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gw67
06-09-2008, 10:02 AM
I enjoyed the DBR link for Gus Gerard and I am glad to hear that he has gotten back on track. The article made mention of Gerard’s leaping ability and the comments are true. I saw him play several times and he could really get up. There was only one guy in the ACC who was a better jumper (a fella named Thompson). The games between State and Virginia were terrific because of the Walker/Gerard matchup with David Thompson. The 72-75 seasons were wonderful years for the ACC. Duke was down but besides Thompson, there were a bunch of special players including, Burleson, Walker, Gerard, Parkhill, Elmore, McMillan, Lucas, Howard, McAdoo, Wuycik, Karl, Jones, Kupchak, Brown and some others who I’m sure that I’ve forgotten.

gw67

roywhite
06-09-2008, 11:40 AM
I enjoyed the DBR link for Gus Gerard and I am glad to hear that he has gotten back on track. The article made mention of Gerard’s leaping ability and the comments are true. I saw him play several times and he could really get up. There was only one guy in the ACC who was a better jumper (a fella named Thompson). The games between State and Virginia were terrific because of the Walker/Gerard matchup with David Thompson. The 72-75 seasons were wonderful years for the ACC. Duke was down but besides Thompson, there were a bunch of special players including, Burleson, Walker, Gerard, Parkhill, Elmore, McMillan, Lucas, Howard, McAdoo, Wuycik, Karl, Jones, Kupchak, Brown and some others who I’m sure that I’ve forgotten.

gw67

Good summary and good list, gw. The best Duke individual performance during that era was Gary Melchionni as a 1st team All-ACC in 1973. Clemson also made some noise in 1975, with Skip Wise becoming the 1st freshman to be named 1st team All-ACC and Tree Rollins arriving on the scene.

gw67
06-09-2008, 12:22 PM
roy - Of course, I forgot three of the best freshmen guards to ever enter the ACC at one time - Phil Ford, Skip Wise and Brad Davis. I also forgot Steve Sheppard of Maryland and Tom LaGarde of UNC, both of whom played on our Olympic team.

Ford was one of the 3-4 best guards to play in the ACC and Davis was one of the most creative passers in ACC history; however, Wise was considered the superior player in their freshmen years.

gw67

RPS
06-09-2008, 05:54 PM
I remember reading a story (from Halberstam's terrific Breaks of the Game perhaps?) about a pro coach stopping practice to applaud a take-off-from-the-free-throw-line dunk by Gus. A bunch of the players were confused, even though it was a great dunk. The coach clarified by noting that he'd never seen such a dunk from a white guy before....