I hate to be the one to play Scrooge, I do. But I was troubled last night when the list of the 10 greatest college basketball moments in Madison Square Garden’s history was revealed at halftime of the St. John’s-Georgia game, and I remain troubled by it.
Here, in reverse order, is the list:
10. Stanford and Hank Luisetti snapping LIU’s 43-game winning streak, 1936.
9. The St. John’s-Georgetown “sweater game,” 1985.
8. St. John’s beats #1 Michigan in Holiday Festival, 1965.
7. Joe Lapchick goes out on top, 1965.
6. Oscar Robertson’s 56-point outburst vs. Seton Hall, 1958
5. Walter Berry blocks Pearl Washington at the buzzer, 1986
4. Gerry McNamara’s four-game parlay, 2006
3. Bill Bradley in the Holiday Festival, 1965
2. Syracuse-UConn, 6 OTs, 2009
1. CCNY’s double-title, 1950
And, yes, I have a problem with No. 1. Look, nobody loves college basketball’s history — specifically its New York history — more than I do. And I appreciate the fact that the Beavers did something that will never again happen — they won the NIT and the NCAA in the same year. That is a glorious accomplishment. It is an unprecedented accomplishment. And maybe I can be pursuaded that it it belongs somewhere on the list.
But this is the harsh truth of that deal: eight of the players who cut down both nets in 1950 were shackled in handcuffs less than a year later when CCNY became the poster child for the point-shaving scandal that nearly ruined the entire sport, and also nearly destroyed MSG as a primary college-basketball venue. It is not possible — has never been possible — to mention CCNY’s remarkable rise without also mentioning its shattering demise.
And I’m sorry: the people who voted this list ought to have kept that in mind. This team very nearly destroyed the sport, and the site, for which the list was invented as a celebration. You can argue, quite legitimately, that for all the grand moments that have subsequently happened at the Garden in various and sundry Big East Tournaments, Holiday Festivals and Coaches Versus Cancer invitationals, that even today the Garden isn’t anywhere near the influencial basketball mecca it was in the ’40s and early ’50s. And the gambling scandals helped make that so.
You may be one of the people who rail about the exclusion of Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose from the Hall, based on their gambling sins. I admire your tenacity in arguing that, and I believe it’s a worthwhile side to take in the debate. But I am on the other side: they did what they did, and they are paying the consequence. The same ought to be true of CCNY. Look, a lot of those players recovered from the scandal, and almost all of them went on to live fine, productive, even prosperous lives. I have interviewed almost all of them over the years; to a man they have taken ownership of their mistakes, copped to them, and lived their lives having learned harsh but valuable lessons. In many ways they are as heroic as any team, based on what they had to live through.
That is the Lifetime network ending to this: they moved on, they lived, they thrived, they learned.
But to reward them this way? Sorry, it bothers me. My Top 5 list would look this way: 1. Bradley; 2. Berry/Pearl; 3. 6-OT; 4. Lapchick; 5. the Sweater game. CCNY would fall in the second five. But I couldn’t put them No. 1. Not if you know what they did. And not if you realize what it was that they nearly destroyed.
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Thanks, Isiah!: In case Knicks fans were getting too giddy over a three-game winning streak, they had to watch John Wall walk into the Gardem and pronounce himself the best player in college basketball today … while saying, silently, “Next time I see you, it certainly won’t be in a Knicks unifiorm, thanks to a lovely parting gift by your exiled GM. Bye!”
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There’s No Crying in Football: Sorry, Mark Sanchez, the Jets did the right thing yesterday. Let’s be very honest: if Kellen Clemens can’t beat the 1-11 Buccaneers, then there’s no room for Clemens in the NFL or for the Jets in the AFC playoff picture.
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The People are Speaking: We talk all the time about how blithely sports fans accept their fate. Mets officials yesterday said that seson-ticket renewals are “slow.” And that is as it should be, until the Mets show they are being operated by something north of rank amateurs.
