1987 OU Season

[209sooner]

Is anyone on here old enough to remember the 1987 Sooners? They finished 24-10 with three 1 point losses, three 2 point losses, a 4 point loss, and a 5 point loss. It seems like they were one of the best OU teams that no one talks about.

I noticed a couple of interesting things about the schedule that year. We played UNLV twice, finishing 1-1 against a team that went to the Final Four. Also, our last regular season game was at Kentucky (one of our 1 point losses). Does anyone remember why we played them at the end of the year with no return game in Norman?

Here is the end of our Sweet 16 loss to Iowa. It looks like we got a bad call with 11 seconds left when they gave the ball to Iowa after they appeared to knock it out of bounds.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Aw0P_Em2cY[/ame]

 

[coolm]

this game hacked me off so much. I was watching it in Orlando on the Navy base with about 100 other guys at the "Mariner" e-club.

 

[soonerjamm]

I was in high school and remember watching this game - very painful loss. I think that team underachieved some, especially toward the end of the season but then played well in the tournament as a #6 seed - beating Tulsa in the 1st round and then beating #3 seed Pitt in the 2nd round. A win over Iowa would have set up another game against UNLV.

 

[Wyatt]

I was a 5th grader and I remember throwing such a fit that my Dad busted my butt harder than he ever had before. I remember being up pretty comfortably early on, but we fell at the end. I loved that pick by McCallister to try and make the officials call a foul on the last inbounds play.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Is anyone on here old enough to remember the 1987 Sooners? They finished 24-10 with three 1 point losses, three 2 point losses, a 4 point loss, and a 5 point loss. It seems like they were one of the best OU teams that no one talks about.

I noticed a couple of interesting things about the schedule that year. We played UNLV twice, finishing 1-1 against a team that went to the Final Four. Also, our last regular season game was at Kentucky (one of our 1 point losses). Does anyone remember why we played them at the end of the year with no return game in Norman?

Here is the end of our Sweet 16 loss to Iowa. It looks like we got a bad call with 11 seconds left when they gave the ball to Iowa after they appeared to knock it out of bounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Aw0P_Em2cY

I remember the team very well. I was a soph in HS at the time, and my brother was a student at OU.

The team was a very good OU team that nobody talks about. The win over UNLV was when UNLV was #1 in the country and was absolutely loaded (Armon Gilliam, Jerald Pattillo, etc.). The LNC was rocking that day as the Sooners won by 1 point. Gilliam missed a jumper at the buzzer that would have won the game.

We beat LSU that year and they played in the elite 8. UNLV was a final 4 participant.

Kentucky wasn't very good that year because Sutton was into drugs instead of coaching. We should have won and had a big lead, but the crowd at UK got into it in the 2nd half and they came from behind and beat us. We missed some free throws with a few seconds left which would have either tied it or put us ahead.

Back then when Tubbs was building the program he would schedule anybody even if they wouldn't come to Norman. Syracuse, Memphis, and Kentucky were 3 such teams. Once he got the program built, then we started getting more good games in Norman -- Pitt, NC State, Duke, etc.

 

[NMSooner'80]

I remember the team very well. I was a soph in HS at the time, and my brother was a student at OU.

The team was a very good OU team that nobody talks about. The win over UNLV was when UNLV was #1 in the country and was absolutely loaded (Armon Gilliam, Jerald Pattillo, etc.). The LNC was rocking that day as the Sooners won by 1 point. Gilliam missed a jumper at the buzzer that would have won the game.

We beat LSU that year and they played in the elite 8. UNLV was a final 4 participant.

Kentucky wasn't very good that year because Sutton was into drugs instead of coaching. We should have won and had a big lead, but the crowd at UK got into it in the 2nd half and they came from behind and beat us. We missed some free throws with a few seconds left which would have either tied it or put us ahead.

Back then when Tubbs was building the program he would schedule anybody even if they wouldn't come to Norman. Syracuse, Memphis, and Kentucky were 3 such teams. Once he got the program built, then we started getting more good games in Norman -- Pitt, NC State, Duke, etc.

That was a strange season. I saw most of the home games that year.

The '87 team looked like world-beaters at times, including in the epic UNLV home game. I don't think the LNC has ever been louder. They also beat the evil birdies from KU in the same week.

It almost seemed like the season unraveled after what should have been a nice road win at NC State (which OU beat in Norman in '86 in a tight one). OU got up by 20 and had to hang on for the win. Then-rookie columnist John Rohde ripped OU for being too arrogant, in that win, and it almost seemed like they went into a shell after that. Close losses at Iowa State and (gulp) a bad OSU team were a killer, and they also coughed up a 10-point lead in the final two minutes in the home finale against KSU.

