The Memphis game: Coaches, players, even fans had Bluff City roots in MSU-UAB game
Memphis State's Vincent Askew (30), who played high school basketball at Memphis Frayser, passes out of trouble between UAB’s Jerome Mincy (40), who starred at Memphis Hamilton, and James Ponder (32) in the overtime part of the game at the NCAA Midwest Regional Tournament in Houston, March 17, 1985. (AP file)
As the Memphis and UAB basketball programs prepared to renew their long-running series a season ago following a 10-year hiatus and former Tigers and Blazers recalled glory days gone by, one game kept coming up:
March 17, 1985.
A Sunday.
Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston.
It was the Tigers’ second game in that year’s NCAA Tournament, one that helped then-Memphis State get to the Final Four for the first time since Larry Kenon, Larry Finch and coach Gene Bartow lost to Bill Walton-led and John Wooden-coached UCLA in the 1973 national championship game.
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Tim Buckley
Tim is a veteran sportswriter who graduated from CBHS in Memphis and the University of Missouri. He previously covered LSU sports in Baton Rouge, and the University of Louisiana football and basketball for The Daily Advertiser/USA TODAY Network in Lafayette, the NBA’s Utah Jazz for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, and West Texas State basketball for the Amarillo Globe News in Texas.
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