... UNC is going to spoil the coach K party

The only graduate of West Point during the Vietnam War that didn't serve there as a 2nd Lieutenant.*


*I only say this because he made some chickenhawk criticism of President Obama with regard to our troop levels in The Crusades II. He had no standing to do so.

F him.

I love this

Nice.

bearister said:

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F him.

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I'm imagining what Bob Knight must've done to his Coach K voodoo doll.

DWM81 said:

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I attended the game in Oakland when Michael Chavez was a Senior and Johnny Dawkins a Freshman. Cal won easily...

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Would love to see details on that game?

Big C said:

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bearister said:

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F him.

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I'm imagining what Bob Knight must've done to his Coach K voodoo doll.

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That chair hit Coach K.

Johnny Dawkins part of a heralded Freshman class at Duke. They came to Oakland w/lots of swagger + hype. Our Senior-laden team beat them easily. We were more skilled, more fundamentally sound, though perhaps less athletic. The good ol' days...

DWM81 said:

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Johnny Dawkins part of a heralded Freshman class at Duke. They came to Oakland w/lots of swagger + hype. Our Senior-laden team beat them easily. We were more skilled, more fundamentally sound, though perhaps less athletic. The good ol' days...

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This was also before freshmen came in as advanced (physically and also year-round hoops)) as they do today. It was early in Coach K's tenure and Dawkins/Alarie/Bilas were his first stellar recruiting class. There were some mediocre juniors and seniors left over on their roster from the previous coach.

The game was scheduled at the Oakland Coliseum and I wanna say that was because they thought they'd see if they could sell more tickets than the 6,000 or so that was Harmon's capacity. I'm not sure they succeeded in that regard, but I'm sure there were a good 5,000 fans present.

It wasn't a huge upset that Cal won. It became more of a big deal in our minds in ensuing years as those freshmen developed and Duke became a powerhouse. That recruiting class was what began Coach K's legacy.

I was there too. Remember towards the end with the game in hand Jeff Thilgen getting a clear breakaway but taking three huge steps before throwing down a thunderous dunk.

It's like I said that night: Forty years or so from now, a hundred thousand people will claim they were here at this game!"

(Not doubting you, BadNewsBear1. Anybody that can reference Jeff Thilgen has what I call "Kuchen Years Credibility"!)

You guys have amazing memories...

BadNewsBear1 said:

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I was there too. Remember towards the end with the game in hand Jeff Thilgen getting a clear breakaway but taking three huge steps before throwing down a thunderous dunk.

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That's a name from the past. Did he get called for traveling or did his dunk count?


Wasn't Thilgen a walk on?

Thilgen was Kuchen's only scholarship signee that year. Definitely a Plan B (or maybe C)

1st year: Kevin Sparks, Mel Holland (Kuchen had just been hired)

2nd year: Michael Pitts, Michael Chavez, John Richie, Reid Poole, Darrel Haley (decent class, but overrated)

3rd year: Butch Hayes, Sam Potter (two quality players, but Potter fled after two seasons)

4th year: Jeff Thilgen

(maybe I am mixing up 3rd and 4th years)

After that came the Kevin Johnson/Chris Washington/Dave Butler year (his best recruiting year by far)

And then Leonard Taylor after that


I'm leaving out some parts in the second half. Kuchen recruited okay, but he would have years where he struck out. His later teams were always maybe 2 decent players short of being Pac 10 competitive, often starting an unathletic off guard at small forward, for lack of anybody else (this before the days of "going small")


You know what's amazing? This was from memory, and yet I couldn't tell you for the life of me what I had for breakfast this morning!

NVBear78 said:

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BadNewsBear1 said:

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I was there too. Remember towards the end with the game in hand Jeff Thilgen getting a clear breakaway but taking three huge steps before throwing down a thunderous dunk.

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That's a name from the past. Did he get called for traveling or did his dunk count?


Wasn't Thilgen a walk on?

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He got called for the walk.......and turned around like it was the worst call in the world. The crowd had quite the chuckle about his reaction.

Thilgen was actually a soph that year, but he was the only recruit two years before.

Big C said:

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DWM81 said:

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Johnny Dawkins part of a heralded Freshman class at Duke. They came to Oakland w/lots of swagger + hype. Our Senior-laden team beat them easily. We were more skilled, more fundamentally sound, though perhaps less athletic. The good ol' days...

---

This was also before freshmen came in as advanced (physically and also year-round hoops)) as they do today. It was early in Coach K's tenure and Dawkins/Alarie/Bilas were his first stellar recruiting class. There were some mediocre juniors and seniors left over on their roster from the previous coach.

The game was scheduled at the Oakland Coliseum and I wanna say that was because they thought they'd see if they could sell more tickets than the 6,000 or so that was Harmon's capacity. I'm not sure they succeeded in that regard, but I'm sure there were a good 5,000 fans present.

It wasn't a huge upset that Cal won. It became more of a big deal in our minds in ensuing years as those freshmen developed and Duke became a powerhouse. That recruiting class was what began Coach K's legacy.

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The Duke freshmen were touted as a Big 4 recruiting class, Dawkins, Alarie, Bilas, and Henderson. Henderson was a 3rd round draft pick, and had a cup of coffee with the 76ers, so he didn't turn out to be chopped liver (and was co-captain with Dawkins their senior year). Their sophomore year they got to Coach K's first NCAA tourney, junior year got Coach K's first NCAA tourney win, and their senior year got Coach K's first Sweet 16, first Final Four, and first championship game.

But as of December 4, 1982, Cal was the better team, it wasn't really an upset.

The most memorable thing about that was that one of our group got picked for the halfcourt shot contest. He shot it exactly the right distance. From the angle where we were sitting in the upper deck of the Coliseum Arena, it looked like it was going in. We didn't know until it go to the basket that it was just enough wide right to not even get rim. But he knew the second it left his hands it was wide right, so he was never as excited as we were.

Well, at least Cal won the game.