Lefty Driesell Passing

[dchen]

Maryland's coach from 69 to 86. He elevated UMD basketball to relevancy but never got them into a final 4. His 1974 team was probably 3rd best in the nation but the lost the ACC final to NC State who went on to end UCLA's national championship run. Back then, only the conference champions got into March Madness. That 74 team included a 6-11 player named Tom McMillen, a highly sought recruit out of high school who was also a Rhodes scholar and later a Congressman from Maryland. At the time of his recruitment, his somewhat older cousin, John McMillen, played for Delaware. The story going around was about a conversation between Delaware's head coach, Dan Peterson, and John McMillen. The conversation was said to have gone like this:

Peterson: "John, I need to speak with you.
John: Forget it Coach. It ain't happening."

Driesell was hilarious. When the ACC was considering adding a third official he was opposed. He said right now, when we play in Carolina it's 7 against 5 on the court. I don't want it to become 8 against 5.

[UDPat]

That ACC final might have been the greatest college basketball game ever played. Before cable we turn our antenna to pick up the Baltimore stations. They televised the ACC tournament. That was awesome.

Also He coached Moses Malone!!! Yup for 2 days. Moses went into his office and told him the offer form the Spirit of St. Louis, 7 years like 1.7M

Lefty's response: "Go"!!!!!!!!

[UDPat]

McMillen was all set to go to North Carolina. His Mom caught him using Coach Smith's credit card to make long distance phone calls to other potential recruits. She told him, He could go any where but North Carolina after that.

[UDJoe]

dchen wrote: Driesell was hilarious. When the ACC was considering adding a third official he was opposed. He said right now, when we play in Carolina it's 7 against 5 on the court. I don't want it to become 8 against 5.

Spoken like any true graduate of Duke -- a fact that belied the "country bumpkin" image that Lefty portrayed so well.

[Caribbean Hen]

ACC basketball was big in the 70s and I was a big Maryland fan. Dad told me Lefty couldn’t coach because his teams didn’t play Defense and the Big 10 would eat the talented Maryland teams alive. One quote I remember from Lefty was “I will make Maryland the UCLA of the east” …. Never did work out for Maryland while Lefty was there but his teams were always fun to watch and always had talent and a rabid fan base … I miss those cold January nights watching Maryland hoops and those long school days where it was my job to get the history teacher/hoops coach talking basketball for 45 minutes while the class goofed off. You’ll have the rest of your life to learn about Millard Fillmore

RIP Lefty

[dchen]

Some great Lefty stories here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2 ... feinstein/