CENTAUR SEASONS: "Coach Hasn’t Lost Faith in Me" — entry #15 from "A history of the events of the Allentown College’s 1972-1973 B-ball season …

… AS CHRONICLED BY, AND WITH THE PERSONAL MEMOIRS + OCCASSIONAL PHILOSOPHIZING OF THE AUTHOR, ONE STEPHEN J. McKEE”

This CENTAUR SEASONS post was written 40 years ago today.

PREVIOUS GAME: Centaurs 56, Wilmington College 71, six days ago

NEXT GAME: at Philadelphia Pharmacy, tonight

CENTAUR SEASON: 2-5

Pregame – on the bus to Philly Pharmacy

It’s time I got my s—t together.

Monday night at practice I played probably the best basketball I have ever played. I blocked a couple of shots, had five steals, many ’bounds. For once had John Cooper under control. Now I have to wonder if it’s gonna pay off. Will I play? Hope so.

We are now 2-5. All five losses in a row. It would be nice if we won tonight, very nice.

WE COULD TURN THE SEASON AROUND WITH A WIN TONIGHT. (Yes, I’ve said that before.)

(“Coach Hasn’t Lost Faith in Me” continues below)

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WELCOME TO CENTAUR SEASONS. “Coach Hasn’t Lost Faith in Me” here on HoopsU.Com appears also on CENTAUR SEASONS, a “memory blog” of the half-good, half-bad, all-new Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales Centaurs in Center Valley, Pennsylvana. Forty years ago Steve kept a diary of his junior-year season. A blog before its time then, “A History of the Events …” is now an e-diary at CENTAUR SEASONS and here on HoopsU.com.

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We also now have four away games in a row. The schedule! The way I see it, to be really successful we need to split the next four, 2-2. Tonight would be a good way to start.

An Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales first! A group of kids got together and rented a bus to go down to the game. I can’t figure out, though, if it really is to see us play or an excuse to get a load on. Either way, it will be nice to have a few people there on our side at an away game.

Time called. Me, Bob Hoeffner & Chris Cashman just had a skull session with Coach Sabota. He has a magnet board with little players on it – it’s really neat — and he really likes to play with it. He changed #2 zone from 2-2-1 to a 2-3 – says it will give the back forwards more movement and more vision. Which it will.

Time In. Well, as usual, I’m beginning to get nervous-energy-nervous. I really think that this time around I’m gonna play. It will be up to me whether I play very much.

Dennis Ramella needs 21 points for 1,000. Will he get it? I wonder if he’s thinking more about that than winning the game.

[IN THIS ‘CENTAUR STORY,’ READ WHAT DENNIS RAMELLA THINKS NOW ABOUT ALL THIS.]

I talked to Coach last night. I was pretty down – I felt that no matter how hard I tried I just wasn’t going to play. Especially after the Wilmington game. I thought that Coach had lost faith in me. He said he hasn’t – and that he planned to play me in the Wilmington game, but he didn’t know where to use me. Dave Glielmi was great – 20 points, he couldn’t miss. He kept us in the game for the most part. Coach said Coop was playing well and Bob Hoeffner and Bobby Stormes were working pretty good. But he said he hasn’t lost faith in me. And he wants me to play: “My mere presence …”

Oh yeah: P.J. Brennan (lowly freshman) is also a starter now.

Prediction: Cash is going to play a lot tonight. Just watch. Or wait, I guess, in your case.

We are now on the Schuykill Expressway, coming into Philadelphia. “World’s Longest Parking Lot.” I’m going to sign off. See you later.

Let’s go Centaurs!

PREVIOUS GAME: Centaurs 56, Wilmington College 71, six days ago

NEXT GAME: Philadelphia Pharmacy, tonight

1972-73 CENTAUR SEASON Schedule and Results:

12/1 — at Lehigh CCC — W/81-71 — 1-0

12-4 — at Northampton CCC — W/87-50 — 2-0

12-6 — EASTERN BAPTIST — L/73-75 — 2-1

12-12 — SPRING GARDEN — L/54-66 — 2-2

12-16 — PHILLY BIBLE — L/72-79 — 2-3

1-18 — at Baptist Bible — L/82-84 — 2-4

1-19 — WILMINGTON — L/56-71 — 2-5

1-25 — at Philly Pharmacy

1-30 — at Spring Garden

2-3 — at Messiah College

2-6 — at Wilmington

2-13 — RUTGERS, S. JERSEY

2-16 — LEHIGH CCC

2-20 — MESSIAH

2-22 — NORTHAMPTON CCC

2-24 — PHILLY PHARMACY

2-27 — BAPTIST BIBLE

About
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Steve McKee

Steve McKee is the author of CENTAUR SEASONS, a memory blog about his basketball-playing days at Allentown (Pa.) College of St. Francis de Sales in the early 1970s (a good excuse for using his college yearbook picture -- though there's NO excuse for that mustache and hair!).

CENTAUR SEASONS can also be found at www.centaurseasons.com. The centerpiece will be the posting in "real time" of the diary that Steve kept of his 1972-1973 junior-year season, beginning on November 30. Prior to that (and after), Steve will be posting regularly about his freshman, sophomore and senior seasons, as well as about what it was like to be there at the beginning to help get a struggling college basketball program off the ground.

Steve was the original writer of The Wall Street Journal's popular sports blog, "The Daily Fix" in 2001-2002, and was even dubbed "The Unwitting Father of the Sports Blog" by Gelf Magazine, the online publication of the "Varsity Letters Reading Series. Steve was the Journal's sports editor for its original Weekend sport section and was involved in all of the Journal's Olympics coverage, Winter and Summer, from 1996 through 2008.

He is the author of three books, most recently "My Father's Heart: A Son's Reckoning With the Legacy of Heart Disease," which he is adapting as a one-man show. For his first book, "The Call of the Game," Steve traveled the country in search of sports events -- including the famous N.C. State Wolfpack victory over "Phi Slamma Jamma" of the University of Houston. For his second book, COACH, among the 150+ coaches Steve interviewed are/were college basketball coaches John Wooden (UCLA), Pat Summitt (Tennessee), Frank Layden (Niagara), Bobby Cremins (Georgia Tech), P.J. Carlesimo (Seton Hall), Bill Guthridge (North Carolina), Abe Lemons (Texas), Stan Morrison (USC), Kathy Rush (Immaculata), Jim Satalin (Duquesne), Charlie Thomas (San Francisco State), Butch Van Bredda Koff (Princeton), Bill Whitmore (Vermont) and LaDonna Wilson (Austin Peay).

For more, you can click on www.steve-mckee.com, where you can find a TODAY show appearance and an NPR interview.