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MEGA Why Miami’s Final Four run is hard to fathom for those who lived through its past

Cryptical Envelopment

Cryptical Envelopment

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Why Miami’s Final Four run is hard to fathom for those who lived through its past​


Link to article should go here.

theathletic.com

The time Miami and basketball went on a 14-year break

Miami said it would "suspend temporarily" its program in 1970. The Canes didn't play basketball again for 14 years.
theathletic.com theathletic.com
 
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Pentagon Cane said:
Great read, but good lord, we are talking about 4 decades ago. BTW, FAU is the much bigger story. Started their program in 1988. Before this year they have had two 20-win seasons at any level in their history.
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It was indeed a long time ago, but I still don't know of even one other D1 program that totally dropped a major sport like this. And took more than a decade to resurrect it after acknowledging their "mistake."

Some have dropped competing altogether (like St. Francis of Brooklyn just did), others may have dropped down a rung in class like Villanova in football or NYU in basketball, but the U has this shame all to itself in college sports. It was an unbelievably short-sighted and stupid decision at the time and remains so today. Only word for the leadership at the time: Embarassing!
 
hotshot said:
It was indeed a long time ago, but I still don't know of even one other D1 program that totally dropped a major sport like this. And took more than a decade to resurrect it after acknowledging their "mistake."

Some have dropped competing altogether (like St. Francis of Brooklyn just did), others may have dropped down a rung in class like Villanova in football or NYU in basketball, but the U has this shame all to itself in college sports. It was an unbelievably short-sighted and stupid decision at the time and remains so today. Only word for the leadership at the time: Embarassing!
Click to expand...
Yes, but basketball in the early 70s is a shell of what it is today and the university is much different than it was 14 years later. Quite frankly at this point who gives a ****? Interesting old story but absolutely irrelevant at this point.
 
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Pentagon Cane said:
Yes, but basketball in the early 70s is a shell of what it is today and the university is much different than it was 14 years later. Quite frankly at this point who gives a ****? Interesting old story but absolutely irrelevant at this point.
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I get it. But for someone like me who lived through it, it's really a sore point.

Same sore point as would have been the case had we dropped football in 1977/78 (which was actually on the table, for basically the same reasons). You could've said college football back then was a shell of what it is today just as easily. Where would dropping that program have left us in relation to what became our storied history?

Bottom line: not one other school has done what we did, and that remains shameful. We had some real dummies in charge making that horrible decision.
 
You don't even need to go back to the dismantling of the team. Look at 1991 when joining the BIG EAST; a 1-17 conference record (8-24) and in 1993, the unmemorable 0-18 run (7-20 overall).

Made its first tournament under Leonard Hamilton in the 1997-1998 season. Made it to the Round of 32 a year later and then the Sweet 16 in 1999-2000.... before Hamilton bolted for the Washington Wizards and Miami had to rebuild.

Four years of Perry Clark; NIT First round, NCAA Tourney first round exit... two years of misery followed; T12th in the BIG EAST in his fourth and final season.

Frank Haith needed four years to get back to the NCAA Tourney; four NIT berths over seven years before it paved the way for Jim Larrañaga's takeover.

As much as football was an afterthought these last 20 years—basketball was never a priority until Coach L faxed his resume and landed in UM's lap.

What we're seeing here is nothing short of a miracle; even that rebirth after the adidas scam of a scandal set things back again a few years ago.

May this journey last another two games...

... and to the FAU point, yes—miraculous—but got a ton of help.

#16 FDU knocked off #1 Purdue and prevented them from that match-up. #2 Marquette also went down like dogs to #7 Michigan State. Helped their quadrant big time.

Miami knocking off #1 Houston and #2 Texas was a thing of beauty and the Canes got every favorite in their division (including #4 Indiana)—but manages to avoid #2 UCLA and #3 Gonzaga with a red-hot #4 UConn squad.
 
ItsAUThing.com said:
You don't even need to go back to the dismantling of the team. Look at 1991 when joining the BIG EAST; a 1-17 conference record (8-24) and in 1993, the unmemorable 0-18 run (7-20 overall).

Made its first tournament under Leonard Hamilton in the 1997-1998 season. Made it to the Round of 32 a year later and then the Sweet 16 in 1999-2000.... before Hamilton bolted for the Washington Wizards and Miami had to rebuild.

Four years of Perry Clark; NIT First round, NCAA Tourney first round exit... two years of misery followed; T12th in the BIG EAST in his fourth and final season.

Frank Haith needed four years to get back to the NCAA Tourney; four NIT berths over seven years before it paved the way for Jim Larrañaga's takeover.

As much as football was an afterthought these last 20 years—basketball was never a priority until Coach L faxed his resume and landed in UM's lap.

What we're seeing here is nothing short of a miracle; even that rebirth after the adidas scam of a scandal set things back again a few years ago.

May this journey last another two games...

... and to the FAU point, yes—miraculous—but got a ton of help.

#16 FDU knocked off #1 Purdue and prevented them from that match-up. #2 Marquette also went down like dogs to #7 Michigan State. Helped their quadrant big time.

Miami knocking off #1 Houston and #2 Texas was a thing of beauty and the Canes got every favorite in their division (including #4 Indiana)—but manages to avoid #2 UCLA and #3 Gonzaga with a red-hot #4 UConn squad.
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leonard hamilton should have never left to the nba. he would have produced a consistent winning program by the time we started playing on campus.

the Mas brothers were the ones that helped to bring coach L to miami. here's the story below. Coach L cut and pasted a resume from his Wikipedia page. hilarious

[at the michael jordan camp], he met two Miami businessmen, Jose and Jorge Mas, well-known Cuban-Americans in south Florida. They became friends, especially after learning the ties went even deeper. You might not guess it from his last name or his Bronx birthplace or his New York City/Eastern seaboard accent, but Larranaga’s paternal grandfather was Cuban and immigrated to Key West in the early 1900s. The coach’s father was raised there.

So when the University of Miami coaching job opened in April of 2011, Larranaga knew what phone numbers to dial. It became a hurry-up process. The George Mason coach was traveling and didn’t have a resume at hand. So he cut-and-pasted his Wikipedia page and forwarded it to the selection committee. To make a long story short, including a hearty recommendation from Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, he got the job.
 
Pentagon Cane said:
Yes, but basketball in the early 70s is a shell of what it is today and the university is much different than it was 14 years later. Quite frankly at this point who gives a ****? Interesting old story but absolutely irrelevant at this point.
Click to expand...
Basketball was so bad in the 70s, even the NBA **** near folded. It was a bad product.
 
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hotshot said:
I get it. But for someone like me who lived through it, it's really a sore point.

Same sore point as would have been the case had we dropped football in 1977/78 (which was actually on the table, for basically the same reasons). You could've said college football back then was a shell of what it is today just as easily. Where would dropping that program have left us in relation to what became our storied history?

Bottom line: not one other school has done what we did, and that remains shameful. We had some real dummies in charge making that horrible decision.
Click to expand...
And the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor but we got over it. Germans? He's on a roll.
 
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