What we have now is way better than Iso-cam

[Grey Devil]

Somehow my TIVO picked up and recorded a 1976 Duke-Maryland game for me the other day. I didn't watch it until after yesterday's game.

It was being broadcast by some group I'd never heard of before and they made a big deal out of the new feature they had, especially for this game called Iso-cam. Essentially all it did was put a brighter circle around the player the announcers were to talk about. However, because the camera work already had that player as a major part of the screen most of the time it really didn't add much to the game.

Most of the time I watched the game I was just gawking at the differences between the times then and now. Long hair, long sideburns (you should have seen Lefty Dreisell), short shorts. Wild disco suits by the coaches (especially Bill Foster) and male cheerleaders. The game itself has changed a lot, too. Much, much, much more physical now. Not nearly the defensive pressure then as now, and the announcers (whoever they were) weren't nearly as knowledgeable about the game.

It was played in Cameron (relatively newly named then) and it was good to see it packed and rocking for the game, although the crowd wasn't as coordinated in its cheering as now. (Though there was one guy wearing a bald Lefty "wig" right behind the Maryland bench.) Key players were Tate Armstrong, Willie Hodge, Mark Crow, George Moses, Terry Chili, and Jim Spanarkel. John Lucas and Brad Davis played for the Terps. Fans were seated right on the floor level bleachers, too, and the press had an area in the center of the bleachers all the way up to the season ticket holders.

Anyone else see this?

Grey Devil

P.S. Duke won by playing stall ball for the last four minutes or so of the game and then making their free throws. No 35-second clock in those days....

[-jk]

My Tivo got it, too. It was much too fun to leave buried in an espn rant thread.

Duke v. MD, 1976. Tate Armstrong v. John Lucas.

Duke was averaging 90-some points a game (without a shot clock), and losing most of 'em. We finished 3-9 ACC (7th out of 7), 13-14 overall. 7 of the conference losses were by 6 points or fewer.

Students all the way around, but mostly sitting. With legroom. I could hear an airhorn blowing during the MD free throws. Wonder who that was...

Short-shorts. Snug short-shorts. (Ok, not as snug as V's unitards, but close.) The cheerleaders had huge... pom-poms.

Lefty coached in a 3 piece suit. He was mostly bald, though his fringe was still dark. Max was mostly bald, too. I miss Max.

Lots of lines on the court. There used to be 3 courts east-west across the main (north-south) court. Devils painted on the court similar to where the K's are now. Portable backboards - not yet the current retractable, hanging ones that are hard to see around.

Foster played his various zones, but no contact on D without touch fouls - much more finesse ball. Very fluid.

Spanarkle went down early in the first half, and apparently never re-entered the game. Tate went down over and over again - presaging his '77 broken wrist.

Maryland played 8 players: 2 played 40 minutes, 1 at 37, 1 at 33. Duke played 9: 40, 38, 38, 30. Spanarkle only had 7.

Regrettably, they didn't show most of the second half. Duke was ahead down the stretch. The last few minutes were described by the announcers as "like the 4 corners". Lots of ball movement, back when the hash marks meant more than just the coach's box. You had to move the ball across the hash marks, showing you were attacking on offense. You couldn't sit back and dribble between the hash marks and the midcourt line without a violation. Phil Ford was the absolute master of the technique, but we played a solid stall ball in this one.

After cutting the the game to 3, Maryland called a 6th TO with a second left. Tate hit the free throw; Duke got the ball in; game over. Students stormed the court. And cut the nets. (It'd been a while since Bubas' successes.)

It was fun to watch. Brought back tons of memories.

-jk

[Grey Devil]

I wondered what happened to it.

It was weird watching the game because I graduated in '71 and had gotten caught up in living life away from Duke by that time (plus I was out of range of any Duke TV network, too), so seeing that game was a real treat. I got back into watching Duke again, though, with the great NCAA run in 77-78 and the advent of cable TV and ESPN.

Thanks for adding more detail to my initial post.