Rhode Island Rams - Thanksgiving Day
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Danny Hurley, son of Bob and brother of Bobby has just beaten #21 Nebraska. The Orlando Classic features Marquette, Michigan State, Tennesse and even Rider. Doubt that we’ll face Rider. Winning this tournament would put us back in the top ten and hope for the Big 12 would spring eternal. Lamar Odom and Seth McFarlane are the famous Alums.
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Rex Walters vs. Joe Dooley tonight.
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Oh no!!! The one oasis of sanity without Kardashians has now been ruined…:(
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I saw that; the KU coaching tree continues to grow.
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I’ve been to Rhode Island with my dog.
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Interesting place, RI. Got to visit my brother in Newport a couple of times when he taught at the Naval War College. Lots of neat old mansions there (or “summer cottages”, as their turn-of-the-century industrialist owners called them). Also the town where JFK and Jackie got married. Not to mention the Newport Jazz Festival.
Saw a game at URI back in the '90s against Hartford. Hartford had Vin Baker, who later played NBA ball with Seattle. The Rams were underdogs but did a good job double- and triple-teaming him, and pulled out the win.
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Vin Baker went to North Korea with Dennis Rodman.
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@JayHawkFanToo My thoughts too. There must be a photo online of just Lamar without all the trash surrounding him.
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Lamar Odom has created problems everywhere he has played. Perhaps his one year at Rhode Island was the closest to a trouble free season.
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I can’t think of Rhode Island without having nightmares about 1998…
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Me, too! Didn’t Jim Harrick and URI get put on probation after that?
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@wrwlumpy Upvote for the Kardashian pic.
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@Hawk8086 So true. It sticks out just as much as the other meltdowns we have had in March. It probably didn’t hurt that we were all still in shock from losing the year before with the best team KU has ever had.
Just thinking about that makes me nervous about March already.
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@joeloveshawks The thought of two major Ram jams instinctively forces me to relive being pissed all over again. RI & IMO the worst in a decade-VCU. This is a mind blaster I can live without.
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Jim Harrick got ion trouble at Georgia over payments his son, an assistant coach, made to players. You are probably thinking of UNLV’s Coach Bill Bayno who was fired and UNLV (where Odom originally was drafted) was placed on probation for four years after it was discovered Odom had inflated ACT test scores, received payments from boosters and received a citation for soliciting prostitution following an undercover operation by the Las Vegas police.
Odom is a super talented player with a bad attitude, a result for his penchant for drugs and prostitutes…oh well, not the first athlete and probably not the last that went that route.
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I forgot…Rhode Island. E.C. Matthews. Tall, slender, guard. Went for 20-something last week, I think. I saw him play several times in high school. He and Wes Clark, Mizzou guard, led their team to the State Championship. Very good at getting to the basket. Will be interesting to see him play against our Jayhawks.
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I have always thought that the 1998 team had bum wheels that day (as if there were a flu bug going around), they were they just terribly flat, and got beat by a good Rhode Island team that shot a hot 50%.
@joeloveshawks You inspired some KU memories on this holiday eve. You can have the 1997 Jayhawk team as the best ever, and you are not alone, though I think there are other teams that are in the conversation that make it difficult to say, flatly, that 1997 was the best KU ever had. 2008 makes a great case-and I don’t think I have to type anything to make a case for 2008 in comparison to 1997.
When looking only at the first 7, and a rotation of 7 is really all you need with a few glue guys in the 8 and 9 spot, I take the 2002 team over 1997: Miles, Boschee, Hinrich, Gooden and Collison starting with Langford and Simien off the bench. If you look at 8 deep then I think 1997 Ryan Robertson is a better option than 2002 Michael Lee, Brett Ballard, or Bryant Nash though I don’t think any are going to play many minutes in a big time game. The 2002 team goes 33-4 overall, 16-0 in Big 12 play, and makes it to the Final Four.
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2002 had superior big man depth. T.J Pugh is the big man off the bench for 1997 as compared to Simien off the bench in 2002. Never underestimate the power of having a future All-American coming off the bench for you to dominate the other teams front court depth. It is the difference in many games, especially when a starter gets those early first half fouls.
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Do you want a Senior Billy Thomas or a Freshman Keith Langford? Both were offensive threats on the wing coming off the bench. Billy stretched defenses with his three bombs while Langford, even as a Freshman, carved his way through defenses with the dribble drive and finished strong at the rim.
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Boschee and Haase seem like they could be wash except for this-when Boschee during his Senior year was hot behind the arc he would simply take over entire games in ways that Haase never could his Senior year.
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It is easy to concede that a Senior Vaughn, who had a Second Team All-American season in 1997, would be the more favorable guard at the point as opposed to the Freshman Miles. Still, Aaron Miles as a Freshman averaged 7.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 6.8 assists while leading the Jayhawks to an undefeated season in Big XII play. How many teams have gone undefeated in conference play, in major conferences, over the last 20 years?
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Drew Gooden’s 2002 All-American year was better than Raef’s 1997 All-American year. Raef LaFrentz was a great All-American though Drew Gooden was a contender for National Player of the Year over Jay Williams in 2002. On the glass, both sides of the court, particularly on the offensive boards, Drew was crazy unstoppable good. Raef did his crafty post skills to finish is so many wonderful ways though Collison had that same kind of low post craft that was truly elite. Collison and LaFrentz are a wash to me. Gooden in 2002 is more explosive and much more difficult to deal with in terms of creating schemes to slow him down than what Pollard offered his Senior year. Pollard is a solid though he just could not impact the game the same way as Gooden.
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The Small Forward position may be the spot that makes 1997 better in many peoples minds due to the presence of the great Paul Pierce. Though it’s hard to argue against Kirk Hinrich since his jersey is hanging in the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse. I would never say that Kirk is better than Paul at the Small Forward, simply because Kirk was playing out of position yet that is what makes Kirk so great in my mind-a point guard playing small forward. Playing head to head in college Kirk would be able to defend Paul one on one though Paul does have the ability to impact a game and take it over. I do think that Kirk had a kind of game that was highly under appreciated by most fans and I think it could also be said that Kirk had the ability to shut someone like Paul down (case in point is Kirk shutting down Dwayne Wade in the 2003 Final Four). Paul wins this round for the 1997 crew though Kirk was a great team player who had loads of athletic ability, exceptional basketball savvy, and as much ‘want to’ as any player on the 1997 had.
Simply, I think it is tricky in picking one KU basketball team as ‘the best’.
Happy Thanksgiving Jayhawk Fans!
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This will be a difficult game. The Rams beat a Nebraska team ranked fifth in the preseason 14 team big 10. Nebraska has an all-American candidate Terran Petteway. The 3 little bigs will need to muscle up. The line up today will probably reflect a closer mid-season look. BEAT THE RAMS!
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@KJD Now that’s an argument that’s tough to refute. I particularly enjoyed your Pierce vs. Hinrich discussion. Kirk was a shut-down defender – the block vs. AZ in Anaheim to get us to the 2003 Final Four was tremendous. One of my favorite Hinrich memories.
The painful losses in the tournament are many, but the unsung one is clearly that 2002 team. I view it much like the 2011 VCU loss – where the title was there on a silver platter. Indiana in the title game would have been a walk in the park.
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@HighEliteMajor As painful as the much to early departure in 1997, the 2003 was the most disappointing for me mainly because I was there. We were the equal to Melo and the Orange while the clock was moving. Unfortunately the lid was down on the hoop for to many FT’s. The loss and having to tolerate the most obnoxious fans in Nawlin’s that weekend was too much to bear. Syracuse fans deepened my resolve to never voluntarily visit the NE US.
