UK Greats Among SEC's Best In Last 25 Years
Issel And Macy Featured On First Team
There are some compensations for getting older. People begin to regard you as an expert whether or not you deserve the designation.
A newspaper down in Florida put me on a committee of 10 to pick an All-SEC football team for the past 25 years.
Apparently they didn't have too many complaints because they appointed another committee of 10 to select an All-SEC basketball team for the same period and darned if I didn't make that one, too.
As the saying goes, I was in very distinguished company. Others serving as judges include Joe Dean, TV broadcaster for the SEC games; Tommy Bartlett, former coach at Florida; Jimmy Davey, Nashville, Tennesseean sports writer for the past 30 years; Joel Eaves, the beloved Georgia athletic director emeritus; John Guthrie, former Georgia coach and now associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference; Hoyt Harwell, Associated Press sportswriter; Paul Manasseh, former LSU sports informastion director and currently executive director of the Independence Bowl; Ray Mears, former Ten-
Stan Torgerson
Cats' Pause Columnist
nessee coach and currently athletic director at Tennessee-Martin, and Russell Rice, the long time sports information director at Kentucky.
This group, collectively, must have seen 5,000 to 10,000 ball games involving SEC teams. I, myself, have seen more than 500 and in that bunch of veterans 500 games would have to be pretty average.
Anyway, in the committee's judgement, the best five players to perform during the past quarter century were Bernard King, Tennessee, 1975-77; Dan Issel, Kentucky 1968-70; Clyde Lee, Vanderbilt, 1964-66; Pete Maravich, LSU, 1968-70; and Kyle Macy, Kentucky, 1978-80.
The second team was made up of Dominique Wilkins, Georgia, 1980-82; Cotton Nash, Kentucky, 1962-64; Reggie King, Alabama, 1976-79; Ernie Grunfeld, Tennessee, 1974-77; and John Mengelt, Auburn, 1969-71.
1 agreed with most of the team. Two of the top ten I'd not seen play so I took the word of the older judges. Those two would be Clyde Lee and Cotton Nash.
Considers Issel Best Ail-Around; Maravich Most Exciting
But of the others, here are a few comments. Dan Issel is the best all around player I've ever seen. Ole Miss played up there in Issel's senior season and he started out playing low post. Rebel coach Cob Jarvis ordered a very tight, sagging zone and Issel didn't get his hands on the ball for four minutes. Adolph Rupp, then Kentucky coach, called time-out, moved Issel to the wing and he destroyed the Rebels, shooting jump shots from 18 feet.
Maravich was both the best shooter and the most exciting player. Goodness knows how many tickets were sold to people who didn't care anything about how the game turned out but who just wanted to see Pete shoot the ball. He, more than any other person, stimulated the basketball interest we have in the SEC today.
Kyle Macy was the most intelligent back court player of the past 25 years. Oh, he had great physical tools, but number one was the way he thought out a game. It was like having a coach on the floor.
Dominique Wilkins was the best leaper of my time and probably the most coordinated player I have ever seen. In the 1981 SEC Tournament Championship game he drove the baseline, got past the basket and made a reverse slam dunk I shall always remember. "Unbelievable" is a word too often used but it was truly unbelievable.
Ray Mears says Benard King was the best player to ever perform in the SEC and maybe he was. I don't happen to think so, but everyone is entitled toone'sown opinion. He did make my first team ballot though, because in no way were there five other players better than he.
Ole Miss' Stroud Not Mentioned
The big disappointment to me was that John Stroud didn't seem to command more respect than he did. This kid struggled through two years of adjustment with the league, two years of bickering with Coach Bob Weltlich and two years of trying to develop his collegiate style. But his last two years with the Rebels he was an absolutely superb basketball player and he was the best in two categories.
First, he played better without the ball than anyone I have ever watched. It's not easy to be active when you don't have the ball. Anyone can make a move on the basket when they're trying to score. Stroud flashed the lane constantly with or without the basketball and he got a lot of open shots as a result of it. Of course, he had Sean Tuohy as a point guard and that made a difference.
Second, Stroud had the quickest release you can imagine. He never, but never, bounced
Dan Issel
Pete Maravich
the ball on the floor. When Tuohy's pass hit Stroud's hands it was instantly on its way to the basket.
If you bounce the ball, the defense has the opportunity to collapse in on you. Stroud never made that mistake.
Twenty-five years from now will any of today's players be considered for a dream team? Kenny Walker, maybe or Chuck Person or John Williams? I can't really say. Ask me again in 2011.
Not For Broadcast
Who says "No pass, no play" rules don't work? When school authorities in Springfield. Mass., put in their rule requiring at least "C's" in all major subjects, 258 students were forced off teams. In February of this year 154 students were reinstated. A school spokesman said, "The kids got the messaage and found out what they could do.". . .Wasn't it just last year that LSU fans were calling for Dale Brown's head on a platter since the Tigers had lost 10 straight postseason games? How quickly things change. Dale does a heckuva job and he proved it this year beyond a doubt. . With one more game, Auburn's Chuck Person could have been the second leading scorer in SEC history. When the Tigers were finally knocked out of the NCAA Tournament. Person finished his career with 2,311 points, only 17 behind John Stroud. The former Ole Miss star rotated 2,328. Anyone who doesn't know that Pete Maravich is the all-time leader should stop reading right here because you obviously are not a sports fan. Pistol Pete racked up 3,667 while playing for LSU and he did that in only three years. It's a record that will never be broken. . The SEC's new contract with Jefferson-Pilot Communications to televise SEC basketball next year is being hailed by league officials as a giant step forward, and maybe it is. More games on the tube they say and more money. Perhaps, but Jefferson-Pilot will still have the same problem its predecessor, Lorimar, had and that's simply getting stations and cable systems to carry the games. In the major cities where there are independent stations as well as network outlets, or in areas which are big on basketball, such as Kentucky, there are no problems. But in middle size towns with only one or two stations, or in Mississippi, Alabama and other places where basketball doesn't command the interest, the games just won't be seen. It isn't the televising that's the problem, it's getting clearances from the stations.
Bernard King
Kyle Macy