Digger Phelps had Notre Dame basketball on the upswing coming into the 1974 college basketball season. While he inherited a program in 1972 that had just gone to consecutive Sweet 16s, every single player from those teams was living. Starting from scratch, Phelps won just six games in his first year in South Bend. But […]
As he entered his 10th season on the sidelines at Marquette, Al McGuire had turned the Warrior basketball program into a consistent winner. He was routinely winning 20-plus games and making the NCAA Tournament, in an era when both objectives were far less commonplace than is the case today. What he hadn’t yet done was […]
In 1973, Dale Brown inherited an LSU program that had not reached a Final Four in 19 years, and not even been a serious contender a few years earlier when “Pistol Pete” Maravich was starring in Baton Rouge. Brown gradually built a winner. By 1979, he made a Sweet 16, only losing to eventual national […]
After winning the national championship in 1978, Kentucky had an uncharacteristic setback in 1979, missing the NCAA Tournament field entirely. While the bracket was considerably smaller than is the case today (40 teams in ’79, expanded to 48 for this season), an early NIT exit wasn’t going to cut it in Lexington. The 1980 Kentucky […]
Denny Crum was an assistant for the great John Wooden at UCLA, when the opportunity arose to take the Louisville job in 1972. Crum inherited a program that had been a consistent winner, but had only made the Final Four in 1959. Crum promptly went to the Final Four in his first season. He went […]
Ray Meyer’s DePaul program was riding high, coming off the old coach’s first Final Four appearance in 1979 and the key players back in the fold. There were great expectations for the 1980 DePaul basketball team, and the Blue Demons lived up to those expectations almost every step of the way—until a sad end proved […]
Eldon Miller inherited a collapsed program in 1976. The legendary Fred Taylor had been an all-time great coach, but the bottom fell out in his final four seasons, and Miller took over a Buckeye team that went 6-20 in 1975. Miller gradually rebuilt and four years later, the fruits were starting to show. The 1980 […]
The Digger Phelps era in South Bend was rolling. Phelps took Notre Dame to a Final Four in 1978. The Irish were a #1 seed in 1979 and their regional final loss was to Magic Johnson and eventual national champion Michigan State. The 1980 Notre Dame basketball team continued to have success and made Digger’s […]
Ralph Miller inherited a program in 1971 that had frequently been competitive, but had slipped under .500 in recent years, and was buried underneath John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty in either case. By 1975, Oregon State was good enough to take advantage of the NCAA Tournament’s slight expansion to include some non-conference champions, and the Beavers […]
The 1980s were a great time for DePaul basketball. They had earned four #1 seeds in the first half of the decade. Even though March flameouts became all-too-common, the Blue Demons were on the map as a national power. When Joey Meyer took over the coaching reins from his father Ray in 1985, the son […]
In 1987, Notre Dame basketball was on the upswing. A three-year NCAA Tournament drought came to an end in 1985 with the arrival of heralded freshman point guard David Rivers. The Irish were even better in 1986 and got all the way to the 3-line in the NCAA bracket. But that year ended with a […]
Tom Crean came to Bloomington in 2009, inheriting an Indiana team that had contended for the Big Ten title and made the NCAA Tournament in 2008, but ran afoul of NCAA recruiting rules. Crean was brought in to clean house and a housecleaning is exactly what followed. IU started over from scratch and over Crean’s […]