RU's loss to St. John's in the 1979 Sweet 16 was the worst.
I remember that game very well ... what a horrible job by Young (generally a terrific game coach) in that game.
RU had already beaten St. Johns 2 - or maybe even 3 - times that season, and was clearly the better team (a reminder that the better team does not always win individual games). RU had built a 9 or 11 point lead with 10-11 minutes left, and James Bailey had just out the St. Johns center McCoy on the bench with 4 fouls - where he would sit for at least 6-7 minutes.
I thought the game was OVER, with St. Johns 2nd best player and only player who even had a chance of defending Bailey on the bench ... instead or pressing the advantage, Young had RU PURPOSELY slow down the offense to run clock ... and RU's offensive rhythm, which till that point had been terrific, went completely out the door, and St. John's slowly whittled down the lead WITHOUT McCoy on the floor. Geez ... I as screaming for the team to pick up the pace, not to freeze the ball.
Even blowing the lead RU was left to end game chances, which they failed.
What a killer. RU would have faced U of Penn next, who had upset their opponent. And while Penn beat St. Johns in the quarterfinal, I do not think they would have done so against RU: RU was a match-up nightmare versus Penn.
So ... because Young screwed the pooch coaching the ST. Johns game, we were deprived of seeing a Final Four game of RU versus Michigan St, of Bailey versus Magic Johnson. I think RU probably would have lost that game - Johnson was an amazing college player (in addition to being a Hall of Fame, position-defining pro) ... but RU at least had the star player to potentially offset MSU.
MSU had 3 terrific players: Gregory Kelser (their leading scorer at 19 ppg), Magic Johnson (the All American), and Jay Vincent as a sophomore (became a star the next 2 years without Magic or Kelser). Their center was a Junior, a solid player who became very good as a Senior, Ron Charles. But RU matched up really well with MSU, even if a little less talented.
1) Bailey and Charles would have been matched against each other, of course ... Advantage RU, by a lot.
2) Abdel Anderson would have started off covering Magic, I would have thought - RU's best defender, against MSU's best player - like Anderson covered Larry Bird the prior season in the NIT ... Advantage big time ot MSU, of course ... but Anderson WAS a terrific defender. and might have been able to limit Magic a little.
3) I would then assume Kelvin Troy, RU's next best non-center defender would have covered Kelser, and Daryl Strickland would have covered Vincent.
RU had little depth, though ... Tom Brown was the starting PG (would have covered MSU's 5th starter a guard) ... RU had 4 players average 30+ mpg, 5 average 27_ mpg, plus Griffin as the main Guard reserve (13 mpg) and Jon McDaniel as the Forward reserve (10 mpg) ... and Bill Clark at 10 mpg (who?). Though MSU was not deep either: They only went 6 deep, really (Brkovich as the 6th man - no other player beyond their top 6 averaged more than 9 mpg).
I would have loved that match up, though. And remember, RU BEAT Indiana St the prior year in the NIT - and in fact until MSU beat Indiana St in the finals, RU had been the last team to beat Indiana St. ... and remember, Indiana State was REALLY thin, just TWO players of any real quality - though Bird was amazing and Nicks was very good.
And that would have been 2 Final Fours in a span of 4 years - and who knows what trajectory the program might have taken ... though to be honest, Young, as great a coach as he was (and he was very, very good), WAS an indifferent to lazy recruiter ... I have a dim memory of RU losing out to transfer from Maryland Jo Jo Hunter, a very highly regarded 2G, due to lazy recruiting but I could be completely wrong (he transferred to Colorado - where he did star, so maybe I have the wrong guy) ... maybe it was failing to get Hunter following the '75-'76 Final Four season - he ended up initially at Maryland? As I said, I could be wrong, but for some reason it is stuck in my mind that RU had a real shot at Hunter, a star ball player from DC (where Young was VERY strong)
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