Big Dance could've used high-scoring VMI
Posted: Sunday, March 08, 2009 12:23 PM
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March Madness, Mid-majors
One of my most vivid March Madness memories revolves around offense. Insane amounts of offense.
It was 1988. Wyoming was 26-5, had everyone back from a Sweet 16 run the year before, including future NBA players in Fennis Dembo – he of the Sports Illustrated cover – and Eric Leckner. But the Cowboys were blitzed by 10th-seeded Loyola Marymount in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 119-115 (still the second-most points ever scored by a losing team in the Big Dance).
Yes, those Lions, the team that spent the next two years trying to score 200 points in a game and led D-I in scoring in ’88, ’89 and 1990. The team that blitzed defending champ Michigan 149-115 in 1990. The kind of team we haven’t seen since.
Which brings me to this season. Sadly, the current version of the Lions just missed on a chance to go dancing.
Radford upended Virginia Military Institute 108-94 in the Big South tournament championship on Saturday. If you want to see the runnin’, gunnin’ Keydets play again, pray that the NIT or CBI asks ‘em to participate. School officials think they have a good chance at playing in the NIT.
VMI isn’t Loyola Marymount. The Lions averaged at least 110 points per game during that three-year run, capped by an NCAA record 122.4 ppg in 1990. The best the Keydets have done is 100.9 ppg during the 2006-07 season. This season, their 93.8 average tops D-I.
It reinforces that no one’s going to replicate Loyola Marymount, but doesn’t mean VMI isn’t just as entertaining.
The Keydets attempted 50 three-pointers. They forced 27 Radford turnovers. True, they're far from efficient on offense (92nd on kenpom.com's adjusted rating), but man can they gun it. More than 54 percent of their points come from 3s, which is five points higher than any other D-I team. They've surpassed 100 points nine times this season and 90 points 22 times.
If there’s a time when VMI isn’t going full-tilt, it isn’t for long.
This isn’t to belittle Radford. It features one of the country’s best post players in Artsiom Parakhouski, a 6-foot-11 center from Belarus, who scored 26 points and grabbed 18 rebounds on Saturday.
But an NCAA tournament with high-scoring VMI would’ve been a blast. Guess those old memories will have to suffice.