And the ultimate Big 8 tourney screw-job against (who else?) KU when King's 3/4-court shot was mysteriously disallowed was another momentum-killer. They edged Tulsa and then played a great game against favored Pitt and won to get to the Sweet 16. Fittingly, they blew a big lead against Iowa and lost to end the season.

Losing McCalister, Johnson and Kennedy caused people to start sounding the death-knell for Tubbs' program (which was a consensus third-place Big 8 pick in '88 behind Mizzou and KU). Little did they know that Grace, Grant and King would form a pretty good nucleus, and some JC kid named Mookie would pretty much define that team's style in '88.

 

[Sooner04]

Ugh. I ran across that clip on youtube the other day and couldn't bear to watch it. That Iowa team was pretty good, but we shouldn't have lost that game. Hell, Iowa turns right around and blows a 20-point lead against UNLV two nights later. What a Rebel team that was (Gilliam, Wade, Basnight, Banks, etal).

The '87 team just didn't win the close ones. Blowing that huge lead at home to K-State on senior night also cost us about 15 more wins on the home court streak that eventually extended all the way into the '90-91 season.

 

[gwydion]

"and they also coughed up a 10-point lead in the final two minutes in the home finale against KSU."

I remember that game and it's why to this day I don't understand why people leave early. As I remember we had a double digit lead with 1:12 left and my brother and I looked at each and said if we're not careful we could lose. And then we did! Proof that anything can happen in a very short time.

 

[NMSooner'80]

I still blame part of that KSU loss on an idiotic male cheerleader from OU who wouldn't leave the court when Tim McCalister was getting ready to shoot the front end of a one-and-one. The ref was getting ready to hand T-Mac the ball, and he had to stop and wait for the moron to vacate the floor.

At the exact time the ref took the ball back from Tim, I said to myself, "Here comes a miss." It was. I think OU missed the front end of three straight one-and-ones in the final 1:10.

 

[NMSooner'80]

BTW, I don't know if people remember this, but Harvey Grant's recruitment was a bit of an adventure. Back then, the letter-of-intent rule was that you couldn't sign a second D-1 letter if you'd signed one before (which he did when he signed with Clemson out of high school). So basically he was a free agent until classes started.

He did sign some sort of a grant-in-aid letter, but that whole thing was bizarre until OU got him into a class in the fall of '86. I think he signed non-binding letters with Kentucky and maybe that school in Georgia where that crybaby-bozo whined about the score getting "run up" on him in '88.

Grant might have been the reason the rule was changed (I think) to where a JC kid who went D-1 out of high school could sign a second binding D-1 letter out of JC.

And speaking of that recruiting class (Grant, Grace and Terrence Mullins), it was downright hysterical how that class was so underrated in the Oklahoma media. OU kind of low-keyed its class, and OSU (with then-rookie coach Leonard Hamilton) hyped the heck out of theirs. So the big local myth was that OSU outrecruited OU in '86. :ez-roll: :ez-roll:

 

[jaymOU]

That was a strange season. I saw most of the home games that year.

The '87 team looked like world-beaters at times, including in the epic UNLV home game. I don't think the LNC has ever been louder. They also beat the evil birdies from KU in the same week.

It almost seemed like the season unraveled after what should have been a nice road win at NC State (which OU beat in Norman in '86 in a tight one). OU got up by 20 and had to hang on for the win. Then-rookie columnist John Rohde ripped OU for being too arrogant, in that win, and it almost seemed like they went into a shell after that. Close losses at Iowa State and (gulp) a bad OSU team were a killer, and they also coughed up a 10-point lead in the final two minutes in the home finale against KSU.

And the ultimate Big 8 tourney screw-job against (who else?) KU when King's 3/4-court shot was mysteriously disallowed was another momentum-killer. They edged Tulsa and then played a great game against favored Pitt and won to get to the Sweet 16. Fittingly, they blew a big lead against Iowa and lost to end the season.

Losing McCalister, Johnson and Kennedy caused people to start sounding the death-knell for Tubbs' program (which was a consensus third-place Big 8 pick in '88 behind Mizzou and KU). Little did they know that Grace, Grant and King would form a pretty good nucleus, and some JC kid named Mookie would pretty much define that team's style in '88.

I was on press row for the UNLV game - semi-working media member at that time - and it was the greatest basketball game I have attended. The questionable three-pointer at the half and OU pulling it out by one at the end. Awesome. UNLV was incredible - Larry Johnson was a MAN. I believe that was one team who could have faired better.

