March 25, 2020 • 45 mins
In our second installment of March Cinderellas, this week we look back at three teams whose NCAA tournament runs were not only unexpected, but full of star power and trend-setting. The 1987 Providence Friars were led by head coach Rick Pitino and senior point guard Billy Donovan, well before either of them started winning NCAA titles behind the bench. Their tournament success could’ve been sunk by a single free throw.
George Mason set the bar as high as it could be for mid-majors in THE most unlikeliest of Final Four appearances, and Florida Gulf Coast brought Dunk City into the mainstream, doing it all with a roster of players who didn’t even show up on many recruiting sites. The three incredible stories of Providence, George Mason and FGCU.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
(00:23):
Mike Harmon, our weekly podcast, as we look back at
special teams throughout the course of sports history and what
they did in single seasons that made them stand out
and become so memorable. This is the second offering we
have considering this month of March. Would we celebrate the
n c A Tournament. Last week we took a look
back at three of the great Cinderella teams of all time,
(00:44):
Navy in nine eight six, Gonzaga and two thousand eight Davidson.
We had a lot on David Robinson. We had a
lot on Steph Curry back then he was Stephen Curry.
This is our second by popular demand, our second round
of Cinderella's, as we take a look back at three
Cinderella's from the n c A Tournament history as they
(01:05):
were able to achieve what nobody thought they could. We
have a team from the eighties. We got a team
from the yachts and a team from the teams our
first team we're looking back at now the nineteen eighties,
six nineteen seven Providence Friars. Why this was a team
led by second year Providence head coach Rick Pettino, who
(01:30):
relied on his star point guard Billy Donovan to get
everything done for Providence as they finished fourth in the
Big East and nine overall and made a huge Cinderella
run through the n c A Tournament to the final four.
Rick Pattino, it invoked so many thoughts as you start going.
(01:51):
You mentioned the Billy Donovan, So you've got coaching royalty
in terms of your player and your coach, and obviously
for Rick Pettino, a lot of twists and turns to
the story for rights purposes, I can't start whistling any
Billy Joel themes behind your words, so we'll just gotta
leave that alone as we go through. But a highly
(02:13):
decorated coach, respected for what he was able to do
in between the white lines, and you know, obviously controversies
along the way, but this is the genesis of a long,
illustrious career of a complicated guy in the coaching circles.
And you don't normally coach as long as he did
(02:33):
without having one or two hiccups along the way. But
the origin story is always pretty entergaining. So on Patino's
coaching staff this year, Stu Jackson and graduate assistant Jeff
Van Gundy. Look at that on the Providence coaching staff
in N seven, Did uh Patino make him shave his
head a little bit? Uh? Well, yeah, I think it's
(02:54):
the same. By hair is really good. You know, who
can't have the same. I think Van Gundy was shaving
his head since he was like thirteen or just you know,
letting it grow in the places. Now, this Providence team
had some pretty good players on it. Del Ray Brooks
was really good, Marty Conlin turned into a good player.
They had Abdul Shamsid Dean who was from my hometown
(03:15):
and it was a very big deal that he was
playing because not many guys got scholarships to big time
D one schools at that time, and he was from
my hometown and he went and got it with Providence,
and he's on this big you know, Cinderella run to
the final four. And I'm in high school going, oh
my god, this guy. I watched him play a couple
of years ago, and here he is going to the
final four. Did they go and make a little shrine
(03:37):
to him or anything? Uh No, Because we had other
guys who played better after that. But this was the
after that. I mean, you don't celebrate the first Well
he didn't go to my high school, went to a role.
But I'm just saying in in the area, I mean
there there had to be celebrate That's how we celebrated it.
That was it. That was our guy. That was it.
He was a guy, all right. He had an article
in the newspaper. Good for him. Look Billy Donovan, especially
(03:58):
just for a minute or two on him. He was smart,
he was clutch. He put up big numbers. This wasn't hey,
I'm gonna run the team and I'm six points six
assists and no, this is Billy donnand was the leading
was one of the leading scorers of of providency, and
when they needed a bucket, he was the guy they
went to. It wasn't like well he said, no, he
was the guy. Patino trusted him with everything. Average twenty
(04:19):
a game, averaging seven three point shots per game, seven
point one assists. I mean, doing a little bit of everything,
shooting percentage a little lower than you'd like at about,
but helping to run the point and make things happen.
First round of the n c A Tournament, they draw
U a B also known as Alabama Birmingham. As a
(04:40):
six seed, Providence wins this game eight. They were never
in any trouble. Okay, hey, Providence of six seed. They
move on to the second round. And this was a
very big game that in n c A history, is
one of the great early round games. They play Austin
P in the second round, the fourteen seed who had
pulled a big upset to get to this point in
(05:01):
the n c A tournament. I remember all the signs
of this game. The flies open, let's go pe like
and any sign you can think of that involved urine. Uh,
you know, Austin P. This was up at this game. Surprise,
most of those weren't outlawed. Well wait, the way they
do signage now in him it's the eighties. Man, anything
went wild and crazy, anything everything else. It was banned
(05:21):
on television. But if you wanted to bring a sign somewhere,
have at it. We can show that because it wasn't
our content. Yeah, this is a huge game because it
comes down to the wire and Austin P clearly could
be a four teen seat that goes to the Sweet six.
Team down late Bob Thomas has fouled and is able
(05:42):
to go to the free throw line for Austin P.
He misses a one and one. He was terrible at
the line, right, terrible at the line, Billy Donovan, it's
a big shot to tie the game. Bob Thomas has
fouled again. He goes to the free throw line for
a one and one. If he makes one, are gonna
win because there's only a couple of seconds left. He
(06:03):
misses again, so the game goes to overtime and Thomas
hit one of those free throws. Austin P likely wins
this game seven from the line overall, so that was
the guy. Get him uh. In overtime, Billy Donovan gets
his pocket picked with about fifty seconds left. His Providence
is up one. You're thinking, okay, Austin he can take
the lead, but Donovan races down court steals the ball back.
(06:28):
It I mean, just an amazing play by Billy Donovan.
And they wind up getting up seven, and they have
the ball in the final thirty five seconds and you're thinking, okay,
well they're up three. Austin P's gonna foul. They couldn't
foul for some reason. They just couldn't or wouldn't foul.
In the background. They couldn't catch anybody. And the final
(06:48):
thirty seconds ticks off the clock. Donovan's dribbling out the
clock for most of it. And it's how could you
not foul? I mean probably you gotta extend the game.
You gotta put in a free throw line, come down
and shoot at three. You gotta do these things. And
they couldn't already seconds, they couldn't foul. You see teams sometimes,
Well it took a while, all right, eight seconds went
off the clock. No, this was over thirty seconds. Austin
p couldn't foul. Just a curiosity, right, I mean, that's
(07:11):
that's good ball movement. But at some point you just
throw yourself as somebody to just start pluck. Now, reminder
that Bob Thomas is not former Bears kicker Bob Thomas.
And then if you want to talk about for kickers,
just for a second, because Parky, what happened to Cody Parker?
Sorry this Illinois Supreme Court judge. I mean, so I
(07:35):
just wanted this Bob Thomas, No, not that Bears kicker.
That's a better story because we're talking about the other
Bob Thomas's saying free throws. And now, but here he is.
I don't know that sent him down a bad path.
I don't You don't know. Maybe he became a state
Supreme Court justice. Let's take a look. You know, well,
we have senators and state senators like the state senators
(07:56):
that don't matter, you know, we have senators like maybe
he became a state it was a state Supreme Corps.
Never can tell justice. Thing with the guy in the place.
Could have happened for him, could have been so the
Providence Friars. Now move on to the Sweet sixteen, and
Rick Pettino at this point is one of the darlings
of the n c A tournament. Youthful, full of energy.
You can you know, you always do a Rick Pettino
(08:18):
team because you could hear him shouting on the court,
especially when his team was playing defense. In fact, later
on in his career, because we're talking about when he
went to the Knicks after this, there was a big
stat that when the Knicks were playing defense in front
of their own bench, they gave up like six points
less per quarter than they did at the other end
of the court because they could also because they could
all hear Patino yelling, switch do this, do this, do this?
(08:41):
And because they can hear him giving their instructions, they
played better. And when they couldn't hear him because it's
further down court, they didn't play as good defensively. Is
there a law on the NBA books about I F
B s. I'm sure there is. If you can put
a little listening goodvice, I don't think you can. I
don't think you can do that. Could you bang a
trash canners of night? If I bang a trash can
(09:03):
it means just a jumper. If I don't bang it,
it means he's going in for a lighte maybe band
aids with a little buzzers underneath. I don't know. Communication
with the coach. So Petito is getting a lot of
ink at this point. They go into the Sweet sixteen
and they faced the two seed in the Southeast Region, Alabama,
and this was never a contest. Providence goes fourteen out
(09:24):
of twenty on three pointers. They move on to the
Elite eight where they're facing the number one seed in
the region, Georgetown, And this is this is Georgetown being legendary.
This is hey, we had Patrick Ewing and now we're
moving on to the next great invention of our Georgetown
Hoya dynasty and Providence likely because they were familiar with Georgetown.
(09:44):
Not only did they give him a big game, they
blew them out seventy three. They pressured the Hoyas into
a horrible shooting night, and Providence officially becomes the Cinderella
of the n s A tournament, even though they were
a sixth seed. It's not that big a deal, but
nobody expected Providence make it to the final four. But
they get to the final four after beating a team
from the Big East, Georgetown. Do you know coming off
(10:05):
this game, Georgetown is going man anybody else, anybody else,
And we make it to the final four, but we
get a team that knows us, and so our advantage
over these teams is less because when you play a
team from your own conference, they can prepare, they know
how to prepare for you. So that was a huge
advantage for Georgetown as a higher seed. They didn't have, yeah,
a lot of a lot of tape on common opponents
(10:27):
and tendencies. And obviously that's easier done now and then
it was thirty years ago. But I mean, you look
at just the the opportunities that that roll through for
this Providence squad and you know, familiarity, uh usually gives
us some really good, great games, and this one was
(10:49):
a classic. Reggie Williams with a big effort, Charles Smith
with a good effort as well, but just not enough.
