NM St 1970 vs Temple 1958 Winner to face UMass 1996 in Final 4

After UMass survived Charlotte (UNCC), two other teams are tipping off in the Value Add Basketball Game to see who faces them in the Final 4 of our newest 16 teams - from the 20th century. They don't have the big names like John Calipari and Cornbread Maxwell that drew more than 1,000 unique visitors to this page each of the last few days during that coverage - but here is the match-up and cards of two teams who made their Final Four - lost the the biggest power at that time (UCLA and Kentucky) and then won the old consolation game.

New Mexico State 1970 had three future NBA players. We did notice we accidentally had one of them (starting point guard Charlie Criss) on the second line as a reserve, so we moved him up for their NBA backcourt with the true start Jimmy Collins - as well as 6'10 future NBA center Sam Lacey. We have started adding the "start xx points" on the cards for any player who does not start the game with the typical 2 points. In this case the aforementioned backcourt members both have a 3-pointer instead of a 2-pointer to make up for the 0 point start for backup center Lonnie Lefevre (averaged less than 2 points a game at 1.3 to draw the 0 start).

Temple 1958 actually was finishing third in the nation for the third time in four years. They had three reserves with a 0 point start, and that is made up by their star and one NBA player Guy Rodgers getting a 3-pointer to add to his 2-pointer for 5 points, a 3-pointer instead of 2-pointer for Billy Kennedy, and and extra 2-pointer for Jay Norman. The starting box score is below the screen shots of the teams.

Also note that since minutes were not tracked for either team in that early era, all players have the standard. The starters on the top row all play possessions 37-1, after the reserves all play possessions 44-38.

Box score start of game (all start with 2pts on 1 basket except red:

 

Pos	New Mexico St. 1970	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual	Hts
1-PG	Charlie Criss	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	12.5 Pts-nba	5'8
2-SG	Jimmy Collins	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	24.3 Pts-nba	6'2
3-SF	Roy Neal	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	5.5 Pts	6'6
4-PF	Jeff Smith	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	12.8 Pts	6'8
5-C	Sam Lacey	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	1	17.7 Pts-nba	6'10
1-PG	Chito Reyes	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	8.2 Pts	6'6
2-SG	Milt Horne	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	4.4 Pts	6'0
3-SF	Bill Moore	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.0 Pts	6'3
4-PF	John Burgess	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	4.7 Pts	6'5
5-C	Lonnie Lefevre	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.3 Pts	6'8
	3 Turnovers	20	0	10	0	0	13	2	1	10
Pos	Temple 1958	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual	Hts
1-PG	Guy Rodgers	5	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	20.1 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 5.2 Ast-nba	6'0
2-SG	Bill Kennedy	3	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	13.5 Pts, 3.3 Reb	5'11
3-SF	Mel Brodsky	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	10.9 Pts, 7.5 Reb	6'2
4-PF	Tink Van Patton	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6.6 Pts, 10.5 Reb	6'8
5-C	Jay Norman	4	0	2	0	0	2	0	1	1	13.0 Pts, 11.9 Reb	6'3
1-PG	Joe Goldenberg	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.4 Pts, 0.5 Reb	5'7
2-SG	Jack Peepe	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.1 Pts, 1.1 Reb	6'2
3-SF	Ophie Franklin	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.1 Pts, 2.5 Reb	6'4
4-PF	Pete Goss	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.3 Pts, 1.4 Reb	6'7
5-C	Dan Fleming	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5.0 Pts, 4.3 Reb	6'6
	3 Turnovers	20	0	10	0	0	13	2	1	10

Game results to follow.

During Rose Bowl, Old-School Temple Beats Bradley in Battle of 1950s Final 4 Teams

We couldn't compete with Michigan's overtime win against Alabama in the Rose Bowl tonight, but we fit in a battle of of two Value Add Basketball Game all-time great teams form seasons in which they made their second Final 4 of the 1950s.

The all-time great Temple and NBA player Guy Rodgers (who led the NBA in various seasons in assists per game) was the best player in this game, though Bradley's Bob Carney also played a bit in the NBA. 

