Basketball (Men) 1973-74

[Turbine]

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Info provided by California Cajun (CALIFCAJUN) on Delphi

. . . In basketball, our death penality was vindictiveness on the part of the NCAA for suing them and we didn't have the funds to sustain it. Probably we would have gotten a reasonable penalty and gone on with our winning ways had we not sued. UNLV and Jerry Tarkanian undoubtedly committed more violations that we have probably even heard of, but they had the resources to pursue a suit for 20 years and that's why they won. Tark had players from impoverished backgrounds with BMWs in the parking lot and the running joke was that they would have to lower their standard of living after entering the NBA. I had heard that a disgruntled ex-USL assistant coach name Goldstein turned us in. There were over 200 violations but according to Ron Gomez (Voice of the Cajuns at the time), there were only four legitimate ones and none deserving of the death penalty. Somebody told me that one of the 200 violations was a booster buying his nephew (one of our players) breakfast once and the player didn't pay his uncle back. Yet Coach Beryl Shipley, for all his accomplishments, including a #4 ranking and being the first Louisiana coach to integrate his basketball team, has been blackballed and the sportswriters won't let him in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Believe it or not, Shipley was only getting paid $16,000 a year by UL and unhappy about that and in light of the allegations he resigned. Rolland Todd, ex-coach of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, was hired to replace him because we didn't know there was going to be a death penalty. In fact, there was talk that the overall USL team would be better in 1973-74 despite losing Bo Lamar because his eligibility was out. After death, Fred Saunders transferred somewhere else and had a distinguished NBA career with the Boston Celtics. Bo Lamar had a decent, but not great pro career. He played first for the San Diego Conquistadors of the ABA with Wilt Chamberlain as the coach, then finished up with the Los Angeles Lakers (he wore #11 rather than the #10 he wore at USL). Larry Fogle (#44) was a Freshman in 1972-73, then transferred to Canisius, where one year he led the nation in scoring. I remember Don Allen doing a telephone interview with him because there was such an emptiness without basketball. When we did get the death penalty, nothing basketball-related happened in 1973-74. According to my 1974-75 yearbook, the team practiced but did not play any intercollegiate games because there is a team picture. Our first year back from the dead was 1975-76 and when Kentucky assistant Jim Hatfield was hired, Rolland Todd couldn't believe that USL didn't hold the job open for him. He was under the impression that he was still the coach.

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[JamesTheJeweler]

is it possible that you could list the names of the players on this team?

[RaginFan2]

_ is it possible that you could list the names of the players on this team? _

I don't think I can name all of the team members from the 72-73 squad, but I'll see how many I can do. Bo Lamar, Fred Saunders, Roy Ebron, Jerry Bisbano, Larry Fogle. I can also remember a young (soph?) small forward who saw some playing time (Percy Wells???), and a bench player who came in late when we had a big lead (he played and looked more like a football player and usually picked up a foul or 2, but was always diving for loose balls). I think he later coached at McNeese. And then there was Hank Perret, a local kid who I don't recall playing much that year, but was the only member of that team who came back after the death penalty to play for USL again. Whew!!! That hurt my brain straining that hard! That was a great team to watch. Fun memories of the team and of the "Blackham Experience"!

[Big Buds]

I had heard that a disgruntled ex-USL assistant coach name Goldstein turned us in.

This Goldstein is a jerk.