This day in history - Jan 5, 1991

If that’s true that’s beyond brutal. Talk about a dynasty making decision.

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I still can’t get over this. l had never heard about it

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Guys, don’t believe the hype about so-and-so recruit wanting to come here but we didn’t offer/call/etc. Jordan was going to UNC before his senior year of high school started. Laettner was a second team high school All American, top 30ish recruit. If we had any realistic chance at them we would have known.

As an aside, I was also at the 1991 Duke game. It is said that when the Duke bus got home at 2AM, K was so mad he made them go immediately into Cameron and practice. And somebody (Thomas Hill?) got their nose broken.

UVA was one of only three campus visits Laettner took. UNC and Duke were the others.

Now that’s good info. Still, we were third in the race for Laettner.

I know the way we, Virginia, looked at recruiting back then and while I know we would have loved to have Michael Jordan attend am not so much convinced on Laettner. Of course he became one of the greatest college players ever but not sure he would have fit in with the team then. Just my thoughts and nothing to really back that up from
coaches. That was a good article though

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That was a good article but I’m still in shock over the Jordan deal. I read a little more about it. He was actually interested in UCLA and UVA. Neither one ever recruited him. The article went on to say that if Jordan had spent 2 years with Sampson that NC State probably wouldn’t have won the Championship with Valvano and the most interesting thing ( or sickening) that it could have changed the course of history at both schools. That is my interpretation of the article and I’m mad at whoever from UVA got that letter from Jordan and evidently said nothing and just sent him an admissions form

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To hell with Michael Jordan and Christian Laettner.

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DNellys comin in hot today!

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The assistants when that happened were Craig Littlepage, Dave Odom & Jim Larranaga. Craig left after the ‘81 Final Four for Penn. Larranaga was director of recruiting and would have been the point person for Jordon’s recruiting outreach.

Also, this one gets brushed over. Terry wanted Dave Odom to succeed him and made it known. AD Jim Copeland rejects it, as he was aggressively pursuing Rick Barnes. Since Bob O’Neil was transitioning out as President for John Casteen, there really wasn’t an arbitrator for Terry to take his case to. So Copeland won out. If Copeland had followed Terry’s recommendation, Tim Duncan would have eventually become a Wahoo. Jeff Jones would have taken a more natural growth as an assistant on Dave’s staff. Most likely replacing Dave when he retired. UVA’s basketball history would have forever changed.

Always fun playing the “what if!”

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Same. Very happy Laettner wasn’t a Hoo. On one of the slimiest teams, run by the slimiest of coaches, with a long and storied history of duke-bag players…he might be the biggest duke-bag of them all. And he’s proud of it.

No thanks. Bullet dodged as far as I’m concerned. Any success he may have helped bring be damned.

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Is funny right? And Coach Littlepage came back at some point as he was an assistant my first year when Coach Holland announced before the season he was leaving after 89-90. I think Coach wanted Littlepage to become the head guy; Coach Odom- who recruited me with Jeff Jones- had already left to Wake before that year.

Man I have some interesting stories on this stuff

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Littlepage got a raw deal as the Rutgers coach and should have been given another year.

I’m reluctant to bring up a loss after the way this week has gone, but Jan 12 1991 double OT vs. Carolina was a terrific game. After Crotty’s 3 pointer at the end of the first OT to tie it, I thought we had it in the bag. Unfortunately King Rice’s garbage jumper with a second left in the second OT was the difference.

I can’t remember why I was hanging around C’Ville during winter break that year, but I was lucky enough to be there for a couple of U-Hall classics against Duke and Carolina on back-to-back weekends. It was a great Hoos team in a tough ACC.

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Love these posts, stoke. Keep em coming! Even better when they’re from the @DFresh11 era so he can chime in.

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Brutal. They used to play that game on Espn Classics all the time.

I just remembered that that stretch was when I was out with a stress fracture in my foot so wasnt back playing yet so sadly my memory and input into those games are not very clear.

Yea. King Rice makes one shot and is the hero

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@stoke or anyone else. Anyone remember what Boylan Heights was called back then? We always hung out there during winter break and played pool upstairs there back in the day

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The Garret? Not sure if that’s it. Yeah, I used to end up there every now and then shooting pool at the end of the night.

Orbits

Boom! The Garret. great call

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