Tell me about the dark days

[wufan]

That's him. Except I recall a pretty unathletic, undersized player who couldn't guard a lick and was simply a spot up shooter. He got playing time as a freshman.

Now imagine if you will a current player gaining significant minutes end up transferring out to Buffalo. How times have changed.

Sounds like Matt Clark in Turgeon's first year.

[shoxilla]

Ugh @Rosewood:

http://m.ljworld.com/news/1992/jan/0...mplates=mobile

damn, that was worse than DARK....

[Rosewood]

damn, that was worse than DARK....

It really was painful to read

[forevershockerfan]

I still see Jimmy Bolden at the Gym. He still follows the Shocks and loves to rap about them year after year.

[ShockerPrez]

Jimmy Bolden did Tulsa wrong one year.

[forevershockerfan]

Jimmy Bolden did Tulsa wrong one year.

So did Tom Kosich with his 'tip in' that he proclaims was "heard around the world."

[ISASO]

I was a student during the 80's and had a spring semester class with X, which he rarely attended. You couldn't get tickets until around 87 and only when the Valley Tournament was held at Levitt Arena. Getting spoiled by the greatness of AC, Cliff, X and Sherrod made the 90's even harder to take. Fogler's teams were good because they had a good system, though much lower scoring than the Mean Gene era. Fogler used up the talent left over from Gene and didn't add enough to maintain the success. Besides, Fogler was an ass. On his radio show, if a caller criticized him, he would berate them. He hated Wichita and we grew to hate him despite some pretty fun teams to watch.

A certain WSU booster was also responsible for Cohen. He threatened to pull all of his support if Tom Shupe didn't hire 'Iron Mike'. After beating #12 Alabama and OSU in a 1-week stretch, the bottom fell out. I still remember the OT game with Alabama, standing in the student section, chanting "4 seconds" over and over but I don't remember why. I think the refs screwed us out of some time at the end of regulation. 14-17 that year and 8-20 the next. It got so bad that on Cohen's radio show, KNSS had to implement a 10-second delay in order to prevent repeated FCC violations and the constant begging of Cohen to quit. Every Sunday during the Cohen-Thompson eras you cringed as you opened the sports page, knowing you were about to read about who had a player with a gun in their trunk in the parking lot or who was kicked off the team after getting arrested at 3am.

Thompson's era was all about the drugs. Kamau Alexander living off-campus with known drug dealers and Carter Arnett who just couldn't give up the pot. Thompson's final team here went 1-9 in the month of January en route to an 8-21 record. It was kinda sad to see him go, but when you get lost going three blocks away from the arena to visit a recruit, you gotta go.

Randy was hired and I bought season tickets for the first time. He brought the tough love, finishing 14-13 in his first season and improved to 16-15 in his second year. We thought order had been restored. But he and Carlos Diggins were short on love and long on tough. Too tough for Mo Evans and the KU BS investigation was affecting recruiting so Jim Schaus made the difficult choice to send Randy on a year-long party at his Dad's place in Florida, where he burned through $100,000 and "had a great time doing it".

Somewhere in the midst of all these 'Dark Times', Steve Eck threatened me with a lawsuit over the phone one Sunday afternoon and KU got tipped off that NCAA investigators were heading their way so they hurriedly shredded a ton of incriminating documents. Jason Pérez single-handedly beat K-State and Randy was cussing on the coaches show, not the callers. It was a depressing time, punctuated with glimmers of hope that kept us going, even if there was 6 inches of snow on the ground and 30-below wind chills. We all knew the sucktitude wouldn't last forever - it just couldn't. We had seen the promised land and would return there someday.

By the grace of God and Jim Schaus - WE MADE IT!!!!

[Speed]

I was a student during the 80's and had a spring semester class with X, which he rarely attended. You couldn't get tickets until around 87 and only when the Valley Tournament was held at Levitt Arena. Getting spoiled by the greatness of AC, Cliff, X and Sherrod made the 90's even harder to take. Fogler's teams were good because they had a good system, though much lower scoring than the Mean Gene era. Fogler used up the talent left over from Gene and didn't add enough to maintain the success. Besides, Fogler was an ass. On his radio show, if a caller criticized him, he would berate them. He hated Wichita and we grew to hate him despite some pretty fun teams to watch.

