Saturday Dad Reads Week of May 31

Welcome to this week’s edition! Here’s what we’ve got lined up

• 📕 This week’s Book Summary and Review: The Big East

• 🧑‍🦰 Author Bio: Dana O’Neill

• 💣️ Dad’s Knowledge Bomb: The Sweater Game

• 🎮️ This week’s Dad Rant: Has ball gotten soft?

 Summary

📕 Review 

I have to admit, I’m not a huge basketball fan. For starters, I suck at it. Despite being 6’2”, I can’t make a layup or a mid-range jumper to save my life. So after a long and miserable season in 7th grade, I let that ship sail. Also, my sports fandom didn’t really revolve around basketball. As a dyed in the wool Penn State fan, PSU basketball was really tough to follow (with the exception of that one magical season when the Crispin brothers got us past North Carolina in the Sweet 16 only to get systematically dismantled by Temple in the Elite 8).

Therefore, I mainly watch basketball, specifically the collegiate variety, in late March like a large majority of the male, aged 18-40 demographic. However, as an absolute fan of sports history, when I came across Dana O’Neil’s book, I had to give it a shot. Having read former Georgetown coach, John Thompson’s, biography, I Came as a Shadow, names like Carnesseca, Massimino, and Carlesimo were familiar to me, but I didn’t have any sort of insight into the lore of the Big East.

From the pen of Dana O’Neil, we get to see the league emerge from the brain of founder Dave Gavitt and get the inside story on classic teams such as the 1985 Villanova Wildcats and the1989 Seton Hall Pirates. However, where O’Neil excels in The Big East is in creating “mini-biographies” that bring the personalities of The Big East to life. She captures the intensity and basketball IQ of coaches like Lou Carnesseca, Jim Boeheim, and John Thompson, but also the depths of their camaraderie and friendship (see “The Sweater Game” between Saint Johns and Georgetown - February 27, 1985).

Further, in terms of the big picture, O’Neill absolutely nails the competitive spirit that fueled the league and its rivalries (see also John Thompson’s quip: “Manley Field House is officially closed.”). She bottles the aura that the league had throughout its existence, an aura that simply doesn’t exist anymore. Games in the Big East were battles, played the way the should be played (I’d probably even be inclined to watch more basketball if the game was still played that way). But, even more, it’s an ode to what the game was when players like Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin stayed in school for four years, developed as players, and competed like hell against each other for the names on the front of their jerseys.

Rating: ☕️☕️☕️☕️

🧑‍🦰 Author Spotlight: Dana O’Neil

💣️ Dad’s Knowledge Bombs: The Sweater Game

As a coach, father, and man, I have immense respect for John Thompson. Not only did he possess a high basketball acumen, but he was able to coach his players hard and develop them into strong young men who just happened to be excellent basketball players. Thompson also protected his players, absorbing criticism when his teams lost or struggled, but shone the spotlight on them when they won and succeeded. For Thompson, much like other coaches I’ve read and written about in this newsletter, basketball was a tool for teaching about life and the court just happened to be his classroom. Thompson took the game seriously, but not so seriously that he became famous for one of the greatest troll-jobs in sports history.

In the glory days of the Big East, each coach had a “calling card.” Thompson’s was the iconic white towel that was prominently draped over his shoulder during each game. His rival at Saint John’s University, Lou Carnesecca, had a Cliff Huxtable-like wardrobe of ugly sweaters and proudly wore them on the sideline as opposed to the usual jacket, shirt, and tie.

In 1985, John Thompson’s Georgetown and Carnesecca’s Saint John’s were at the top of the college basketball world. In February of that year, Saint John’s went on a winning streak that saw them rise to #1 in the national rankings. During that time, Carnesecca had worn what became known as his “lucky sweater” a particularly horrendous brown affair which you’ll see quite clearly in the video below. Also during that time, Saint John’s knocked off Georgetown on the road. As the month drew to a close, a match up of epic proportions was set for February 27, 1985. #1-ranked Saint John’s took on Georgetown, ranked #2, in Madison Square Garden.

Prior to the game, Thompson, decided to have a little fun at Carnesecca’s expense. While the two were friends off the court, they competed fiercely on it. With that, Thompson decided to wear a replica of Carnesecca’s lucky sweater (only we’ve come to find out later that it was a 3XL t-shirt sold at the Saint John’s student bookstore). Prior to the start of the game, Thompson strolled the sidelines trying to keep his shirt hidden. Then, right before tip-off, he walks towards Carnesecca and reveals his surprise. Both men shared a laugh along with the crowd. However, that would be the end of the sweater’s luck. Georgetown would dominate the evening on the strength of Patrick Ewing and would roll through the remainder of its schedule, only to lose to emerging Big East power, Villanova, in the 1985 national championship.

My words don’t do the gravity and tension of the game justice. Check out footage from “The Sweater Game” here.

🎮️ Dad Rant: An Homage to Roundball

I’m a contradiction when it comes to basketball. For starters, as I mentioned in the review above, I suck at it and my experience on the 7th grade team proved that. I’m not a fan per se, but I follow things casually from a distance. I can tell you who played in the Final Four this year and who is left in the NBA Playoffs right now. That’s about it. On the other hand, I have a deep appreciation for the history and lore of the game. I’ve often wanted to be a fan, but I’ve never been able to move beyond history and casual observance.

In terms of the game itself, there’s a few things that, in an ideal world, if they were to happen, could make me actually become a true fan:

1.  Pittsburgh gets an NBA franchise that manages to be competitive. This will never happen. For starters, the city/county simply doesn’t have the tax base to draw upon for a fourth professional franchise. The Stillers will always get top billing, followed by the Penguins and dumpster fire Pirates. Any basketball fans left, end up going to see Pitt or West Virginia both of which, at this point, are mere shells of their former selves under past coaches like Jaime Dixon and Bob Huggins.

2. Load management goes away. Now, I get it. A superstar player is an investment and you have to protect your investment which in this case means giving a finely-tuned athletic specimen a night off here and there. However, if I’m paying hard earned money to get in the door, the stars had better be out. Michael Jordan understood this. If you watch The Last Dance, he recognized that on any given night, there could be someone in that crowd who had never seen him play in person and/or might never see him play again. As a result, the dude balled-out every single night. He played hurt. He played sick. He won. He worked through his slumps by playing, not riding pine. Ask the Philadelphia 76ers how load management worked out for Ben Simmons and JoEl Embiid.

3. Games become battles again. Basketball seems soft today compared to the battles between the Celtics and Lakers of the late 80s or really on any given night back then. Now, I’m not advocating outright dirty play like that of the early 90s Detriot Pistons, but can we at least get physical down low play and not have a referee blow his whistle as soon as someone’s arm gets brushed?

4. Eliminate fouls in the last 2 minutes. Unleash hell. Absolute mayhem. There’s nothing I can’t stand in the final minutes of a close game than a guy getting his jersey tugged and getting sent to the line. Even if he’s a 50% free throw shooter, the guy’s odds are pretty good at making it, thereby negating the need for the foul because now you’re down by more points. Haters will say it’s strategy. I say let the boys play.