Way before there was a street agent on every corner hustling any basketball player that had any type of game, before there was a Nike or Adidas, there was NCAA freshman basketball. Incoming freshmen were not allowed to play varsity basketball. Every year most NCAA schools would bring in 3 to 4 freshmen to pick up the slack from graduating seniors or any other defections. Some schools would go the juco route for the quick fix.
Since Juco's will be in the mix in this conversation, juco basketball was a different animal in those days. There were not prep schools like there are today hiding out and making grades for the non qualifiers. The juco teams were monsters. There was a team in Phoenix, Phoenix College, that had the number one high school team delivered on their doorstep, courtesy of Southern Cal. This same core group, Dennis Mo Layton, George Watson and LeRoy Cobb would proceed to USC where they would be the only team to beat UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. (That Southern Cal team could not go to the NCAA tourney because there was only one team per conference selected.) As good as this Juco group was, they did not win the national championship. I say this because this was the basic competition for most freshman NCAA teams.
My freshman year we had two bigs, myself, who was sort of a swingman, and a guard. All years prior to my freshman year, all undergrads not on scholarship could be on the freshman team regardless of the actual class they were in. When we started practicing we looked really good and we even beat the varsity in a short scrimmage. Unfortunately, before the first game, the NCAA reversed a long standing rule and made only freshmen eligible for freshmen basketball. We lost all our heigth and depth about a week before our first game. Remember, with the Vietnam war and the draft, there were a bunch of guys on the 5 and 6 year plan that could ball.
To make matters worse for our team, the very first day of practice one of our promising big men, my room mate, Jerry Eastman, blew out his knee. He never played one minute of basketball for Miami his injury was so severe. This happened in the first 20 minutes of our first day of just playing pick up games in the armory. Now we were down to 3 scholarship players.
The typical game was played before the varsity game, against a junior college. In Florida, there were many powerhouse junior college teams. Now, in our case our other big man, Bob Nylin, had some ankle sprains and missed some games. So, at six five and 190 pounds, I would guard a six eight or nine post who had about 50 pounds on me. So I was in many cases 2 positions out. The rest of the lineup when that happened would max out at about six two and in many cases shorter. There wasn't much offense that could be run as it was, and it only go worse if I hit foul trouble. It was basically isolate Robb Austin, our scholarship guard and let him go one on one.
To make matters worse, playing out of position did not prepare you as well as it could have for college ball. The other matter was road games. When the varsity was on the road trips, we would play the jucos on the road at their gym. This would come with a homer announcer and refs. If you made a turnover, the announcer would announce your name really crazy in front of a packed house. Bob and I would usually pick up a quick 3 fouls and it was not cool. A few times when we didn't let the juco's depth get to us, and had fair refs, we really hung in there. We played close on one a occasion with a highly ranked team and their 9th man came off the bench and hit 3 25 footers and killed us. We played this team about 3 times and this guy never got off the bench before. That was the kind of depth and strength we were up against. As a consolation, we beat a freshman team the next night by 20. It was the only freshman team we played all year, Georgia Tech.
This is another caveat one had at playing at Miami. The rest of Florida exclusive of Miami was very southern and Miami was considered another world, especially in those days. As such, Miami teams would always get the shaft from the refs, even at home. It got old real fast.
Now, the good part was we did get to go home for the holidays as freshmen. The NCAA in their infinite wisdom wanted the freshman year to be an adjustment for academics and adapting to college life away from home. If you want to see a ghost town, go to any university around the holidays. It is just the basketball team on campus.
The following year our freshman team consisted of Lionel Harris, a great guard, Mike Darnell, a fantastic shooter who would later transfer and Dave Kisker, a 7 footer with size in the middle. As an added bonus, we had NFL Minnesota Vikings great Walter "Chuck" Foreman, on the team. Chuck could have played D-1 basketball at many schools. Chuck was a world class high hurdler as well. Even with this talent, when foul trouble and injuries happened, this team would get in the same dilemna as our freshman team.
The above was the same pattern I saw the next few years after my freshman year. Miami would put 2 or 3 scholarship players on the floor against some of the best juco players in the country. Many times it would be a real struggle against the talent and depth the freshmen team faced. I saw this pattern around the country at many schools. It was the old saying, the names may change, but the game remains the same. Now the NCAA freshman basketball is a long time gone.
