1988

[Crimson King]

Just watched the ESPN 30-minuter on the '88 Final Four and 22 years later my memory is not as good as it should be.

--I'm surprised Billy let the clock run from 40 seconds to 16 before fouling Barry. (We were down 1 at that point.)

--I'd really forgotten what a phantom call Hightower made on King that allowed Manning to shoot FTs with 14 or so seconds left and KU up by 2.

--I did remember us going cold with a 5-point lead when it looked like it was ours.

I don't think I'll ever get over that one.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Just watched the ESPN 30-minuter on the '88 Final Four and 22 years later my memory is not as good as it should be.

--I'm surprised Billy let the clock run from 40 seconds to 16 before fouling Barry. (We were down 1 at that point.)

--I'd really forgotten what a phantom call Hightower made on King that allowed Manning to shoot FTs with 14 or so seconds left and KU up by 2.

--I did remember us going cold with a 5-point lead when it looked like it was ours.

I don't think I'll ever get over that one.

The call on King was a very bad call. Horrible. Atrocious.

Had KU continued to play the same style in the 2nd half they played in the first half, we'd have won by double-digits, but Larry Brown outcoached Tubbs and switched it up in the 2nd half and we never could pull away and let them linger.

I know I'll never get over it. I hate KU with a passion.

 

[Romulus]

the hardest I ever cried after any sporting event

 

[WaymanFan]

The call on King was a very bad call. Horrible. Atrocious.

Had KU continued to play the same style in the 2nd half they played in the first half, we'd have won by double-digits, but Larry Brown outcoached Tubbs and switched it up in the 2nd half and we never could pull away and let them linger.

I know I'll never get over it. I hate KU with a passion.

I'm not sure if Larry outcoached Billy, or Billy just made a dumb mistake not putting Andre Wiley into the game. Those who watched the OU-Arizona game two nights earlier will relate to what I'm talking about.

I think everyone who watched that game knew Larry Brown was going to take the air out of the ball in the second half. However, OU built their largest lead in the 2nd half (65-60), so I don't think it was that strategy which cost them. Kansas just played a near-perfect game. When Scooter Barry (the least talented by far of his siblings) makes a basket, and a guy like Milt Newton goes 6-6 from the field, I guess it was just their day.

For the record, I'm still not over that game, either. I remember thinking that when we lost, it was probably going to be our only chance to EVER win one. I'm still holding out hope that I'll be wrong.

Finally, like a lot of us, I was angry at the officiating after the game (human nature). I remember yelling at my TV and making an unfortunate prediction. It went something like this: "Danny Manning, you're going to fall flat on your face in the Olympics because you won't get away with what you got away with tonight!!!" Like (I hope) everyone else, I rooted hard for Danny Manning in the Olympics - and he was USA's best player. However, he spent too much time on the bench with foul trouble and we ended up winning the bronze.

 

[steverocks35]

ESPN Classic replayed the entire game about a week ago and I re-watched it for the first time. Ed Hightower made some HORRIBLE calls the entire game. In the first half Kansas misses a shot (one of the few they missed), a KU player jumps in the middle of Dave Seger's back and Seger got called for a foul, it was one of the worst calls I've ever seen. When you combine the horrible officiating with KU's inability to miss a shot, and OU completely abandoning getting the ball inside in the second half, it was the perfect storm. The most heartbroken I've ever been after any sporting event.

 

[steverocks35]

Oh, one more thing, one of our players (can't remember who) got run over by a KU player on the way to the basket and Hightower did the demonstrative "get up" hand gesture in lieu of calling a charge, I laughed out loud.

