1988 NCAA Tournament run on SoonerSports.tv

[NickZepp]

You have to pay for a subscription but apparently soonersports.tv is posting the 88 run.

The UTC game and Auburn game are on so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smDXTN_fnpU

 

[MichaelM]

The Final Four win over Arizona and the Kansas game are both available anytime on http://vault.ncaa.com/. Also a few games each from 2002, 2003, and 2009, and (if for some reason you really want it) the first-round losses from 1992 and 1995.

 

[soonerbms]

104.8 points per game. Ridiculous. If college basketball teams were still that prolific, it would be way more popular.

 

[Sawyer]

104.8 points per game. Ridiculous. If college basketball teams were still that prolific, it would be way more popular.

I would give anything to see the college game played like it apparently was in the late '80s and early '90s (before I ever paid attention). Part of it is that the NBA has sapped much of the talent, but coaches don't push things like they used to, either.

 

[BigTime]

I would give anything to see the college game played like it apparently was in the late '80s and early '90s (before I ever paid attention). Part of it is that the NBA has sapped much of the talent, but coaches don't push things like they used to, either.

How's the SEC? The NIT?

 

[Sawyer]

SEC is like playing Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech over and over.

The NIT sucks.

Haith will be fired eventually, but it will probably be a couple years after he should be. I'd be cool with making the change now. He's won enough games overall to give the impression that he has a clue, but he's been the beneficiary of Anderson's players (with a giant chip on their shoulder) and a watered down schedule. Every year, the team gets worse, and there's no sign of Haith building toward anything. Zero continuity on the roster. Zero identifiable offensive scheme from year to year. Zero player development. And even less than zero of a clue on the defensive end. He's a great coach if the goal is 20 wins and a .500 conference finish. But Quin's teams were more fun.

 

[WaymanFan]

I would give anything to see the college game played like it apparently was in the late '80s and early '90s (before I ever paid attention). Part of it is that the NBA has sapped much of the talent, but coaches don't push things like they used to, either.

It sounds like you were too young or not yet born during the heart of the Norm Stewart era. Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri - pick your order, but those three dominated the Big 8 during the 1980s decade. Believe it or not, Kansas, despite their title, had the least impressive resume of the three that decade. The three-team dominance carried through the 1990 season before Kansas took over as the dominant program, and parity surrounded the rest of the conference.

As for 1988, my memory is vivid. I don't remember all the exact scores, but pretty sure of how much we beat each team. I think we beat Tennessee-Chattanooga by 28. The score was something like 94-66. I don't remember the Auburn final, but we won by 20. I remember thinking that we would probably play Bradley in Round 2 (led by Hersey Hawkins) since they were a top-10 team most of the year. In the Round of 16, we went up against a dangerous #4 seed in Louisville. They played an outstanding game, but we were just the better team. I think the score was something like 106-96, but I'm pretty sure we won by 10.

I really wanted to play #2 seed Kentucky in the regional final, but they were upset by #6 seed Villanova. In the first half of the Villanova game, I remember that I wasn't on my best behavior. My poor dog was hiding in the bedroom because I was yelling at the TV. I calmed down at halftime (we were losing) and took my dog for a walk while promising myself I'll behave better in the second half, regardless. I don't remember the final score, but I believe we won by 17. For those who don't remember that game but remember OU's 2nd half against Arizona back in 2002, it was a very similar type game.

The Arizona game in the Final Four was just a well-played game from start to finish. The Wildcats were a great team and favored to win the game. We were just too good for them. The final score was something like 96-88, but I know I'm close if that wasn't it. My memory of the NCAA Tournament after that goes south .

 

[Sawyer]

Born in '85 and didn't start following college basketball much until the year after Norm retired, so lucky me. I was casually aware of Mizzou from about '94 on. (I remember Booker's sad face when he didn't get drafted... still stupid. He could play in the NBA.)

I'm familiar with what the teams did in the '80s. I just never got to watch it live. I spent a good deal of time a little more than a year ago researching the mid-'80s Mizzou teams, specifically a player named Cecil Estes, a high school star who's one of the biggest "what if" stories in Mizzou history (not sure if anyone here would remember him). He dropped out after his freshman year, played a year of juco ball (part of a record-setting team coached by Dana Altman), and then more or less dropped off the face of the basketball map. I think his last game of his NCAA career was against OU, actually. His senior year would've been the 86/87 season, when Mizzou (led by Derrick Chievous) won the Big 8 title then lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Only thing missing from that team was a scoring wing to complement Chievous. Basically, Estes. The quintessential Mizzou story—great in a hypothetical world, but reality kicks us in the balls.

MU from about '78 to '94 was a very different program than the one I've been blessed with.

 

[KBaden145]

MU from about '78 to '94 was a very different program than the one I've been blessed with.

This is so very true. At one time, when you played Mizzou, you literally had a tiger by the tail.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[NMSooner'80]

It sounds like you were too young or not yet born during the heart of the Norm Stewart era. Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri - pick your order, but those three dominated the Big 8 during the 1980s decade. Believe it or not, Kansas, despite their title, had the least impressive resume of the three that decade. The three-team dominance carried through the 1990 season before Kansas took over as the dominant program, and parity surrounded the rest of the conference.

As for 1988, my memory is vivid. I don't remember all the exact scores, but pretty sure of how much we beat each team. I think we beat Tennessee-Chattanooga by 28. The score was something like 94-66. I don't remember the Auburn final, but we won by 20. I remember thinking that we would probably play Bradley in Round 2 (led by Hersey Hawkins) since they were a top-10 team most of the year. In the Round of 16, we went up against a dangerous #4 seed in Louisville. They played an outstanding game, but we were just the better team. I think the score was something like 106-96, but I'm pretty sure we won by 10.

I really wanted to play #2 seed Kentucky in the regional final, but they were upset by #6 seed Villanova. In the first half of the Villanova game, I remember that I wasn't on my best behavior. My poor dog was hiding in the bedroom because I was yelling at the TV. I calmed down at halftime (we were losing) and took my dog for a walk while promising myself I'll behave better in the second half, regardless. I don't remember the final score, but I believe we won by 17. For those who don't remember that game but remember OU's 2nd half against Arizona back in 2002, it was a very similar type game.

The Arizona game in the Final Four was just a well-played game from start to finish. The Wildcats were a great team and favored to win the game. We were just too good for them. The final score was something like 96-88, but I know I'm close if that wasn't it. My memory of the NCAA Tournament after that goes south .

I absolutely LOVED IT when OU put it to Villanova. We didn't start that well, but we rolled them in the second half.

I also heard some scuttlebutt that Rollie Massimino, the obvious media darling in that matchup (national guys hated Tubbs), was really a jerk the whole time. But, he was still "Lovable Lil' Rollie" when they came up against the Evil Tubbs and his Run-It-Up Bunch from OU (the media template at the time).

Similar insider scuttlebutt was that some idiot from one of the national outlets wanted to know why Billy was trying to "run it up on Louisville by shooting three's late...." The only "late game three" was one where Mookie Blaylock tossed one up to kill the clock, in a 10-point game, from about halfcourt. As if!