Post by fanblade on Jun 11, 2007 3:25:57 GMT -5
Even during slow days of the off-season I still find myself reminiscing about March. We are all pretty familiar with the Hank and Bo show stories but I just came across this one that was particularly emotional. 
March, 4, 2007
www.sportscolumn.com/story/2007/3/4/14158/21340
by Trevor Freeman
I am writing this article because every March I plug Hank Gathers' name into the Yahoo search engine to see what articles come up. And every time I open up an old article, I cannot believe it has really been seventeen years since arguably the biggest tragedy in the history of college sports spawned one of its most remarkable stories.
Hank Gathers was one of the best five players I ever saw play the game of basketball. It does not matter that he never played a professional game (unless you count those UNLV teams in 1990 as pro teams). Try these stats on for size, 33 points and 13 rebounds a game his junior year. Both led the nation. I remember watching him play at the venerable War Memorial Gymnasium on the campus of the University of San Francisco. I was eleven years old at the time, but even with those young eyes, I could see that there was without a doubt one player on the court much better than all the others. The only question people had in the gym that night was how he would have done against the retired numbers on the wall.
Hank Gathers was a 6'7" guy, who could power you down inside, beat you with the bounce, and make your knees melt with a smooth mid-range jumper. He had Kenyon Martin hops off the floor. Not the high rides, but sudden, quick hops that lead to power jams. ESPN Classic loves to show the game between Loyola Marymount and LSU. Two top-notch teams that engaged in one of the great regular season college basketball games of all time. Those were the LSU teams of Shaquille O'Neal and Chris Jackson. LSU would emerge victorious with the final score being a mind-boggling 151-144. However, Hank Gathers was the best player on the court in that game. He dropped 48 and 17 and was Shaq's daddy all afternoon.
Hank Gathers didn't just ride alone though. His partner in crime was Bo Kimble and they combined to form "The Hank and Bo Show". Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble were best friends from their days playing ball on the playgrounds of Philadelphia, PA. Teammates at Dobbins Tech, they set off to southern California to go play for the USC Trojans. After a coaching change, Hank and Bo decided USC wasn't for them and they joined up with Paul Westhead's Loyola Marymount Lions. It was on this tiny campus that legends were born. It was like the perfect movie script. Two talented cast-offs meet up with a former NBA Championship coach and lead a little school to prominence.
The offensive numbers that Paul Westhead, Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble, Jeff Fryar and the rest of those Loyola Marymount teams put up are still mind-boggling. The Loyola Marymount Lions set the all-time NCAA Division I record by averaging 122.4 points per game in 1990. They hung 181 points in one incredible offensive display. To this day, games involving Loyola Marymount occupy the top five places on the list of highest-scoring Division I games. Gathers led the nation in scoring and rebounding in his junior season. Bo Kimble averaged 35.3 points a game the following year, which also led the nation.
A hero is remembered, but a legend never dies. The run Loyola Marymount made in the NCAA Tournament following the death of Hank Gathers remains one of the most enduring stories of my lifetime. It made "The Hank and Bo Show" legendary.
The story began when the NCAA Tournament committee showed not one ounce of compassion for the little school from Los Angeles and seeded them #11 in the West despite their national ranking and largely due to the death of their star. This meant that the Lions were paired off with a solid New Mexico State team in the first round. It was just a regular game, until Bo Kimble took his first free throw left-handed in honor of Hank. Swish. It was then that you looked into the eyes of the LMU players and saw that a tournament run was forming. Bo Kimble absolutely shredded the Aggies on that evening. Kimble would eventually parlay his college success into being an NBA lottery pick. He never had the career so many expected out of him. However, one could argue (and quite successfully) that after giving so much in that March, he had nothing left to give to the game of basketball. It should be noted that in every tournament game, he shot his first free throw left-handed. He never missed one of them.
The defending champion Michigan Wolverines were next. It was never even a contest. Jeff Fryar was absolutely unconscious in that game. His eleven three-pointers still rank as the NCAA Tournament Gold Standard. Bo Kimble hung another 40 something. The final was 149-115. It was awe-inspiring offensive play. Sports Illustrated came out with the cover "For You Hank". I'm not sure if there has been a cover of any major magazine since then that rated so highly on the "Goosebumps" meter.
Now the thing to remember about NCAA Cinderella runs is that they generally end in the Sweet 16 game. Raw emotion can carry you through the first two rounds. However the week off is usually a cruel injustice to the underdog team. It's too hard for them to get back to playing at such a high level. Loyola Marymount's Sweet 16 opponent was Wimp Sanderson's Alabama Crimson Tide. Wimp was a savvy coach who knew a lot about how to slow up an offense. Wimp also knew a lot about the female anatomy, as testified by University of Alabama female employees a couple years down the road. In that game, Alabama tried to ugly it up. It worked, but not enough to trip up LMU. The Lions prevailed in that game 62-60 which set the stage for a showdown with the Runnin' Rebels of Nevada-Las Vegas.
In what was one of the most hyped Elite Eight contests ever, Loyola Marymount fought the good fight but Larry Johnson, Stacy Augmon, Anderson Hunt, Greg Anthony & Co. would prevail and roll to the national championship. The emotion of Hank's death could only take the Lions so far. Eventually the team that ran everybody they saw out of the gym met up with a squad that was talented and focused enough to turn them back. It should be noted that the 1990 UNLV Runnin' Rebels are universally considered one of the great college basketball teams of all-time.
It has been sixteen years since the days of Hank and Bo. It has also been sixteen years since Loyola Marymount has made an impact on the national stage. It matters not, as the little school and its big-time players gave us a month that will be remembered for a lifetime.