Bradley's 1954 and Temple's 1958 team went back and forth for most of the game, and the first time either team had a 3-point lead was when Temple's future NBA player Guy Rodgers came up with a steal and fed Bill Kennedy on the fast break (the 20-sided die is lowered by one number on a fast break after a steal by a guard or odd numbered die steal by a forward). That made it 41-38 Temple with 13:11 or 22 possessions remaining in the game.was still close until 5-minutes left when Temple led 56-51. 

However, Kennedy hit only the third 3-pointer of the game for Temple, and in the process Bradley's one future NBA player Bob Carney fouled out and Kennedy completed the 4-point play to make i t60-51. While Carney had a subpart 6-point outing on offense, he would have been needed to have a chance of catching up with his highest level 11-16, 31 (all) steal range that had already resulted in four steals in the game.

While both teams were making their second Final Four in just a few years, Temple was the stronger team. They barely missed the title game with a 61-60 loss in the semifinal to the eventual champion Kentucky, and then won the consolation game to finish third place. Meanwhile Bradley's 1950 Final Four team appeared to have been much better, but like some very early teams there were almost no stats available to produce player cards so we went with the 1954 Final Four team. We are not clear why the 1954 squad was ranked No. 7 that year, because they were only 15-12 on the season and only played three ranked teams, but they received a bid nonetheless and then did make the run to the Final Four to back it up.

Temple moves from 72nd to 33rd in our Pomeroy-like all-time ratings, while Bradley dropped from 161st to 179th all-time. Temple will play #29 New Mexico State which moved from 84th to 29th with a blowout of Richmond, and the winner of that game will get the winner of UMass 1996 and Charlotte 1977 in one semifinal.

Keep in mind the original ratings are likely closer to how good the team is as they are based on how good the player cards are in the game. However, we could be off in underestimating or over overestimating teams and we purposely give more credit for any win then www.kenpom.com does despite using a very similar formula. (we basically used a version close to that used by www.kenpom.com but we give the winning team an extra 4 points credit and subtract 4 points from the loser for each game.

Of our 200 teams only four of the newest additions have not played and will be featured in our next two games as we make sure there are no glitches in the cards (sub as substitution errors we caught on Tulsa 2000).  Those games are #98 Drake (1969) against #138 Nevada (2004) and #149 Buffalo (2019) vs. #192 Western Kentucky (1966).

Bradley 1954	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
John Kent	10	2	2	0	0	2	1	0	3	13.0 Pts, 4.1 Reb
Bob Carney	6	0	3	0	0	2	4	0	5	16.2 Pts, 7.0 Reb-NBA
Eddie King	5	0	2	1	2	4	0	0	2	9.2 Pts, 4.3 Reb
Dick Estergard	13	0	5	3	4	5	0	2	2	14.5 Pts, 12.3 Reb
Dick Petersen	7	1	2	0	2	5	2	2	4	6.3 Pts, 5.9 Reb
Lee O'Connell	4	0	1	2	0	1	1	0	1	3.2 Pts, 1.1 Reb
John Riley	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.0 Pts, 1.4 Reb
Harvey Babetch	8	0	4	0	0	4	0	0	1	6.1 Pts, 3.1 Reb
Jerry Hansen	3	0	1	1	2	3	0	0	1	5.4 Pts, 2.9 Reb
Barney Kilcullen	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.4 Pts, 3.8 Reb
13 Turnovers	60	3	22	7	10	28	8	4	21
Temple 1958	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual
Guy Rodgers	16	1	5	3	4	5	5	0	2	20.1 Pts, 6.6 Reb, 5.2 Ast-NBA
Bill Kennedy	25	2	6	7	7	1	1	0	1	13.5 Pts, 3.3 Reb
Mel Brodsky	6	0	2	2	2	7	0	1	2	10.9 Pts, 7.5 Reb
Tink Van Patton	10	0	5	0	0	9	0	1	3	6.6 Pts, 10.5 Reb
Jay Norman	9	0	2	5	6	8	0	2	2	13.0 Pts, 11.9 Reb
Joe Goldenberg	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	1.4 Pts, 0.5 Reb
Jack Peepe	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.1 Pts, 1.1 Reb
Ophie Franklin	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	2.1 Pts, 2.5 Reb
Pete Goss	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	1.3 Pts, 1.4 Reb
Dan Fleming	4	0	2	0	0	3	0	0	1	5.0 Pts, 4.3 Reb
18 Turnovers	72	3	23	17	19	39	6	4	17