 

[WaymanFan]

One other thing I wanted to add. Perhaps it was payback from OU cutting down the nets in Allen Fieldhouse after clinching the Big 8 conference title in 1984, but the Kansas fans were by and large very sore winners after that game. Barry Switzer made several mentions of it in the coming months. The following autumn, I read in Sooners Illustrated that the OU football players never saw Barry so irate during halftime as they did during the 1988 OU-Kansas gridiron game. Barry would not stop talking about how rude and disrespectful the Kansas fans were to both the OU players and fans after that game. He wanted his players to take it out on their players. I don't remember the scores, but I do remember it was close at halftime, and OU destroyed them in the second half.

 

[152219]

Milt Newton averaged almost 18 ppg that season. He was KU's 2nd best player and not close to being a scrub. It is the role players like Piper who played out of their mind.

 

[Cheno]

One other thing I wanted to add. Perhaps it was payback from OU cutting down the nets in Allen Fieldhouse after clinching the Big 8 conference title in 1984, but the Kansas fans were by and large very sore winners after that game.

My guess is it was payback for how Billy Tubbs acted pretty much all the time in the eyes of others. That's no excuse and it shouldn't have happened so it's too bad you had some bad encounters but Tubbs never really made any friends when it came to sportsmanship in the eyes of other teams fanbase.
It is what it is.

 

[Romulus]

if that game is anywhere but KC, OU wins in 88 pretty easily.

 

[Big Old Booger]

My guess is it was payback for how Billy Tubbs acted pretty much all the time in the eyes of others. That's no excuse and it shouldn't have happened so it's too bad you had some bad encounters but Tubbs never really made any friends when it came to sportsmanship in the eyes of other teams fanbase.
It is what it is.

That's exactly what your post is...a guess. You have no clue because you just jumped on the KU bandwagon in the mid 90's when Roy was rolling along. You probably also like the Yankees, Patriots, and Lakers, I'd guess.

KU fans (and fans of every other Big 8 school) didn't like Tubbs because he beat them and that's the whole deal right there. Not only did he beat them, he destroyed most teams by double digits, even KU was on the losing end of a few beatings.

Most KU fans want to point to Tubbs cutting down the nets in AF, which was a glorious night in sooner basketball lore. However, most jhawk fans forget the classy KU jhawks cut down the nets in the LNC the previous season when Ted Owens won his final game. How convenient.

Even the old man who was the longtime color analyst on KU broadcasts had forgotten that fact. He was asked about it a few years ago and said it never happened. It did, he either has alzheimers or doesn't want to admit to it.

 

[Sooner04]

You know why we cut down the nets in Allen in '84? Because KU cut down the nets in Norman in '83 in the first round of the Big 8 Tournament.

Takes one to know one. So, basically, screw KU.

Drat! Booger beat me to it.

 

[Big Old Booger]

the hardest I ever cried after any sporting event

Same here. I've never cried as hard after an OU football loss...

 

[NMSooner'80]

One other thing I wanted to add. Perhaps it was payback from OU cutting down the nets in Allen Fieldhouse after clinching the Big 8 conference title in 1984, but the Kansas fans were by and large very sore winners after that game. Barry Switzer made several mentions of it in the coming months. The following autumn, I read in Sooners Illustrated that the OU football players never saw Barry so irate during halftime as they did during the 1988 OU-Kansas gridiron game. Barry would not stop talking about how rude and disrespectful the Kansas fans were to both the OU players and fans after that game. He wanted his players to take it out on their players. I don't remember the scores, but I do remember it was close at halftime, and OU destroyed them in the second half.

The '88 OU football team actually struggled with KU in Norman for a little over a quarter, then the floodgates opened ( :clap :woot :ez-roll: ). It wound up 63-14.

The funny thing was, the '87 Sooners scored more on KU in Lawrence in football (71) than most basketball teams did. Brad McBride, the career backup LB from Edmond, picked off a pass with about 3:00 to play and took it to the house. Naturally some MORON from Beakerville called Al Eschbach on the following Monday to complain about how that was "no class" to keep scoring like that, and he wouldn't hear if it when Al told him that it was a backup LB scoring his first-ever TD.

