LU needs to demand that North Carolina forfeit its 109-60 victory in 2004. It was obvious at the time that the match-up was unfair. Now we know that the Ramblers were tired from going to class, taking tests, and writing their own papers while the 'Heels were getting extra rest.

Game was on a Sunday evening. Flew home Monday morning and took my first final as a college student Tuesday. Philosophy class, I believe.

Coincidentally, that was when my sister was getting her PhD in Musicology at UNC (she brought a bunch of music dept. friends and made them wear LU shirts). She has never cared much at all about athletics but emailed me yesterday with a lot of disgust. Talked about how she taught undergrad classes for countless football and basketball players, the vast majority of whom worked hard. They weren't all the smartest but spent extra time to make grades. Even said that one summer when a student mouthed off at her, it was a football player who stood up and made him pipe down.

So while I'm sure there were improprieties, I feel bad for the student-athletes whose degrees and names are being tarnished.

As I recall, that was a pivotal game for Loyola and changed the way the team worked for the rest of the season. A few of us were watching at Hamilton's. Maybe I'm wrong and Rambler08 can fill in the details, but after looking at the box score this is how I remember it:

Before that game, Loyola was 2-5 in Jim Whitesell's first season as head coach. The only two wins were the home opener vs. Northern Illinois and a win over non-D1 Benedictine. But the five losses were pretty close, giving fans a lot of reason for hope. There was a two-point loss at Bradley, and a four point loss at Oral Roberts. Without a natural point guard, Loyola was relying primarily on senior DaJuan Gouard (more natural to the two-guard position) to bring the ball upcourt, and when Gouard was out of commission, freshman Dave Telander was our only option.

However, either in the first few seconds of the game or in practice before the game, Gouard suffered an injury and couldn't play. This forced Whitesell to use sophomore Blake Schilb as a point forward. Schilb had shown great ball handling ability, but that game was really the first time that he was used to bring the ball up court on offense. He also became a lot more active on offense as a result-- Schilb averaged 12.1 ppg in the seven games before playing UNC, and 19.6 ppg from the UNC game through the end of the season.

Looking up the box scores from that year, Gouard was out for eight games beginning with the UNC game, during which time Loyola went 1-7. But by the time Gouard came back, Schilb was now the guy bringing the ball up the court, thereby creating a lot of mis-matches as the offense set up in the half court. With Schilb doing most of the ball handling, Gouard went back to a shooting guard. And when Gouard returned, Loyola went 10-5 the rest of the season, including 2-1 in the conference tournament. Gouard averaged 17.7 ppg in his last 15 games, and Schilb averaged 4.17 assists per game from the UNC game through the end of the season.

The other things I remember about that game:

At tipoff, UNC got the ball and drove immediately to the basket for a dunk and a two-point lead in the first two and a half seconds of the game.

Telander had a great game, scoring 12 points, playing hard as nails, and impressing a lot of people.

It was a terrible, embarrasing 49-point beatdown, but had it not been for being pressed into using Schilb in a different way, the next few seasons might not have been nearly as good. The game before the UNC game, Schilb began a streak of 32 straight games and 53 of the next 54 scoring in double figures.

Good memory, JCT. It was a turning point of sorts that year, although after that we lost to a Porter-led ISU, Youngstown St and Central Michigan before we strung together some wins.

I'll try to scan a picture of the opening tip. Jackie Manuel is taking off from the circle down the floor as the ref is about to toss the ball up. DaJuan got hurt on our first offensive possession, Sean May hedged on a ball screen and smoked his knee.

Disagree entirely the loss was embarrassing. We were a half dozen games into a rebuilding year and they were the national champs. Their 6th man, Marvin Williams, was the top pick in the draft. May, Ray Felton, Rashad McCants, Jawad Williams...all those guys were in the nba the following year. We got crushed, and I played in several embarrassing losses, but that's not one of them.