The next weekend, Providence goes home. They face big East
folks Syracuse and Syracuse before I went to college There
takes care of Providence, ends their run. They move on
to the championship game, the famous one against Indiana, one
by Keith Smart. But Rick Pettino has done enough. He
(11:12):
has taken Providence to the final four and always one
knowing an opportunity and seeing one when it's there. Rick
Pettino gets the head coaching job with the New York Knicks.
When this happened, Larry Brown really wanted this job and
Robbery Brown had to wait. Like he wanted a lot
of different jelly did. He wanted to have all the
jobs at once. Larry Brown had to wait a decade
(11:34):
or two to get this next job that he really wanted.
They eventually gave it to him. He was so upset
that at one point he was telling he told people,
you know, no one would know Petino if Thomas had
hit the one on one for Austin p Like he
goes back to that if if that kid hits that
hits the one and one in Austin, p Rick Pettino
doesn't go on this run, no one would know who
(11:54):
he is, and I would be the head coach of
the New York Knicks. I like that. I mean, that's
that's good. Revision is history and and might have been true. Yeah,
but look, Larry Brown eventually got to coach I think
everywhere he ever wanted to read some you want to
talk about well traveled. In our other podcast, we've talked
about guys good either doing job hopping or team hopping.
(12:16):
Shaquille O'Neil at the end of his career. Hey, how
many jerseys can we hang up right before we get done?
Larry Brown certainly there, But for Rick Pettina, look, fortune
and you know, opportunity and a little bit of luck
and strategy. Right, Thomas went two of seven from the
file line. Clearly he was rattled. Clearly he was not
(12:36):
a guy that was gonna finish and then they couldn't
fall down the stretch. How about you talk about that
coach the ability to work the ball and not get
filed again. But I mean just for Rick Pettino, you know,
you take the opportunity Nicks, you know, and you mentioned
he go as defensively. He goes to the Knicks. They
win their first division title in twenty years, and I'm thinking, Wow,
(12:56):
the Knicks are good because my whole life the nick
stunk and they do again because I just yeah, well, yeah,
they're back to that. But like my whole life, I
didn't started following basketball till the mid seventies. I'm seven,
eight nine years old. Nicks were terrible. They were terrible,
then they were tell the early eighties. Finally Patino shows up,
they win the division. I'm like, oh my god, the
Knicks are gonna be good. He coaches another year, then
he says, you know what, I don't like the NBA anymore.
(13:17):
I want to leave, and then Nicks let him out
of his contract. He goes and coaches Kentucky wins the
n c A Championship later on over Syracuse, and the
legend of Rick Pettino grows. In college basketball, he went
to the Celtics again and coach, then he went back
to Louisville won the national championship there. But this was
the beginning for Rick Pettino was, Hey, he had the
(13:37):
big run two years at Providence Final four, not gonna
get any better. I take the opportunity when it's there,
and this Providence team and really had known as much
for Billy Donovan as much as Rick Pettino because of
what Donovan's going able to accomplish, winning back to back
titles with the Gators, succeeding in the NBA. I mean,
you go back and look at this game. You go
back and look, go back and look at some of
these highlights of Billy Donovan, especially like I talked about
(14:00):
the play against Austin pe where he steals the ball
and goes down the court and when Austin Pete can't
steal the ball from him, and you can tell while
he's dribbling, Yeah, this is a future coach. This is
gonna be a future head coach. It's like, you know,
Rick Pettino was molding himself and Billy Donovan to take
over and move on and do great thing. Well, and
you look at what Donovan went on to do collegiately.
He was a guy. I mean that has a coach.
(14:22):
I mean think about that. Just absolute dominance at Florida
after a couple of years at Marshall and you roll
through for Rick Pettino long career. Every once in a
while there's still that how do you come back? He's
hanging out in Greece. Good luck? Pet know, you never know, man,
the you know, vacated title, things of that nature. But
(14:43):
the accolades, it's a long laundry list. And you know,
we always play the can you tell the story of
a sport without a guy? You certainly cannot look at
the last thirty years of college basketball without a bunch
of nods to Rick Pettino and what he meant to
it and going in to Billy Donovan and everything else
that transpired between here and there. So there's the legendary
(15:04):
eighties six, eighties seven Providence team a lot somewhere. Are
they now all right? First? Sure, he got del Rey Brooks.
He coached with Patino at Kentucky. Uh. He is at
Clay High School. He's a special ed teacher since two
thousand thirteen. Uh. And they got David Snedecker, former Final
four but hollow Hollywood director. But he also does stuff, uh,
(15:25):
working with insurance companies, trying to help with claims and
helping physicians Oh, that's nice. There's a pretty penny to
be made, and that you get involved in the the medical field,
you're gonna make money. But he became a renaissance man,
right Hollywood director, did a little bit of this that,
and eventually into insurances. Wow. So there it is eight
(15:46):
s eighties seven Providence. Coming up next, we take a
look at the first mid major to the Final four
since nineteen seventy nine. A legendary team we still talk about,
and a guy who once can find it in me.
I don't know what I'm supposed to do on the
carpet when people come up and interview me. We got
that coming up next right here, Special teams Jason Smith
and Mike Harmon. We are now fast forwarding into the
(16:23):
odds for our next Cinderella team. One of the greats
of all time is that your favorite word to says
you seem to you get this regal status about you,
and you sit up right in your chair as opposed
to your normal slouch position in the odds. You know,
you know why, because I feel like the odds were
this vast barren waste land for both you know, anything
(16:45):
in entertainment and music, and I just feel like it's
a forgettable decade. So it's like the the odds makes
it least sound important. Okay, you're trying to add some
air of import to it, because it's kind of like
when you feel the need to add esquire something at
the back end of a signature. Please, I earned this degree.
Look when you're gonna address me as such? Even in
(17:05):
my junk mail. Whenever we talk about stuff in sports,
we go back sometime between now and or we go
back to the nineties or the eighties. When do we
go to the ots remember the odds that we never
do vast barren waste land the odds. However, one of
the big shining stars of the odds the two thousand
six team, the George Mason Patriots, who made it all
(17:28):
the way to the Final four, the first mid major
team to get to a Final four since nineteen seventy nine.
What was so interesting about George Mason. They were a
top twenty five team during the course of the season.
It's not like George Mason was well, they want on
a run. They won their tournament and sudding, they go
on this huge, unpredictable steam rolling through the tournament. No,
(17:50):
they were a top twenty five team, but they didn't
win the CIA. The Colony Athletic which they led all year,
they lost in the tournament, so they were you know,
look there it's a twenty eight team overall. Look they're
going to the n c A Tournament. No, they lose,
but they get invited as an at large team. Cincinnati
and Florida State where two teams that people went crazy
(18:11):
for saying, how do you snub these two teams for
a mid major? This was a big deal, right, This
was the where the term mid major took on the
pejorative term like no other time in its history. Now
it's you know, not non pc to call him mid major. Dude.
We just talk about the expanded college basketball universe, and
you know me, I wouldn't let any mid majors in
(18:31):
the n c A Tournament because they don't play the
schedule over the course of the year that merits them
inclusion with all of the you know, quote Power five schools.
So there's more than five power conferences in college basketball.
But like, I can't say that George Mason, because they
win the CIA, deserves to get in over a Florida
State that plays an A C C schedule. They don't
because if if you're talking about putting George Mason in
(18:54):
the A c C, what would their record be. They'd
be lucky if they got the five hundred and probably
be way under it. But then you have a Florida
State team let's just say that wins eighteen or nineteen games. Well,
clearly they're the better team. Look, mid majors just don't
earn it as much over the course of the season.
It's like taking a team that, hey, they won their
triple and they won Triple A the International League or
(19:14):
the PCL, let's put them in the Major League Baseball playoffs.
We well know, sure they could win a game here
or there because you know, any given Sunday, but did
they really prove that they should be playing with the
bigger teams? No? So you know, on me, I would
never put a mid major invent. Yeah, I mean, that's
why we celebrate the outliers when they do happen. But
it does become an annual right of how do you
(19:34):
wring your hands? As soon as those first projections of
the field start coming out, as we usually about the
start of conference player, right, that's when we start getting
into well, you know, through the first ten eleven games,
and we go through and this is what makes everybody nervous,
right that you're gonna have some team left out. And
when you you talk about your your power conferences and
(19:58):
the schedules and trying to do at its inapples to
oranges comparison, and that becomes the difficult part. Yes, there's
some pageantry to it, great for the one shining moment
video montage at the end of the attorney but most
times it's succeed and proceed for the higher seeds. So
why not allow those teams from the better conferences, maybe
(20:20):
go a little deeper in the selection of those. Jim
LARONEGA head coach who I actually met on the red
carpet of the SPS, which which I'll tell you a
fun story. Okay, uh, Look he has having in the
middle of great success. He came to George Mason. This
was his dark side of the moon. They win their
opening round n c A tournament game and they beat
Michigan State. Michigan State was in the final four the
(20:43):
year before, but this is an eleven six game. They
shot well from the field, they shot horribly from the
free throw line, and they still won by ten. They
had a huge rebound advantage over Michigan State, and they
went without Tony Skin, who was their second leading scorer
during the year, because he was suspended because he punched
the Hofstrap player in the groin during the c A
a semis And if there's one thing then doesn't like,
(21:05):
it's a groin punch. I mean, I don't like him either,
but then doesn't like how do you only get one
game suspension for a growing punch? Maybe one punch one game?
Seems to me if you land to the groin, seems
like that's a multiple, isn't it. He's landed one to
the lands, one above the shoulders. A multiplier if you
if you get the groin shot, there should be a multiplier.
(21:27):
I mean anywhere in between. Hey, you know, just a
one game is fine. Second game of the tournament now,
all right, George Mason wins. They beat Michigan State. They
were in the final far Crazes Survivor. Okay, that's great.
