By Paul Gotham
****Remember – try this without research.
Two years in a row the accomplishments of others have reminded fans of what my team did three decades ago. Last year, my son started on a team that advanced to the Final Four. Fans were talking about what we pulled off. This year, a team from our conference is trying on Cinderella’s slipper. That gets ’em talking about us. I hear them talk, but they never tell the whole story. Consider this, in one tournament we beat teams coached by Jim Valavano, Dean Smith, Jim Boeheim, and Lou Carnesecca. Alas, we didn’t have enough “magic” to win it all. I did my best. I scored 27 and grabbed 12 in the first round game. Dean Smith is the only coach to hold MJ under 20 a game, but he couldn’t keep me down. I scored 25 to go with 9 boards. Against SU, I had 20 and 7. I scored 21 against St. John’s. I didn’t do much in the NBA. I scored four points in five games for the San Diego Clippers.
Who am I?
Casey … you’re talking about a member of the 1979 Penn Quakers from the Ivy League, a team that fell to eventual National Champion Michigan State in the semifinals. MSU was of course led by Magic Johnson and Greg Kelser and they would go on and beat Larry Bird and Indiana State. So somebody from that Penn team, probably their best player, had a cup of coffee in the NBA and has a son who went to F4 last year. I don’t know who it is … maybe someone else can take it from here.
Wally, good call. I can’t add anything. I knew it was a loss to MSU, but I did not remember that Penn was that team. What a classic matchup that was, ISU v MSU, Magic v Bird. Trying to remeber last year’s F4, but no name comes to mind.