baab
Mop-Up Time
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Post by baab on Jan 31, 2014 0:18:33 GMT -5
Jim Harding...... "Despite solid attendance and winning the first ABA Championship, the Pittsburgh Pipers moved to Minnesota to replace the Minnesota Muskies who had moved down to Miami. It would simply be a disastrous season for the Pipers in Minnesota, as new Coach Jim Harding would often run his team into the ground with hard practices. The Pipers would win their first four games, including two straight home wins over the former Muskies, who were now called the Miami Floridians. However, as the season wore on the Pipers, who at one time held a 20-9 record began to break down. Things would take a turn for the worse at an all-star banquet as Coach Jim Harding physically attacked Gabe Rubin, the Chairman of the Pipers. After the fight General Manager Vern Mikkelsen took over for Harding until Verl Young was named as the permanent replacement.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2014 0:49:47 GMT -5
It's technically correct that Jim Harding left to coach in "the pros", he coached the ABA Minnesota Pipers but only for 33 games in the 68-69 season. The following year he was back at college at Detroit. Gola's second year as coach at LaSalle was not as good, they were only 14-12, but at one point they were 10-3. Then Bill Pleas the jumping jack power forward had academic issues, Ken Durrett had to go it alone and whence 14-12. Bill Pleas ended up at Detroit with Jim Harding in 71-72 and averaged 16 ppg and 12 rpg, had he remained eligible those 70 and 71 LaSalle teams might have been quite different. Westhead succeeded Gola in 1971 as coach, I don't recall the circumstances but I assume Gola's schedule was just too prohibitive. That 70-71 team is probably my favorite La Salle team. They were rolling along at 15-2, their only losses to Top 10 teams Penn and Syracuse, and then Kenny went down with the knee injury late in the Canisius game. After winning that game and the upset over Villanova to get to 17-2, they limped home the rest of the way, finishing 20-7 after a disappointing season-ending loss to Georgia Tech in the NIT with Durrett playing on one leg. I never saw a player dominate like Durrett did that season. His performance in a game against Final 4 participant Western Kentucky was the single greatest game I ever saw by a La Salle player. That team beat two of the Final 4 that season and if Durrett hadn't gotten hurt could have gone far in the tournament. Durrett, my all-time favorite player Bobby Fields, and Skyman Crawford did the bulk of the scoring and role players Greg Cannon, Ron Kennedy, Bob Walsh, Bill Michuda, and John Maull did the dirty work. Westhead did a great job with that team. I almost forgot how well that 69-70 team did before Pleas was declared academically ineligible. Durrett, Dunphy, and Fields were great. I remember them winning the Quaker City Tournament at the Spectrum, beating nationally-ranked Columbia and All-American Jim McMillan in the final. Fields shut him down and Dunphy ended up winning the MVP award. Dunphy could really shoot and had a great senior year. Columbia was not happy as Fields poked McMillan in the eye which hampered his vision for much of the game. Fields was one of the best defenders to ever play at La Salle, very similar defensively to Ramon.
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baab
Mop-Up Time
Posts: 93
Likes: 15
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Post by baab on Jan 31, 2014 2:09:48 GMT -5
yup. didn't that 70 team also lose jeff piccone too a 6'5" forward, not as important but. Your memories are better than mine, I didn't see any games live but saw that western kentucky game on channel 17. saw the villanova game with durrett waving the crutches over his head when they won on channel 17 too. from 69 saw that detroit game where spencer haywood scored like 40 points and had 30 rebounds and lasalle still won. different era, there was no cable, all you had was the big 5 on channel 17, but man was that great.
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Post by glorydays on Jan 31, 2014 6:45:42 GMT -5
It's technically correct that Jim Harding left to coach in "the pros", he coached the ABA Minnesota Pipers but only for 33 games in the 68-69 season. The following year he was back at college at Detroit. Gola's second year as coach at LaSalle was not as good, they were only 14-12, but at one point they were 10-3. Then Bill Pleas the jumping jack power forward had academic issues, Ken Durrett had to go it alone and whence 14-12. Bill Pleas ended up at Detroit with Jim Harding in 71-72 and averaged 16 ppg and 12 rpg, had he remained eligible those 70 and 71 LaSalle teams might have been quite different. Westhead succeeded Gola in 1971 as coach, I don't recall the circumstances but I assume Gola's schedule was just too prohibitive. That 70-71 team is probably my favorite La Salle team. They were rolling along at 15-2, their only losses to Top 10 teams Penn and Syracuse, and then Kenny went down with the knee injury late in the Canisius game. After winning that game and the upset over Villanova to get to 17-2, they limped home the rest of the way, finishing 20-7 after a disappointing season-ending loss to Georgia Tech in the NIT with Durrett playing on one leg. I never saw a player dominate like Durrett did that season. His performance in a game against Final 4 participant Western Kentucky was the single greatest game I ever saw by a La Salle player. That team beat two of the Final 4 that season and if Durrett hadn't gotten hurt could have gone far in the tournament. Durrett, my all-time favorite player Bobby Fields, and Skyman Crawford did the bulk of the scoring and role players Greg Cannon, Ron Kennedy, Bob Walsh, Bill Michuda, and John Maull did the dirty work. Westhead did a great job with that team. I almost forgot how well that 69-70 team did before Pleas was declared academically ineligible. Durrett, Dunphy, and Fields were great. I remember them winning the Quaker City Tournament at the Spectrum, beating nationally-ranked Columbia and All-American Jim McMillan in the final. Fields shut him down and Dunphy ended up winning the MVP award. Dunphy could really shoot and had a great senior year. Columbia was not happy as Fields poked McMillan in the eye which hampered his vision for much of the game. Fields was one of the best defenders to ever play at La Salle, very similar defensively to Ramon. kjmac has nailed it. Thanks for your remembrances of the 70-71 team. One of the most heartbreaking memories of my life was when Durrett went down. With today's surgical techniques he probably would have been able to recover and become an NBA star. If there were 30 NBA teams back then like there are today Bobby "Curly" Fields would have had an NBA career. 70-71 was Paul Westhead's first year and the man is still coaching.
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Post by coachd on Jan 31, 2014 23:41:36 GMT -5
God bless Mr. Gola. We do need to have a basketball statue of him outside of our new arena.
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Post by gymrat67 on Feb 2, 2014 12:56:12 GMT -5
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Post by jellybean on Feb 8, 2014 8:21:51 GMT -5
We all look up to someone. I heard Gola mention that the player he looked up to as a young player was Larry Foust. Gola led an effort for many years to get Mr. Foust elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Foust was an 8 times NBA All-Star during his career. A first team All-NBA player and a second team All-NBA player.
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Post by gymrat67 on Feb 8, 2014 12:20:23 GMT -5
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