Then they beat North Carolina, the defending national champions. They
were getting drubbed sixteen to two in this game. And
you figure, okay, thank you for coming, George Mason, thanks
(21:50):
for being here. But they get a close game at halftime,
and then Laryega sends them out early for warmups in
the second half and he said, you gotta play this
game like the other team doesn't have jerseys on, like
you don't know their North Carolina. And they went on
to win this game, and they didn't have a crazy
celebration after it was over. No, just line up for handshakes,
(22:10):
moving on, and that's what the big teams normally do.
This is a mid major team that lost their way
a bit in the first half, made a close at halftime,
came out and boat raced them in the second half,
and suddenly this is the team that's acting like they're
the favorites. Held North Carolina to thirty six percent shooting
in this game, thirty six percent, and then on two
(22:32):
point shots they were thirteen and thirty four. That's the
thing that you circle. And it's one thing to be
a Houston Rockets type team and just shoot yourself out
of a game because you're not hitting from three. But
when you talk about being inside the arc and shooting
such a low percentage over the course of the game
percent inside the ark, that really is telling. In this
(22:54):
North Carolina, even though they were the defending champion. You
had Tyler hands bro uh is the the big name
player on this squad. It wasn't the the same juggernaut
as it were. And George Mason moves on. So George
Mason moves on in the n C A terminal surprised
team in the sweet sixth team. But still everyone is
expecting George Mason to go home. Why because they don't
(23:17):
really have a star player. They have five guys in
double figures and he's okay, it's gonna end because they
don't have They don't have the jam Morant who can
take us all the way through. But their next games
against Wichita State, all right, it's Wichita State, another mid major.
They win this game sixty fifty five, and suddenly George
Mason is in the Elite eight. So now awaiting them
(23:40):
in the Elite eight the number two team in the country,
number one seed in the region, the Yukon Huskies. All right,
this is where really everything is ending for the Yukon.
The brackets set up nicely for George Mason through through
I mean, some heavyweights, perennial heavyweights, but catching at the
(24:00):
right time. But this one seemed like a all right,
thanks for playing. Here's your consolation prize. Yukon had Rudy Gay,
Marcus Williams, had all kinds of talent on this team.
But Yukon needed a layup at the buzzer to force overtime,
and then they missed the three to win the game.
George Mason wins by two. All five George Mason starters
(24:21):
and double figures. Again, all the solid players that they
had on this team, and here they are in the
final four, and now they've taken over. Well, now this
tournament becomes completely about George Mason. But the amazing thing
about this particular game is you got you have an
eighty six, eighty four victory, three points off the bench,
three points off the bench. Nor would plays nineteen minutes
(24:44):
zero points and then you get and think about that,
I mean, eight six points in a game with three
off the bench. All right, we're just running five guys
to rely on, you know, and the only guy that
you really hooked into for it was all about the team.
But Ji Lewis was the guy who had a big
tournament look, and he led the team in scoring thirteen
points per game over the course of the season. It's
(25:05):
not like he scored twenty a game, like you had
a bunch of guys with between thirteen and eleven points
per game. Lewis was the guy that cut through in
the tournament. But it was really the story about George Mason,
who up until this point was just a character in
twenty four, who actually wound up they killed his character off.
Actually George Mason spoiler alert, But if I wanted to
go back and pinge, watch, uh Xander Berkeley who played
(25:29):
George Mason. Yeah, they killed his character off third season,
fourth season, fourth season, third season Xander Berkeley, Xander Berkeley fan,
If it's the guy I'm thinking of? Yeah, he wound
up marrying the woman who played Nina from the first
season of twenty four, who you thought was on Jack's
(25:50):
side and then wasn't, and then was and then wasn't.
So I was right, that's the guy. Like, boy, I'm
really spoiling this for you. Um, so that he was
just in Xander Berkeley was just in Walking Dead. I
definitely didn't know he was. Yeah he was. Oh yeah,
he was spineless and walking dead. But his name was George,
I mean literally spineless because the zombies. No, no, no,
he had just he had no he he was gonna
(26:11):
let the bad people come into whatever they wanted to. Yeah,
he was a bad leader, bad leader. But that was
George Mason up until this point. Now it's George Mason.
They get to the Final four. Four days between games
they play Florida, or really really you have six days
between games they play Florida, the eventual national champion, Florida
Gators and the Gators. Look, this was when the Gators
(26:34):
were at their peak, when they were just rolling through,
and they put all kinds of guys in the end,
Like Joe kim Noah played harder than anybody. Yeah, he
was full of heart, even back with Florida. I mean
this was Florida. They put so many guys in the ND.
Since this is audio only, Jason just rolled his eyes,
being the Knicks fan that he is thinking of. Joe
(26:54):
kim Noah. I had him, you know as my Chicago
faned him with the Bulls and got the best out
of him. About the guy, Oh, Joe kim Noah plays
with as he plays with heart. But look this Florida team,
this is part of back to back national championships for them.
Billy Donovan, this flood they were just they were superstars
of college basketball. So Florida ends it for George Mason.
(27:17):
But getting to the Final four, they make their mark again,
first mid major team to get to the Final four
since nineteen seventy nine. But they become one of the
people to put on teams to put on the poster,
as it were, of little teams that could. Right. This
is the justification of expanding the field and looking a
little deeper and going into the mid majors and allowing
(27:41):
them in. Even though time and again you see the
early exits and it's the all right, color by numbers
kind of n C Double A tournament. But here's one
where they rose up, if only for a couple of weeks,
we still celebrated George Mason. I remember being at the
Spieces back when I was hosting All Night on ESPN Radio,
and part of my every You're the best part was
getting to go and cover the red carpet arrivals at
(28:03):
the Spiece except that it was a hundred degrees. I
did a couple of times, but Jim Larenega comes up,
and you know, I figured one of the first people
walking through is Jim Larenega. Like he's on the red
carpet of the SPS, Like the Red carpet starts at
three thirty and all the stars, like he know, he's
like three thirty two, like the first guy coming on
(28:23):
the red carpet, Like, I don't know, am I supposed
to be here? I don't know. Go into a party,
some member of your your family always wants to be
there right when it starts right or when you're not
the cool guy going hey the party starts, attend you
show up at like ten forty five, because there's a
people that show up red attend. Hey can I come in? Yeah,
come on in. I mean that's kind of more what
you gotta get the party started somehow. So Larenega comes
(28:45):
on and I interview him for a couple of minutes,
and I say, I'm okay, are you used to red carpet?
He goes, no, this first one he was a really
great guy. And I said, who are you wearing? He
said what I said, who are you wearing? You're on
the red carpet. You tell me who you're wearing. What
doesign are you wearing? He goes, oh, oh boy, I
don't know what. He turns to his wife, and she goes, oh, uh,
I don't know. I'm like, all right, you know me
while knowing you you're cackling like a mad man. Yeah,
(29:06):
it was funny him. We finished the interview and he leaves,
and then you know, he goes on to do the
rest of the red carpet and I go on to
do other interviews and I'm noticing as I'm ending an
interview he's kind of waiting on the periphery and he
catches my eye and I'm going, Jim Laranega wants to
come back and talk to me. Hey, you know, we're
talking about something. He comes back to me, puts his
arm on my shoulder and he whispers in my ear.
(29:28):
He goes, Hugo Boss. I looked on the inside and
saw other thing. It's Hugo Boss. I'm like, awesome. So
he wanted me to know he's wearing Hugo Boss. That fantastic.
He knew. He knew that was Jim Laronega. He was
a fun guy, fun guy. And look the legacy of
George Mason, as you said, being because we saw other teams,
other been majors rise up in the in the preview.
(29:48):
In the ensuing years, but they were the first one
and they started the ball rolling. Yeah. I mean that's
the hard part of the process is that when you
start going into that room and here's the bubble teams, right,
because you've got your automatic bids. That's one thing they
weren't They weren't right, and you can't argue against the
all right, they're the conference champion. Let them in. But
(30:10):
when you get it at large bid, I mean, that's
a responsibility they validated. That's a big responsibility when you're
the first to try to cut through. So how about
somewhere are that out my Carmen, Where are some of
these players? Now we'll start with Tony Skin. He is
an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech. We go to Lamar Butler.
He runs something called Sports Heaven. I run Sports seven.
(30:32):
We run Sports seven every night every night. Yeah, well
we It is a if you need sporting goods, schools
and youth leagues are Oh that's pretty cool, you know,
kind of an extension, you know, a competitor to say
you're playing agains and things of that nature. So you
can go down that road. I dig it. So you
got that sports now again, a completely different picture in
(30:54):
my mind. But that's okay, Well, we'll save that for
another podcast. Game for Heaven. Sorry, they've had a couple
of two game winning streets in the last two or
three seasons. Seasons sure, okay, but they changed up the
front office ahead, all right, yes, thank you. And Ji
(31:15):
Lewis wellness educator in the Baltimore City Public Schools, so
student wholeness. So he's gone through with a bunch of
things for both the you know, physical fitness, but also
from the psychological side, so helping students navigate in Baltimore
obviously one of the cities in our nation that gets
spotlighted for some some of the issues. John louis trying
(31:37):
to help that along. How do you feel. I feel good,
My work here is done. I'm going on for the day. Yeah,
but you gotta do it again tomorrow. Oh well, that's
who with school and multiply it by hundreds. So that's
the two thousand six George Mason Patriots coming up next.
How about Cinderella Team, so surprising many of their players
weren't even right in databases coming out of high school. Sweet,
(32:01):
that's coming up next right here. A special Team's podcast
with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. So from the odds
(32:22):
to the teams we move for our final team, spotlighted
on week two of our special Cinderella's n c A
Tournament podcast run here on Special Teams, as we look
back at Dunk City, Florida Gulf Coast Eagles that captured
all our attention and the end field was in his
second year there, and as I mentioned a few minutes ago,
(32:43):
many of Florida Gulf Coast players weren't ranked in databases
coming out of high school. This is the lowest seeded
team to ever make the Sweet sixteen and did it
with players that weren't even ranked. It's like saying, hey,
what do you think about this guy? Um, I don't know.
