The '80s was the peak decade for college basketball (IMO) and John Thompson was front and center, along with those great Hoyas teams-I don't need to close my eyes to see the likes of Patrick Ewing, Michael Graham, Reggie Williams, Michael Jackson, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allen Iverson run through my memory, while their mountain of a coach barks from the sidelines with the towel draped over his shoulder. His teams were tough and intimidating and the contrast to the likes of Syracuse and St. Johns made for great television. They were a hair's breath from 3 championships in Ewing's four years, with the two years they lost among the classic college basketball games of all-time.
A couple years back, when rockers Glenn Frey, David Bowie, Tom Petty, and Prince died in short succession, I remember thinking that we might see a strong run of R&R memorials; it's starting to feel the same for college basketball. I took a quick look at the Big 10 roster of coaches from that time period and their ages-excepting Randy Ayers, the youngest coaches are Steve Fisher and Gary Williams (75) with the others ranging between 77 to 84 (with Lou Henson, Jud Heathcote, and Bill Foster having already passed).
