College Basketball "what ifs"

Since it is March Madness time, I decided to post some College Basketball "what ifs"

1. What if Loyola Marymount would have played Ball State in the West Regional Final in 1990 instead of UNLV(BSU almost knocked off the Rebels that year in the third round)?

2. What if Bob Knight would have taken over the job at Wisconsin in the late-60's(this almost happened)?

3. What if John Wooden would have taken the Minnesota job in the late-40's instead of the UCLA job(this also almost happened)?

4. What if Kentucky was given the Death Penalty in 1989 instead of just placed on probation for a few years?

5. What if Bill Hodges wasn't so persistent with trying to get a kid by the name of Larry Bird to come to Indiana State?
 
4. What if Kentucky was given the Death Penalty in 1989 instead of just placed on probation for a few years?

This is the only one I can offer a definate answer on: Never would have happened.

By '89, the NCAA had a few years worth of harsh evidence as to just what kind of "nuclear" impact the Death Penalty really had on a school's sports program: SMU.

After they saw just how bad the Death Penalty wrecked SMU's football program (and it took them until just this past season to recover) there was no way they were ever going to serve up the Death Penalty to any school ever again.

Put it this way: Look at some of the crap that's happened since SMU and the NCAA still hasn't dropped the Death Penalty on anybody since.

It's called the Death Penalty for a reason...:eek:
 
Kentucky

This is the only one I can offer a definate answer on: Never would have happened.

By '89, the NCAA had a few years worth of harsh evidence as to just what kind of "nuclear" impact the Death Penalty really had on a school's sports program: SMU.

After they saw just how bad the Death Penalty wrecked SMU's football program (and it took them until just this past season to recover) there was no way they were ever going to serve up the Death Penalty to any school ever again.

Put it this way: Look at some of the crap that's happened since SMU and the NCAA still hasn't dropped the Death Penalty on anybody since.

It's called the Death Penalty for a reason...:eek:

Actually, they were pretty close to giving them the death sentence, but because Kentucky President David Roselle was so cooperative, they decided to just suspend the program. David conducted a thorough investigation, and did several things, like disassociating the program from a booster who was involved in the violations, and firing coach Eddie Sutton and his whole staff.
 
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