I don't know anything about them. I don't know that.
Uh yeah, sure, go ahead sign him. Why not find
(33:05):
him walking around playing bass pick up basketball on campuses
and just hanging out, I mean, like open tryouts. And
there's there's a million ways. As we've chronicled and some
of the other Special Teams podcasts that we've done, you
come up upon talent in many different ways, and sometimes
it's just all coalesces and comes together so beautifully. And
(33:26):
in this one, they captivated a nation. As you got
deeper in in their tournament run, Florida Gulf Coast was
only the number two team in the Atlantic Sun Conference,
but they upset Mercer in the championship game to earn
the automatic bit. They go on to the tournament again,
only in its second year of n c A tournament eligibility. Okay,
(33:49):
there's only the second time they're allowed to even go.
I'm taking a one upset win and they make it
to the tournament. Thinking about my beloved Northwestern Wildcats, I
had my moment in the Sun. It was leading. They
played a hard schedule over the course of the season
to get ready for this. They played games against v CU,
they played Miami, they played at Duke, they played St. John's,
(34:13):
they played Iowa State. You know, this is a pretty
decent out of conference schedule to get ready for the season,
and it paid off because in their first round game
they upset to seed Georgetown seventy eight to sixty eight.
Seems like we talked a lot about Georgetown getting upset. Well,
this is in Georgetown's run where they were a one
or two seed and would lose in the first weekend.
(34:35):
Like you go back and look at Georgetown. They're never
making it on a special teams by the way, because
you know, Syracuse guy, We're never doing Georgetown. And to
this is that it's never doing Georgetown. And this is
the middle of a run in which every year it
was we're a top seed and then they would lose.
They'd be out of it by the first weekend. But
the main thing about Florida Gulf Coast. Look, they had
the nickname Dunk City because they were fun. They ran
(34:57):
up and down the floor, and this game against George
Town was like when you turn on your television for
the first time and you see what something looks like
in three D. I mean, they kept running and throwing
up alley oops. Instead of milking the clock, they played
with energy. They didn't try to kill the clock at
the end and say, Okay, hey we're a team pulling
off a big upset. We're getting nervous down the stretch now.
They were just going crazy during this game, and Field
(35:20):
even said after the game, I got crazy dudes on
this team. They had no consciences. This game looked like
one of those Rutger Park games in New York City
where guys are throwing full court behind the back passes,
guys are catching him at the rim and rocking one
through and holding on after. I mean, look, dunk City
was a pretty good apropo nickname, and right away they
(35:40):
captured all our imagination because of their style of play
and pulling the upsete and you're playing with house money
right that stage. None of them expected to be hunt
at any point, and so it all comes together and
you're on the big stage and you play wide open basketball.
I mean because you go back into the regular season.
So like they were putting up a hundred points at
(36:01):
night either there was some usually in the upper seventies
low eighties is where they got to most nights, but
battle tested and ready for the step up in class
in competition once you got to the tournament. So that's
certainly there, you're seasoned. But the other is endfield men
has to have put into their heads, like let's just
(36:23):
go out and play basketball, let's go do our thing
is don't let this be the stage break us. I mean,
we see it across all sports, right, Guys get to
a tournament or the NFL or NBA playoffs, and suddenly
the rim seems smaller or things seemed too fast, here,
just go have some fun. And they laid it out.
(36:44):
So they go on now to meet San Diego State
in the next game. All right, say they it's a
fifteen seed, Well, it's all right, Florida Gulf Coast, they're fun.
San Diego State, we don't really know a lot about them.
Marshall falk is not playing in this days not but
it's Steve Fisher him and again Florida Gulf Coast runs
up and down the floor. They're dunking, they're having fun,
they're playing very free, and they beat San Diego State,
(37:09):
becoming the first fifteen seed to win two games in
a tournament, and they move on to the Sweet sixteen.
And sometimes when you pull upsets in the n c
A tournament, you can be a one game wonder or
a one weekend wonder. But Florida Gulf Coast, because of
their style of play, it was like watching a U
n l V type team from the nineties just just
(37:30):
come out of nowhere and just you know, blow you
off the court up and down because of what they
can do athletically. And that's why Florida Gulf Coast became
legendary after just the first weekend because look, you get two, three, four,
Cinderella is making it out of the first weekend now,
and you're, okay, it's fun because you see the excitement
of the game. Then you kind of forget about them,
and then you remember again when they play a game
(37:52):
next week. Okay, who does so and so play? Oh,
now they play Michigan. All they're gonna lose that game.
But Florida Gulf Coast was everybody did this see so
much more of them because of their style of play
and the way it was. It was I can't get
enough of Andy Endfield. Where what job is he gonna
get after this year? And how good are these guys really?
How would they play if they played in a in
a bigger conference. I mean, that was the type of
(38:14):
attention that Florida Gulf Coast was getting well. And I
think that's that's it. When we go through the the
tournament each and every year, you're you're hoping that you
have a team that that cuts through, you know, to
make the NBA analogy, why everybody got so excited at
the different look when the Warriors were on their ascent, Right,
it's just a different style, and then, like everything, it
(38:36):
becomes copycat and how do you best keep up with
them if you can? And for for this squad as
we watched them roll through, and let's face it, we
all like dunks. Who doesn't like dunks? Why highlights shows exist?
Let's have the top ten dunks of the night, and
you can do ten dunks out of the Florida Gulf
(38:57):
Coast Eagle squad. But that's just it. You know, you've
got that first weekend, there's so much activity, and how
do you condense it? We can do a couple of
dunks that that's the becomes the signature of the team
that works. It's it's simple and n C double A
fans eat it up, even if later bust their bracket
(39:19):
in a whole other way because normally if we get
one of these upsets early, what happens we pay for
it on the back end. So Florida Gulf Coast gets
all the publicity for the next few days awaiting them
in the Sweet sixteen third seed. Florida and Florida against
end everybody's season. Apparently as we do this podcast, uh,
Florida was just two poised. They were they were just
(39:45):
not able to be rattled by Florida Gulf Coast and
the main thing in the fifty victory by Florida. Florida
had ten turnovers. Florida Gulf Coast had twenty. You're not
gonna win a game against the top ranked team when
you have a two one turnover margin, and this was
a sixty two fifty final. I think people were surprised
the lack of points in this game, but not totally
(40:07):
surprised Florida one, especially when you turn the ball over
the way they did. Yeah, a good job in terms
of DFEN. I mean, you whole Florida sixty two uh
and thirty eight percent shooting, but not doing much on
the other end when you start going into the comps
in this game. But twenty turnovers. It's what we do
(40:27):
in the NFL. Right loves circle. Who wins the turnover battle,
you're gonna win, especially if it's a two to one.
I mean, this is just becomes an ugly game. Uh.
And really all the hype it died on the vine there.
But people will always have their Dunk City T shirts.
Uh yeah, I remember that. I remember seeing the Dunk
(40:47):
City T shirts everywhere and the same logo like got
turned into lob City T shirts. A few years later
for the Clippers. You guys, just hey, I hope there
was a lawsuit. If it wasn't the same guys, no
ones buying Florida Gulf Coast anymore. Alright, I guess I
will buy Clippers now moving on to somebody else. So
after the season is over, where was Andy Enfield going
(41:07):
to land? Well, he lands at USC. He has had
pretty good success at USC, but I'm kind of surprised
he hasn't done a little bit better because, look, USC
basketball is clearly not the number one program in the
in the city of Los Angeles, it's U C. L A.
But still, you would think that he'd be able to
achieve a little bit more. Look, he's had a couple
(41:29):
of good seasons with the USC, and you know this
is not to say it's it's been a failure, but boy,
you would think coming in being able to recruit all
the new energy, that USC would have a couple better
seasons than they. Well, they've had a first round exit
in the tournament, a second round exit in the tournament.
Otherwise you're looking at back to back, you know, looking
(41:49):
at sixteen wins in a sixteen wins season heading into
where where things started to settle into a big your way,
but you know, off the jump trying to build a program.
Eleven win season, twelve win season, seems to have hit
a stride. And let's face it, at USC and for
(42:10):
those unawares, there's been scandal after scandal after scandal, not
just when you get into full fuller house and Lori Laughlin,
John Stamos, I mentioned John Stamos, it's part of it's
a prerequisite for anything Jason Smiths show with my garment related,
but it seems to have found his place. But it's
never gonna be the number one source and anything at
(42:33):
the school. That's that's the problem. You're also fighting, you know,
football is always gonna be one A and so you're
gonna be battling for scraps to some degree. Are Let's
play a little Where are they now? Where are some
of the Dunk City Dunkers now? Mr Harmon, all right,
let's go Eddie Murray. Not to be confused. He's in
the Hall of Fame. Yes, baseball played for the Oriole
(42:53):
place kicker for the Detroit Lion for a long time.
He's a medical sales rep at biomet in Fort Myers, Florida.
How about that Eric McKnight. He's working in Raleigh, Durham,
North Carolina doing some sales and marketing. Uh. And then
Sherwood Brown still going with the main Red Clause. As
(43:15):
you and I sit to talk about this, still in
the D League. I guess that would be the G League,
but it gets lower and lower every year. And yeah,
well I got sponsored, so he's someone had to save it.
But he's with the main Red claus. Well, Red Clause
is a pretty good nickname for me something. It's about
the lobsters, you know. And Sherwood Brown was the A
(43:38):
Son Player of the Year that year, and they just
didn't have a great year record. Why look, they finished
Florida Gulf Coast and eleven, but still you had a
guy the A soun Player of the Year. And hey,
when you're a dunk City, you're dunk City forever. Ah.
So that's our look back. Now we've had two weeks
of the Cinderella podcasts uh, taking a look back at
some of the most memorable teams of the past few
(44:00):
He was in the n c A Tournament. You can
hit us up on Twitter at how about a Fresco
or at Swollen Dome you have an idea for some
teams you'd like to see featured on future episodes of
Special Teams. Our show has heard every night on Fox
Sports Radio Monday through Friday, tend into two am on
the East Coast, seven to eleven on the West Coast.
