Game 31- @Loyola

[ghostofdylan]

And based off what I read and Fran's testimony, I'll rate Gerry as one of the top three point guards in Panther history along with Marc and Kaylon.

[kaygee]

Feb 26, 2012 19:28:29 GMT -6 ghostofdylan said:

Kaygee, I respectfully acknowledge your post, but I have to state for the record that 53 of Gerald's 106 career games were played against non-Division 1 or small-college teams.

This would be akin to Kaylon playing against a slate half-filled with Minnesota State and UNO.

The program could call itself whatever it wanted over that seven-year stretch, but the schedule strongly suggests that it was Division 1 in name only.

Here's the school's 1975-76 schedule:

Lewis, at Wichita State (L, 107-65), North Dakota, UW-Whitewater, St. Norbert, Northern Iowa, New Orleans, Texas Southern, Shaw (Mich.), St. Francis (Ind.), at West Texas State, UW-River Falls, at Wayne State, at Oakland, at Cincinnati (L, 76-61), UW-Parkside, Loras, Silver Lake, Northern Michigan, at Denver, at Air Force, SIU Edwardsville, at Illinois State, at Jacksonville, at New Orleans, at Loyola (L, 87-71).

You can't look at it through the lenses of what college basketball is currently. College basketball during the 1970s was a completely different animal. I think it is the wrong thing to put asterisks next to records and in this case (the UWM all-time D1 assists record) pretend it didn't happen because the competition isn't considered good enough.

Look at the schedules that UWM was playing during the early 1990s during the Marc Mitchell era, they didn't exactly play competition at the high end of D1, but that shouldn't diminish the accomplishments of Mitchell, Craig Greene, etc.

[ghostofdylan]

Perhaps we should have a throwback night where we honor the 1976-77 Panthers, who went 19-8 under coach Bob Gottlieb. Before 1990-91, that was our winningest Division 1 team.

That would ensure that players like Gerald Hardnett know we haven't forgotten about them.

In the meantime, Kaylon's just going to have to get 75 more assists over the next 10 games (7.5 per outing) to break Gerry's school mark.

[kaygee]

I have been doing a little research and Hardnett may have been credited with way too many career assists. I found a Milwaukee Sentinel article (dated Feb. 3, 1979) that credits him as the school's all-time assists leader with 344 (he quit the team his senior year and then was allowed back after missing 1 game - 1/29/79 @ Pan American).

There is a big gap between currently credited final total of 448 and what was reported. I currently have 364 assists while I am missing 3 of his final games in his senior season:

2/5/79 vs. St. Louis (he recorded 4 assists)
2/8/79 vs. Jackson State (he recorded 2 assists)
2/13/79 @ Illinois State (he recorded 9 assists)
2/17/79 vs. UWGB
2/21/79 vs. St. Bonaventure (he recorded 5 assists)
2/27/79 @ Maine
3/3/79 @ Oral Roberts

I have verified that he had 200 career assists through his sophomore season (71 as a freshman, 129 as a sophomore), but I am currently trying to fill in the blanks for his final two seasons. Thus far I have confirmed he had 16 assists in 7 games I have been able to find accounts for in his junior year and 25 assists in 7 games I have been able to find accounts for in his senior year.

Interestingly enough, he was supsended on at least 3 occasions during his UWM career.