Originally Posted by
dawg80
Lamar was good in 1984. They were just as good in 1985. In fact, Tech, Lamar, USL, and McNeese were all legit Top 40 in '85 and all should have made the Big Dance that year.
The best basketball EVER played in the TAC were the games vs. Lamar and USL in 1985. We won both games, in tough hard-fought battles. But the way the teams played those nights any of us could have beaten anyone in the country, including the then #1 ranked Georgetown Hoyas with Patrick Ewing. The shooting was unreal. Lamar was a perfect 30 of 30 from the FT line and shot something like 60% from the floor....and still lost, because the Dawgs shot the ball even better against tough defense. USL was unreal on the long-range bombs, they shot 60+% ...in the days before the 3-ptr. Had there been a 3-pt line....well, no, because Russo would have changed our defense to deny them the 3's. As it was we had to let them shoot from 25 feet, and sometimes longer, and damn if they didn't bury 'em. GREAT basketball those nights. Left the TAC knowing I had witnessed "as good as it gets."
Anyway, the Southland Conference was tough those days. As I recall we had just a 7-team conference: Tech, Lamar, USL, McNeese (with Joe Dumars), North Texas State, UT-Arlington, and the JUCO in Monroe. Should have put 4 teams in the Dance.