We'll talk to you next week before you go, rate
(44:29):
and review the show. Whether you're listening on I heart Radio,
I heart radio, apps, Apple, whatever it is, give us
a rate, tell us you like it. We will love
you forever and ever and ever. Special Teams is a
(44:53):
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
(00:23):
Mike Harmon, our weekly podcast, as we look back at
special teams throughout the course of sports history and what
they did in single seasons that made them stand out
and become so memorable. This is the second offering we
have considering this month of March. Would we celebrate the
n c A Tournament. Last week we took a look
back at three of the great Cinderella teams of all time,
(00:44):
Navy in nine eight six, Gonzaga and two thousand eight Davidson.
We had a lot on David Robinson. We had a
lot on Steph Curry back then he was Stephen Curry.
This is our second by popular demand, our second round
of Cinderella's, as we take a look back at three
Cinderella's from the n c A Tournament history as they
(01:05):
were able to achieve what nobody thought they could. We
have a team from the eighties. We got a team
from the yachts and a team from the teams our
first team we're looking back at now the nineteen eighties,
six nineteen seven Providence Friars. Why this was a team
led by second year Providence head coach Rick Pettino, who
(01:30):
relied on his star point guard Billy Donovan to get
everything done for Providence as they finished fourth in the
Big East and nine overall and made a huge Cinderella
run through the n c A Tournament to the final four.
Rick Pattino, it invoked so many thoughts as you start going.
(01:51):
You mentioned the Billy Donovan, So you've got coaching royalty
in terms of your player and your coach, and obviously
for Rick Pettino, a lot of twists and turns to
the story for rights purposes, I can't start whistling any
Billy Joel themes behind your words, so we'll just gotta
leave that alone as we go through. But a highly
(02:13):
decorated coach, respected for what he was able to do
in between the white lines, and you know, obviously controversies
along the way, but this is the genesis of a long,
illustrious career of a complicated guy in the coaching circles.
And you don't normally coach as long as he did
(02:33):
without having one or two hiccups along the way. But
the origin story is always pretty entergaining. So on Patino's
coaching staff this year, Stu Jackson and graduate assistant Jeff
Van Gundy. Look at that on the Providence coaching staff
in N seven, Did uh Patino make him shave his
head a little bit? Uh? Well, yeah, I think it's
(02:54):
the same. By hair is really good. You know, who
can't have the same. I think Van Gundy was shaving
his head since he was like thirteen or just you know,
letting it grow in the places. Now, this Providence team
had some pretty good players on it. Del Ray Brooks
was really good, Marty Conlin turned into a good player.
They had Abdul Shamsid Dean who was from my hometown
(03:15):
and it was a very big deal that he was
playing because not many guys got scholarships to big time
D one schools at that time, and he was from
my hometown and he went and got it with Providence,
and he's on this big you know, Cinderella run to
the final four. And I'm in high school going, oh
my god, this guy. I watched him play a couple
of years ago, and here he is going to the
final four. Did they go and make a little shrine
(03:37):
to him or anything? Uh No, Because we had other
guys who played better after that. But this was the
after that. I mean, you don't celebrate the first Well
he didn't go to my high school, went to a role.
But I'm just saying in in the area, I mean
there there had to be celebrate That's how we celebrated it.
That was it. That was our guy. That was it.
He was a guy, all right. He had an article
in the newspaper. Good for him. Look Billy Donovan, especially
(03:58):
just for a minute or two on him. He was smart,
he was clutch. He put up big numbers. This wasn't hey,
I'm gonna run the team and I'm six points six
assists and no, this is Billy donnand was the leading
was one of the leading scorers of of providency, and
when they needed a bucket, he was the guy they
went to. It wasn't like well he said, no, he
was the guy. Patino trusted him with everything. Average twenty
(04:19):
a game, averaging seven three point shots per game, seven
point one assists. I mean, doing a little bit of everything,
shooting percentage a little lower than you'd like at about,
but helping to run the point and make things happen.
First round of the n c A Tournament, they draw
U a B also known as Alabama Birmingham. As a
(04:40):
six seed, Providence wins this game eight. They were never
in any trouble. Okay, hey, Providence of six seed. They
move on to the second round. And this was a
very big game that in n c A history, is
one of the great early round games. They play Austin
P in the second round, the fourteen seed who had
pulled a big upset to get to this point in
(05:01):
the n c A tournament. I remember all the signs
of this game. The flies open, let's go pe like
and any sign you can think of that involved urine. Uh,
you know, Austin P. This was up at this game. Surprise,
most of those weren't outlawed. Well wait, the way they
do signage now in him it's the eighties. Man, anything
went wild and crazy, anything everything else. It was banned
(05:21):
on television. But if you wanted to bring a sign somewhere,
have at it. We can show that because it wasn't
our content. Yeah, this is a huge game because it
comes down to the wire and Austin P clearly could
be a four teen seat that goes to the Sweet six.
Team down late Bob Thomas has fouled and is able
(05:42):
to go to the free throw line for Austin P.
He misses a one and one. He was terrible at
the line, right, terrible at the line, Billy Donovan, it's
a big shot to tie the game. Bob Thomas has
fouled again. He goes to the free throw line for
a one and one. If he makes one, are gonna
win because there's only a couple of seconds left. He
(06:03):
misses again, so the game goes to overtime and Thomas
hit one of those free throws. Austin P likely wins
this game seven from the line overall, so that was
the guy. Get him uh. In overtime, Billy Donovan gets
his pocket picked with about fifty seconds left. His Providence
is up one. You're thinking, okay, Austin he can take
the lead, but Donovan races down court steals the ball back.
(06:28):
It I mean, just an amazing play by Billy Donovan.
And they wind up getting up seven, and they have
the ball in the final thirty five seconds and you're thinking, okay,
well they're up three. Austin P's gonna foul. They couldn't
foul for some reason. They just couldn't or wouldn't foul.
In the background. They couldn't catch anybody. And the final
(06:48):
thirty seconds ticks off the clock. Donovan's dribbling out the
clock for most of it. And it's how could you
not foul? I mean probably you gotta extend the game.
You gotta put in a free throw line, come down
and shoot at three. You gotta do these things. And
they couldn't already seconds, they couldn't foul. You see teams sometimes,
Well it took a while, all right, eight seconds went
off the clock. No, this was over thirty seconds. Austin
p couldn't foul. Just a curiosity, right, I mean, that's
(07:11):
that's good ball movement. But at some point you just
throw yourself as somebody to just start pluck. Now, reminder
that Bob Thomas is not former Bears kicker Bob Thomas.
And then if you want to talk about for kickers,
just for a second, because Parky, what happened to Cody Parker?
Sorry this Illinois Supreme Court judge. I mean, so I
(07:35):
just wanted this Bob Thomas, No, not that Bears kicker.
That's a better story because we're talking about the other
Bob Thomas's saying free throws. And now, but here he is.
I don't know that sent him down a bad path.
I don't You don't know. Maybe he became a state
Supreme Court justice. Let's take a look. You know, well,
we have senators and state senators like the state senators
(07:56):
that don't matter, you know, we have senators like maybe
he became a state it was a state Supreme Corps.
Never can tell justice. Thing with the guy in the place.
Could have happened for him, could have been so the
Providence Friars. Now move on to the Sweet sixteen, and
Rick Pettino at this point is one of the darlings
of the n c A tournament. Youthful, full of energy.
You can you know, you always do a Rick Pettino
(08:18):
team because you could hear him shouting on the court,
especially when his team was playing defense. In fact, later
on in his career, because we're talking about when he
went to the Knicks after this, there was a big
stat that when the Knicks were playing defense in front
of their own bench, they gave up like six points
less per quarter than they did at the other end
of the court because they could also because they could
all hear Patino yelling, switch do this, do this, do this?
(08:41):
And because they can hear him giving their instructions, they
played better. And when they couldn't hear him because it's
further down court, they didn't play as good defensively. Is
there a law on the NBA books about I F
B s. I'm sure there is. If you can put
a little listening goodvice, I don't think you can. I
don't think you can do that. Could you bang a
trash canners of night? If I bang a trash can
(09:03):
it means just a jumper. If I don't bang it,
it means he's going in for a lighte maybe band
aids with a little buzzers underneath. I don't know. Communication
with the coach. So Petito is getting a lot of
ink at this point. They go into the Sweet sixteen
and they faced the two seed in the Southeast Region, Alabama,
and this was never a contest. Providence goes fourteen out
(09:24):
of twenty on three pointers. They move on to the
Elite eight where they're facing the number one seed in
the region, Georgetown, And this is this is Georgetown being legendary.
This is hey, we had Patrick Ewing and now we're
moving on to the next great invention of our Georgetown
Hoya dynasty and Providence likely because they were familiar with Georgetown.
(09:44):
Not only did they give him a big game, they
blew them out seventy three. They pressured the Hoyas into
a horrible shooting night, and Providence officially becomes the Cinderella
of the n s A tournament, even though they were
a sixth seed. It's not that big a deal, but
nobody expected Providence make it to the final four. But
they get to the final four after beating a team
from the Big East, Georgetown. Do you know coming off
(10:05):
this game, Georgetown is going man anybody else, anybody else,
And we make it to the final four, but we
get a team that knows us, and so our advantage
over these teams is less because when you play a
team from your own conference, they can prepare, they know
how to prepare for you. So that was a huge
advantage for Georgetown as a higher seed. They didn't have, yeah,
a lot of a lot of tape on common opponents
(10:27):
and tendencies. And obviously that's easier done now and then
it was thirty years ago. But I mean, you look
at just the the opportunities that that roll through for
this Providence squad and you know, familiarity, uh usually gives
us some really good, great games, and this one was
(10:49):
a classic. Reggie Williams with a big effort, Charles Smith
with a good effort as well, but just not enough.
