vs. Sampson game we lost to American! To close out our regular season we whipped ‘Nova and the ‘Cuse at home only to lose to the Orange later in the week in the first round of the BET. The season was really one of growing pains….

[hoyainspirit]

I remember thinking at the start of the '83 season that we were a year away. That team was extremely talented, but young. One could see that with seasoning we would be a tough out. '84 was no surprise. Great memories watching the kids mature as basketball players! As Elvado pointed out, Fred Brown's injury loomed large. Prior to his injury, he was cat quick for a 6'5, well-built point guard. Could see over the top of defenses, and could really pass the ball. As SF pointed out in another thread, the dynamics of college basketball have changed so much since that time. It is difficult to imagine any program fielding a team as talented as the '84 or '85 Hoyas ever again, since kids will leave for the pros.

[Elvado]

That '83 season also included one of my favorite Hoya moments when Wingate stole the ball from Michael Adams and went the length of the court to lay one in at the buzzer to beat BC.

[HoyaFanNY]

the 2 games that stand out that season for me were the loss at pitt that year where we scored below 40 points and the loss to syracuse in the BET quarterfinals, where they went villanova on us and shot almost 70% from the field. we didn't have much go our way that year.

[SirSaxa]

Youth and inexperience were the problems in '83.
It has been mentioned that we lost Sleepy Floyd off the '82 team. Sleepy was the greatest guard ever to play at GU.
But we also lost Eric Smith and Mike Hancock - two underappreciated, very solid seniors.
Bill Martin and Anthony Jones were stepping in to fill big shoes.
Freshman backcourt.
Yes... we were shorthanded that year.

And there is a lesson there.
Losing Jeff Green is no small thing.
Jeff is one of the greatest players ever to attend GU -- and was the consumate team guy -- made everyone around him better.
We have tons of talent and GREAT coaching, but it is going to take time for this team to find its way without Jeff, and to see who is going to step up to fill the leadership role Jeff did. Again, it will take a group of players to replace Jeff Collectively.

But hey -- it sure is going to be fun to watch this team develop!

[JB5]

As I recall dimly the days of my misspent youth, Memphis had Keith Lee and another big guy. Ewing picked up a couple of ticky tack fouls early, and we had no depth among our bigs. Dalton was still hobbled and Martin couldn't check the bigger Lee. Michael Graham hadn't arrived yet. The other thing that stands out about that game in my memory was Ewing missing at least two uncontested dunks.

'82-'83 was a frustrating year, but our team was mostly freshmen and sophomores and showed quite a few flashes of what was to come. They played the kind of defense that was a joy to watch, and that season only increased my love for Hoya basketball.

[idhoya]

William Bedford was the other guy. Also had Baskerville Holmes, who committed suicide a few years ago.

[Filo]

idhoya said:

William Bedford was the other guy. Also had Baskerville Holmes, who committed suicide a few years ago.

Baskerville Holmes and Keith Lee were on that team but I am not sure Bedford was. He may have come the next year. Anyway, I found this interesting article on the star-crossed Memhis State team of 84-85. They were a very good college team, and Keith Lee was a monster college player. Sad what happened to some of these guys.

www.jaybusbee.com/85tigers.htm

[azhoya]

1983 was dissappointing, but 1985-1986 was worse, team under achieved all year. Obviously losing Patrick to graduation was big, but there was still alot of talent with Jackson, Wingate, and Williams. At the time, we all thought it was a year long hangover from the loss to 'Nova

[HoyaFanNY]

personally, i didn't think the 85-86 team was very good. we had no interior scoring. dalton was a shell of a player by then and perry didn't start contributing until 86-87. that left reggie and wingate to do most of the scoring. jackson, while a very good player, wasn't really a scorer.

the only way that would have beaten sparty in the '86 tourney is if someone gave skiles a breathalyzer before the game.

[idhoya]

that was the year Gu lost to Michigan St. and got torched by Scott Skiles. I hated him in college.

[2ndRyan]

Recall the '83 team losing to Nova at the Palestra. I think it was the last time we played them there- moved to the Spectrum next year.
An ugly game in which an inexperienced team couldn't hold a second half lead against the surging home team. Patrick in foul trouble in the second half gave way to Dunn.

[Elvado]

Pinckney went for 27 and 22 that night as well. After Ewing fouled out, Dunn, Morris and even David Blue got minutes at the end.