Question for the Old Timers (early 80s or prior)

jamalo

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The site across the street is talking about all era teams and a question came up about John Shasky vs. Jim Petersen. In my mind, Shasky had a much better college career than Petersen; very strong junior and senior years versus a serviceable senior year for Petersen (and mediocre prior to that). Also, Petersen arguably cost us a NCAA bid in his junior season; my recollection is that they meant to wind down the clock but he shot a long jumper with 8-9 seconds left on the clock and a team (Illinois?) came down to hit a game winning shot. Obviously, NBA Petersen would have been beast mode in terms of physique and aggression but he never showed that here and I watched most games during that ERA. Thoughts?

Also, how awesome would have the early 80's Big Ten championship team been if Leo Rautins didn't transfer and Mark Hall didn't have his personal issues?
 

Sadly true

The site across the street is talking about all era teams and a question came up about John Shasky vs. Jim Petersen. In my mind, Shasky had a much better college career than Petersen; very strong junior and senior years versus a serviceable senior year for Petersen (and mediocre prior to that). Also, Petersen arguably cost us a NCAA bid in his junior season; my recollection is that they meant to wind down the clock but he shot a long jumper with 8-9 seconds left on the clock and a team (Illinois?) came down to hit a game winning shot. Obviously, NBA Petersen would have been beast mode in terms of physique and aggression but he never showed that here and I watched most games during that ERA. Thoughts?

Also, how awesome would have the early 80's Big Ten championship team been if Leo Rautins didn't transfer and Mark Hall didn't have his personal issues?

Petersen was incredibly frustrating. He always played scared, tentative, nervous. He made crucial mistakes.
Shasky was less athletic, but got a lot out of his abilities. He played hard. Persistent and effective describes how Shasky played.
 

The site across the street is talking about all era teams and a question came up about John Shasky vs. Jim Petersen.

Not an exact comparison, because they played different positions. Petersen (PF) had more talent, was a McDonalds all american, 9 years in the NBA, but never dominated in college like people thought he could. Shasky was a typical Dutcher center -- big slow white guy who didn't start out as much, but slowly and steadily improved over his 4 years. By his senior year was a very good two-way center... back when offenses ran through the C far more than today.
 

Not an exact comparison, because they played different positions. Petersen (PF) had more talent, was a McDonalds all american, 9 years in the NBA, but never dominated in college like people thought he could. Shasky was a typical Dutcher center -- big slow white guy who didn't start out as much, but slowly and steadily improved over his 4 years. By his senior year was a very good two-way center... back when offenses ran through the C far more than today.

Agreed; if Petersen would have blossomed at the U rather than waiting until the NBA he would have been a beast. Also agree with 60's guy's assessment of tentative play which is surprising as Dutcher never struck me as an intimidating coach
 

Not an exact comparison, because they played different positions. Petersen (PF) had more talent, was a McDonalds all american, 9 years in the NBA, but never dominated in college like people thought he could. Shasky was a typical Dutcher center -- big slow white guy who didn't start out as much, but slowly and steadily improved over his 4 years. By his senior year was a very good two-way center... back when offenses ran through the C far more than today.

Enuf said
 


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xi3rgaZSK6g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
hey old timers..... if you want to watch the fight for free...heres a link....make sure you have ad block plus installed though https://adblockplus.org/ .......r installed it will make things much smoother
 

Someone already used the word I was going to use for Peterson: Frustrating. I don't remember anyone make the entire crowd moan as much as Peterson. He could've been a lot more but make so many mistakes. I was only 13, but I remember him always looking scared.

OK. Maybe Eliason got more moans from the crowd.
 

Hard to compare the two. Peterson played on some very good teams, while Shasky made his leap in production on some not-so-great teams. My sense was that Peterson was clearly the better talent, but that Shasky's craftiness and patience made him a slightly more effective college player on inferior teams. (I know they played a couple of years together.)

I do have to bring up my greatest sports thrill when I, as a 12 year old kid, sat in the second row under the basket and watched the "Iron Five" beat OSU with Hopson and Sellers. Marc Wilson, Ray Gaffney, Tim Hanson, Kelvin Smith and John Shasky will always have a special place in my heart. We stayed after and got all five plus Jimmy Williams to sign my program cover (also got a Joe Senser autograph as he was hanging around after the game as well). I was lucky enough to be at Game 7 in 1987, but the OSU win was more impactful to me!

I'm excited about our immediate and foreseeable future. I'm excited at the prospect of hearing The Barn rocking like the good old days. I'm excited to be competing at the highest levels of the B1G and, therefore, the nation.

Go Gophers!

Pollyanna!

Ski-U-Mah!
 

Dutcher could recruit at a good level, but he was not nearly as great as Bill Musselman at bringing in top talent, at least at the post position (Thompson, Olberding vs. Shasky, Paul Carpenter)

Dutcher hit a wall for a while after the 1982 season, and the younger players did not produce at the same level, but his recruiting ramped up and it seemed like he had things rolling again in '85 -'86, then it all hit the fan with the Mitch Lee situation in Madison. I lived for Gopher basketball in those years and of course had the NCAA let in 64/68 teams back then we would look at those 80's Jim Dutcher teams differently.

Jim Peterson was a very frustrating player to watch, I agree. I think my recollection of his Gopher years is why I find some of his frequently rigid, judgmental, and borderline self righteous comments on Wolves broadcasts to be a bit grating.
 