The next weekend, Providence goes home. They face big East
folks Syracuse and Syracuse before I went to college There
takes care of Providence, ends their run. They move on
to the championship game, the famous one against Indiana, one
by Keith Smart. But Rick Pettino has done enough. He
(11:12):
has taken Providence to the final four and always one
knowing an opportunity and seeing one when it's there. Rick
Pettino gets the head coaching job with the New York Knicks.
When this happened, Larry Brown really wanted this job and
Robbery Brown had to wait. Like he wanted a lot
of different jelly did. He wanted to have all the
jobs at once. Larry Brown had to wait a decade
(11:34):
or two to get this next job that he really wanted.
They eventually gave it to him. He was so upset
that at one point he was telling he told people,
you know, no one would know Petino if Thomas had
hit the one on one for Austin p Like he
goes back to that if if that kid hits that
hits the one and one in Austin, p Rick Pettino
doesn't go on this run, no one would know who
(11:54):
he is, and I would be the head coach of
the New York Knicks. I like that. I mean, that's
that's good. Revision is history and and might have been true. Yeah,
but look, Larry Brown eventually got to coach I think
everywhere he ever wanted to read some you want to
talk about well traveled. In our other podcast, we've talked
about guys good either doing job hopping or team hopping.
(12:16):
Shaquille O'Neil at the end of his career. Hey, how
many jerseys can we hang up right before we get done?
Larry Brown certainly there, But for Rick Pettina, look, fortune
and you know, opportunity and a little bit of luck
and strategy. Right, Thomas went two of seven from the
file line. Clearly he was rattled. Clearly he was not
(12:36):
a guy that was gonna finish and then they couldn't
fall down the stretch. How about you talk about that
coach the ability to work the ball and not get
filed again. But I mean just for Rick Pettino, you know,
you take the opportunity Nicks, you know, and you mentioned
he go as defensively. He goes to the Knicks. They
win their first division title in twenty years, and I'm thinking, Wow,
(12:56):
the Knicks are good because my whole life the nick
stunk and they do again because I just yeah, well, yeah,
they're back to that. But like my whole life, I
didn't started following basketball till the mid seventies. I'm seven,
eight nine years old. Nicks were terrible. They were terrible,
then they were tell the early eighties. Finally Patino shows up,
they win the division. I'm like, oh my god, the
Knicks are gonna be good. He coaches another year, then
he says, you know what, I don't like the NBA anymore.
(13:17):
I want to leave, and then Nicks let him out
of his contract. He goes and coaches Kentucky wins the
n c A Championship later on over Syracuse, and the
legend of Rick Pettino grows. In college basketball, he went
to the Celtics again and coach, then he went back
to Louisville won the national championship there. But this was
the beginning for Rick Pettino was, Hey, he had the
(13:37):
big run two years at Providence Final four, not gonna
get any better. I take the opportunity when it's there,
and this Providence team and really had known as much
for Billy Donovan as much as Rick Pettino because of
what Donovan's going able to accomplish, winning back to back
titles with the Gators, succeeding in the NBA. I mean,
you go back and look at this game. You go
back and look, go back and look at some of
these highlights of Billy Donovan, especially like I talked about
(14:00):
the play against Austin pe where he steals the ball
and goes down the court and when Austin Pete can't
steal the ball from him, and you can tell while
he's dribbling, Yeah, this is a future coach. This is
gonna be a future head coach. It's like, you know,
Rick Pettino was molding himself and Billy Donovan to take
over and move on and do great thing. Well, and
you look at what Donovan went on to do collegiately.
He was a guy. I mean that has a coach.
(14:22):
I mean think about that. Just absolute dominance at Florida
after a couple of years at Marshall and you roll
through for Rick Pettino long career. Every once in a
while there's still that how do you come back? He's
hanging out in Greece. Good luck? Pet know, you never know, man,
the you know, vacated title, things of that nature. But
(14:43):
the accolades, it's a long laundry list. And you know,
we always play the can you tell the story of
a sport without a guy? You certainly cannot look at
the last thirty years of college basketball without a bunch
of nods to Rick Pettino and what he meant to
it and going in to Billy Donovan and everything else
that transpired between here and there. So there's the legendary
(15:04):
eighties six, eighties seven Providence team a lot somewhere. Are
they now all right? First? Sure, he got del Rey Brooks.
He coached with Patino at Kentucky. Uh. He is at
Clay High School. He's a special ed teacher since two
thousand thirteen. Uh. And they got David Snedecker, former Final
four but hollow Hollywood director. But he also does stuff, uh,
(15:25):
working with insurance companies, trying to help with claims and
helping physicians Oh, that's nice. There's a pretty penny to
be made, and that you get involved in the the medical field,
you're gonna make money. But he became a renaissance man,
right Hollywood director, did a little bit of this that,
and eventually into insurances. Wow. So there it is eight
(15:46):
s eighties seven Providence. Coming up next, we take a
look at the first mid major to the Final four
since nineteen seventy nine. A legendary team we still talk about,
and a guy who once can find it in me.
I don't know what I'm supposed to do on the
carpet when people come up and interview me. We got
that coming up next right here, Special teams Jason Smith
and Mike Harmon. We are now fast forwarding into the
(16:23):
odds for our next Cinderella team. One of the greats
of all time is that your favorite word to says
you seem to you get this regal status about you,
and you sit up right in your chair as opposed
to your normal slouch position in the odds. You know,
you know why, because I feel like the odds were
this vast barren waste land for both you know, anything
(16:45):
in entertainment and music, and I just feel like it's
a forgettable decade. So it's like the the odds makes
it least sound important. Okay, you're trying to add some
air of import to it, because it's kind of like
when you feel the need to add esquire something at
the back end of a signature. Please, I earned this degree.
Look when you're gonna address me as such? Even in
(17:05):
my junk mail. Whenever we talk about stuff in sports,
we go back sometime between now and or we go
back to the nineties or the eighties. When do we
go to the ots remember the odds that we never
do vast barren waste land the odds. However, one of
the big shining stars of the odds the two thousand
six team, the George Mason Patriots, who made it all
(17:28):
the way to the Final four, the first mid major
team to get to a Final four since nineteen seventy nine.
What was so interesting about George Mason. They were a
top twenty five team during the course of the season.
It's not like George Mason was well, they want on
a run. They won their tournament and sudding, they go
on this huge, unpredictable steam rolling through the tournament. No,
(17:50):
they were a top twenty five team, but they didn't
win the CIA. The Colony Athletic which they led all year,
they lost in the tournament, so they were you know,
look there it's a twenty eight team overall. Look they're
going to the n c A Tournament. No, they lose,
but they get invited as an at large team. Cincinnati
and Florida State where two teams that people went crazy
(18:11):
for saying, how do you snub these two teams for
a mid major? This was a big deal, right, This
was the where the term mid major took on the
pejorative term like no other time in its history. Now
it's you know, not non pc to call him mid major. Dude.
We just talk about the expanded college basketball universe, and
you know me, I wouldn't let any mid majors in
(18:31):
the n c A Tournament because they don't play the
schedule over the course of the year that merits them
inclusion with all of the you know, quote Power five schools.
So there's more than five power conferences in college basketball.
But like, I can't say that George Mason, because they
win the CIA, deserves to get in over a Florida
State that plays an A C C schedule. They don't
because if if you're talking about putting George Mason in
(18:54):
the A c C, what would their record be. They'd
be lucky if they got the five hundred and probably
be way under it. But then you have a Florida
State team let's just say that wins eighteen or nineteen games. Well,
clearly they're the better team. Look, mid majors just don't
earn it as much over the course of the season.
It's like taking a team that, hey, they won their
triple and they won Triple A the International League or
(19:14):
the PCL, let's put them in the Major League Baseball playoffs.
We well know, sure they could win a game here
or there because you know, any given Sunday, but did
they really prove that they should be playing with the
bigger teams? No? So you know, on me, I would
never put a mid major invent. Yeah, I mean, that's
why we celebrate the outliers when they do happen. But
it does become an annual right of how do you
(19:34):
wring your hands? As soon as those first projections of
the field start coming out, as we usually about the
start of conference player, right, that's when we start getting
into well, you know, through the first ten eleven games,
and we go through and this is what makes everybody nervous,
right that you're gonna have some team left out. And
when you you talk about your your power conferences and
(19:58):
the schedules and trying to do at its inapples to
oranges comparison, and that becomes the difficult part. Yes, there's
some pageantry to it, great for the one shining moment
video montage at the end of the attorney but most
times it's succeed and proceed for the higher seeds. So
why not allow those teams from the better conferences, maybe
(20:20):
go a little deeper in the selection of those. Jim
LARONEGA head coach who I actually met on the red
carpet of the SPS, which which I'll tell you a
fun story. Okay, uh, Look he has having in the
middle of great success. He came to George Mason. This
was his dark side of the moon. They win their
opening round n c A tournament game and they beat
Michigan State. Michigan State was in the final four the
(20:43):
year before, but this is an eleven six game. They
shot well from the field, they shot horribly from the
free throw line, and they still won by ten. They
had a huge rebound advantage over Michigan State, and they
went without Tony Skin, who was their second leading scorer
during the year, because he was suspended because he punched
the Hofstrap player in the groin during the c A
a semis And if there's one thing then doesn't like,
(21:05):
it's a groin punch. I mean, I don't like him either,
but then doesn't like how do you only get one
game suspension for a growing punch? Maybe one punch one game?
Seems to me if you land to the groin, seems
like that's a multiple, isn't it. He's landed one to
the lands, one above the shoulders. A multiplier if you
if you get the groin shot, there should be a multiplier.
(21:27):
I mean anywhere in between. Hey, you know, just a
one game is fine. Second game of the tournament now,
all right, George Mason wins. They beat Michigan State. They
were in the final far Crazes Survivor. Okay, that's great.
