[NU Sports] Fw: Cats B-Ball History - PREFACE

[Cyril S. Ku]

Dear List Members,

My friend sent me the following and the attachment, thought I would forward them to share with you.

He and I will cheer for the Cats in central Jersey tonight. Hope the Cats will make it to Madison Square Garden.

Go CATS!

Cyril Ku
--------------------------------------------
> 
> But there are a few things to say, which I will choose to
> do in the form of
> "Q&A":
> 
> Q:  HAVE THE CATS EVER HAD A WINNING SEASON IN BIG TEN
> PLAY?
> 
> A.   Actually, they have had quite a number
> of winning seasons vs. the Big
> Ten -- just not lately.  By my count, over the course
> of the past century
> or so of playing basketball in the Big Ten, the Cats have
> had winning
> records in the Big Ten not less than 21 times.  That's
> right, I said
> TWENTY-ONE.
> 
> But they haven't had ANY since 1967-68.
> 
> And in most of those seasons since, they haven't been
> close.  In 24 seasons
> starting with 1970-71, the Cats have won 3 games or less
> vs. Big Ten
> opponents.
> 
> Q.   So, they have had winning seasons and
> quite a number of them.  Let's
> take it a step further:  Have the Cats ever been
> ranked in the polls?
> 
> A.    YES.  But not at season's end.
> 
> My guess is that the AP Poll came into existence after
> World War II.  It
> had to, because the Cats were too a good a team up to that
> point to not be
> "ranked" if only anyone ranked them.  In 1945-46, for
> instance, the Cats
> went 15-5 overall and 8-4 in the Big Ten.  By today's
> standards a set of
> records like that would get you an NCAA Berth for sure, but
> back then I
> suppose that meant that 2 teams in the Big Ten were ahead
> of them, so the
> Cats went nowhere except maybe the NIT.  But they were
> never ranked,
> perhaps because there was not an AP College Basketball poll
> out that time.
> 
> After that season, the Cats began losing pretty much as
> regularly as you
> would expect, but there were a few bright moments.
> 
> In the 1954-55 season, the Cats were 5-3 in non-conference
> play but managed
> to get off to a good enough start I guess in the Big Ten to
> appear in the
> AP Poll for the first time ever on January 26, 1955. 
> On that day, they
> were ranked 16th.   A week later -- poof!
> 
> But in 1958-59, the Cats got off to a great start --
> comparable to 2009-10
> actually.They were 7-1 in non-conference play, which by
> itself was
> sufficient to get them ranked.  Indeed, on December
> 16, 1958 the Cats were
> ranked 6th (SIXTH!!!) in the country!  That's right --
> 6th!   And on
> December 30, they were still ranked 6th. 
> SIXTH!!!!!!   However, 4 weeks
> later they were no longer in the AP Top 20, as they
> finished the season
> 15-7, 8-6 in the Big Ten.  That was the second
> consecutive 8-6 record they
> posted, and it tied for the best Big Ten record that they
> would have in any
> season since the above-mentioned 8-4 in 1945-46.
> 
> They also went 8-6 once more in 1959-60 in Big Ten
> competition, but they
> actually had a losing record in non-conference play -- an
> ugly 3-6 to be
> specific.
> 
> They would not have another winning season in the Big Ten,
> or even overall,
> until that '67-'68 season.  They were 5-4 in
> non-conference games and 8-6
> in the Big Ten.  But in '68-'69 the Cats were 8-2 in
> non-conference games.
> Thanks to that, the Cats were ranked 12th in the AP on
> January 7, 1969, and
> still 14th a week later.  But they fell off, finishing
> the season 14-10
> overall and 6-8 in the Big Ten.
> 
> Most obviously, the Cats have never been ranked in the AP
> since January 14,
> 1969.
> 
> Q.    OK, so the Cats have not had any
> appearances in the NCAA Tournament,
> but is there anything in their history to be proud
> of?  (And please, don't
> tell me about Paul Schultz's, free-throw shots...)
> 
> A.    In 1930-31, the Cats went 11-1 in the Big
> Ten and 16-1 overall.  That
> was good enough to win the Big Ten title outright. 
> And that was easily the
> best season in Wildcat history no doubt about it.  Two
> years later they did
> tie the uckeyes for first with a 10-2 Big Ten mark and a
> 15-4 record.  This
> was back in the day when the Cats were good at football
> too.  For the
> basketball team, they were a solid contender almost every
> year from 1927-28
> to 1945-46, either posting winning records in the Big Ten,
> or overall, or
> both in 13 of those 19 seasons, including a stretch of 6
> winning seasons
> and a break-even in 7 years through 1933-34.
> 
> Q.     That's all the good news there
> is, isn't it?
> 
> A.    Yes.
> 
> Now for the bad.
> 
> If the Cats have a 5-13 Big Ten season next year, they will
> by so doing
> have lost exactly 1000 games in Big Ten history. 
> Their Big Ten record
> stands at 459-987.  Worse, over the past 30 seasons
> starting with 1980-81,
> the Cats have lost exactly 300 more Big Ten games than they
> have won,
> posting a 110-410 record which (gasp!) is a winning
> percentage of .212 --
> rounded up.  Another way to look at it:  year
> after year our average Big
> Ten record since 1980 has been either 3-13 or 4-14. 
> Dreary, just dreary...
> 
> From 1984-85 under Rich Falk, winding through the end of
> the Bill Foster
> era, the Cats won 17 games and lost 145 in Big Ten play,
> never winning more
> than 3 games in any of those 9 seasons.  17 wins in
> 162 games?  Even the
> 1899 Spiders did better than that.
> 
> Which is why we have much to put behind us.
> 
> Starting tonight!
> 
> GO CATS!
> 
>