Big Ten's Greatest Games/'97 Gophers

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OSUfan

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I have been watching some of the Big Ten's Greatest Games for basketball recently. Last week was Minnesota week, so I've been watching some Gopher games & that's why I'm bringing this up now. I have forgotten a lot about the '90s, so I want to revisit some of the more notable games from that decade. One thing I think is odd about the BTGG series is they air the Gopher's 1996 win at Illinois in Lou Henson's "last" home game, which I believe was vacated (Wikipedia says '94 thru '99 was vacated), but they have not put any of the Gophers' NCAA tourney wins from 1997 there. They have also aired OSU's 1999 NCAA tourney win over St. John's which was vacated. So since they are not opposed to showing vacated games, I do not see any principled reason for them to not put any games from the 1997 Gophers season in the lineup (other than possible lack of drama at the end of the game, which I don't think is a fair argument since you had an OT game in the Sweet 16). Which brings me to my point, which is I would really like to see the Clemson game from '97 which a friend told me that Minnesota fans think is the greatest game ever. But it has not been aired on BTN, nor has the UCLA game which sent the Gophers to the Final Four. Do any of you think the Clemson or UCLA games are among the greatest for the Gophers? What games if any from that season should the BTN put on the air? Don't you think they should show the Clemson game? After all, the '96 Illinois game was far less meaningful.

One point that the '97 Gopher team reminds me of is I think some here (not everyone, but definitely a few) overemphasize the importance of Minnesota getting in-state talent. Realistically, it doesn't make much of a difference where the guys come from, and getting all the top in-state players is just not important if you get enough top players. Remember where the players on that '97 team were from - Bobby Jackson from North Carolina (via Juco), Eric Harris from New York, Sam Jacobsen from Cottage Grove, MN, Courtney James from Indianapolis, Quincy Lewis from Little Rock, John Thomas from Minneapolis, Trevor Winter from Slayton, MN, Charles Thomas from Kentucky, and Miles Tarver from Oakland, CA - that was your rotation, and only 3 of the 9 were from Minnesota. So I think some here overestimate the importance of in-state recruits and underestimate the importance of getting good out of state recruits. Sorry for the tangent.
 

The BTN might not have the rights to the NCAA Tournament games. Don't know, just saying it's possible.
 

There certainly would be many great games for the Big Ten Network to choose from that season (comeback @ Indiana, Illinois @ The Barn when John Thomas made 2 FT's late to win it, title clincher @ Michigan, Clemson, UCLA, etc.).

The only time I remember seeing the Final Four team on the BTN was the loss @ Wisconsin to end the regular season, after the Gophers had already clinched the Big Ten title. I can only assume they showed that one because it was a Gopher loss.
 

SelectionSunday said:
There certainly would be many great games for the Big Ten Network to choose from that season (comeback @ Indiana, Illinois @ The Barn when John Thomas made 2 FT's late to win it, title clincher @ Michigan, Clemson, UCLA, etc.).

The only time I remember seeing the Final Four team on the BTN was the loss @ Wisconsin to end the regular season, after the Gophers had already clinched the Big Ten title. I can only assume they showed that one because it was a Gopher loss.
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The lack of games the BTN shows from that season doesn't seem like it could be a coincidence. Is this 'backout' part of our punishment? I know I've seen Michigan games from the Fishcer era, so that hardly seems fair...
 

howeda, part of the point as to why I brought up the '96 game the Gophers won at Illinois was to cast doubt that there's any restriction on what games they can show since that season was vacated as well. So why show a '96 game and no '97 wins? I also noted they have aired the OSU-St. John's game from '99 that was vacated, and that was an NCAA tourney game, and clearly they are not averse to showing NCAA tourney games as many of the games are from the NCAA tourney. I don't get it - maybe they just want to save something for later seasons. Maybe they don't want to have to pay for the rights to a lot of games from CBS all at once, I don't know.
 


OSUfan said:
howeda, part of the point as to why I brought up the '96 game the Gophers won at Illinois was to cast doubt that there's any restriction on what games they can show since that season was vacated as well. So why show a '96 game and no '97 wins? I also noted they have aired the OSU-St. John's game from '99 that was vacated, and that was an NCAA tourney game, and clearly they are not averse to showing NCAA tourney games as many of the games are from the NCAA tourney. I don't get it - maybe they just want to save something for later seasons. Maybe they don't want to have to pay for the rights to a lot of games from CBS all at once, I don't know.
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It's a mystery to me. I have no idea how CBS sells the rights fees to the old tournaments, but I can't imagine it's done on a game-by-game basis or even season-by-season. The value of these rights simply isn't that signifcant. I'd think they simply sell rights to everything older then the last 1-2 years to whoever wants them for a set fee. I've seen various games on ESPN Classic so they obviously have a deal, unless they have those rights incorporated in thier overall NCAA contract somehow. Obviously the BTN has some sort of arrangement as well. This leads me to believe they're simply being lazy and replaying the ones they already have archived.
 

The Temple Game too.

IIRC - was fairly close until about 6 minutes left in the 1st half. Dickie V. was blathering about how good Temple was with Pepe Sanchez and Marc Jackson down low. John Thomas promptly blocked 2 or 3 of Jackson's shots, Bobby J. absolutely schooled Pepe on 2 series in a row. Gophers were up a fair amount, the halftiem idiot talked about how good Temple was and how Cheney's teams always came back. Came out for the 2nd half and Sammy J. promptly hit three 3 balls, we won by like 19. GREAT TIMES.....:)
 

The BTN does have rights to show NCAA Tourney games.

However, the BTN would never show a Temple NCAA second round ho-hum 19-point win as one of its "Greatest Games." However, the Clemson game would qualify, as would UCLA. BTW - I highly doubt Dickie V was doing the game - he has never worked for CBS.

Give them some time - they're not going to come out with EVERY SINGLE game within the first couple of years that we think should be one of the BTNs greatest.

Each year there will be about 4-5 new Gopher games that get premiered during the Bball season. So be patient.

You can also submit your ideas for what games you want shown as part of the series on bigtennetwork.com if you are that fired up about it.
 

Dickie V.

Quite possibly. 1997 was thirteen years ago, memory plays tricks. Could've been a pre-game ESPN preview (I think Temple was his 'sleeper' team that year, in any case he had Minny as the first #1 seed to fall). I may even be mis-rembering which commentator/annoucer said it.

What I remember vividly to this day was how much better Bobby Jackson was than Pepe Sanchez (Sanchez was not as quick and certainly not as strong, even though he was hyped as the NBA prospect), and how quiet the announcing team got when Jacobson hit his threes early in the 2nd half.

Since it was Gopher week for the B10 network, I think this game could rank as one of the better Gopher games to show. Even if it was "ho-hum". Again, I recall it pretty fondly....
 



Anderson8284, your memory is correct. I also remember vividly (and I usually don't remember these types of things) Dickie V predicting before the tournament that the Gophers would lose to either Ole Miss or Temple in the second round. Also, Gophers were only #1 seed he picked to not reach the Final Four.
 

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