I read this on an Al McGuire website. I didn’t realize the last game he called was Tulsa and College of Charleston.
“I worked with Al McGuire his last year of the tournament (1999). And Coach McGuire was never known for the depth of his preparation. As in, ‘I’ll react to what’s going on.’ And that Thursday or Friday is the longest day in broadcast television. It is. It’s a grind. I can still tell you the teams. We were in Charlotte. We lead off with Delaware and Tennessee. Get that done. Then we’ve got Southwest Missouri State and Wisconsin in what I would still argue is one of the worst college basketball games I’ve ever done. Like, 42-31, and that was at the end of the game. So now we get a short break. My pile (of papers) is going down. You take half of it and throw it away. The evening game was Mississippi Valley State and Duke, and Duke was a 48-point favorite, and they covered. So the last game of the night is College of Charleston and Tulsa. We’re taking a break and I said, ‘Coach, anything I can do for you in this last game?’ And he said, ‘No, no.’ We get back and sit down. He doesn’t have a note. He doesn’t have a roster. And I said, ‘Is there anything I can do to help you out?’ He said, ‘No, no—they’ll take their warmups off and I’ll get the names and numbers, and I’ll listen to you for the first five minutes, and I’ll pick things up and I’ll be fine.’ Charleston comes out and they have maroon warmups. They take them off and they have no names, just numbers. Tulsa, with Bill Self as the coach, comes out in blue—no names. McGuire looked at me and said, ‘Son, you might have to help me—I think I’m screwed.’”
--- Verne Lundquist
“I worked with Al McGuire his last year of the tournament (1999). And Coach McGuire was never known for the depth of his preparation. As in, ‘I’ll react to what’s going on.’ And that Thursday or Friday is the longest day in broadcast television. It is. It’s a grind. I can still tell you the teams. We were in Charlotte. We lead off with Delaware and Tennessee. Get that done. Then we’ve got Southwest Missouri State and Wisconsin in what I would still argue is one of the worst college basketball games I’ve ever done. Like, 42-31, and that was at the end of the game. So now we get a short break. My pile (of papers) is going down. You take half of it and throw it away. The evening game was Mississippi Valley State and Duke, and Duke was a 48-point favorite, and they covered. So the last game of the night is College of Charleston and Tulsa. We’re taking a break and I said, ‘Coach, anything I can do for you in this last game?’ And he said, ‘No, no.’ We get back and sit down. He doesn’t have a note. He doesn’t have a roster. And I said, ‘Is there anything I can do to help you out?’ He said, ‘No, no—they’ll take their warmups off and I’ll get the names and numbers, and I’ll listen to you for the first five minutes, and I’ll pick things up and I’ll be fine.’ Charleston comes out and they have maroon warmups. They take them off and they have no names, just numbers. Tulsa, with Bill Self as the coach, comes out in blue—no names. McGuire looked at me and said, ‘Son, you might have to help me—I think I’m screwed.’”
--- Verne Lundquist
