My companion piece/review of @SECNetwork Southern Hoops - A History of SEC Basketball - Part IV (The Entertainers) 1980-89 aired on February 20, 2023.
Previous reviews for Parts I-III are available at:
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1622108…
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1624860…
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1627849…
FYI, this is more a companion piece than a critical review of mistakes. Partly because this episode doesn't focus on UK (which is my area of focus) but also because frankly by the 80's integration had largely worked out & the producer's favorite punching bag in Rupp was gone.
This episode is more in line with what the entire series should have been IMO, a celebration of the talented players and accomplishments of its coaches and teams over the years.
Even then, they skipped a lot of things which were worthy to discuss IMO.
(3:10) Mentions the unlikely story of Sean Tuohy succeeding at Ole Miss. Many probably already know, but if not, Sean Tuohy was the patriarch of the Tuohy family portrayed in the Blind Side book & movie about football player Michael Oher.
(5:10) Georgia's Dominique Wilkins talks about how angry people got in his hometown of Washington NC when he spurned in-state North Carolina schools to go to UGa.
This is similar story to UK's Bam Adebayo, who grew up in same area & also spurned in-state NC schools to attend UK.
(6:20) Mentions Ole Miss beating Georgia in the 1981 SEC Tournament in Birmingham AL.
They probably should have mentioned somewhere that the SEC Tournament itself had finally been reinstated in 1979, after laying dormant since 1952. A key event in the conference history.
As a Kentucky fan, maybe I'm overreacting but it is interesting they chose to highlight both LSU's Final 4 run in 1981 & Georgia's Final 4 run in 1983 but don't mention UK's Final Four in 1984 at all?
Prior to 80's, only SEC team besides UK to make Final 4 was LSU in 1953.
(22:30) 1984 SEC Championship Game in Nashville is mentioned where Kenny Walker scored winning points to give UK championship 51-49.
bigbluehistory.net/bb/Statistics/…
This shot helped propel Walker into becoming a superstar his next two seasons at UK.
(34:49) Kenny Walker: "We were rolling along but our big prize was we had to beat LSU for the 4th time in the Elite 8."
Narrator: "There were 3 SEC teams in that 1986 Elite 8: Auburn, Kentucky & LSU."
Not mentioned that UK also had to beat Alabama for 4th time in Reg. Semis.
This oversight by NCAA committee led to a change in the NCAA rules which disallowed placing teams from the same conference in the same brackets where they could meet each other prior to the Regional Finals.
One of many Kentucky-inspired rules changes:
bigbluehistory.net/bb/rulechanges…
Section on Chris Jackson (now Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf). He was another LSU player who scored a ton of points versus UK.
In these games UK lost all of them, except last game where he scored 41 but UK won 100-95 over him, Shaquille O'Neal, Stanley Roberts etc.
bigbluehistory.net/bb/Statistics/…
This decade truly was the coming out party for the conference. No longer was Kentucky the lone standard bearer for the conference, but other schools started making waves in NCAA tourney. This episode easily could have been twice as long. They skipped many great players....
Among those not mentioned were: Alabama's Ennis Whatley, Buck Johnson & Derrick McKey; Auburn's Chuck Person & Chris Morris; Florida's Ronnie Williams, Vernon Maxwell & Dwayne Schintzius; Georgia's Willie Anderson & Alec Kessler; Kentucky's Sam Bowie, Mel Turpin & Rex Chapman...
LSU's Howard Carter, Leonard Mitchell, Jerry "Ice" Reynolds & John "Hot Rod" Williams; Ole Miss' Eric Laird & Gerald Glass; Mississippi State's Jeff Malone; Tennessee's Howard Wood, Dale Ellis, Michael Brooks, Tony White & Dyron Nix; Vanderbilt's Phil Cox & Will Perdue etc.
PS, in preview Alex Wolff says: "It was the coaches, they were so entertaining. It was like a comedy routine & everybody gunning for Kentucky so you kind of had your villain built into it."
This didn't make the episode but helps show Wolff's negative attitude towards UK at time.
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