Metrosports presents OU vs. OSU 01-27-81

HOF broadcaster Ray Scott on the call with Gary Thompson. I presume that was a Big 8 Wednesday night syndicated game with a simulcast on ESPN.

I had forgotten Wayman played his freshman year with Bo Overton, Chucky Barnett, and Big Time Jones. That team lost to Indiana in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

That was OSU's best team in the decades between Henry Iba and Eddie Sutton. Mostly local (OKC metro) players.
 
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HOF broadcaster Ray Scott on the call with Gary Thompson. I presume that was a Big 8 Wednesday night syndicated game with a simulcast on ESPN.

I had forgotten Wayman played his freshman year with Bo Overton, Chucky Barnett, and Big Time Jones. That team lost to Indiana in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

That was OSU's best team in the decades between Henry Iba and Eddie Sutton. Mostly local (OKC metro) players.
I had almost all those same thoughts. Uwe Blob for IU*. Matt Clark, Leroy Combs, Bill Self, Lorenza Andrews.....pretty good poke team.

Barnett was my first favorite Sooner hoops player.

I can guarantee my dad was there.

Early 80's Big 8 players woulda been tough with 3 point line.....David Little, Self, Jon Sunvold.

* Looking it up (another hooray for Soonerstats. com).....we also lose to IU and Knight in 98, OT, despite a great game by Corey Brewer.
 
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High probability of me being at that game. I was all of nine months old, but my parents hauled me everywhere. That was a really good O-State team. Won the Big 8 Tournament in Kemper. Total dark ages for the Aggies between 1965 and Eddie's return aside from this very good 1983 squad.
He'll always be "Bed Time" Jones to me.
Random factoid: first round games for the Big 8 Tournament were played on campus back then. KU came to Norman with a losing record and a lame duck coach (Ted Owens). They beat us, and they cut down the Lloyd Noble nets. Nobody died. Tubbs returned the favor in Lawrence a year later and you'd have thought Quantrill was back in town.
 
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Wow, this brings back some memories. I was a pre-teen when this game was played. I was a big fan of Chucky Barnett for some reason.
Thoughts:
1. Bill Self sighting!
2. That OU team was stacked.
3. The main guys played the entire game. There weren't massive substitutions like in today's game.
4. The game was played much closer to the basket. It was a constant traffic jam in the paint.
5. Billy's red jacket was hideous.
6. Could the TV production not figure out how to let the viewers know time and score all the time?
 
Wow, this brings back some memories. I was a pre-teen when this game was played. I was a big fan of Chucky Barnett for some reason.
Thoughts:
1. Bill Self sighting!
2. That OU team was stacked.
3. The main guys played the entire game. There weren't massive substitutions like in today's game.
4. The game was played much closer to the basket. It was a constant traffic jam in the paint.
5. Billy's red jacket was hideous.
6. Could the TV production not figure out how to let the viewers know time and score all the time?
All of these things are true.

Bill Self was a pretty good player. Lightly recruited out of Edmond HS (Edmond Memorial...they had only one HS at the time). Paul Hansen was a local hero, having coached with and replaced Abe Lemons at OCU. He went on to OSU and recruited this OKC all-star team that came together in this season.

OU had just won the NIT the year before. Guys like Chucky Barnett and David Little were recruited by Dave Bliss. This was the year before Billy put even better talent around Wayman. Even then, though, we were running teams out of Lloyd Noble. I had forgotten this game was close until the end.

In 1983, the three-point line was optional for conferences and not used in the NCAA tournament. The Big 8 did not have one. (The ACC used one in conference play that came within the top of the key). Therefore, it was very much a jungle in the paint.

Billy's red jacket was indeed ugly. Also in this era, John Brooks and Al Eschbach wore tuxedos to call the games on radio. They had a sponsor that furnished the tuxes.

The scorebug did not come about until the 90's, when Fox invented it for their new NFL broadcasts.

This video is a great blast from the past. Thanks!
 
All of these things are true.

Bill Self was a pretty good player. Lightly recruited out of Edmond HS (Edmond Memorial...they had only one HS at the time). Paul Hansen was a local hero, having coached with and replaced Abe Lemons at OCU. He went on to OSU and recruited this OKC all-star team that came together in this season.

OU had just won the NIT the year before. Guys like Chucky Barnett and David Little were recruited by Dave Bliss. This was the year before Billy put even better talent around Wayman. Even then, though, we were running teams out of Lloyd Noble. I had forgotten this game was close until the end.

In 1983, the three-point line was optional for conferences and not used in the NCAA tournament. The Big 8 did not have one. (The ACC used one in conference play that came within the top of the key). Therefore, it was very much a jungle in the paint.

Billy's red jacket was indeed ugly. Also in this era, John Brooks and Al Eschbach wore tuxedos to call the games on radio. They had a sponsor that furnished the tuxes.

The scorebug did not come about until the 90's, when Fox invented it for their new NFL broadcasts.

This video is a great blast from the past. Thanks!
Yeah I know having the scoreboard widget on the screen didn't come out until much later but at least show the time and score more often. I guess we didn't mind back then because we were used to it.
 