A certain WSU booster was also responsible for Cohen. He threatened to pull all of his support if Tom Shupe didn't hire 'Iron Mike'. After beating #12 Alabama and OSU in a 1-week stretch, the bottom fell out. I still remember the OT game with Alabama, standing in the student section, chanting "4 seconds" over and over but I don't remember why. I think the refs screwed us out of some time at the end of regulation. 14-17 that year and 8-20 the next. It got so bad that on Cohen's radio show, KNSS had to implement a 10-second delay in order to prevent repeated FCC violations and the constant begging of Cohen to quit. Every Sunday during the Cohen-Thompson eras you cringed as you opened the sports page, knowing you were about to read about who had a player with a gun in their trunk in the parking lot or who was kicked off the team after getting arrested at 3am.

Thompson's era was all about the drugs. Kamau Alexander living off-campus with known drug dealers and Carter Arnett who just couldn't give up the pot. Thompson's final team here went 1-9 in the month of January en route to an 8-21 record. It was kinda sad to see him go, but when you get lost going three blocks away from the arena to visit a recruit, you gotta go.

Randy was hired and I bought season tickets for the first time. He brought the tough love, finishing 14-13 in his first season and improved to 16-15 in his second year. We thought order had been restored. But he and Carlos Diggins were short on love and long on tough. Too tough for Mo Evans and the KU BS investigation was affecting recruiting so Jim Schaus made the difficult choice to send Randy on a year-long party at his Dad's place in Florida, where he burned through $100,000 and "had a great time doing it".

Somewhere in the midst of all these 'Dark Times', Steve Eck threatened me with a lawsuit over the phone one Sunday afternoon and KU got tipped off that NCAA investigators were heading their way so they hurriedly shredded a ton of incriminating documents. Jason Pérez single-handedly beat K-State and Randy was cussing on the coaches show, not the callers. It was a depressing time, punctuated with glimmers of hope that kept us going, even if there was 6 inches of snow on the ground and 30-below wind chills. We all knew the sucktitude wouldn't last forever - it just couldn't. We had seen the promised land and would return there someday.

By the grace of God and Jim Schaus - WE MADE IT!!!!

great post! I started looking into all the legal troubles. John Smith, some dude named Boo. There was more. In the middle of my research, work beckoned. I just haven't gained the strength to go back to the project.
WSU's dark period is a kind, dismissive term for the losing, poor attendance, poor coaching, legal trouble & otherwise poor representation of our fine university.
The most successful Shocker was ridiculed for being a Shocker but was probably the most decent guy I encountered. He made millions on sports entertainment, something WSU basketball was far from.

[Speed]

Another way to look at this is SIU prior to Hinson plus the turmoil of recent Il State teams but many, many times worse.

[Speed]

I might also add that while WSU was a travesty not seen in today's deflated Valley, WSU still had fan support.
The old people that catch grief now, supported WSU through horrible times. Its something I absolutely wouldn't do as a student.
Now Valley teams play for empty barns until they get the WSU Superbowl. At its worse, WSU still got 7000.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

You know,

I remember the decade + of suckitude. They were during my formitive years so many details I cNt recall "names etc" but I remember talking with my parents and asking them about rankings and if WSU was ever good. Was told all the stories of X and Carr. (They played when i was born) so i dont remember them. But i do remember sitting down watching a mavs/sonics games having x pointed out to me and remember meeting X one year when he came to wichita to sign autographs.

I sat down the other day and talked to my son about the dark days and how far we have come. Since 2006 we have 2 "poor" years (turgeons last and marshalls first) ill take that.

[ISASO]

I tell my two sons to lock this in their memory banks and never forget it because it won't always be this good.

[Kung Wu]

The post game shows with Smithson apologizing all over himself were at first depressing but ultimately became comical. He couldn't complete a sentence. I like Randy and I know his heart beats for basketball and the Shox, and I am sure it tore him up that he wasn't able to have more success, but he found his groove at the JuCo level and I wish he had stayed there for his own sake. He had to take the shot though.

[Shocktoberfest]

If I never hear "get over the hump" again it will be too soon.

[pogo]

How about "going to go to WAR"?