Charles Pierce On 40th Anniv of PC Run at Final Four

Good story in Grantland by Charles Pierce on the '73 run to Final Four by Providence.
Complete with nice link to video of some amazing Ernie D passes.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9053929/providence-college-big-east

 

Sets the tone with a Black 47 quote. Have to give him credit for that.

I wonder if Pierce went and saw them open for Dropkick Murphys at the Garden on Friday night.

 

Those passes are incredible. Too bad Ernie D hurt his knee in the NBA.

 

He could have sung "Kiss Me, I'm Shitfaced" with them...

 

My dad and I made a special trip into the Aud to see Providence play when Ernie D was a sophomore. He was absolutely brilliant. Of course, being a counter-culture poseur at the time, I cheered for Nehru King instead.

DiGregorio was great for the Braves too, pre-injury.

 

Have heard the story before on Marvin Barnes but always fun to read it again:

"To mention only one of his problems, he was probably the world's worst criminal; once, he tried to stick up a city bus while wearing his personalized high school championship jacket. "

 

Ehhhh, the Barnes story is just a variation of the Reggie Harding story:

Harding, a 7-0 high school All-American in Detroit, walks into his neighborhood liquor store with a stocking pulled over his head and pulls a gun on the clerk.

"Come on, Reggie, I know that's you."

"Nah, it ain't me. Now hand over the money."

 

The Reggie Harding and Marvin Barnes stories are some of the best parts of Terry Pluto's "Loose Balls" ABA history. And, of course, it includes the oft-told tale of Barnes refusing to board a flight in Louisville at 8 a.m. set to arrive in St. Louis in 7:56 a.m. (because of the time change) because "I ain't goin' on no time machine."

I didn't realize Barnes was a drug kingpin in his ABA days.

http://www.aolnews.com/2009/12/11/bad-news-always-made-headlines/

 

"Nevertheless, Maryland led at the half by a hilarious 51-50, only to have Providence, behind DiGregorio, come flying out of the intermission, running up a quick 12-point lead. As it happened, Ernie fouled out with 13 minutes left, and Stacom and Barnes were left to run out the 103-89 final. (And, yes, children, college teams once scored like that with some regularity.)"

In the current game where coaches want to control every possession you don't see many 103 - 89 college games.

Funny how pace of college football has picked up and pace of college basketball has slowed down.

 

Meh, Jeff MacGregor wrote much better.

 

Can you imagine what any college basketball coach would do today if a guy threw a behind-the-back pass to set up a shot with 29 seconds left on the shot clock?

The clipboard would end up in a second-level luxury box.

 

And the player would be sitting on far end of the bench.

When was the last time you saw a behind the back pass from half court to a player cutting down the lane for a layup between 2 defenders?