I grew up in Decatur, IL and was coached by some amazing men during my childhood. But the best coach I ever had the privilege to play for in my lifetime was Roger Lowe. We both grew up in the west end of Decatur and he coached a few of the little league teams I played on. Anyway, the man knew how to coach and later in his life, he became an assistant coach for the Illini BB program. I just saw a post of his on Facebook about the 1986 Illini team he coached for. That team was very good, and beat Indiana (the team that eventually won the National Championship) in the last few weeks of the season, but then was upset by Austin Peay in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament. Here is the story that he related:
"There is quite a story about the Austin Peay game that very few know; story about the NCAA coming into our locker room before the game and informing us that they weren't going to allow Ken Norman to play due to questions about him purchasing a Camaro during the season; this could have been done at any time, why they chose this time to disrupt our team is a question that will never be answered."
I remember that game like it was yesterday. And this story rings so true to me. That Illini team was starting to click that year as the season ended, and was ranked 11th in the country heading into the tournament. They had won 9 of their last 11 games and looked like they could be one of those sneaky good 3 seeds who could go on a long tournament run. Hearing this story just makes me hate the NCAA even more.
"There is quite a story about the Austin Peay game that very few know; story about the NCAA coming into our locker room before the game and informing us that they weren't going to allow Ken Norman to play due to questions about him purchasing a Camaro during the season; this could have been done at any time, why they chose this time to disrupt our team is a question that will never be answered."
I remember that game like it was yesterday. And this story rings so true to me. That Illini team was starting to click that year as the season ended, and was ranked 11th in the country heading into the tournament. They had won 9 of their last 11 games and looked like they could be one of those sneaky good 3 seeds who could go on a long tournament run. Hearing this story just makes me hate the NCAA even more.
