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Texas Western changed college game
Posted: Friday December 10, 1999 12:59 PM
Gary Williams is in his 11th year as head coach at the University of Maryland. He contributes his behind-the-scenes look at the 1999-00 season every Tuesday to CNNSI.com. The Texas Western-Kentucky NCAA championship game in 1966 certainly changed college basketball. I was a student-athlete at the University of Maryland when that game was played in Cole Field House on our campus. I had to sneak in the back door because I did not have a ticket, but I managed to get in and was able to find a seat. I watched the game as a fan and it was really interesting to hear the comments from the fans of the various schools about Texas Western's chances of winning. It was interesting to hear the comments both before and after the game. The opinions certainly changed after the game about an all African-American team being able to play against a predominantly white team. I think that game opened a lot of people's eyes to the fact that are a lot of good players around the country. Things really changed in college basketball from then on. At the time of the game, I didn't really realize what a big game that was for the future of college basketball. Certainly as time has gone by it has become one of the biggest games ever played.
Second shot at KentuckyNow that we are playing Kentucky for the second time this season it's going to be a situation where both teams know each other's personnel well and have a pretty good feel for each other's offenses and defenses.It's funny, when you get into a season and have to really prepare for the next game, you put that team out of your mind and all of a sudden you have to play them again. You have to get back to thinking about that team. It is probably a little easier to think about that team and prepare for them, but it is always difficult to play a team as good as Kentucky.
Youth served in college basketballAfter the first four weeks of the season, it is obvious that there are a lot of good teams out there. It looks like Connecticut, Cincinnati and certainly Michigan State have emerged as some of the top teams along with a few others.We are seeing a lot of young players out there on some very good teams, which is the way college basketball has gone with players leaving early, the limit of 12 scholarships and players who transfer. Some teams are going to be young that aren't used to having to play young players early. That doesn't mean that you can't have a good team. A lot of these young players have played a lot of minutes in all kinds of different playing situations throughout the country even though they have been at the high school level. It is a little different now when you do get a freshman that their experience probably exceeds the experience from a freshman of 10 years ago.
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