Go Lions!
March, 4, 2007
www.sportscolumn.com/story/2007/3/4/14158/21340
by Trevor Freeman
I am writing this article because every March I plug Hank Gathers' name into the Yahoo search engine to see what articles come up. And every time I open up an old article, I cannot believe it has really been seventeen years since arguably the biggest tragedy in the history of college sports spawned one of its most remarkable stories.
Hank Gathers was one of the best five players I ever saw play the game of basketball. It does not matter that he never played a professional game (unless you count those UNLV teams in 1990 as pro teams). Try these stats on for size, 33 points and 13 rebounds a game his junior year. Both led the nation. I remember watching him play at the venerable War Memorial Gymnasium on the campus of the University of San Francisco. I was eleven years old at the time, but even with those young eyes, I could see that there was without a doubt one player on the court much better than all the others. The only question people had in the gym that night was how he would have done against the retired numbers on the wall.
Hank Gathers was a 6'7" guy, who could power you down inside, beat you with the bounce, and make your knees melt with a smooth mid-range jumper. He had Kenyon Martin hops off the floor. Not the high rides, but sudden, quick hops that lead to power jams. ESPN Classic loves to show the game between Loyola Marymount and LSU. Two top-notch teams that engaged in one of the great regular season college basketball games of all time. Those were the LSU teams of Shaquille O'Neal and Chris Jackson. LSU would emerge victorious with the final score being a mind-boggling 151-144. However, Hank Gathers was the best player on the court in that game. He dropped 48 and 17 and was Shaq's daddy all afternoon.
Hank Gathers didn't just ride alone though. His partner in crime was Bo Kimble and they combined to form "The Hank and Bo Show". Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble were best friends from their days playing ball on the playgrounds of Philadelphia, PA. Teammates at Dobbins Tech, they set off to southern California to go play for the USC Trojans. After a coaching change, Hank and Bo decided USC wasn't for them and they joined up with Paul Westhead's Loyola Marymount Lions. It was on this tiny campus that legends were born. It was like the perfect movie script. Two talented cast-offs meet up with a former NBA Championship coach and lead a little school to prominence.
The offensive numbers that Paul Westhead, Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble, Jeff Fryar and the rest of those Loyola Marymount teams put up are still mind-boggling. The Loyola Marymount Lions set the all-time NCAA Division I record by averaging 122.4 points per game in 1990. They hung 181 points in one incredible offensive display. To this day, games involving Loyola Marymount occupy the top five places on the list of highest-scoring Division I games. Gathers led the nation in scoring and rebounding in his junior season. Bo Kimble averaged 35.3 points a game the following year, which also led the nation.
A hero is remembered, but a legend never dies. The run Loyola Marymount made in the NCAA Tournament following the death of Hank Gathers remains one of the most enduring stories of my lifetime. It made "The Hank and Bo Show" legendary.
The story began when the NCAA Tournament committee showed not one ounce of compassion for the little school from Los Angeles and seeded them #11 in the West despite their national ranking and largely due to the death of their star. This meant that the Lions were paired off with a solid New Mexico State team in the first round. It was just a regular game, until Bo Kimble took his first free throw left-handed in honor of Hank. Swish. It was then that you looked into the eyes of the LMU players and saw that a tournament run was forming. Bo Kimble absolutely shredded the Aggies on that evening. Kimble would eventually parlay his college success into being an NBA lottery pick. He never had the career so many expected out of him. However, one could argue (and quite successfully) that after giving so much in that March, he had nothing left to give to the game of basketball. It should be noted that in every tournament game, he shot his first free throw left-handed. He never missed one of them.
The defending champion Michigan Wolverines were next. It was never even a contest. Jeff Fryar was absolutely unconscious in that game. His eleven three-pointers still rank as the NCAA Tournament Gold Standard. Bo Kimble hung another 40 something. The final was 149-115. It was awe-inspiring offensive play. Sports Illustrated came out with the cover "For You Hank". I'm not sure if there has been a cover of any major magazine since then that rated so highly on the "Goosebumps" meter.
Now the thing to remember about NCAA Cinderella runs is that they generally end in the Sweet 16 game. Raw emotion can carry you through the first two rounds. However the week off is usually a cruel injustice to the underdog team. It's too hard for them to get back to playing at such a high level. Loyola Marymount's Sweet 16 opponent was Wimp Sanderson's Alabama Crimson Tide. Wimp was a savvy coach who knew a lot about how to slow up an offense. Wimp also knew a lot about the female anatomy, as testified by University of Alabama female employees a couple years down the road. In that game, Alabama tried to ugly it up. It worked, but not enough to trip up LMU. The Lions prevailed in that game 62-60 which set the stage for a showdown with the Runnin' Rebels of Nevada-Las Vegas.
In what was one of the most hyped Elite Eight contests ever, Loyola Marymount fought the good fight but Larry Johnson, Stacy Augmon, Anderson Hunt, Greg Anthony & Co. would prevail and roll to the national championship. The emotion of Hank's death could only take the Lions so far. Eventually the team that ran everybody they saw out of the gym met up with a squad that was talented and focused enough to turn them back. It should be noted that the 1990 UNLV Runnin' Rebels are universally considered one of the great college basketball teams of all-time.
It has been sixteen years since the days of Hank and Bo. It has also been sixteen years since Loyola Marymount has made an impact on the national stage. It matters not, as the little school and its big-time players gave us a month that will be remembered for a lifetime.
Go Lions!
