SLU, Majerus embarrass selves by scoring 20 points

[chapman]

If you thought our offense has looked pitiful lately...

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=280100045

[77ncaachamps]

How he's not in a hospital right now amazes me.

That'd give Bobby Thuggins a coronary.

BTW, if I was coach...I'd get T'd up and watch the game from the locker room.

[Tribby]

"The fewest points ever by a Division I team was set by Arkansas State in a 75-6 loss to Kentucky in 1945. It was matched by Temple in an 11-6 loss to Tennessee in 1973."

 

And you thought soccer was boring.

[spiral97]

It was matched by Temple in an 11-6 loss to Tennessee in 1973."

This shocked me at first so I looked it up.. it is true (and doubtless that many of you knew about it already).  But here's the story behind it (in a nutshell, no shot clock and temple decided that passing the ball back and forth for 6-7 minutes at a time would be the best strategy to beat the favored tennessee team):

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCJ/is_2_31/ai_110619272

Infamy in 17 points - Flashback: Tennessee 11, Temple 6
Basketball Digest,  Dec, 2003  by Chuck O'Donnell

TRUDEAUX TO KNEIB.

Kneib to Trudeaux.

Trudeaux to Kneib.

Two of Temple's best ball-handlers, Rick Trudeaux and John Kneib, stood like Easter Island statues in Chuck Taylors, passing the ball back and forth for minutes at a time. With no shot clock to stop them, the Owls had decided before their game with host Tennessee in the Volunteer Classic on December 15,1973, that no matter how ugly or boring it was, or how badly they desecrated the game of they were going to stall.

For Temple coach Don Casey, this was the Owls' best, and perhaps only, way to best Tennessee.

"Tennessee had a great team," Casey says. "We thought this was going to give us the best chance to win. So we took two guys and put them out by the 28-foot line, had them standing about five feet part, and we had them pass the ball back and forth, back and forth.

"This was uncharted territory. We didn't know exactly what we were doing. It got to the point where we said, "Well, what should we do next?"

Kneib to Trudeaux.

Trudeaux to Kneib.

Kneib to Trudeaux.

As the ball went back and forth and the sands of time oozed through the hourglass, Tennessee held its ground.

"Temple had a good team," says Len Kosmalski, the Volunteers' leading scorer that season. "We were prepared for a good game. Then we got word that Temple didn't think they could play with us. They went into their stall tactics. We played a disciplined style taught by coach [Ray] Mears. We were precise. We'd work the ball around until we got a good shot. Temple thought it would slow the pace down and reverse the roles on us. [Assistant] coach [Stu] Aberdeen told us, 'Just stay in your positions. Be patient.' We stayed back in our zone and they passed the ball back and forth at the top of the key. Six or seven minutes would run off the dock and I'd just be sitting there in the lane, watching the clock wind down.

"The coaches didn't want us to come out of our 2-3 zone. [Temple] had some good inside players. I guess they thought if they could draw us out, it would open things for their inside players. The coaches told us to stay packed in."

Trudeaux to Kneib.

Kneib to Trudeaux.

Trudeaux to Kneib.

The strategy, for lack of a better word, was working Temple held the ball for the final 11:44 of the first half and went into halftime trailing by just two points.

Temple went back into the stall in the second half. The Tennessee crowd, which had lost its patience much earlier, began to well with hostility. The arena echoed with thousands of boos. Seven or eight police officers were summoned to stand guard behind the Owls bench, just in case.

Mears also grew angry. "Once in awhile, we'd look down at them and say, What are you doing? Play some basketball already.'" To which Casey, in his first year as head coach, would yell back, "Why don't you come out and get us?"

Says Casey: "I don't understand why they didn't come out. If they had attacked those two men, there would have been temporary chaos. We wouldn't have known what to do next."

But as it stood, Temple stalled and Tennessee waited. "A war of wills ensued," Casey says, "We had no idea what we were doing. I had no idea how to bring it to a conclusion. It was one of those things where we got so far into it, we didn't know how to get out of it And they didn't do anything to get out of it."

Kneib to Trudeaux.

Trudeaux to Kneib.

Kneib to Trudeaux

Temple didn't allow the Volunteers a single shot from the field in the second half But the Volunteers got four free throws from John Snow to collect an 11-6 victory. It was the lowest-scoring major college game since 1938. Kosmalski topped all scorers with five points.

Tennessee officials forced the Volunteers to play an intrasquad scrimmage after the game. "The people had come to see basketball," Mears says. "I was angry. I told their coach after the game was over that this is a game played for our fans. We invited teams from the east and west so they could see different styles of basketball. Temple had an eastern style. I told Casey, 'I gave you $10,000 to come in here to play and I'm disappointed. I'll never invite you back.'"

Casey says he got letters from psychologists, who were analyzing his personality through how he coached that game. Legendary DePaul coach Ray Meyers, at the game to see Tennessee in action, forever gave Casey grief for ruining his scouting trip. Temple didn't get its $10,000 check for over a year.

To this day, 30 years later, disbelieving fans will come up to Kosmalski and ask him if the final score was really 11-6.

"People see it in the record book and they ask me about it," Kosmalski says. "I'm like, 'Believe it or not, that was the score.'"

[jaybilaswho?]

i have grown up going to SLU games my whole life. My folks have been season ticket holders since as long as i can remember. I have seen the highs (larry hughes C-USA champions) and the lows (justin tatums disappointment), but now there is officially a new low. I know majerus isnt to be blamed for this loss since they arent his kids, but dang. I am going to Tommy Liddell III, not to be confused with Tommy Liddell (for those of you who dont know, Tommy Liddell III put huge emphasis on being called the third this year, no doubt with pressure from his dad. He insists on being called Tommy Liddell III). Also, blame his dad for being a distraction to the ball club. His father publicly stated that Majerus was making his son, Tommy Liddell III, get this, work too hard. Well looks like Tommy Liddell III should be spending a little more time shooting. He was 1-12 (took the most shots of anyone) from the field and 0-1 from the line. Way to go Tommy Liddell III!!!

on another note. i was there when they played IUPUI. The Billikens won pretty handly. I am not saying that IUPUI is a great win, but the billikens really arent that bad.

[CTWarrior]

Former MU coach Rick Majerus' Saint Louis squad lost to GW 49-20.  Rick's SLU squad must be, as he once described Chris Grimm in a nationally televised game, "bankrupt oh-fensively."

[mosarsour]

I think the most shocking stat of all from this game is that SL shot 1-19 from 3 point range! Wow! If that ever happened to MU, I think I'd have a coronary.

[NavinRJohnson]

Hadn't seen this posted. anyone notice that SLU only scored 20 pts agains GW last night. Yikes.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=280100045

[BuzzSucksSucks]

Can't talk about that here.  Verboten!!!   They've tried to talk about that twice already but they keep kicking it over to the Superbar.

[rocky_warrior]

And it's been kicked again