Qoute from Memphis Commercial Appeal

[oldtiger]

Here's part of an article from the Memphis Commercial Appeal that you guys might find interesting, especially the older fans. It just highlights the history and ties that the two schools have.

"March 23, 2006
OAKLAND, Calif. -- After watching the Memphis Tigers play a midseason game on TV, the spry 87-year-old sat down at his desk and scrawled out a note to John Calipari.

"You can go all the way," the note said.

Signed, Bob Vanatta.

"His team plays the way my Memphis teams played," Vanatta now says, on the phone from his home in Jupiter, Fla. "I really feel that Memphis has a chance to go to the Final Four. And once they get there, they might win the dadgum thing."

Before any of that, of course, Memphis has to beat Bradley tonight at The Arena in Oakland.

Vanatta was the Bradley coach from 1954-56.

Vanatta was the Memphis coach from 1956-1962. ..........."

Bob coached Memphis State in the '57 NIT finals that the Braves won by one point. He left here to coach the University of Missouri and I beliver that before his retirement served as conference commissioner for a smaller conference or two.

(hopefully it's OK to qoute a publication on this board - I tried to give proper credit to the Commercial Appeal)

[bradley fan]

Thanks old tiger, we appreciate the story. I had forgotten that Bob Vanatta also coached Memphis after he left Bradley. He followed a couple legends at Bradley, A.J. Robertson and Forddy Anderson. His record for the 1954-1956 period was 22-33. He was the only coach Bradley had since 1920 with a losing record.

http://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf6/21011.pdf

[user1]

Your contribution is appreciated and welcome.
Older Bradley fans do recall Bob Vanatta who coached at BU
from 1954-56 and was the last coach to lead Bradley past the second round of NCAA play (he then lost to Colorado in the Final Four) but who also coached at "Southwest Missouri State" (now Missouri State University) from 1951-1954 and won NAIA national titles in 1952 & 1953.

Vanatta's 1955 Braves are still the one team in all of NCAA Tournament history to enter the tourney with the worst record
(7-19 in 1954-1955). Vanatta then went on after coaching BU to coach at Missouri, being replaced in 1967 at Mizzou by Norm Stewart who was then the head coach at Northern Iowa!
Even as recently as 1997 Vanatta was serving as assistant AD at Florida Atlantic.

[64NIT]

Your contribution is appreciated and welcome.
Older Bradley fans do recall Bob Vanatta who coached at BU
from 1954-56 and was the last coach to lead Bradley past the second round of NCAA play (he then lost to Colorado in the Final Four) but who also coached at "Southwest Missouri State" (now Missouri State University) from 1951-1954 and won NAIA national titles in 1952 & 1953.

Vanatta's 1955 Braves are still the one team in all of NCAA Tournament history to enter the tourney with the worst record
(7-19 in 1954-1955). Vanatta then went on after coaching BU to coach at Missouri, being replaced in 1967 at Mizzou by Norm Stewart who was then the head coach at Northern Iowa!
Even as recently as 1997 Vanatta was serving as assistant AD at Florida Atlantic.

I've always wondered how BU got into the tournament with such a poor record. Does anyone know?

Thanks.

64NIT

[MacabreMob]

Your contribution is appreciated and welcome.
Older Bradley fans do recall Bob Vanatta who coached at BU
from 1954-56 and was the last coach to lead Bradley past the second round of NCAA play (he then lost to Colorado in the Final Four) but who also coached at "Southwest Missouri State" (now Missouri State University) from 1951-1954 and won NAIA national titles in 1952 & 1953.

Vanatta's 1955 Braves are still the one team in all of NCAA Tournament history to enter the tourney with the worst record
(7-19 in 1954-1955). Vanatta then went on after coaching BU to coach at Missouri, being replaced in 1967 at Mizzou by Norm Stewart who was then the head coach at Northern Iowa!
Even as recently as 1997 Vanatta was serving as assistant AD at Florida Atlantic.

I've always wondered how BU got into the tournament with such a poor record. Does anyone know?

Thanks.

64NIT

From what I have been told...

Back then the NCAA would take 1 team from each region of the country that did not perform up to expectations in the season. That year, Bradley was expected to be a lot better than their record showed. With that, they were offered an At-Large bid.

[64NIT]

Your contribution is appreciated and welcome.
Older Bradley fans do recall Bob Vanatta who coached at BU
from 1954-56 and was the last coach to lead Bradley past the second round of NCAA play (he then lost to Colorado in the Final Four) but who also coached at "Southwest Missouri State" (now Missouri State University) from 1951-1954 and won NAIA national titles in 1952 & 1953.

Vanatta's 1955 Braves are still the one team in all of NCAA Tournament history to enter the tourney with the worst record
(7-19 in 1954-1955). Vanatta then went on after coaching BU to coach at Missouri, being replaced in 1967 at Mizzou by Norm Stewart who was then the head coach at Northern Iowa!
Even as recently as 1997 Vanatta was serving as assistant AD at Florida Atlantic.

I've always wondered how BU got into the tournament with such a poor record. Does anyone know?

Thanks.

64NIT

From what I have been told...

Back then the NCAA would take 1 team from each region of the country that did not perform up to expectations in the season. That year, Bradley was expected to be a lot better than their record showed. With that, they were offered an At-Large bid.

Thanks, MM. Your explanation makes sense, considering BU had been in the championship game the year before.

[user1]

The answer is actually debated to this day but the simple truth is that the teams who were in the title game the year before received automatic bids.
Bradley had lost the title game in 1954 to the Tom Gola-led LaSalle team in the very first NCAA Championship game that was ever televised!
Here is a document that says that, although no record of such a rule exists to this day in the NCAA archives.

http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=basketball&ID=339

(read the 5th paragraph)

Bradley was 7-19 at the time and was in the throes of a 14 game losing streak.
But several factors still stood out.
The teams were at the time selected regionally, and the "WEST REGION" had so few good teams that Bradley stood out still as one of the best selections anyway.
Bradley was coming off a run of 6 years (1949-1955) where they were one of the dominant teams in the nation, finishing twice as the #2 team nationally, having a #1 NBA draft pick, and playing a powerhouse schedule against teams like Kentucky, CCNY, Kansas, etc.
In that era, some of the best teams still chose the NIT instead of the competing NCAA tourney, and so the NCAA committee gave the nod to Bradley knowing they'd still compete well and bring a solid core of fans along. And they did compete well, falling a few points short of going to the Final Four.

[oldtiger]

I agree with User1. That era had numerous teams that chose the NIT over the NCAA. At that time eastern media dominated basketball coverage with MSG and the Palestra in Philadelphia being the "mecas" for college basketball. Because there was such an eastern media bias (worse than Duke, ACC/Big East today) many of the best eastern teams chose the NIT so that they could play in the "Garden". All 16 teams went to NYC at that time and were treated very, very well. Even within the last 25 - 30 years Al McGuire didn't like the region his Marquette team was placed in, refused a NCAA bid to play in the NIT while they were ranked 2nd (I believe) in the nation.

[BU fan]

The USA today has the Memphis Tigers as their lead story on the front page of their Sports section--

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/front.htm

Link to Memphis story-

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/tourney06/2006-03-22-memphis-cover_x.htm

They also have a nice story on Bradley-

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/tourney06/2006-03-22-bradley_x.htm