Saturday, November 27, 2021

Bonnie's HoF Lanier Not Enough for Maryland's trio of Branch, Bias and Coleman

 With the Bonnie's off to a great start this season, we put their great 1970 squad on the court.

Bob Lanier did not disappoint with a 25 point, 11 rebound performance but no other Bonnie in double figures, but Maryland won with incredible balance. All 5 Maryland starters scored between 12 and 14 points. The Terps 1984 squad is one of the few on which all 5 starters can play all 44 possessions. (Keep in mind all 10 players are assumed to have played 11 possessions and scored 2 points to get to our 20-20 score for the starting point of the game.

In their real careers, Lanier would go onto be the No. 1 overall NBA pick and then have a Hall of Fame career. He took the Bonnie's to the Final 4, but did not play in it after he was injured in the Elite 8 game - leaving Bonnie's fans to wonder if this would have been a national championship team.

Maryland won the ACC title behind a front line all destined for the NBA, but Len Bias did not follow Ben Coleman and Adrian Branch to the league due to dying of a cocaine overdose 2 days after he was the No. 2 overall pick by the Celtics in the 1986 draft. 

His death rocked the Maryland program with Lefty Driesell resigning, and Congress passed the Len Bias law to require long mandatory sentences for dealing cocaine.




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