I've also read stories about how a bunch of KU fans followed the OU team bus back to their hotel just to taunt them a bit more. I can't say that would surprise me in the least. When your fan base is told for years about how morally superior (and Whiter) their team is than most of their foes, they figure they're entitled to be jerks (sort of like those prix from Austin).

 

[WaymanFan]

Milt Newton averaged almost 18 ppg that season. He was KU's 2nd best player and not close to being a scrub. It is the role players like Piper who played out of their mind.

I didn't mean to imply he was a scrub. He was certainly a solid player. Still, if I looked at his stats for that year, I'm guessing he wasn't close to that 100% field goal percentage he nailed in the title game.

Interseting you mentioned Piper. He probably hit the shot of the game. OU had a 5 point lead, and Piper takes a jump shot from the top of the key. My first thought was "let's make sure we get this rebound." His shot went in, KU took the lead about a minute later and never relinquished it.

Cheno, I've never had a negative experience with KU fans, even several years back when message boards were in their infancy and I visited Phog.net. I was simply relaying Barry Switzer's account of what went on after that game...and if there was any exaggeration - it would have been on his part, not mine. He was livid with the way the OU players and fans were treated after that game.

NM80, that '88 OU-Kansas football game was pretty close at the half. It wasn't a blowout until Switzer went ballistic at halftime (according to quotes attributed to certain players in Sooners Illustrated).

I joke about being in "therapy" since that game, but the truth is, in regards to sports (and leaving out real-life tragedies), that game was the most painful loss I've endured as a sports fan in my 47+ years of existence. I still have never watched that game a second time...but I will if someone shows me footage of Milt Newton missing a shot (I like alternate endings).

 

[Sooner Quick]

That's exactly what your post is...a guess. You have no clue because you just jumped on the KU bandwagon in the mid 90's when Roy was rolling along. You probably also like the Yankees, Patriots, and Lakers, I'd guess.

KU fans (and fans of every other Big 8 school) didn't like Tubbs because he beat them and that's the whole deal right there. Not only did he beat them, he destroyed most teams by double digits, even KU was on the losing end of a few beatings.

Most KU fans want to point to Tubbs cutting down the nets in AF, which was a glorious night in sooner basketball lore. However, most jhawk fans forget the classy KU jhawks cut down the nets in the LNC the previous season when Ted Owens won his final game. How convenient.

Even the old man who was the longtime color analyst on KU broadcasts had forgotten that fact. He was asked about it a few years ago and said it never happened. It did, he either has alzheimers or doesn't want to admit to it.

This

 

[NMSooner'80]

NM80, that '88 OU-Kansas football game was pretty close at the half. It wasn't a blowout until Switzer went ballistic at halftime (according to quotes attributed to certain players in Sooners Illustrated).

That's right - I think it was 21-14 at halftime, but I can't remember. I was even at that game and wanted blood just like Switzer did.

 

[stoops4pres]

I know I'll never get over it. I hate KU with a passion.

+1,000

Probably the only time I've ever hated the NCAA Tournament. KU got rewarded for being hot at the right time, and OU didn't get rewarded for being the best team in the country. KU has shared that pain quite often over the last 15 years, its frustrating.

 

[steverocks35]

What's most frustrating is that if you watch that game you realize that KU could not possibly stop Stacey King and Harvey Grant but we quit trying to get the ball inside in the 2nd half. I think we fell in love with the outside shot when Seger hit all those three's in the first half to keep us in it. We should've kept feeding Stacey King and tried to get Manning in foul trouble (of course, with Hightower on the job that might've been hard to do)

 

[AnotherSoonerInTX]

I agree with the posters on the pain of that loss. I'm 43. I've watched OU football since I was 5. No OU football loss has ever hurt as much as the 1988 national championship game in hoops, not even repeated BCS championship game losses. It was a freak night, and as a result we'll always hear about "Danny and the Miracles".

That night after the game, I feared I may never see OU in that position again. We've come close, but haven't quite gotten there.