At the risk of being accused of adding a drive by comment, when I think of UALR I recall one of the best MAC teams over the past 40 years. It was Ball St., circa 1990, when they gave UNLV all they could handle on the Rebels' way to the NCAA title. BSU's lineup included two players that transfered from UALR, Kidd and McCurdy. If my memory is correct they also attended the same high school.
Facts, years, etc... could be off due to poor memory.
YOu are right there.Not drive by...actually good thread drift that brought up memories from several folk.
Good years for Balls under Majerus and Hunsaker.... Paris and Curtis were really great guys (even tho I think they got busted using phone cards back in the day) . Both from the Detroit area. Roman Mueller, Still see him around, biz major works in sales. Always odd to see him in a polo or a suit as a 7 footer conducting biz with a bunch of short guys looking up at him, saw Greg Miller saturday at Best Buy, AD at the HS Meryl Bender (Ohio VB) attended, Mike Spicer, Billy Butts is still around Muncie was a Northside kid who could shoot the lights out. Rodney Haynes was a predecessor of all the 3 point shooters (horan, archey, miller, hahn, stigall) that played at Butler from New Castle, Hardwick.another local HS kid who was a prolific scorer. was a Jay Co kid just before Groce coached there, now a banker that heads up one of our local branches, Our own Chandler Thompson from Muncie Central team that beat Shawn Kemp to win the State Championship and author of the much watched YouTube sensational dunk. At 6'4 playing 6'7 or above people round here still start sentences and right before his name they say "That Bearcat had hops" with a palpable reverence. Played overseas and made a few million. Funny to look at those guys and see how they used their degrees and the successes that came off the court as they were good guys on the court.
That was a really good team that Hunsaker took over from Majerus in 90. All the players were Rick's from the previous 2 years. . Larry Eustachy IIRC was a first year assistant with that squad. I got to know Paris and Curtis from the year before as they both had some bad wheels and were constantly in the training room
Tommy was 2 to 4 years old and hung out in the gym and training room with those guys. They all were very good to him lifting him up to the rim and letting him play and dribble around. I am sure that he got the bug from those very guys encouraging him. By the time McCallum took over he was a mainstay in the gym. Ray McCallum still sees him and remembers him from way back and talls stories.
That was a great time and a great bunch of guys to be around.
Thread drift is way different than drive by. Thread drift is pretty cool and brings back really good memories across a wealth of experiences. Thanks for bringing those guys up...they really do deserve to be remembered and revisited. Good humans that represent the MAC well...then and now.
.