Then they beat North Carolina, the defending national champions. They
were getting drubbed sixteen to two in this game. And
you figure, okay, thank you for coming, George Mason, thanks
(21:50):
for being here. But they get a close game at halftime,
and then Laryega sends them out early for warmups in
the second half and he said, you gotta play this
game like the other team doesn't have jerseys on, like
you don't know their North Carolina. And they went on
to win this game, and they didn't have a crazy
celebration after it was over. No, just line up for handshakes,
(22:10):
moving on, and that's what the big teams normally do.
This is a mid major team that lost their way
a bit in the first half, made a close at halftime,
came out and boat raced them in the second half,
and suddenly this is the team that's acting like they're
the favorites. Held North Carolina to thirty six percent shooting
in this game, thirty six percent, and then on two
(22:32):
point shots they were thirteen and thirty four. That's the
thing that you circle. And it's one thing to be
a Houston Rockets type team and just shoot yourself out
of a game because you're not hitting from three. But
when you talk about being inside the arc and shooting
such a low percentage over the course of the game
percent inside the ark, that really is telling. In this
(22:54):
North Carolina, even though they were the defending champion. You
had Tyler hands bro uh is the the big name
player on this squad. It wasn't the the same juggernaut
as it were. And George Mason moves on. So George
Mason moves on in the n C A terminal surprised
team in the sweet sixth team. But still everyone is
expecting George Mason to go home. Why because they don't
(23:17):
really have a star player. They have five guys in
double figures and he's okay, it's gonna end because they
don't have They don't have the jam Morant who can
take us all the way through. But their next games
against Wichita State, all right, it's Wichita State, another mid major.
They win this game sixty fifty five, and suddenly George
Mason is in the Elite eight. So now awaiting them
(23:40):
in the Elite eight the number two team in the country,
number one seed in the region, the Yukon Huskies. All right,
this is where really everything is ending for the Yukon.
The brackets set up nicely for George Mason through through
I mean, some heavyweights, perennial heavyweights, but catching at the
(24:00):
right time. But this one seemed like a all right,
thanks for playing. Here's your consolation prize. Yukon had Rudy Gay,
Marcus Williams, had all kinds of talent on this team.
But Yukon needed a layup at the buzzer to force overtime,
and then they missed the three to win the game.
George Mason wins by two. All five George Mason starters
(24:21):
and double figures. Again, all the solid players that they
had on this team, and here they are in the
final four, and now they've taken over. Well, now this
tournament becomes completely about George Mason. But the amazing thing
about this particular game is you got you have an
eighty six, eighty four victory, three points off the bench,
three points off the bench. Nor would plays nineteen minutes
(24:44):
zero points and then you get and think about that,
I mean, eight six points in a game with three
off the bench. All right, we're just running five guys
to rely on, you know, and the only guy that
you really hooked into for it was all about the team.
But Ji Lewis was the guy who had a big
tournament look, and he led the team in scoring thirteen
points per game over the course of the season. It's
(25:05):
not like he scored twenty a game, like you had
a bunch of guys with between thirteen and eleven points
per game. Lewis was the guy that cut through in
the tournament. But it was really the story about George Mason,
who up until this point was just a character in
twenty four, who actually wound up they killed his character off.
Actually George Mason spoiler alert, But if I wanted to
go back and pinge, watch, uh Xander Berkeley who played
(25:29):
George Mason. Yeah, they killed his character off third season,
fourth season, fourth season, third season Xander Berkeley, Xander Berkeley fan,
If it's the guy I'm thinking of? Yeah, he wound
up marrying the woman who played Nina from the first
season of twenty four, who you thought was on Jack's
(25:50):
side and then wasn't, and then was and then wasn't.
So I was right, that's the guy. Like, boy, I'm
really spoiling this for you. Um, so that he was
just in Xander Berkeley was just in Walking Dead. I
definitely didn't know he was. Yeah he was. Oh yeah,
he was spineless and walking dead. But his name was George,
I mean literally spineless because the zombies. No, no, no,
he had just he had no he he was gonna
(26:11):
let the bad people come into whatever they wanted to. Yeah,
he was a bad leader, bad leader. But that was
George Mason up until this point. Now it's George Mason.
They get to the Final four. Four days between games
they play Florida, or really really you have six days
between games they play Florida, the eventual national champion, Florida
Gators and the Gators. Look, this was when the Gators
(26:34):
were at their peak, when they were just rolling through,
and they put all kinds of guys in the end,
Like Joe kim Noah played harder than anybody. Yeah, he
was full of heart, even back with Florida. I mean
this was Florida. They put so many guys in the ND.
Since this is audio only, Jason just rolled his eyes,
being the Knicks fan that he is thinking of. Joe
(26:54):
kim Noah. I had him, you know as my Chicago
faned him with the Bulls and got the best out
of him. About the guy, Oh, Joe kim Noah plays
with as he plays with heart. But look this Florida team,
this is part of back to back national championships for them.
Billy Donovan, this flood they were just they were superstars
of college basketball. So Florida ends it for George Mason.
(27:17):
But getting to the Final four, they make their mark again,
first mid major team to get to the Final four
since nineteen seventy nine. But they become one of the
people to put on teams to put on the poster,
as it were, of little teams that could. Right. This
is the justification of expanding the field and looking a
little deeper and going into the mid majors and allowing
(27:41):
them in. Even though time and again you see the
early exits and it's the all right, color by numbers
kind of n C Double A tournament. But here's one
where they rose up, if only for a couple of weeks,
we still celebrated George Mason. I remember being at the
Spieces back when I was hosting All Night on ESPN Radio,
and part of my every You're the best part was
getting to go and cover the red carpet arrivals at
(28:03):
the Spiece except that it was a hundred degrees. I
did a couple of times, but Jim Larenega comes up,
and you know, I figured one of the first people
walking through is Jim Larenega. Like he's on the red
carpet of the SPS, Like the Red carpet starts at
three thirty and all the stars, like he know, he's
like three thirty two, like the first guy coming on
(28:23):
the red carpet, Like, I don't know, am I supposed
to be here? I don't know. Go into a party,
some member of your your family always wants to be
there right when it starts right or when you're not
the cool guy going hey the party starts, attend you
show up at like ten forty five, because there's a
people that show up red attend. Hey can I come in? Yeah,
come on in. I mean that's kind of more what
you gotta get the party started somehow. So Larenega comes
(28:45):
on and I interview him for a couple of minutes,
and I say, I'm okay, are you used to red carpet?
He goes, no, this first one he was a really
great guy. And I said, who are you wearing? He
said what I said, who are you wearing? You're on
the red carpet. You tell me who you're wearing. What
doesign are you wearing? He goes, oh, oh boy, I
don't know what. He turns to his wife, and she goes, oh, uh,
I don't know. I'm like, all right, you know me
while knowing you you're cackling like a mad man. Yeah,
(29:06):
it was funny him. We finished the interview and he leaves,
and then you know, he goes on to do the
rest of the red carpet and I go on to
do other interviews and I'm noticing as I'm ending an
interview he's kind of waiting on the periphery and he
catches my eye and I'm going, Jim Laranega wants to
come back and talk to me. Hey, you know, we're
talking about something. He comes back to me, puts his
arm on my shoulder and he whispers in my ear.
(29:28):
He goes, Hugo Boss. I looked on the inside and
saw other thing. It's Hugo Boss. I'm like, awesome. So
he wanted me to know he's wearing Hugo Boss. That fantastic.
He knew. He knew that was Jim Laronega. He was
a fun guy, fun guy. And look the legacy of
George Mason, as you said, being because we saw other teams,
other been majors rise up in the in the preview.
(29:48):
In the ensuing years, but they were the first one
and they started the ball rolling. Yeah. I mean that's
the hard part of the process is that when you
start going into that room and here's the bubble teams, right,
because you've got your automatic bids. That's one thing they
weren't They weren't right, and you can't argue against the
all right, they're the conference champion. Let them in. But
(30:10):
when you get it at large bid, I mean, that's
a responsibility they validated. That's a big responsibility when you're
the first to try to cut through. So how about
somewhere are that out my Carmen, Where are some of
these players? Now we'll start with Tony Skin. He is
an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech. We go to Lamar Butler.
He runs something called Sports Heaven. I run Sports seven.
(30:32):
We run Sports seven every night every night. Yeah, well
we It is a if you need sporting goods, schools
and youth leagues are Oh that's pretty cool, you know,
kind of an extension, you know, a competitor to say
you're playing agains and things of that nature. So you
can go down that road. I dig it. So you
got that sports now again, a completely different picture in
(30:54):
my mind. But that's okay, Well, we'll save that for
another podcast. Game for Heaven. Sorry, they've had a couple
of two game winning streets in the last two or
three seasons. Seasons sure, okay, but they changed up the
front office ahead, all right, yes, thank you. And Ji
(31:15):
Lewis wellness educator in the Baltimore City Public Schools, so
student wholeness. So he's gone through with a bunch of
things for both the you know, physical fitness, but also
from the psychological side, so helping students navigate in Baltimore
obviously one of the cities in our nation that gets
spotlighted for some some of the issues. John louis trying
(31:37):
to help that along. How do you feel. I feel good,
My work here is done. I'm going on for the day. Yeah,
but you gotta do it again tomorrow. Oh well, that's
who with school and multiply it by hundreds. So that's
the two thousand six George Mason Patriots coming up next.
How about Cinderella Team, so surprising many of their players
weren't even right in databases coming out of high school. Sweet,
(32:01):
that's coming up next right here. A special Team's podcast
with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. So from the odds
(32:22):
to the teams we move for our final team, spotlighted
on week two of our special Cinderella's n c A
Tournament podcast run here on Special Teams, as we look
back at Dunk City, Florida Gulf Coast Eagles that captured
all our attention and the end field was in his
second year there, and as I mentioned a few minutes ago,
(32:43):
many of Florida Gulf Coast players weren't ranked in databases
coming out of high school. This is the lowest seeded
team to ever make the Sweet sixteen and did it
with players that weren't even ranked. It's like saying, hey,
what do you think about this guy? Um, I don't know.
I don't know anything about them. I don't know that.
