That WMU team was very good. Two talented big guys in the starting lineup.
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Yeah. Made sweet 16 and finished ranked. A future buddy of mine at the company we both worked at (Mike Reardon) was the 6th man on that squad and was first team all MAC Academic the following year.
I was at that WMU game in 1976 at Millet that drew a SRO crowd of over 10,000…we had a great team but they were too much for us…I think we lost by 12 IIRC.
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Fun fact about that game. The crowd in the lobby was so large that when the turnstiles opened, the surging crowd knocked one over. A fist fight broke out in front of us because of people saving seats. Darrell Hedric came up the aisle to try and defuse it.
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Recent graduates of Miami will probably be surprised to see that we once had over 10,000 at Millet for a game against a MAC rival. Probably didn’t hurt that WMU ended up #10 in final AP rankings.
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Not surprised but definitely a little jealous
WMU and North Carolina both used the four-corner offense late in games at Miami to seal the wins (huge crowds for both games).
So much of college basketball is not just W/L, but strength of schedule. Playing away games against poorly rated rivals have no benefit for the local teams. If we get Miami back into a consistent top 100 team, I would bet those teams are willing to come to our place again. Hopefully the team has bottomed out, a new arena and some good teams will bring in good recruits and the improved record and more interesting home games will bring the crowds. But the team needs support.
I hope you are right but I dont remember a meaningful non-conference home game for Akron, Kent, Ohio or Toledo in the last 5 years. Certainly not a p5 game
It’s totally possible I would lose the bet. I’ve never been much of a gambler. But Miami has a history with X and Dayton and UC; which teams were rivals for those other schools?
Yeah, we’ve gotten off topic from the arena, but NET rankings drive scheduling. UC came into Oxford and nearly lost. If they had, it would’ve been awful for their ranking, impacting the rest of the conference as well. There’s just so many comments here that are ignoring the root cause drivers for these things.
I’m sure you and others here will have fond memories of Jeff Gehring, Charlie Dinkins, Skip Snow, Johnny Swann…and, of course Coles.
I vividly remember the booing that greeted Henry Finkel from the Dayton Flyers.
We’d head over to Withrow Court a good hour before tip-off to get front row (basically floor) seats…a wonderful environment…with the band leading the mayhem…
HawksVox can check me on this but, as I recall, the seating capacity was about 2,800…and always filled to the rafters.
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Off the build or not to build topic, but with the current state of NILs and coaches coming out voicing what a poo show it has all become (Geno@ UConn, Saban @ Congressional(?) hearing, UVa Coach resigning just a month ago), I just do not see how this NIL universe can continue to exist much longer. Yes, the genie is totally out of the bottle but I just see a royal, huge scandal on the horizon that will result in the NCAA getting its power back and demanding “amateurism” again. If that fails, create semi-pro leagues and stop the charade of “the student athlete”…because valuing a free education at the college level is a lost art.
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Its definitely going to end up going the latter option. Eventually Big Ten and SEC schools will sponsor teams of players that aren’t enrolled as students. It will function as a fully professional development league for the NFL that is “sponsored” by the schools and alumni base, but made up of paid “student aged” professionals that are full time athletes.
Schools like Miami will probably settle into a “lower” division where players are required to be enrolled in classes and will likely still be paid nominal, more reasonable NIL/salary/whatever you want to call it.
I have no idea where the trail ends but you are definitely on point as to it being a slippery slope. The entire relationship between state and private universities and athletics will probably need to be completely re-examined at some point.
Canada has USports at the university level. Their football teams play for the Vanier Cup each fall. But their university sponsored sports are not even slightly similar to the professional athletics programs now run by most large American universities.
The NCAA D3 operates a non-scholarship athletics program here that sponsors championships in all sports. Aid at those colleges is based on financial need.
Could D1 university administrators eventually revert to a D3 model? Who knows.
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DII and DIII have by far the best playoff system for fb and bb
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D2 allows athletics scholarships. I suppose there is some limited NIL there but probably very localized - like a loaner car or free pizzas.
NESCACDAD busted it. I wrote here before about my great nephew, full ride linesman at O. He and his linesman buddies got free wings and pop at the local Athens wings joint. Had to post in social media when he hit them up. A true to life NIL deal if there ever was one.
Miami kind of had the same deal back in my glory days. At the Boars Head (one word or two?) the draft beers were 50 cents. Jocks that knew the secret password got the NIL like special jock discount when you asked for a “Willie”. Set you back a mere quarter Two bucks went a long ways!
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Yep draft 3.2 beers for 50 cents and an SDS pizza for $2 bucks (which you would split with someone so it was only a buck!)
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Yeah, 30 years ago I knew a guy that played QB at Michigan and we all thought it was scandalous that the Michigan football team could eat for free at an Ann Arbor Subway, and that his summer job was painting seat numbers on the bleachers at The Big House and he joked he only painted one number all summer.
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