To clarify, Musselman found a lot of great centers and forwards who could flat out play, and many were black players. The white big men that Musselman signed like Mark Olberding and Lingenfelter were athletes as well. Dutcher on the other hand, tended to bring in the 'white birch" 7 footers, almost always slow footed, projects who were OK but never great. (we had three on the team at one point)

The UNC case enrages me now because the NCAA threw the book at the U of M and Bill M for stuff that was at the level of shoplifting candy vs. robbing a bank (North Carolina today , or Kentucky back in those days). Minnesota would have won a NCAA title for sure under Bill Musselman if the NCAA had not crushed us.
 

The site across the street is talking about all era teams and a question came up about John Shasky vs. Jim Petersen. In my mind, Shasky had a much better college career than Petersen; very strong junior and senior years versus a serviceable senior year for Petersen (and mediocre prior to that). Also, Petersen arguably cost us a NCAA bid in his junior season; my recollection is that they meant to wind down the clock but he shot a long jumper with 8-9 seconds left on the clock and a team (Illinois?) came down to hit a game winning shot. Obviously, NBA Petersen would have been beast mode in terms of physique and aggression but he never showed that here and I watched most games during that ERA. Thoughts?

Also, how awesome would have the early 80's Big Ten championship team been if Leo Rautins didn't transfer and Mark Hall didn't have his personal issues?

That 82 team or only lost Rautins who transferred to Syracuse but also Ben Coleman who transferred as well.
 

Petersen reminds me of Ralph Sampson II in that they were both wildly inconsistent and tended to get lost in the game due to lack of confidence or drive or something.

Shasky was Dusty Rychart like, making the most out of what he had instead of performing below expectations. But Petersen was the better talent by far.

As for Dutcher's recruiting, the year he brought in Trent, Marc Hall and Leo we had the number 1 recruiting class in the nation. I'm pretty sure Jimmy Williams had a lot to do with it.

As for coaches, I wish we would have hired Flip after he lead Golden Valley Lutheran to National rankings. He would have raised us up quite a bit.

Leo wasn't near the loss Royce was.
 

Petersen reminds me of Ralph Sampson II in that they were both wildly inconsistent and tended to get lost in the game due to lack of confidence or drive or something.

Shasky was Dusty Rychart like, making the most out of what he had instead of performing below expectations. But Petersen was the better talent by far.

As for Dutcher's recruiting, the year he brought in Trent, Marc Hall and Leo we had the number 1 recruiting class in the nation. I'm pretty sure Jimmy Williams had a lot to do with it.

As for coaches, I wish we would have hired Flip after he lead Golden Valley Lutheran to National rankings. He would have raised us up quite a bit.

Leo wasn't near the loss Royce was.

Good feedback; I'm assuming you mean Ben Coleman rather than Royce in your last sentence
 



Good feedback; I'm assuming you mean Ben Coleman rather than Royce in your last sentence
I meant Leo, but Ben works too. Of the three Royce was the best player. Had he played for us for just 2 years, we would have had possibly the best front court in the B1G.
 

To clarify, Musselman found a lot of great centers and forwards who could flat out play, and many were black players. The white big men that Musselman signed like Mark Olberding and Lingenfelter were athletes as well. Dutcher on the other hand, tended to bring in the 'white birch" 7 footers, almost always slow footed, projects who were OK but never great. (we had three on the team at one point)

The UNC case enrages me now because the NCAA threw the book at the U of M and Bill M for stuff that was at the level of shoplifting candy vs. robbing a bank (North Carolina today , or Kentucky back in those days). Minnesota would have won a NCAA title for sure under Bill Musselman if the NCAA had not crushed us.

And now his kid Eric is leading the Nevada Wolfpack. Won the Conference and the tourney and he got them to the dance with a limited roster. My buddy who lives in Vegas says UNLV is an afterthought with the rise of the Wolfpack.
 

Yes, Eric Musselman is indeed a very solid coach, and has done very well at Nevada, to the point that Cal was trying to hire him in the off season. Eric has a pretty good situation at Nevada (and in life in general from what I can tell) and he might be waiting for a bigger job than Cal.

Eric and his wife, a former ESPN and Fox studio host:

https://www.google.com/search?q=eri...pYXWAhVixoMKHQK2A64Q_AUICygC&biw=1920&bih=898
 

Hard to compare the two. Peterson played on some very good teams, while Shasky made his leap in production on some not-so-great teams. My sense was that Peterson was clearly the better talent, but that Shasky's craftiness and patience made him a slightly more effective college player on inferior teams. (I know they played a couple of years together.)

I do have to bring up my greatest sports thrill when I, as a 12 year old kid, sat in the second row under the basket and watched the "Iron Five" beat OSU with Hopson and Sellers. Marc Wilson, Ray Gaffney, Tim Hanson, Kelvin Smith and John Shasky will always have a special place in my heart. We stayed after and got all five plus Jimmy Williams to sign my program cover (also got a Joe Senser autograph as he was hanging around after the game as well). I was lucky enough to be at Game 7 in 1987, but the OSU win was more impactful to me!

I'm excited about our immediate and foreseeable future. I'm excited at the prospect of hearing The Barn rocking like the good old days. I'm excited to be competing at the highest levels of the B1G and, therefore, the nation.

Go Gophers!

Pollyanna!

Ski-U-Mah!

Loved the Iron Five! Not as much as Willie Burton bringing us back to glory but it was right up there!
 




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