|
|
Post by phillyhoops4life on Dec 3, 2019 0:58:23 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by JoeFedorowicz on Dec 3, 2019 2:50:48 GMT -5
Rollie
|
|
|
|
Post by 23won on Dec 3, 2019 10:50:21 GMT -5
Rollie killed it. Others helped - like TU and SJU insisting on playing home games on campus v the Palestra. The NCAA helped by putting the kabosh on the first bucket celebration. Students at all schools helped by picking video games over live, real events like home games (generally) and special live real events, like B5 games.
When it came back after Rollie pulled Nova out, it could never be the same, but Jay has done his part to support it.
I think we would play all B5 games at Palestra if the other schools reciprocated. Would like to see that. I think that would help.
|
|
|
|
Post by sweat83 on Dec 3, 2019 11:16:23 GMT -5
Rollie killed it. Others helped - like TU and SJU insisting on playing home games on campus v the Palestra. The NCAA helped by putting the kabosh on the first bucket celebration. Students at all schools helped by picking video games over live, real events like home games (generally) and special live real events, like B5 games. When it came back after Rollie pulled Nova out, it could never be the same, but Jay has done his part to support it. I think we would play all B5 games at Palestra if the other schools reciprocated. Would like to see that. I think that would help. Bring back the doubleheaders at the Palestra. Would need a NOVA buy in though. Say, La Salle-St. Bonnie game 1, then Nova-Seton Hall game 2. Palestra venue would be great, but you could play this at the Wells Fargo center and get a pretty good crowd. The twin bills at the Palestra rocked in the early 80s |
|
|
|
Post by talkinbball on Dec 3, 2019 11:19:03 GMT -5
Rollie was just the first nail in the "killing" of the Big Five. The growth of the NCAA Tournament leading to the great importance and emphasis of conference standings and the strategic decisions of the individual universities in choosing their conference affiliations and relative commitments to their programs would have eventually led to where we are today anyway. Actually wish they would stop calling it the Big Five. Since you have to do something with it, just include Drexel and call it the City Six. Continuing use of the Big Five is just tarnishing great old memories.
|
|
|
|
Post by durenduren on Dec 3, 2019 12:03:17 GMT -5
They called this in 1991 when Rollie initially pulled this crap. Time didn't change the narrative, nor should it.
Blaming the NCAA scheduling changes is a cop-out. Rollie acted of our pure self-interest, used the clout of the 1985 championship to bully over tradition and the Big 5, and then hid behind their new on-campus arena financed by murderer when the criticisms came his way. Villanova wasn't a city school then, that's for sure. Their relationship with Philadelphia has always been one of convenience.
Dan Baker was quoted in an 1996 AP article, ironically saying he could have been revered like JoePa - "Rollie Massimino could have been the Joe Paterno of Philadelphia. He would have been revered here. Toward the end, he was shouted down in restaurants by people." I don't know - maybe when you fly that close to the sun, you're destined to burn eventually. Maybe that's the real cost of success in college sports - if you want to protect your image & reputation, you'll do it at all costs, even if the right choice isn't all that complicated to begin with. It's easy to lose sight of what's up and down.
|
|
|
|
Post by 23won on Dec 3, 2019 13:19:54 GMT -5
Rollie benefited greatly when Nova was accepted into the Big East. Before that, he had 114 wins at Nova to La Salle's 106 wins in that span, with his best year making the elite 8 after beating La Salle in the NCAA round of 32 (103-97). The programs were not that different in terms of quality and the Big 5 games were intense.
Once they got some juice out of the BE TV deal, the program took off a bit but actually wasn't dominant in the league like it is now. They won the BE once and shared the BE title another time under Rollie. IN '85 they did not dominate the BE (tied for 3d) but caught lightning in a bottle in the NCAAs and had the benefit of playing Gtown 2 or three times before the NCAA final.
The Paterno comparison by Baker is interesting. In the 84-85 year, it was widely known that his team had a big time cocaine problem. McClain was the worst, and was outed largely by himself later to make a few bucks on an SI tell all story focused on him. In reality, the whole team was in on it and had a problem. Rollie played to the press as the big family man, making pasta for the players and getting positive headlines, but he must have known his guys were using blow heavily, but he just looked the other way. When it hit the press eventually, he acted dumb and innocent like he knew nothing and the PR spin was that it was all on Gary.
He gets revered still by the media, but he was a selfish POS as a person. He couldn't hang on at Nova despite the championship; he was done after 5 lackluster years (out his last six years) at Nova and Nova did not extend him. He then was going to prove Nova wrong for cutting him loose and got a big contract with some shade surrounding it at UNLV. Ultimately he failed at UNLV at a time when they could really attract players; yet he failed to build off that. He was canned by UNLV after less than two seasons. Then he coached way too long at Cleveland State with a winning percentage in the low 40th percentile.
If he was the coaching genius he was made out to be by the media, he surely could have retired at Nova. Instead he kept descending lower on the coaching pyramid, eventually settling to the D2/3 level. That's the real story, not the fairly tale spun during our 12/1 game broadcast that he was at the top of the Nova hierarchy all time and built Nova for Jay. Nova was great before Rollie and great after. He could not hold Jay's jock when it comes to winning, program culture, xs and os, motivation. He couldn't hold a candle to Jay as a quality human being, and he couldn't coach worth a damn in the back half of his career.
|
|
