Since I’ve started following NU hoops I’ve seen odd occurrences, tragic occurrences, and just down right bad occurrences. I can’t think of another athletic program which has experienced more strangeness. Here’s the list I came up with. Feel free to add more…
- Nick Knapp has a heart problem and is never allowed to play for NU
- Evan Eschmeyer misses two years with a foot injury and never teams with either the 93-94 senior class or Big Ten scoring champ Geno Carlisle
- Darieon Dean walks into a stop sign on a road trip…he never plays again
- Matt Moran goes AWOL and transfers to Bradley because of family issues
- Carvell Ammons gets homesick and transfers to Illinois
- Geno Carlisle transfers to Cal
- In a truly tragic incident former Coach Ricky Byrdsong is killed by a white supremacist
- Sean Wink and Aaron Molnar quit because Coach Kevin O’Neill yells at them too much
- Terrence Avery also quits because of O’Neill…he becomes all-conference at Indiana State
- Brody Deren, Steve Lepore, and David Newman quit to avoid another year of O’Neill…Deren and Lepore play in the NCAA Tournament at Creighton and Wake Forest
- O’Neill takes an NBA job and sneaks movers into his office to clear it out during an NU football game so nobody realizes he is going until he’s gone
- Bill Carmody arrives having inherited a team from O’Neill with a ton of recruits who can’t play and a star (Ben Johnson) who wants to transfer
- Johnson transfers to Minnesota after 1 year
- Carmody begins to reverse the NU trend and get players to transfer into NU, however, the two most touted Mike Thompson (the tall one) and Bernard Cote leave NU before they finish their eligibility
- Highly regarded Peoria-area recruit Brandon Lee is arrested and sent to jail
- Flit, Michigan-area recruit Gary Lee quits the team after academic issues
- Vedran Vukusic misses a year with a shoulder injury when he might have had the strongest team around him
- T.J. Parker leaves NU to go pro (in France)
- Seniors Kevin Coble and Jeff Ryan go down right before NU’s seemingly most promising season
- Kevin Coble quits before returning for his 5th-year
6 comments:
Didn't Ed McCants end up at UW-Green Bay or someplace and playing really well in leading his team to the NCAA tourney?
How about our impressive streak of pretty good players who never/minimally overlapped at NU -- Esch, Jitim Young, Vukusic, etc?
Seriously, I wish Coble the best, and obviously this was a tough decision for him and he's making this for the right reasons....but....
WHY DOES GOD HATE NORTHWESTERN BASKETBALL?
I forgot McCants, but you're right I think he was Horizon League Player of the Year and like a 3rd team All-American.
Another note on (the tall) Michael Thompson: he was a McDonald's All-American in high school and transferred to NU from Duke (and was still supposed to be pretty good). He was forced to stop playing when doctors found a heart defect following an illness.
And he wasn't very good, but Kyle Rowley transferred this summer as well.
yeah McCants was an animal at UW-Milwaukee, led them to the Sweet 16
Evan Seacat took a charge, got hammered, and never realy came back - he was a three point weapon who was rounding out his game nicely.
Oh boy, another entry for this list.
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