Best/Favorite single play in UMass History

Bub89 · Post by **Bub89** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 7:33 pm

Best: Harper's three. I was there and it was great.

Favorite: Mike Williams game winning three at GW and his subsequent taunting of the crowd.

InnervisionsUMASS · Post by **InnervisionsUMASS** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 7:36 pm

Best play - ??????

Favorite Play - vs. Kentucky to start the 95-96 season when Camby steals the ball upon the rotation after the Kentucky inbound pass to start the second half, runs the full length of the court, and slams it home, all but sealing the game, and the #1 spot in the country.

LS71 · Post by **LS71** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 9:00 pm

By far the best play for me was the double dunk that Julius Erving did before the Syracuse game at the Cage in 1971.

Stop me if you've heard this one before..

There was no dunking allowed at that time either during the game or during warm-ups. If someone dunked, even during warm-ups, a techincal was called. Syracuse was at the Cage ands the game was being televised.

The Cage was packed. Julius came out before the refs did. He came to the north end of the court dribbling a basketball in each hand. He went the length of the floor from north to south and jammed both balls! The place went crazy and UMass kicked Syracuse's ass. If memory serves, Julius got 32 points and 20 rebounds.

Next in no particlular order:

Tony's 3 against Siena.
Harper's 3 against Syracuse.
Rigo's dive against St. Joe's.

philosopher · Post by **philosopher** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 9:26 pm

I was there. I think the score is as you recall, LS. The double dunk was roof raiser for sure. Wasn't that the year he finished 2nd in rebounding nationally to Artis Gilmore?

LS71 · Post by **LS71** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 9:30 pm

philosopher wrote:I was there. I think the score is as you recall, LS. The double dunk was roof raiser for sure. Wasn't that the year he finished 2nd in rebounding nationally to Artis Gilmore?

I'm not sure but I think so. It was his 2nd and last varsity season.

Of course this is a guy who got 20 rebounds in his first HALF of varsity basketball against Providence at the Cage. Broke the school record.

Simply unforgettable!

philosopher · Post by **philosopher** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 9:39 pm

LS, we had the unbelievable privilege of watching a 6'3" freshman grow into one of the greatest hoopsters of all time. He finished that Providence game, his first varsity game, with 27 boards. And he still didn't get any national pub until almost the end of the year.

MullinsManiac · Post by **MullinsManiac** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 9:43 pm

Best: Harper's 3.

Favorite: Donald Russell's fast break layup at the overtime buzzer in 1983, giving UMass their last win vs. UConn ... until this season.

Mr. Hindsight · Post by **Mr. Hindsight** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:03 pm

I think the game was in 1991 when LaSalle had Randy Woods and Doug OVerton. Anyhow, Anton brown threw a low alley-oop pass that was caught by the LaSalle Center in the air. In mid-air, Herndon grabbed the ball from the LaSalle player and dunked behind his head. Probably the most exciting/dynamic player at UMass since Dr. J. And he was only 6'3"!

nale · Post by **nale** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 10:03 am

One of my favorite moments was a pre-game move by Julius.

In those days college players were not allowed to dunk during the game.
At happened in the Cage I think it was a BC game but everything in the 70's is hazy to me. After warm-ups Erving comes out on the court with a ball in each hand and runs to the hoop and in one move leaps and dunks both balls teh crowd went crazy and stayed that way though-out the game.

For game moments any one of Mike Williams seven(?) game winning shots are up there

Correction: It was Syracuse. See LS71 post above.

daveyboy · Post by **daveyboy** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 6:19 pm

In Dr Js game vs Syracuse I think he had 36 points and over 30 rebounds.
Of course I may be having a senior moment,but 36 and 32 sounds about right.That ranks as one of the most dominant games by an opponent in Syracuse basketball history.

Umass73 · Post by **Umass73** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 7:20 pm

LS71 wrote:By far the best play for me was the double dunk that Julius Erving did before the Syracuse game at the Cage in 1971.

Stop me if you've heard this one before..