 

[jaymOU]

I still don't know how OU lost that game. KSU had a white guy who was a decathlete, and two other great shooting guards - one of which was Mitch Richmond. I think the other was named Scott, without Internet cheating it. They were really, really good.

 

[Big Old Booger]

I was on press row for the UNLV game - semi-working media member at that time - and it was the greatest basketball game I have attended. The questionable three-pointer at the half and OU pulling it out by one at the end. Awesome. UNLV was incredible - Larry Johnson was a MAN. I believe that was one team who could have faired better.

Grandma-ma didn't play until hte 89-90 season when we beat UNLV in the LNC when they were #1 and we were in the top 5. Another great game at the LNC.

The UNLV team in 87 has Gilliam, Basnight, Patillo and others listed by sooner04 in his post.

The 89/90 team had Johnson, Augmon, Anderson Hunt, Greg Anthony and another very good player. They were awesome.

 

[Big Old Booger]

I still don't know how OU lost that game. KSU had a white guy who was a decathlete, and two other great shooting guards - one of which was Mitch Richmond. I think the other was named Scott, without Internet cheating it. They were really, really good.

That KSU team also had Steve Henson was was my favorite non-OU big 8 guard of all time. He was an incredible player at KSU and very fun to watch. He gave us fits in the 90 season when they beat us in Manhattan and in Norman even though we won that game.

He is an assistant coach at UNLV and I bet he will be a good head coach because he was a spectacular college player.

EDIT: Henson is the decathlete jaymOU was speaking of. I had forgotten that.

 

[NMSooner'80]

I remember Henson - very underrated player.

He hit a pull-up thre with about 59 seconds left in the game that seemed like it was too little, too late. It cut a 9-point OU lead to six. Then the brickfest started at the foul line for OU, and the Cats kept getting offensive boards at their end.

The other guys I remember from that gawd-awful game were Charles Bledsoe (who kept rebounding all of their misses and putting them back for two every trip down, it seemed like) and Will Scott, their three-point specialist.

The next year, OU tried to blow a 30-point lead at home in the last 7:00, but we held on to win by something like 14 points. Same thing happened, although not as huge of a lead, in the Big 8 regular season title game (OU led by something like 16 points and got it cut to about five in nothing flat, due to Scott mainly).

 

[NMSooner'80]

On a happier note, that '87 OU-Vegas game was the first time that OU had ever beaten a top-ranked team (No. 1 in the polls). It was worth the wild drive down from Edmond in the snow to see it.

I can see where Larry Johnson could be confused with Armon Gilliam. LJ didn't win in the Lloyd Noble, either (in '90).

I can also never forget Johnny Orr's reaction to OU's win. Someone asked him he was surprised that OU beat UNLV. He said something like, "Yes, I was surprised they didn't beat them by double-figures." :clap

 

[soonerroby]

As a kid I loved those few years when OU had a little rivalry with UNLV. I loved watching the decibel meter in the LNC cranking while Orr was cranking on towels.

 

[WaymanFan]

Is anyone on here old enough to remember the 1987 Sooners? They finished 24-10 with three 1 point losses, three 2 point losses, a 4 point loss, and a 5 point loss. It seems like they were one of the best OU teams that no one talks about.

The reason they don't get more mention is because they underachieved during the regular season. They actually lost their last three regular season games. However, beating #3 seed Pitt to make the Sweet 16 validated that team as one of the better ones. The Iowa loss in the Sweet 16 was an incredible game to watch. Kevin Gamble's shot was every bit as painful as Rick Fox's three years later. Apparently, the college basketball gods had to nab us twice for that friendly set of rim bounces Wayman Tisdale got against La. Tech in '85.

The thing that stands out most to me about that team was the quality opponents on the schedule; a schedule we have not seen since or may never again. Some of these were already listed, but here were the of the out-of-conference games against BCS or at least quality programs: UNLV twice, NC State, Kentucky, LSU, TCU, Florida State, Texas A&M, Creighton, BYU and Texas. Okay, Texas wasn't on the hoops map then, but for that to be one of our easiest games of the season says a lot about that schedule.

 

[Darwin]

I was a 5th grader and I remember throwing such a fit that my Dad busted my butt harder than he ever had before. I remember being up pretty comfortably early on, but we fell at the end. I loved that pick by McCallister to try and make the officials call a foul on the last inbounds play.

The Sooner coaches had told the officials to watch for a charge on the pick but still didn't get the call. Graces 4th foul was hard to stomach also, he sat during some key 2nd half minutes. Harvey Grant signed with Ariz. St. but Tubbs found a way to get him.