Off season professional development.

[John K]

The writer probably heard him wrong. Easy mistake for someone not from Montana to make.

I was 12 when this game between UM and Ucla was played. It was a big deal. Ucla was ranked 10th in the nation and almost everyone was thinking they'd get knocked off in the tourney. Griz came close. Ucla went on to win it all.

I remember the game as well, we must be about the same age. Unless coach was reminiscing about the Big Sky in general, I wondered why a former Montana State coach would be referencing one of the high spots of a rival's basketball history in his talk.
The "whatever" meant it probably doesn't matter in the big picture, but it ticked me off anyway.

I also remember listening to that game on the radio. I was 16 and a sophomore in HS, and had no particular allegiance to either school yet, and it was very exciting to have a Montana team perform so well on the national stage. Then just about a year and a half later, when I was a senior in HS, MSU won the D-II national championship in football, which was of course also very exciting. I entered MSU in the fall of 1977, and that 1975 basketball game against UCLA was probably the last time in my life that I ever rooted for UM in anything.

[PapaG]

Fun story about EWU staff at Florida.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gators/wh ... ge/2316603

More than that, McElwain is proud of his roots in the Big Sky Conference.

He played at Eastern Washington. His coaching career began there, then continued at Montana State. He started Tuesday's football news conference with a story about the time Montana State played UCLA in the NCAA Tournament at the end of the John Wooden dynasty.

Whatever.....

So this isn't really on topic, but I've heard before about this MSU-UCLA matchup in the NCAA tourney. In fact Jack Gillespie's son Cody once told me about his dad playing against Kareem and UCLA in the tourney. But according to the official records, MSU has only been in the tourney three times, 1951, 1986, and 1996. However, UM played (and almost beat) UCLA in the tourney in 1975 in a Sweet 16 game. That was Wooden's final season as the Bruins coach, but Kareem was long gone by then. So then what gives with this alleged MSU-UCLA game? Is it just an urban legend or something? Could it maybe have been just a regular season game that McElwain and Cody Gillespie were referring to, not an NCAA tourney game? The only other explanation I can think of, is if MSU actually did play UCLA in the NCAA's during the Wooden/Kareem era, but their BSC title/tourney appearance had to be vacated for some reason? Maybe someone who is even more of an old-timer than me, could shed some light on this?

I also didn't understand what you were referring to with your "whatever" comment?

According to ESPN, MSU never played UCLA in the NCAA Tournament and I am 99% sure that MSU wasn't in the tournament at all during those years. I assume that McElwain is remembering UM's 1975 game against UCLA since he would have been 12 or 13 years old and growing up in Missoula at the time the game was played.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... team1/7718

Yeah, that seems to be the only plausible explanation. And Cody G. was either mistaken about his dad having played against Kareem, or maybe MSU played UCLA in a regular season game sometime during Jack's career. Another noteworthy thing from that list of UCLA's NCAA tourney results, is that they lost to Idaho state in the Sweet 16 in 1977, which of course means that ISU made it to the Elite 8. Based upon the BSC's dismal performance in the tourney over the last 35 years, it's hard to fathom one of our teams being just one step away from the Final Four. I'd be willing to bet that never happens again in any of our lifetimes.

During the 1981-82 season, Idaho was ranked #6 preseason in the AP poll and finished at #8 (27-3) at the end of the year. They beat Iowa in the NCAA tournament before losing to Oregon State in the Sweet 16. Their two regular season losses were back-to-back @Montana (53-51 - I remember listening on the radio to it) and then @Notre Dame (50-48).

[John K]

Fun story about EWU staff at Florida.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gators/wh ... ge/2316603

More than that, McElwain is proud of his roots in the Big Sky Conference.

He played at Eastern Washington. His coaching career began there, then continued at Montana State. He started Tuesday's football news conference with a story about the time Montana State played UCLA in the NCAA Tournament at the end of the John Wooden dynasty.

Whatever.....

So this isn't really on topic, but I've heard before about this MSU-UCLA matchup in the NCAA tourney. In fact Jack Gillespie's son Cody once told me about his dad playing against Kareem and UCLA in the tourney. But according to the official records, MSU has only been in the tourney three times, 1951, 1986, and 1996. However, UM played (and almost beat) UCLA in the tourney in 1975 in a Sweet 16 game. That was Wooden's final season as the Bruins coach, but Kareem was long gone by then. So then what gives with this alleged MSU-UCLA game? Is it just an urban legend or something? Could it maybe have been just a regular season game that McElwain and Cody Gillespie were referring to, not an NCAA tourney game? The only other explanation I can think of, is if MSU actually did play UCLA in the NCAA's during the Wooden/Kareem era, but their BSC title/tourney appearance had to be vacated for some reason? Maybe someone who is even more of an old-timer than me, could shed some light on this?

I also didn't understand what you were referring to with your "whatever" comment?

According to ESPN, MSU never played UCLA in the NCAA Tournament and I am 99% sure that MSU wasn't in the tournament at all during those years. I assume that McElwain is remembering UM's 1975 game against UCLA since he would have been 12 or 13 years old and growing up in Missoula at the time the game was played.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... team1/7718

Yeah, that seems to be the only plausible explanation. And Cody G. was either mistaken about his dad having played against Kareem, or maybe MSU played UCLA in a regular season game sometime during Jack's career. Another noteworthy thing from that list of UCLA's NCAA tourney results, is that they lost to Idaho state in the Sweet 16 in 1977, which of course means that ISU made it to the Elite 8. Based upon the BSC's dismal performance in the tourney over the last 35 years, it's hard to fathom one of our teams being just one step away from the Final Four. I'd be willing to bet that never happens again in any of our lifetimes.

During the 1981-82 season, Idaho was ranked #6 preseason in the AP poll and finished at #8 (27-3) at the end of the year. They beat Iowa in the NCAA tournament before losing to Oregon State in the Sweet 16. Their two regular season losses were back-to-back @Montana (53-51 - I remember listening on the radio to it) and then @Notre Dame (50-48).

I remember watching that Idaho-Notre Dame game on TV. It was the national game of the week for whatever network televised college basketball games back in those days. It's hard to imagine now, but that was long before you could watch multiple college games every day/night of the week, as you can now. I don't really remember for sure, but I'd guess that there was probably only one or two games a week televised back then, maybe one each on Saturday and Sunday? ESPN was in it's very early infancy at that time, and didn't have contracts for any of the major sports, either college or pro. They showed only fringe sports back in their early days.

Weber State also made it to the Sweet 16 in 1979, so that gave the BSC four appearances in the Sweet 16 in a span of 8 years (with ISU making the Elite 8 in 1977). It's not like that success was due to the dominance of just one program either, as it was four different schools, UM, ISU, WSU and UI. It's hard to imagine the league ever again achieving that level of success in the tourney. I know things have changed a lot since then, but still, you can't argue that we were much more competitive nationally than we are now. Weber also had a great team in 1980, going 26-3 and being ranked as high as #16 at one point, but they lost in the first round of the NCAA tourney that year (which was the round of 32 at that time).

[stevo]

This thread is off the tracks........

[John K]

This thread is off the tracks........

Sorry...that was my fault.