The Best You Ever Saw

[Irish#1]

I am surprised nobody took up Pistol Pete's banner. As far as the greatest offensive talent in basketball, John Havlicek called him the best ball handler ever.

He still owns the NCAA scoring record. He couldn't play as a freshman in those days and there was no three point line. What would he have done with that!

Of course, had he been able to leave college early, like today, where would he have ended up in the NBA? No one knows. But he was it.

Pistol Pete and Rick Mount were unbelievable. Maravich was a better ball handler, but I think Mount was his equal in pure shooting.

He averaged 35 points a game while shooting 54.5 percent on the freshman squad, tallying 490 points. Like you said, freshmen weren't eligible.

In his first varsity game, Mount scored a game-high 28 points in a last-second, two-point loss to a top-ranked UCLA team. He averaged 28.4 points a game and was named a Second Team All-American.

In his junior season at Purdue, he led the Boilermakers to a Big Ten Conference title and the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance, leading to the NCAA Finals game where they eventually lost to a Lew Alcindor-led UCLA.

He led all scorers in the tournament with a 40.6 point average in Purdue's three games. Purdue led the nation with 94.8 points a game during the 1968-69 season fronted by Mount's 33.3 a game.

He led Purdue to a 23-5 record on the season. He shot 51.5 percent on the season, whereas well-known scorers such as Pete Maravich and Calvin Murphy shot no better than 46 percent. He was selected as a First Team All-American and the Big Ten Player Of The Year.

In his senior year, Rick had two 53-point games plus a 61-point game against conference champ Iowa, which was the NCAA Division I single-game record at the time. Thirty-two of his 61 points were scored in the first half alone. Later research found that if the three-point line had existed in 1970 in the NCAA, he would have scored 74 points in that game, credited with 13 three-point field goals. He averaged 35.4 points a game and took second straight First Team All-American and Big Ten Player Of The Year honors. Mount left as the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,323 points throughout only three varsity seasons. At the time, it was also the Big Ten scoring record.

Rick scored in double figures 72 consecutive games, while scoring 30-plus points in 46 of those games. Both remain school records.

 

[Bishop2b5]

Lambert was a monster. When I think of great middle linebackers, his name is always in the conversation.

Played at only 215-220 lbs. Small even for the 70's. Was a heavy smoker, lighting up in the locker rooms during halftime. It was a different world then. He was a blast to watch in his prime. Pure meanass football player every single play.

 

[GoIrish41]

Played at only 215-220 lbs. Small even for the 70's. Was a heavy smoker, lighting up in the locker rooms during halftime. It was a different world then. He was a blast to watch in his prime. Pure meanass football player every single play.

My brother is a huge Steelers fan. He has a picture in his man cave of Lambert smoking on the sideline of a game. Always cracked me up.