From: jb118@prism.gatech.EDU (Jeffrey N. Burch)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: Re: Kentucky MASH'ed Louisville
Date: 15 Dec 92 14:57:20 GMT
Organization: Georgia Tech Research Institute -- EOL

In article <XJAM.92Dec14173541@cork.CS.Berkeley.EDU> xjam@cork.CS.Berkeley.EDU (The Crossjammer) writes:
>
>Get a grip Doc. 

Thanks - already got one.

>Even some of the great teams of the 80's couldn't win it
>with decent coaches. Georgetown which pummelled just about everybody
>(including #2 St. John's) in 85-86 could only get the job done. Houston? 4
>trips, nada rings. Even Deano and Bobby could only squeze out one
>championship apiece. Even Duke didn't pick up one along the away. Face it
>there's a lot of luck involved in winning national championships and it's
>pretty interesting that Louisville managed to get the job done in the
>opportunities they had. Opportunity here being defined as reaching the
>Final Four.

No one can dispute that luck is a small but persistent factor in winning
an NCAA tournament - I never said otherwise.  Louisville on a couple
of occasions combined athletic talent, good offensive performance, and
determination with this in grinding out a couple of championships in the 
80s.  I've seldom heard anyone, however, suggest that outstanding coaching 
was a large factor in their efforts.

Crum is a good coach without being remarkable.  He is a really fabulous 
recruiter, a medium bench coach, and a bit slow to adjust to changes
in the college game - that's my only knock on him.

>Meanwhile, Kentucky has put up no NCAA banners in the 80's and the stuff
>you're talking about has that dusty look of the banners in Pauley.

Anyone can set arbitrary time scales if they want.  The past is the past
whether it's the last decade or two decades ago.  Louisville's last
championship banner is 6 years old and growing older.  Since then,
they've not come close to repeating past records and NCAA achievements.
UofL may be getting slightly better now, but it's slow going.

Since UofL's last championship, it's been pretty obvious between UK and
UofL which has performed more consistently, which has more often beaten
good teams, and is generally on the rise.  It's certainly apparent to 
folks living in the state who get the best news coverage of both teams
and see them play regularly, and those of us who follow both teams.

>So picking up 2 championships in the 80's is pretty damn good.

Picking up 2 championships any time is good.  If Louisville were a great
threat to win one this year or in the foreseeable future, that would be
super (I support the Cardinals when they're not playing Kentucky or
Tech), but that doesn't seem to be the case. 

>What have you got against Crum anyway? It's not like the Cards beat the
>Cats on a regular basis anyway.

Nothing special.   You obviously don't know me very well if you think
I don't like Louisville.  As I've said before, he's a pretty fair coach.  
But frustration is breeding in Louisville.  Once you've tasted success,
you want a little more, and a little more, and that doesn't seem to 
be what Cardinal fans are getting.  Denny has the talent to go farther
than he's been going, on paper anyway.  Playing a little more coherent,
team-oriented ball is something that might really help his team, as 
many folks have been saying for years.  

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^  Dr. J(effrey Neil Burch)                 jb118@prism.gatech.edu    ^
^  Georgia Tech Research Institute                                    ^ 
^  Electro-Optics and Physical Sciences Laboratory                    ^
^  Atlanta, Ga.                                                       ^
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^  404-894-3628                                                       ^
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Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college