TBT: Lefty Driesell’s First Home Game at JMU
It’s the offseason for both hoops and football and Throwback Thursday, so we might as well take a look back. Way back. All the way back to 1988 in fact when one Charles “Lefty” Driesell was in his first year as head coach of the JMU Dukes.
The video above is of JMU’s first home game under the Lefty regime. As you can see, things were quite a bit different then. The convo was packed and in full “Electric Zoo” mode, a certain alum with a “Daaaagggggeeeerrrr” of a catch phrase was on the play by play, and the sideline reporter just might have been a New York Times best selling author. And the Dukes beat VMI 94-92.
h/t @bpmarkowitz for the video
Excellent! Thanks for mining that stuff up. The things that jumped out at me (and, yes, reminded me of the old stone age days of college hoops) after watching:
— gotta love the almost-Larry Bird shorts…
— Kenny Brooks going for 18
— no time out to set up the winning bucket
— no 1-4 low while the point guard runs the clock out dribbling at mid-court followed by the high ball screen and the contested jumper that usually guarantees OT
— co-eds with feathered hair, oxford shirts and cable knit sweaters
— mid-court camera platform too low to keep the heads from blocking the view, a lot
— wide-striped rugby shirts on the pep band (great now, in this video, and in the early 80s too)
— collared shirts on the officials and the “point at the fouler” mechanics
— the ONLY 3 pointer attempted (I think) was the 3/4 court heave at the buzzer
— the shortest air-balled free throw in the history of man
— Lefty apparently having absolutely no idea what Feinstein asked him
— Feinstein at a JMU game? Really? Feinstein?
I found this about a month ago and showed it to my son so he could see our basketball program once had life and was more important than football. We watched prior to an actual JMU game on Madizone and my son decided we should watch the rest of this game instead because they could actually score and has athletic enough players to play man to man defense. And this was before Lefty was able to recruit better athletes.
I was a student back then and was at this game.
The “good old days of Lefty”. Did he ever win an NCAA or NIT game? His teams did well in the regular season, but way underachieved in the post season. He got great talent based on his brand recognition, but didn’t do much with the talent he recruited. Yes. I will agree. There was great excitement about the program at that time. But for home court advantage and success in the post season (3 consecutive NCAA Sweet 16’s) Lefty’s era does not hold a candle to Lou’s.
That same kind of arrogant thinking is what drove the basketball program into the toilet. Carrier thought some of the Campanelli years were an expectation of a young Division 1 program when they were actually an anomaly. There has also been blind loyalty to the CAA and JMU turned down an opportunity to join the Atlantic 10 during Lefty’s time even though he pushed for it. Lefty continued some life in the program but it was destined to eventually dwell in suckitude because of limited thinking.