KU honors the 1988 National Championship squad with a ceremony at halftime during today's game against Colorado. Many former players and coaches are in town to see the game, visit with each other and recall their glory days on the hardwood.
Larry Brown is in town for the weekend and I remember the big game against Oklahoma on April 4, 1988 for the title. CBS analyst Billy Packer said KU must control the tempo, they could not run with the Sooners. Long story short: KU ran with the sooners in the first half - the game was tied 50-50 at halftime, an incredible score, and went on to win a close game, 83-79.
Brown got a lot of credit for running with Oklahoma. It wasn't until I was listening to a radio interview last year with Danny Manning that I learned that the players, and not Coach Brown, decided to run. This nugget was confirmed by LJ-World reporter Ryan Wood in an article today. Credit Manning with that idea. I'm sure coach Brown said something in the locker room at halftime. They slowed it down a bit in the second stanza.
My KU years match Larry's tenure exactly (1983-1988) and I'm the same age now as Coach Brown was when he started at KU (42). He seemed older then than I do now, but I'm no basketball coach. I will enjoy the KU game today, and better yet, I get to see my 3rd grader play later this morning. His team is the Stanley Slammers. Not as many alley oop dunks, but they love the fast break.
1 comment:
I was either upstairs in a Westport bar or back at an upper floor apartment on th e"plaza" or vise-versa, while my roommate Joe W III, was shooting the game and took the definitive championship photo!
Rawk-chalk!
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