Joe B. Hall coached Larry Bird and Magic Johnson together?
techheadz
Did you know that Joe B. Hall once coached Larry Bird and Magic Johnson
together on the same team? Yep, way before the Dream Team of 1992. A few
weeks after winning Kentucky's fifth National Championship, Coach Hall and
UK mens basketball staff led the successful USA World Invitational
Tournament Team of 1978.
http://www.usabasketball.com/history/mwit_1978.html
In addition to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, that team had four UK players
on it. Jack Givens, Rick Robey, Kyle Macy and Jay Shidler.
Unlike the "Dream Team" of 2002, Hall's team did not lose.
Now THAT is Kentucky tradition folks.
;-)
Ky58
> Did you know that Joe B. Hall once coached Larry Bird
> and Magic Johnson together on the same team? Yep, way
> before the Dream Team of 1992. A few weeks after winning
> Kentucky's fifth National Championship, Coach Hall and
> UK mens basketball staff led the successful USA World
> Invitational Tournament Team of 1978.
Yes, Tech, I was fortunate enough to get to attend that event
and 'little' did I know that I was watching two future NBA
immortals...Darrell Griffith was 'pretty good', also... ;-)
I do remember Coach Hall having five Kentucky players on the
floor at the same time, at one point...'Silk' Givens, 'Steel'
Lee, 'King' Robey, Macy, and the 'Blonde Bomber' Shidler
...too bad 'Kong' Phillips wasn't there...
What a roster, eh?
--
"Ky58"
Paint Lick USA
UK 84 Seattle 72
http://ky1958.tripod.com/ky58skentuckywildcats
"Those boys certainly aren't concert violinists,
but they sure can fiddle!" - The Baron
Doug Fields
news:QyydnUMn5tn...@News.GigaNews.Com...
> I do remember Coach Hall having five Kentucky players on the
> floor at the same time, at one point...'Silk' Givens, 'Steel'
> Lee, 'King' Robey, Macy, and the 'Blonde Bomber' Shidler
> ...too bad 'Kong' Phillips wasn't there...
>
> What a roster, eh?
Man. Jay Shidler. There's a name from the past. How much higher would he
stand in UK history, if they counted 3-point shots back in his day? I know
he did, but I honestly can't remember Shidler ever taking a shot from inside
15 feet. The bombs stand out in my memory, just because he shot them from
*so* far out, and because he made them so often.
I'm sure it only seems farther now, since there was no 3-point arc on the
court at the time, but I don't have too much trouble believing he probably
could've led the team in scoring, instead of being a little-playing 2-guard,
and sometime 6th man off the bench, if only they instituted the 3-point shot
a couple of years earlier.
Doug
techheadz
>
> > Did you know that Joe B. Hall once coached Larry Bird
> > and Magic Johnson together on the same team? Yep, way
> > before the Dream Team of 1992. A few weeks after winning
> > Kentucky's fifth National Championship, Coach Hall and
> > UK mens basketball staff led the successful USA World
> > Invitational Tournament Team of 1978.
>
> Yes, Tech, I was fortunate enough to get to attend that event
> and 'little' did I know that I was watching two future NBA
> immortals...Darrell Griffith was 'pretty good', also... ;-)
You were there? WOW!
I recall an "old timer" saying something about this tourney some years back.
Think I read about it at the time in the newspaper as well. Never quite
could make the connection though.
> I do remember Coach Hall having five Kentucky players on the
> floor at the same time, at one point...'Silk' Givens, 'Steel'
> Lee, 'King' Robey, Macy, and the 'Blonde Bomber' Shidler
> ...too bad 'Kong' Phillips wasn't there...
>
> What a roster, eh?
Yes indeed. They, along with some other college stars knocked off the
Russians at Rupp Arena.
You know, sometimes we knock old Joe B. Hall. Yet he was a good coach,
followed a tough act (Rupp), and indeed had his moments at UK.
Jeff
<nos...@nospam.org> wrote:
:You know, sometimes we knock old Joe B. Hall. Yet he was a good coach,
:followed a tough act (Rupp), and indeed had his moments at UK.
I think Joe had some great aspects of his coaching but he
had some major flaws that seriously detracted from his
success. He tried to emulate Rupp's coaching style in that
he decided he was going to play the game he wanted to play
no matter what the other team did. That worked for Rupp's
run and gun teams but for Hall's half court, get it inside
strategy it resulted in teams packing the lane and choking
off his offense. You just can't do that to a run and gun
team that's good at what they do. Smith should learn that
lesson. He should have learned it from RP.
Hall really knew a lot about basketball x's and o's. He
made great adjustments at times but he never got past not
wanting to open up the game by shooting outside. One of his
best teams basically rebelled against his style and became
great because of it (Super Kittens). His style put a lot of
pressure on his guards because he would let them shoot once
to see if they could get hot. But if they missed they
weren't supposed to shoot any more or it sure seemed that
way. That just put too much pressure on that first shot.
Still Hall could make that little adjustment that would make
his offense work most of the time. I saw Hall as probably
the best assistant coach I've ever seen. His advice to Rupp
on what little changes to make was fabulous. But Rupp had
something Hall never had. The ability to make the players
play above their talent level. Hall was like Smith in that
his teams always seemed to play below their ability.
