Anyone see the previews for this? Looks pretty good. It comes on the SEC Network at 8pm tomorrow night. http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2015/03/espns_sec_storied_documentary.html
Anyone watch it? It was pretty good. Loved seeing all of the old highlights of him just thoroughly dominating teams; so much so that they had to resort to cheap shot fouls. I never knew (or don't remember) it getting to the level where Coach Brown was advising him to go to NBA after his Jr. season. He didn't want to see Shaq get hurt by someone hanging on him or pulling him down on the way up. He nearly destroyed ole dude from Tenn who did that to him in the SEC Tourny wsy back in 80 something,
He also used to get called for a lot of offensive fouls when all he did was jump straight up. The SEC Officials didn't know how to deal with big men like Stanley and him. He would have been better served playing in the Big East at the time who had big bangers and allowed them to play. I'm glad he didn't of course.
Shaq was so dominant in his junior year that the referees let opponents get away with overt fouls because there was nothing else they could do to stop Shaquille. The game would have been stopped for free throws every minute if the refs called them all. They essentially let the rules slide a bit to keep the game moving and the other team out of early foul trouble. Sometimes it works the other way. In his first two seasons Ethan Martin got called for fouls on a lot of his steals, but the SEC refs finally learned that he was stealing them clean and lightened up on him significantly. By his senior year he was getting away with very few fouls.
Everyone talks about how the Jackson/O'Neil/Roberts team underachieved, which they did, given the talent between them. Shaq kind of touched on it, saying how the really didn't know how to play together. Each of them was just trying to get their own, instead of working together to make the TEAM better. Yep, but I think his best game ever was against the Hank Gathers/Bo Kimble led Loyal Marymount team that we beat in the dome back in the late 80s. His stat line was 20pts 24 Rebs 12 Blks 3 Assists, which is just ridiculous for a college game, even for one that went into OT.
