Bringing in Top Recruits Does Not Ensure Instant Success

[LC-88]

That 1989 team wasn't about fight. That was about a team with some veteran players who were finally healthy and some decent offensive players including a small forward who led the team in scoring while shooting 50% from three for the season (!!) playing disciplined basketball in a really, really down year in a mediocre conference (that's one long run-on sentence but you get the idea.) If you want an example of a team with fight, I'd go with Mike Rice's 1st year squad as the one that stands out.

I sat in the student section with the other 20 people for the last year of Littlepage. Same cast of characters the following year. They didn't come out of the gate particularly fast, but they absolutely busted their a$$es once the realized they could win. I didn't get to see any of the latter Waters or Rice teams much. I give alot of credit to Tom "The Original/#35" Savage. He carried that team on his back the last Littlepage year. Me and 50 other RU fans saw him pull out the win over Penn State to break the losing streak. Also loved the hustle of Ricky Dadika and Miles Dixon. 88-89 team gets my vote. Not saying other teams don't deserve it. Didn't get to see every one.