Al McGuire had Marquette basketball on the rise in 1969. In an era when only 25 teams made the NCAA Tournament, the Warriors made the field in ’68, the culmination of a four-year rebuild. In 1969, Marquette showed it was no fluke. They returned to the NCAAs and came within a basket of the Final […]
Mike Leach came to Lubbock in 2000, bringing with him a high-powered passing offense that spread the field and blew out scoreboard lights. It was not necessarily accompanied by stingy defense, and while Leach’s teams played consistent winning football, they had not been a national contender. In 2008, Texas Tech football had one of the […]
Marquette basketball came into 1968 gaining steam under the leadership of head coach Al McGuire. Starting from close to rock bottom in 1965, Al had gradually improved the Warrior program and in 1967 reached the finals of the NIT. In ’68, Marquette took the next step—they reached an NCAA Tournament that then took just 25 […]
In the two years that followed Texas’ magical 2005 national championship run with Vince Young, the Longhorns had been good, but not elite. In each season, they followed a 9-3 season with a minor bowl game victory. In 2008, Texas football began a two-year run of serious contention and it took a controversy at the […]
Al McGuire had inherited a Marquette program that was at rock bottom in 1964, coming off a 5-21 season. Over the next two seasons, Al nudged the Warriors up to .500. It was in 1967 that Marquette basketball made the definitive stride forward that set the stage for a decade of success in Milwaukee. MODEST […]
St. John’s basketball came into 1980 on a run of four straight NCAA Tournament appearances. In 1979, a young team finished strong and got on a Cinderella run in March that brought them within a basket of the Final Four. The 1980 edition of St. John’s basketball was a better team, but some bracket inequities […]
Phillip Fuler had coached Tennessee since 1993. Over the previous 14 seasons, the Volunteers had been a consistent SEC contender. It was a stretch that included six finishes in the national top 10, four Eastern Division crowns, two conference championships and the national title in 1998. In 2007, the Vols added Fulmer’s fifth SEC East […]
1995 should hold a special place in the memory of California Angels fans. A franchise that hadn’t enjoyed a winning season since 1989 turned itself around and became a contender. But a dramatic late-season collapse cost them a playoff spot and instead put 1995 into a regrettable pantheon of Angels’ lore that included postseason heartbreak […]
St. John’s basketball was on a good run coming into the 1979 season. In an era when making the NCAA Tournament was considerably more difficult than it is today, Lou Carnesecca’s program had earned three consecutive NCAA bids. In ’79, after playing mediocre basketball for much of the year, they made it four straight NCAA […]
Alabama football was in a funk as the 2007 season began. Since the proud program last won the national championship in 1992, the Crimson Tide had made just one major bowl game, spent time on probation, and had only three Top 10 finishes. While one of those had come as recently as 2005, it was […]
Georgia football was on a strong run of success under head coach Mark Richt coming into the 2007 season. Richt came to Athens in 2001 and had since won two SEC titles and finished in the national top 10 four times. The ’07 Bulldogs, after an uneven start, built on that success. THE FUTRE PROS […]
The New York Yankees entered the 1995 season poised to begin a renaissance era. The proud franchise had not reached the postseason since 1981 and gone through particularly lean years from 1989-92. Some improvement in 1993 led to a 1994 breakout when they had the best record in the American League by August 1994…and then […]