Jump to content

1978 NIT-Abe Lemons & Texas Take Manhattan


Goo Punch

Recommended Posts

I attended UT during Abe’s period, hence my handle Horn80.  Couple of things that I recall from the NIT Championship game is that Texas scored numerous points on very long passes almost the entire length of the court for easy buckets.   It happened enough times that NC State was embrassed.  Also, tha t was a good description of Tyrone Branyan, Jr except he even looked more awkward on the court and can be imagined but he was very good player.  Use to watch him play and just shake my head about how someone like that could be such a good player.  It was truly amazing to watch him.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I loved Abe and those teams. We had front row season tickets from the time they opened The Drum, and I was a ball boy for a few of those years. My dad used to take the guys on the team fishing and every year, we'd have a fish fry for the team with everything they'd caught. Fond memories of playing basketball in the driveway with a lot of those guys.

Johnny Moore will always be one of my favorite people in life. Great man. He always seemed to be around when I was growing up, even after he'd moved on from UT. Went to SA when they retired his number, and he saw me, came over, shook my hand, and gave me a hug as he left the court.

Thanks for sharing that. Fond memories.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A couple of comments. First, Coach Black didn't snitch. When Godine and Williams came in for their official visit, they were told that they were going to be investigated to make sure that wherever they went, it was a clean recruitment. Belcher who was part of the trio came to Texas and he was still investigated. If these kids were stupid enough to take stuff anyway, they got what they deserved. Coach Black was vilified in the media because those idiots didn't know the real story.

 

As far as leaving coaching, I don't know how true that was. It had as much if not more to do with the fact that DKR treated the bball program like crap and nothing more than an inconvenience to his football team. 

RIP Goodner.

Abe's refusal to use his bench much cost us dearly when Wacker got hurt. That was a final 4 team but the only bench player that saw much action was Montgomery who I think transferred from NC State. He could shoot but he wasn't that athletic otherwise. He became the 5th starter and it went down hill from there.  

The reason that Junior was headed to Providence and I believe that was before the Big East was formed was because that was his only real offer. If I remember correctly, his other offer was from the U of Indiana at Pennsylvania and that was because his brother went there. The larger point is that many of these "stars" that kids get mean little. If I am not mistaken, Johnny is still the all time assists per game leader for the Spurs and its a shame that his career was cut short. Don't sweat the stars nonsense.

Most people didn't know that Krivacs was a transfer from Auburn when I think that Sonny Smith was their coach. Also, after the 3 point line was instituted, coaches started adjusting to it. Not Abe. He was actually running a 3 point offense before it actually existed.

Finally, derka, the reason that I jump on you is because I knew your Dad and you had opportunities that very few fans had. You should know how hard these kids work and most fans don't.

You should also recognize that coaches get too much credit and too much blame. There is no problem being critical but you should be smarter than most posters. I hope your Dad is well. 

Thanks for posting. It fun to remember the past.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can’t believe how hard I was laughing at all those full court passes that burned NC State throughput the game that they never really adjusted to. Just so unexpected at first. Almost felt sorry for the Wolfpack. Almost.

the NIT wasn’t the joke it is today.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also on that NIT Squad:  Ovie Dotson was really athletic but out of control.  John Danks provided necessary minutes from the bench, and Mike Murphy was a local Austin hero that unfortunately never lived up to his potential at Texas.

Buddy of mine loved Ron Baxter because he was a football type of player who played basketball.  The year following the NIT season, we witnessed Baxter damn near send a guy to the hospital on a drive to the basket .... Ron's shoulder hit the guy's jaw and it sounded like a baseball bat smacked the poor defenders face......

Johnny Moore during that time period was every bit as quick and talented as TJ Ford.... very underrated.  Had Johnny not contracted an unusual illness called "Desert Fever" during his time in the NBA,  the Spurs might have won a Championship sooner and Johnny's NBA career would have been longer.  The Spurs did retire Johnny's "00" number which still hangs in the rafters today in San Antonio.

Below is an article that includes info on Johnny and his rare and mysterious disease "Desert Fever".  At the time, the only treatment for the disease he had contracted was a drug administered through a hole drilled into his skull.

https://www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs/article/Spurs-Where-Are-They-Now-Johnny-Moore-7240375.php

 

Edited by LTtxfan
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Goo Punch said:

Mike Murphy was my HS coach and our district rivals Round Rock featured John Danks Jr as one of their many baseball studs from that time. 

