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I was curious about our NIT championship year and starting doing some research on the 78-79 season.  That year in the Big 10, 7 of the 10 schools appeared in the Top 20 at some point in time.  The conference was loaded.  We finished 5th.  There was a 3 way tie for 1st with MSU, Iowa, and Purdue.  All at 13-5.  OSU was 4th at 12-6.  Then us at 10-8.  Even though they expanded the NCAAT to 40 that year.  They only selected MSU and Iowa.  Purdue got hosed.  The NIT field consisted of 24 teams.  One thing I had forgotten about is that OSU reached the FF of the NIT as well as us and the Boilers.

The oddest thing I found was that Northwestern went 2-16 that year but spanked eventual NCAA champ MSU by 18.

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3 hours ago, rico said:

I was curious about our NIT championship year and starting doing some research on the 78-79 season.  That year in the Big 10, 7 of the 10 schools appeared in the Top 20 at some point in time.  The conference was loaded.  We finished 5th.  There was a 3 way tie for 1st with MSU, Iowa, and Purdue.  All at 13-5.  OSU was 4th at 12-6.  Then us at 10-8.  Even though they expanded the NCAAT to 40 that year.  They only selected MSU and Iowa.  Purdue got hosed.  The NIT field consisted of 24 teams.  One thing I had forgotten about is that OSU reached the FF of the NIT as well as us and the Boilers.

The oddest thing I found was that Northwestern went 2-16 that year but spanked eventual NCAA champ MSU by 18.

Some great nuggets there! I just think of Larry Bird when I think of 1979...the what if's of had he stayed. Actually he would have graduated before that season so that's a mute point. Also hard to tell if he would have developed into the player he became as well. The other scenario is if Bird graduated in 1978 he would have likely been the first pick in the draft.......to the Indiana Pacers! Guess we could go on and on lol!!!

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12 minutes ago, dgambill said:

Some great nuggets there! I just think of Larry Bird when I think of 1979...the what if's of had he stayed. Actually he would have graduated before that season so that's a mute point. Also hard to tell if he would have developed into the player he became as well. The other scenario is if Bird graduated in 1978 he would have likely been the first pick in the draft.......to the Indiana Pacers! Guess we could go on and on lol!!!

Bird was drafted in '78 by the Celtics.  They retained his rights even though he played another year in college.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_NBA_draft

 

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2 hours ago, rico said:

Bird was drafted in '78 by the Celtics.  They retained his rights even though he played another year in college.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_NBA_draft

 

True.  But, if '78 would have been Bird's senior year, there is no way he falls to the Celtics at #6.  I think that's dgambill's point.  The Pacers had the #1 pick in the draft that year before trading it to Portland.  Pacers ended up picking #3.  No way the Pacers pass on Bird regardless if they selected #1 or #3.

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5 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

True.  But, if '78 would have been Bird's senior year, there is no way he falls to the Celtics at #6.  I think that's dgambill's point.  The Pacers had the #1 pick in the draft that year before trading it to Portland.  Pacers ended up picking #3.  No way the Pacers pass on Bird regardless if they selected #1 or #3.

But the Pacers could have picked him in '78?

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Just now, rico said:

But the Pacers could have picked him in '78?

I'm sure they knew that he was going to go back to school in '79 and wanted someone that would have an immediate impact.  Of course, they got Rick Robey, but I understand the concept of not wanting to wait a whole year for your draft pick to contribute.

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1 minute ago, 5fouls said:

I'm sure they knew that he was going to go back to school in '79 and wanted someone that would have an immediate impact.  Of course, they got Rick Robey, but I understand the concept of not wanting to wait a whole year for your draft pick to contribute.

Well they f***ed up.

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I've told this story on the old site, so if you have seen it before, please skip over this post.

Spring semester 1979 was my last semester in Bloomington. I was taking 12 credit hours, six of which were beginning piano and volleyball. Needless to say, I was not stretched academically.

The first round game for IU in the NIT was on a Thursday night in Lubbock, Texas v Texas Tech. On Tuesday afternoon 2 roommates and I decided we were going to drive to the game. They were pre-dentistry students and had to go to class Wednesday morning. We left Bloomington about 4:00 Wednesday afternoon and drove straight through-arriving in Lubbock around noon Thursday. We drove my Datsun B-210 hatchback. I am 6'1" and about 215lbs. and was the smallest of the 3. Only two of us could drive a stick, so we split the driving. The third guy slept most of the way, I think.

As I said, we arrived around noon on game day. Mid-March. 85 degrees. Girls in bikinis. Checked into our motel and got about 6 hours sleep before the game. Of course, IU won. We wanted to hit a bar to celebrate, only to find out that Lubbock was in a dry county and the nearest bar was 50 miles away. We had driven too far to want a beer that bad, so we just went back to the motel.

Next morning, woke up and I don't think it was 40 degrees. The bikinis were gone. We had to turn around and make the same non-stop trip back to Bloomington, as the opening round of the NCAA tournament was being played at AH and we had friends coming.

