Nelly Cummings carves up North Catholic
- Thread starter Drax1975
- Start date
Hill was great. But Hayes is in the HOF. Not close.
Midlin, Ambridge and Schenly ( with Maurice Lucas) were the best. With Schenley being number one.
Brashear was nothing special. Now Fifth Avenue, with Clancy, Bill Clarke, Warner Macklin, and Puffy Kennedy, that was a squad. Beat the 75 Schenely team that took state 2 out of 3 times. Won State in 1976, which was Fifth Avenue's final year.
It was. I think he put 3 guys out on fouls...Jumpin' Johnny Green was one, Tommy Gola finished the game for them, I think?? People remember the dunks and finger rolls, but he had an unstoppable turnaround jumper from the left side...always a bank shot. I used to wear rubber bands on my wrists because of Wilt. Hell...he had a hit record!!
That is the squad I was thinking of.....forgot they were at Fifth, first. Whatever happened to "Doctor" Clarke??
Tom Crean and Steve Fisher really liked Nelly but were waiting for Pitt to make the initial offer out of courtesy.
LMAO! I don't know anything about the quality of the player beyond the fact that his best offer was BGSU, so I'm not getting involved in that discussion--but this is one of the most idiotic things ever posted on this board.
If TJ McConnell in HS was the size he was by the time he got to Arizona, he would have likely been recruited and played for Pitt.
And he'd probably be playing basketball in Azerbaijan right now, instead of the NBA.
I know Bobby Mo looked at him. I'm curious, did Duquesne recruit him at all? What about Penn St.? If he was really such a good prospect, you'd think 2 struggling local/regional programs would have been on him.
Simmie had issues, but I tell no lie he ate Elvin Hayes up Texas western vs. Houston. Then again Texas changed their name I think a few times.
Perry was decent too. If it was Fifth then I couldn't remember when they changed name. Come to think of it, I would have a hard time with the City league names today, other than Oliver Peabody, Perry if that's right
Now he's going to be at a disadvantage with the players Philly has, but I'm sure he'll hold his end up.
Midland had better players on the bench, Kuzma wanted the four he had plus Alston to give Ook a little rest while on offense. There was some more offensive minded players sitting on the pine to not upset this chemistry. If you can believe that.
The best hs bb game I ever saw was between 5th Avenue (thought it was Brashear) and West Philly. Clancy vs Eugene Banks. The game was played in Johnstown during J Town's bb tournament. W. Philly won.
BG had 17 players that played in the NBA, Pitt had 18, so don't brag. Pitt is not UNC or UCLA
What we can agree on, basketball was great in the 60's through 80's, plus better coaching too. City league always had the players, not the coaches. Even before the 60's, basketball was outstanding.
Don't know about the coaching. But the teams were very good. Lots of good players.
That was Brashear, during Clancy's senior year. He only played one year at Brashear, which opened in September of 1976. Those guys graduated from Brashear, but they are Fifth Avenue guys to the core. The Lower Hill has an affection for Fifth Avenue, that they've never had for Brashear. The golden age of City League hoops was from 1966, to 1978. Five State Championships, the pinnacle of which was 1975, when City Champion Fifth Ave. played Schenley in the western final. From 71 to 78, the City was the dominant force in the PIAA, frequently making short work of any WPIAL teams they faced, much to the chagrin of the City League hating press, winning the west 5 times in 8 years.
City hoops was ok through the mid 80s. Brashear made the state finals in 85 after beating Altoona (Doug West) and lost to Carlisle (Billy Owens and Jeff Lebo). Lost by around 10 I believe so the held their own.
Pretty sure Porter was on that team. Then went on to do pretty good at Perry with Ricky Cannon.
Pitt could have remained a basketball power after the early 40s, but they had dreams of being an eastern Uof Chicago, and wouldn't make academic allowances for athletes. Johnny Unitas was desperate to go to Pitt, but couldn't be admitted.
What always hurt the city in basketball was that because the district had multiple high schools (13 in the 60s, and early 70s), the coaches didn't have pressure to win from the school board, like coaches in districts with one high school did. Coaches who failed in the big suburban, small town, and river districts got fired when they failed, and also could count on the support of the entire district. People on the North Side, or East End couldn't have cared less if South Hills High had a crappy football, or basketball team.
Hank Kuzma put Midland on the map. He was part of the Chick Davies tree that had such an impact on basketball in the region. Even Billy Knight is a branch off of that tree, having played for Moe Becker, who starred under Davies at Duquesne. Locally, only the Pop Warner tree is more impressive (Jock Sutherland, Doc Carlson, John Michelosen, Ditka, Schottenheimer).
Yes, because we know the NBA cares about program rather than skills
Hank put Midland over the top. Midland always had good teams, but couldn't get past the Farrells and Red Raiders in the 50"s. Great players don't hurt though. Kuzma would take his teams to the arena to watch the Dukes, showing how the Celtics, Duquesne & Ohio State plays worked. Great place to learn the game. Some teams could use those plays today instead of just weaving around the half court line going nowhere.
This stuff is really interesting. There should be more threads like this.
You mean instead of "Dixon sucked" and "Stallings sucks?" Nah.
A lot of fans have no real knowledge of Pitt outside of the recent history of football and basketball, and have no idea that for nearly the first two centuries of it's existence, Pitt was a private school, and not easy to get into.
I played against Dickie when he played for the Springdale Dynamos. That is going way back!
BG has had 3 NBA players in the last 40 years.
And they played together in the Roundball Classic.
I was at that game. They beat team USA. It was a great night.
Mike WhiteVerified account@mwhiteburgh 2h2 hours ago
Here's the story on one of the greatest scorers in WPIAL history. Forget loss, Nelly Cummings had a great career: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/high-school-basketball/2017/03/24/Nelly-Cummings-Lincoln-Park-2-000-points/stories/201703240036?pgpageversion=pgevoke…
2 replies11 retweets17 likes
Here's the story on one of the greatest scorers in WPIAL history. Forget loss, Nelly Cummings had a great career: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/high-school-basketball/2017/03/24/Nelly-Cummings-Lincoln-Park-2-000-points/stories/201703240036?pgpageversion=pgevoke…
2 replies11 retweets17 likes
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