Mike Murphy was one of my students at Porter Jr. High (1969-1970) he was about 6’2” or 6’3” then. Nice kid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One day during practice Coach Murphy was getting upset with some players for not making shots while we were scrimmaging, so he subbed out one of our best players for himself, and proceeded to nail four consecutive shots from about 27 feet. He literally just stood on the one spot, demanded the ball, and swished four consecutive shots from a mile away, then just glared at us and walked off the court. 

Edited by Goo Punch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, realgreggym said:

A couple of comments. First, Coach Black didn't snitch. When Godine and Williams came in for their official visit, they were told that they were going to be investigated to make sure that wherever they went, it was a clean recruitment. Belcher who was part of the trio came to Texas and he was still investigated. If these kids were stupid enough to take stuff anyway, they got what they deserved. Coach Black was vilified in the media because those idiots didn't know the real story.

Wait so somebody was breaking the rules and the whistle blower got destroyed in the media? You see it is garbage like this that killed the SWC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

Wait so somebody was breaking the rules and the whistle blower got destroyed in the media? You see it is garbage like this that killed the SWC.

No. These 3 kids knew that they were being investigated to make sure that their recruitment was clean.  That's a problem for you?  Thats not what killed the SWC. It was television because of the demographics of the conference and then the pigs left.  SMU was a gazillion times worse.

BTW, the media disliked Coach Black because he was honest and wouldn't play games. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Mike Murphy was one of my students at Porter Jr. High (1969-1970) he was about 6’2” or 6’3” then. Nice kid.

Armybrat:

You probably know these 3 guys who played basketball with Mike:  Burt Burrows, Art Miles,  Steve Weber??

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Braff Zacklin said:

As a recovering journalist, this last comment makes no sense.

Braff, the media didn't like him and they did everything they could to hurt the program. For example using this example, the late .Anita Martini did an interview with Godine when he was in a hospital with a bad sore throat. She did so because she wanted to make Coach Black look bad by investigating this poor innocent black child. The next day, I called her show and made her look foolish. Last time that I have called a radio show. The point is that for some reason, much of the media didn't like him. And he was honest to a fault.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good piece.  Abe’s personality overshadowed his b-ball genius, the matchup zone.  Imo, the most underrated part of his coaching talent was recruiting.  LaSalle Thompson and Wacker on the same team, at Texas?  Maybe at a basketball school, but not here.  Without the Waco disaster, who knows how far that team would have gone?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, markstanco said:

How was the nit a big thing back then? Does that take away from all those UCLA titles? I know the nit was at a time bigger than the ncaa tourney but not sure of the timeline on it.

Serious question.

Only 32 teams in the NCAA tourney, at the time. A lot of quality teams leftover for the NIT. 

Edited by Deej
Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Deej said:

Only 32 teams in the NCAA tourney, at the time. A lot of quality teams leftover for the NIT. 

Marquette accepted an NIT bid because AM didn’t like where the NCAA was placing them in the tournament, so he turned that bid down.   That ‘78 season may have been the first NIT to have campus games.  When UK won it in ‘76, all games were at the Garden(watched UK play Niagara in the opener). 

Edited by Underdog
Link to comment
Share on other sites

More Abe quotes:  

  • "Damn referees, I'll miss them less than anybody."  🤘 
  • "Doctors bury their mistakes, but mine are still on scholarship."
  • "Coaches who shoot par in the summer are the guys I want on my schedule in the winter."
  • "There are really only two plays: Romeo and Juliet, and put the darn ball in the basket."
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Texas Longhorns (Southwest Conference) (1976–1982)
1976–77 Texas 13–13 8–8 T–4th  
1977–78 Texas 26–5 14–2 T–1st NIT Champion
1978–79 Texas 21–8 13–3 T–1st NCAA Division I Second Round
1979–80 Texas 19–11 10–6 3rd NIT Second Round
1980–81 Texas 15–15 7–9 T–6th  
1981–82 Texas 16–11 6–10 T–7th  
Texas: 110–63 (.636) 58–38 (.604)

 

not a bad record considering football got all the attention

Edited by NowThis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...