|
Many of us had these expectations for the Ramblers coming off their magnificent 2018 season: Williamson steps in for Richardson, Uguak fills Ingram’s spot, and freshman Frank Augunanne partly makes up for the loss of 6th man Aundre Jackson. Everybody get a year better than last year and it all adds up to a team that should match last year’s.
Veterans of the 1966-67 season should have been suspicious of that thinking.
In 1965-66, one of Loyola’s best recruiting classes ever (Corky Bell, Doug Wardlaw, Alan Miller, and Jim Tillman) joined three returning starters (Billy Smith, Jim Coleman, and Frank (Cisco) Perez from Loyola’s first losing team since 1960. This looked like a pretty good team and they opened the year by easily dismissing two small school opponents by an average score of 120-65. A solid Oklahoma City team, which was coached by the legendary Abe Lemons and would end the year in the NCAA, came into Alumni Gym in the third game of the season. When they thrashed the young Ramblers 106-89, it was disappointing but not depressing.
But it was the last loss the Ramblers would suffer until being were tripped up at Wichita State in February in their only other regular season defeat, a defeat avenged 11 days later. Night after night, the team was firing on all cylinders. It was a team effort with everyone in a seven-man rotation contributing to a 97 ppg offense. The 1966 team looked more like the 2018 Ramblers than any other Loyola team I ever saw, including the championship team. It relied more on offense than the 2018 team, but it had the same the same kind of energy and teamwork on both ends of the floor. With the Ramblers ranked as high as third in the country and standing at number 4 at the end of the regular season, it looked like another trip to the final four just three years after winning it all.
Although it didn’t end well – Western Kentucky with Clem Haskins took the Ramblers out in the first round 105-86 – there was overwhelming optimism about the next season. Here was the thinking. Tillman would step into Smith’s role as 6-5 center (not a misprint, but still Loyola in 1966 had outrebounded opponents by an average of 58-54 – also not a misprint). Coleman and Perez would be replaced by Miller, transfer Art Oates, and promising incoming sophomore Bill Baumgartner (freshmen were not eligible then).
In fact Tillman responded by replacing Smith’s 18 points and 13 rebounds with 25 points and 11 rebounds in 1966-67. Baumgartner matched Perez’s 9 ppg. Oates was a valuable contributor but did not match Coleman’s 16 ppg. But Tillman’s development made up for that in the scoring category. At the level of individual players, the optimistic thinking seems to have been justified.
The season for the team didn’t play out that way. After four easy, small school victories, Baumgartner, a 90% free throw shooter that season, missed one in the final seconds in a 93-92 loss at North Dakota. That game tripped off a four game losing streak. Another four game losing streak would follow less than three weeks later. Overall, the team finished 14-9.
If the missing pieces from the 1966 team were replaced, what happened? In 1967, a Loyola that was even shorter than in 1966 was outrebounded 55-50. You could just about replace Smith’s rebound numbers, but you couldn’t replace his presence under the boards. The absence of Coleman’s senior leadership was evident on the floor. Perez’s savvy floor movement was missing, making the whole team less fluid. Opponent shooting percentage was up considerably (39% to 44%).
There was no lack of effort or even talent. There wasn’t something “wrong”. It was a good team, but not at all the same team that jelled so well a year earlier. And things eventually got better. The Ramblers won their final five games, three of them on the road. The next year, with seniors Tillman, Bell, and Wardlaw joined by Walter Robertson and Wade Fuller, Loyola went back to the NCAA. But that was a different team too. Unless you have a team full of McDonald’s All Americans, it’s always about the team and the team has a different personality every year. This year's Rambler team is still in the process of being whatever it will be. Go Ramblers.
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