We had a good friend, now a major journalist in Louisville, who was a sports writer for the IDS at the time. She wrote a nice story about our trip (having flown back and forth to Lubbock) . I don't believe that they archive the IDS back that far, but I'd love to have a copy of her article.

Probably one of the craziest and most spontaneous things I've ever done and the memories are something that have lasted a lifetime 

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12 minutes ago, Jerry Lundergaard said:

I've told this story on the old site, so if you have seen it before, please skip over this post.

Spring semester 1979 was my last semester in Bloomington. I was taking 12 credit hours, six of which were beginning piano and volleyball. Needless to say, I was not stretched academically.

The first round game for IU in the NIT was on a Thursday night in Lubbock, Texas v Texas Tech. On Tuesday afternoon 2 roommates and I decided we were going to drive to the game. They were pre-dentistry students and had to go to class Wednesday morning. We left Bloomington about 4:00 Wednesday afternoon and drove straight through-arriving in Lubbock around noon Thursday. We drove my Datsun B-210 hatchback. I am 6'1" and about 215lbs. and was the smallest of the 3. Only two of us could drive a stick, so we split the driving. The third guy slept most of the way, I think.

As I said, we arrived around noon on game day. Mid-March. 85 degrees. Girls in bikinis. Checked into our motel and got about 6 hours sleep before the game. Of course, IU won. We wanted to hit a bar to celebrate, only to find out that Lubbock was in a dry county and the nearest bar was 50 miles away. We had driven too far to want a beer that bad, so we just went back to the motel.

Next morning, woke up and I don't think it was 40 degrees. The bikinis were gone. We had to turn around and make the same non-stop trip back to Bloomington, as the opening round of the NCAA tournament was being played at AH and we had friends coming.

We had a good friend, now a major journalist in Louisville, who was a sports writer for the IDS at the time. She wrote a nice story about our trip (having flown back and forth to Lubbock) . I don't believe that they archive the IDS back that far, but I'd love to have a copy of her article.

Probably one of the craziest and most spontaneous things I've ever done and the memories are something that have lasted a lifetime 

Love the story.  I had a similar one from my college days, though mine involved a strip club, a farmer's daughter, 3 stolen chickens, and a night in jail.  🐔🐔🐔

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11 hours ago, 5fouls said:

I'm sure they knew that he was going to go back to school in '79 and wanted someone that would have an immediate impact.  Of course, they got Rick Robey, but I understand the concept of not wanting to wait a whole year for your draft pick to contribute.

Slick Leonard said the reason they did not pick him in 78 was that ownership was about to go under and could not wait a year on a top draft pick to get to the Pacers.

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13 hours ago, Jerry Lundergaard said:

I've told this story on the old site, so if you have seen it before, please skip over this post.

Spring semester 1979 was my last semester in Bloomington. I was taking 12 credit hours, six of which were beginning piano and volleyball. Needless to say, I was not stretched academically.

The first round game for IU in the NIT was on a Thursday night in Lubbock, Texas v Texas Tech. On Tuesday afternoon 2 roommates and I decided we were going to drive to the game. They were pre-dentistry students and had to go to class Wednesday morning. We left Bloomington about 4:00 Wednesday afternoon and drove straight through-arriving in Lubbock around noon Thursday. We drove my Datsun B-210 hatchback. I am 6'1" and about 215lbs. and was the smallest of the 3. Only two of us could drive a stick, so we split the driving. The third guy slept most of the way, I think.

As I said, we arrived around noon on game day. Mid-March. 85 degrees. Girls in bikinis. Checked into our motel and got about 6 hours sleep before the game. Of course, IU won. We wanted to hit a bar to celebrate, only to find out that Lubbock was in a dry county and the nearest bar was 50 miles away. We had driven too far to want a beer that bad, so we just went back to the motel.

Next morning, woke up and I don't think it was 40 degrees. The bikinis were gone. We had to turn around and make the same non-stop trip back to Bloomington, as the opening round of the NCAA tournament was being played at AH and we had friends coming.

We had a good friend, now a major journalist in Louisville, who was a sports writer for the IDS at the time. She wrote a nice story about our trip (having flown back and forth to Lubbock) . I don't believe that they archive the IDS back that far, but I'd love to have a copy of her article.

Probably one of the craziest and most spontaneous things I've ever done and the memories are something that have lasted a lifetime 

Probably find a copy at the library. 

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1 hour ago, rico said:

For our younger crowd, there was no conference tournament in those days.  In the 78-79 season we played Michigan St. 3 times.

IU played 19 Big Ten games that year; do you know why?  They played 18 the year before and the year after, all according to sports-reference.com.

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14 minutes ago, BoomBaby said:

IU played 19 Big Ten games that year; do you know why?  They played 18 the year before and the year after, all according to sports-reference.com.

IU ended  the non conference season  in a tournament game against Michigan State.  Not sure if that would have been considered a conference game.

Not sure if that answers the question, or if sports-reference.com has got it right.

Interestingly enough, IU played two B1G teams in the NIT in 1979.

1978–79 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team 

 

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