Uh yeah, sure, go ahead sign him. Why not find
(33:05):
him walking around playing bass pick up basketball on campuses
and just hanging out, I mean, like open tryouts. And
there's there's a million ways. As we've chronicled and some
of the other Special Teams podcasts that we've done, you
come up upon talent in many different ways, and sometimes
it's just all coalesces and comes together so beautifully. And
(33:26):
in this one, they captivated a nation. As you got
deeper in in their tournament run, Florida Gulf Coast was
only the number two team in the Atlantic Sun Conference,
but they upset Mercer in the championship game to earn
the automatic bit. They go on to the tournament again,
only in its second year of n c A tournament eligibility. Okay,
(33:49):
there's only the second time they're allowed to even go.
I'm taking a one upset win and they make it
to the tournament. Thinking about my beloved Northwestern Wildcats, I
had my moment in the Sun. It was leading. They
played a hard schedule over the course of the season
to get ready for this. They played games against v CU,
they played Miami, they played at Duke, they played St. John's,
(34:13):
they played Iowa State. You know, this is a pretty
decent out of conference schedule to get ready for the season,
and it paid off because in their first round game
they upset to seed Georgetown seventy eight to sixty eight.
Seems like we talked a lot about Georgetown getting upset. Well,
this is in Georgetown's run where they were a one
or two seed and would lose in the first weekend.
(34:35):
Like you go back and look at Georgetown. They're never
making it on a special teams by the way, because
you know, Syracuse guy, We're never doing Georgetown. And to
this is that it's never doing Georgetown. And this is
the middle of a run in which every year it
was we're a top seed and then they would lose.
They'd be out of it by the first weekend. But
the main thing about Florida Gulf Coast. Look, they had
the nickname Dunk City because they were fun. They ran
(34:57):
up and down the floor, and this game against George
Town was like when you turn on your television for
the first time and you see what something looks like
in three D. I mean, they kept running and throwing
up alley oops. Instead of milking the clock, they played
with energy. They didn't try to kill the clock at
the end and say, Okay, hey we're a team pulling
off a big upset. We're getting nervous down the stretch now.
They were just going crazy during this game, and Field
(35:20):
even said after the game, I got crazy dudes on
this team. They had no consciences. This game looked like
one of those Rutger Park games in New York City
where guys are throwing full court behind the back passes,
guys are catching him at the rim and rocking one
through and holding on after. I mean, look, dunk City
was a pretty good apropo nickname, and right away they
(35:40):
captured all our imagination because of their style of play
and pulling the upsete and you're playing with house money
right that stage. None of them expected to be hunt
at any point, and so it all comes together and
you're on the big stage and you play wide open basketball.
I mean because you go back into the regular season.
So like they were putting up a hundred points at
(36:01):
night either there was some usually in the upper seventies
low eighties is where they got to most nights, but
battle tested and ready for the step up in class
in competition once you got to the tournament. So that's
certainly there, you're seasoned. But the other is endfield men
has to have put into their heads, like let's just
(36:23):
go out and play basketball, let's go do our thing
is don't let this be the stage break us. I mean,
we see it across all sports, right, Guys get to
a tournament or the NFL or NBA playoffs, and suddenly
the rim seems smaller or things seemed too fast, here,
just go have some fun. And they laid it out.
(36:44):
So they go on now to meet San Diego State
in the next game. All right, say they it's a
fifteen seed, Well, it's all right, Florida Gulf Coast, they're fun.
San Diego State, we don't really know a lot about them.
Marshall falk is not playing in this days not but
it's Steve Fisher him and again Florida Gulf Coast runs
up and down the floor. They're dunking, they're having fun,
they're playing very free, and they beat San Diego State,
(37:09):
becoming the first fifteen seed to win two games in
a tournament, and they move on to the Sweet sixteen.
And sometimes when you pull upsets in the n c
A tournament, you can be a one game wonder or
a one weekend wonder. But Florida Gulf Coast, because of
their style of play, it was like watching a U
n l V type team from the nineties just just
(37:30):
come out of nowhere and just you know, blow you
off the court up and down because of what they
can do athletically. And that's why Florida Gulf Coast became
legendary after just the first weekend because look, you get two, three, four,
Cinderella is making it out of the first weekend now,
and you're, okay, it's fun because you see the excitement
of the game. Then you kind of forget about them,
and then you remember again when they play a game
(37:52):
next week. Okay, who does so and so play? Oh,
now they play Michigan. All they're gonna lose that game.
But Florida Gulf Coast was everybody did this see so
much more of them because of their style of play
and the way it was. It was I can't get
enough of Andy Endfield. Where what job is he gonna
get after this year? And how good are these guys really?
How would they play if they played in a in
a bigger conference. I mean, that was the type of
(38:14):
attention that Florida Gulf Coast was getting well. And I
think that's that's it. When we go through the the
tournament each and every year, you're you're hoping that you
have a team that that cuts through, you know, to
make the NBA analogy, why everybody got so excited at
the different look when the Warriors were on their ascent, Right,
it's just a different style, and then, like everything, it
(38:36):
becomes copycat and how do you best keep up with
them if you can? And for for this squad as
we watched them roll through, and let's face it, we
all like dunks. Who doesn't like dunks? Why highlights shows exist?
Let's have the top ten dunks of the night, and
you can do ten dunks out of the Florida Gulf
(38:57):
Coast Eagle squad. But that's just it. You know, you've
got that first weekend, there's so much activity, and how
do you condense it? We can do a couple of
dunks that that's the becomes the signature of the team
that works. It's it's simple and n C double A
fans eat it up, even if later bust their bracket
(39:19):
in a whole other way because normally if we get
one of these upsets early, what happens we pay for
it on the back end. So Florida Gulf Coast gets
all the publicity for the next few days awaiting them
in the Sweet sixteen third seed. Florida and Florida against
end everybody's season. Apparently as we do this podcast, uh,
Florida was just two poised. They were they were just
(39:45):
not able to be rattled by Florida Gulf Coast and
the main thing in the fifty victory by Florida. Florida
had ten turnovers. Florida Gulf Coast had twenty. You're not
gonna win a game against the top ranked team when
you have a two one turnover margin, and this was
a sixty two fifty final. I think people were surprised
the lack of points in this game, but not totally
(40:07):
surprised Florida one, especially when you turn the ball over
the way they did. Yeah, a good job in terms
of DFEN. I mean, you whole Florida sixty two uh
and thirty eight percent shooting, but not doing much on
the other end when you start going into the comps
in this game. But twenty turnovers. It's what we do
(40:27):
in the NFL. Right loves circle. Who wins the turnover battle,
you're gonna win, especially if it's a two to one.
I mean, this is just becomes an ugly game. Uh.
And really all the hype it died on the vine there.
But people will always have their Dunk City T shirts.
Uh yeah, I remember that. I remember seeing the Dunk
(40:47):
City T shirts everywhere and the same logo like got
turned into lob City T shirts. A few years later
for the Clippers. You guys, just hey, I hope there
was a lawsuit. If it wasn't the same guys, no
ones buying Florida Gulf Coast anymore. Alright, I guess I
will buy Clippers now moving on to somebody else. So
after the season is over, where was Andy Enfield going
(41:07):
to land? Well, he lands at USC. He has had
pretty good success at USC, but I'm kind of surprised
he hasn't done a little bit better because, look, USC
basketball is clearly not the number one program in the
in the city of Los Angeles, it's U C. L A.
But still, you would think that he'd be able to
achieve a little bit more. Look, he's had a couple
(41:29):
of good seasons with the USC, and you know this
is not to say it's it's been a failure, but boy,
you would think coming in being able to recruit all
the new energy, that USC would have a couple better
seasons than they. Well, they've had a first round exit
in the tournament, a second round exit in the tournament.
Otherwise you're looking at back to back, you know, looking
(41:49):
at sixteen wins in a sixteen wins season heading into
where where things started to settle into a big your way,
but you know, off the jump trying to build a program.
Eleven win season, twelve win season, seems to have hit
a stride. And let's face it, at USC and for
(42:10):
those unawares, there's been scandal after scandal after scandal, not
just when you get into full fuller house and Lori Laughlin,
John Stamos, I mentioned John Stamos, it's part of it's
a prerequisite for anything Jason Smiths show with my garment related,
but it seems to have found his place. But it's
never gonna be the number one source and anything at
(42:33):
the school. That's that's the problem. You're also fighting, you know,
football is always gonna be one A and so you're
gonna be battling for scraps to some degree. Are Let's
play a little Where are they now? Where are some
of the Dunk City Dunkers now? Mr Harmon, all right,
let's go Eddie Murray. Not to be confused. He's in
the Hall of Fame. Yes, baseball played for the Oriole
(42:53):
place kicker for the Detroit Lion for a long time.
He's a medical sales rep at biomet in Fort Myers, Florida.
How about that Eric McKnight. He's working in Raleigh, Durham,
North Carolina doing some sales and marketing. Uh. And then
Sherwood Brown still going with the main Red Clause. As
(43:15):
you and I sit to talk about this, still in
the D League. I guess that would be the G League,
but it gets lower and lower every year. And yeah,
well I got sponsored, so he's someone had to save it.
But he's with the main Red claus. Well, Red Clause
is a pretty good nickname for me something. It's about
the lobsters, you know. And Sherwood Brown was the A
(43:38):
Son Player of the Year that year, and they just
didn't have a great year record. Why look, they finished
Florida Gulf Coast and eleven, but still you had a
guy the A soun Player of the Year. And hey,
when you're a dunk City, you're dunk City forever. Ah.
So that's our look back. Now we've had two weeks
of the Cinderella podcasts uh, taking a look back at
some of the most memorable teams of the past few
(44:00):
He was in the n c A Tournament. You can
hit us up on Twitter at how about a Fresco
or at Swollen Dome you have an idea for some
teams you'd like to see featured on future episodes of
Special Teams. Our show has heard every night on Fox
Sports Radio Monday through Friday, tend into two am on
the East Coast, seven to eleven on the West Coast.
We'll talk to you next week before you go, rate
(44:29):
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(44:53):
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