Classic La Salle/Temple game on Youtube

[broderickpresident]

Maybe not classic, per se, as this was one of La Salle's worst performances in the L-Train era and probably *the* worst of the sustained 2 years of dominance in 1988-89 and 1989-90, but nonetheless a full-game on YouTube (added yesterday) of one of the greatest teams in La Salle history playing Temple at a sold out Palestra on January 4, 1989:

La Salle was 8-2 entering the game. They lost their season opener at #8 Syracuse in the preseason NIT. Cuse was absolutely loaded with Derrick Coleman, Billy Owens, Sherman Douglas and Stevie Thompson among others. Explorers then won 8 straight, including 3 Big 5 wins and a win over 16th-ranked South Carolina (a team with 3 NBA players) before losing to Georgia (also with 3 NBA players) in a game the refs handed to UGA.

Temple was coming off their Elite 8 season in which they spent much of the year ranked #1. However, they lost 3 of their starting 5 from that team (lotto pick Tim Perry, Howie Evans and Ramon Rivas) and returned Mark Macon and Mike Vreeswyk from starting lineup. They notably added Mik Kilgore (who had won Markward Award over Randy Woods) and moved 7-footer Duane Causwell (Lionel's future Kings teammate) into the starting lineup. Plenty of talent on the team but they entered the game just 3-4 and had been shooting miserably. Their 4 losses were all to big time national programs, though: #8 Mizzou, #11 Zona, defending champs Kansas and Villanova (who had lost at home to La Salle).

So this was a huge game for La Salle, who was on the brink of breaking into the Top 20 (88-89 was the final year the AP Poll only went 20 deep, instead of 25. In fact, if the ranking had been 25 deep at the time, I believe LSU would have been ranked 21-25 somewhere entering this game). They were going for a 4-0 Big 5 run and looking to slay a Temple team that they had suffered heartbreaking losses to in recent years (blew 20 point halftime lead at Palestra in 1986-87 and lost by a basket to top-ranked Temple at McGonigle in 1987-88).

La Salle had also suffered major personal losses after 1987-88: gone were Tim Legler and Richie Tarr who had combined for nearly 30 PPG and hit nearly half of their 10 combined 3PA per game. Still, somehow this 1988-89 team was nearly as good or better shooting the ball: freshman Jack Hurd seemed to never miss. Doug Overton was turning into a superstar. Bobby Johnson was developing into one of the most potent 6th-men in the country, Craig Conlin is maybe the most accurate mid-range shooter in La Salle history and then there was Lionel

Unfortunately, no one but Lionel could hit a shot in this game and despite a strong closing effort, Temple won 67-57. Not the best game to see how good these guys were, as most couldn't hit a shot. Lionel was excellent but the Temple zone was collapsing all around him at all times and it was very difficult to get him the ball. Speedy probably waited too long to go small as Milko (at this time) and Steve Wriedt simply couldn't offer anything against Temple's size advantage. Also, as was generally the case when La Salle lost game in this era. THEY TOOK 4 DAMN FTs! No respect Attachment DeletedAttachment DeletedAttachment DeletedAttachment Deleted

[23won]

Good memories. I lived out of the area that year and drove pretty far to a bar to watch the opener against Cuse. I thought Hurd’s addition and the maturation of Lionel and his crew would help us beat Cuse. My expectations were shattered by a great Cuse team. Wound up being a great year

[explorer88]

I go back to 1984 following La Salle basketball. Two toughest son of a bitches to put on a La Salle uniform were Craig Conlin and Randy Woods.

This game reminded me how tough Conlin was. For 4 years he battled centers that were 3-4 inches taller than him and 20-40 lbs heavier and won almost 100 games during that span. That was some heavy lifting.

[broderickpresident]

Apr 11, 2020 10:08:45 GMT -5 explorer88 said:

I go back to 1984 following La Salle basketball. Two toughest son of a bitches to put on a La Salle uniform were Craig Conlin and Randy Woods.

This game reminded me how tough Conlin was. For 4 years he battled centers that were 3-4 inches taller than him and 20-40 lbs heavier and won almost 100 games during that span. That was some heavy lifting.

Too bad they never got to play together. Imagine this team with Randy, who was sitting out a prop-48 year as a freshman