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Tom B.
03-04-2015, 11:35 AM
Hank Gathers died.

ESPN has a retrospective piece up on its website, including a video that's at once hard to watch and definitely worth watching.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12408850/remembering-hank-gathers-25th-anniversary-death

Hingeknocker
03-04-2015, 12:11 PM
Didn't know until coming here that today was the 25th anniversary of his passing. Such a sad story, but Bo Kimble's honoring of his free throws is easily one of my favorite non-Duke memories of the last 25 years in college basketball.

RIP Hank.

JasonEvans
03-04-2015, 01:59 PM
What a tragic and horrifying loss. I remember it vividly. I find the video very hard to watch. The game was cancelled after Hank fell and then, when he did less than an hour later, the whole WCC tournament was cancelled too and Loyola Marymount (who were huge favorites) were declared the winner. Then, in the NCAA tourney, Bo shot his FTs lefty (I believe he went 4-for-4 on lefty free throws). Loyola went on a great run. They were an 11 seed and made it to the Final 8 before losing to eventual national champs UNLV. Along the way, they beat Michigan in the highest scoring game in NCAA tourney history, 149-115. Nowadays, it could take some teams three games to score 149 points.

Folks who are too young to remember Westhead's Loyola-Marymount teams really missed something. What a joy to watch basketball played at full speed the entire time. It would be fun to see how Westhead's "seven seconds or less" offense would fare against the modern Virginia team or other great defensive squads.

-Jason "Hank would have been a great pro... such a loss" Evans

burnspbesq
03-05-2015, 12:55 AM
I've been in Cameron a few times when it was really, really loud (Ferry's jersey retirement, the 34-2 start against Michigan in 2000), but I've never heard a basketball crowd as loud as the crowd at the Long Beach Arena when Kimble hit the left-handed free throw against Michigan.

rolm
03-05-2015, 06:37 PM
Certain events in time remain with you forever. Hank Gathers collapsing and dying is one of them. Len Bias' death was another. Remember those as vividly as Laettner's shot.