There was no dunking allowed at that time either during the game or during warm-ups. If someone dunked, even during warm-ups, a techincal was called. Syracuse was at the Cage ands the game was being televised.

The Cage was packed. Julius came out before the refs did. He came to the south end of the court dribbling a basketball in each hand. He went the length of the floor from south to north and jammed both balls! The place went crazy and UMass kicked Syracuse's ass. If memory serves, Julius got 32 points and 20 rebounds.

LS71- I remember when Dr. J did this in the cage. He would dunk during warmups when refs backs were turn, crowd went wild, and he just casually started shooting. I saw Dr. J play North Carolina in Masidon Sqaure Garden at the NIt when it was a big deal. You knew back then he was going to bigger places in life. The NC NIT was probably his last year before he went hardshit to the Nets. With him the following year we were preseason top 20 which was a real big deal back then. Your memory is incredible, I can't remember if it was N to S or S to N, but still a great memory! Dr. J made dunking a graceful fine art never to be duplicated.......

My favorite play- anytime Dr. J laced 'em up and took the court.

DrG · Post by **DrG** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 8:12 pm

From the official record book: Most rebounds in a game, 32 by Julius Erving vs. Syracuse on 2/22/71. He also had 36 points in that game. If my memory serves me correctly, he did it against a seven-footer.

harbo · Post by **harbo** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:18 pm

Umass73 wrote: The NC NIT was probably his last year before he went hardshit to the Nets.

Either you are really pissed at the rule that took away his senior year, or it was a Freudian slip protesting that rule. Either way it would have been nice to see what Erving and Skinner could have done to D1 hoops.

BTW, didn't he hardshit to the Virginia Squires (or Kentucky Colonels?)?

Also BTW, what happened in that NIT blowout by UNC? I've neverheard much discussion of what went wrong.

LS71 · Post by **LS71** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:47 pm

DrG wrote:From the official record book: Most rebounds in a game, 32 by Julius Erving vs. Syracuse on 2/22/71. He also had 36 points in that game. If my memory serves me correctly, he did it against a seven-footer.

Yup, the kid's name was Bill Smith. The game was on regional TV which was rare then.

I wasn't at the NC NIT game but I remember that he fouled out at the end of the 1st half with 13 points. UMass lost 91 or 93 to 49. I believe that those 13 points made him the all-time UMass scoring leader.

You're right about the NIT being a big deal though. The season before Al McGuire passed up an NCAA bid to play in the NIT. So, who does UMass play in the first round? Marquette...with Dean "The Dream" Meminger. UMass lost 61-55.

He only played 2 varsity seasons before leaving for a $400,000 contract to join the Virginia Squires after his junior year.

His freshman team was outstanding. They generally outdrew the varsity.

We can only wonder what UMass would havebeen likewith Julous and Al on the same team.

Now, where did I put my keys...

nale · Post by **nale** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 10:54 am

LS71 wrote:
I wasn't at the NC NIT game but I remember that he fouled out at the end of the 1st half with 13 points. UMass lost 91 or 93 to 49. I believe that those 13 points made him the all-time UMass scoring leader.

You're right about the NIT being a big deal though. The season before Al McGuire passed up an NCAA bid to play in the NIT. So, who does UMass play in the first round? Marquette...with Dean "The Dream" Meminger. UMass lost 61-55.

He only played 2 varsity seasons before leaving for a $400,000 contract to join the Virginia Squires after his junior year.

His freshman team was outstanding. They generally outdrew the varsity.

We can only wonder what UMass would havebeen likewith Julous and Al on the same team.

Now, where did I put my keys...

I was at the Garden for that NIT game but so high up I almost couldn't see the court. The NIT was huge then. The NCCA didn't take that many teams and back then I believe only took one team from a league. I think NC may have been ranked thrid in the country but played in the NIT because they didn't win the ACC. To win the NIT in 1971 NC beat Massachusetts, Providence, Duke and Georgia Tech.
IT really would have been fun to see Julius together.

UMassHoops.com

Best/Favorite single play in UMass History

Herndon Reverse Slam against LaSalle at the Cage- see detail