High probability of me being at that game. I was all of nine months old, but my parents hauled me everywhere. That was a really good O-State team. Won the Big 8 Tournament in Kemper. Total dark ages for the Aggies between 1965 and Eddie's return aside from this very good 1983 squad.
He'll always be "Bed Time" Jones to me.
Random factoid: first round games for the Big 8 Tournament were played on campus back then. KU came to Norman with a losing record and a lame duck coach (Ted Owens). They beat us, and they cut down the Lloyd Noble nets. Nobody died. Tubbs returned the favor in Lawrence a year later and you'd have thought Quantrill was back in town.
"Bed Time" Jones. Yep. Billy recruited him out of a junior college in Texas. During Billy's first season when we went 8-19 (or something), Big Time Jones fell asleep on the bench during a non-conference game. It may have been the loss to the D-III Ohio Northern Polar Bears. Yes, he'll always be Charles "Bed Time" Jones.

Yes, I remember KU coming to Norman and beating us in the 1st round of the Big 8 tournament. Sick.

Mizzou won the last of their 4 consecutive Big 8 championships in this season with Steve Stipanovich and Jon Sundvold. OSU won the Big 8 tournament, only to lose to Princeton in the NCAA tournament.
 
i was actually at the loss to Ohio Northern Polar Bears game. and beating UNLV, #1 Mizzou. talk about a wild ride.

and yes, that Poke team helped get started the Petey Carril legend.
 
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Also interesting to see teams shooting away from their bench in the second half. Some coaches chose to do that back in the days when they had the option, including Billy. Today’s college coaches wouldn’t know what to do if they couldn’t micromanage the offense in the last few minutes of games!

The crowd was definitely into this game! Anyone know what time it started lol?
 
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I was at OU that year. Definitely there. Had to get there early for good student seats!
 
"Bed Time" Jones. Yep. Billy recruited him out of a junior college in Texas. During Billy's first season when we went 8-19 (or something), Big Time Jones fell asleep on the bench during a non-conference game. It may have been the loss to the D-III Ohio Northern Polar Bears. Yes, he'll always be Charles "Bed Time" Jones.
Story I heard was "Bed Time" fell asleep during a lay-over at LAX on the way to a bball tournament in Hawaii. The Sooners were somewhere over the Pacific when he woke up and he caught a ride to the Islands with Michael Jordan and the Tar Heels.
Surely I didn't dream that scenario into existence.
 
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Also interesting to see teams shooting away from their bench in the second half. Some coaches chose to do that back in the days when they had the option, including Billy. Today’s college coaches wouldn’t know what to do if they couldn’t micromanage the offense in the last few minutes of games!

The crowd was definitely into this game! Anyone know what time it started lol?
It was a syndicated telecast, broadcast on an over-the-air network of stations in Big 8 territory. Looks like it was also simulcast on ESPN. Those were normally 8 pm CST tips.
 
All of these things are true.

Bill Self was a pretty good player. Lightly recruited out of Edmond HS (Edmond Memorial...they had only one HS at the time). Paul Hansen was a local hero, having coached with and replaced Abe Lemons at OCU. He went on to OSU and recruited this OKC all-star team that came together in this season.

OU had just won the NIT the year before. Guys like Chucky Barnett and David Little were recruited by Dave Bliss. This was the year before Billy put even better talent around Wayman. Even then, though, we were running teams out of Lloyd Noble. I had forgotten this game was close until the end.

In 1983, the three-point line was optional for conferences and not used in the NCAA tournament. The Big 8 did not have one. (The ACC used one in conference play that came within the top of the key). Therefore, it was very much a jungle in the paint.

Billy's red jacket was indeed ugly. Also in this era, John Brooks and Al Eschbach wore tuxedos to call the games on radio. They had a sponsor that furnished the tuxes.

The scorebug did not come about until the 90's, when Fox invented it for their new NFL broadcasts.

This video is a great blast from the past. Thanks!
The 1982 team made it to the NIT final 4 at MSG but lost to Bradley. (I grew up in Jersey and was at that game.)
 
I also think that was the year when Billy got hit by the car while jogging. It was also my brother's senior year at OU. Of course, the Pokes showed their typical class by creating those t-shirts that said, "I jog with Billy" on the front and a tire-mark on the back.

One thing I remember about the final seconds was that OU was able to hold the ball without having to in-bound it, while the clock expired. If the other team was out of timeouts, they were SOL if there were less than five seconds left on the clock.
 
my first job as a 9th grader was the practice range ball picker upper at the Trails in Norman. Bo Overton was a player out there sometimes and once i had to ask him:

"Bo, that shot at Nebraska....".....he stops and looks me in the eyes, "it shoulda counted. it was totally good". I believed him.

just in case some of you old timers were wondering. ha.
 
The 1982 team made it to the NIT final 4 at MSG but lost to Bradley. (I grew up in Jersey and was at that game.)
That's right. I remember now. I've slept since then. :) It was Tulsa that won the NIT in 1981.

Dick Versace was their coach.
 
Scoreboard bugs for sports in general seems to have originated with Fox Sports debuting in 1994 for the NFL. Maybe it existed in some other sprot before then. But even in college basketball you wouldn't see one full time for a couple years later I don't think ESPN ever had a bug before then but they started putting one up soon after fox put one for the NFL thatyear. I know NBC and CBS didn't before then for any sport. That's amazing it took that long to get something like that. That video above was an edit I put up. Here's the full game someone posted 5 years ago on YouTube.

 
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