Sad State: Roy Ebron's Death Depicts Inferior Quality On and Off Hardwood

In the aftermath of former Southwestern Louisiana center Roy Ebron recently passing away in New Orleans area, hoop aficionados subsequently have endured a classic lack-of-proper-perspective example of the cult-of-personality outweighing amateurish hoops history. Inexcusably, more sports columnists and self-proclaimed basketball experts dwelt on a variety of mundane subjects - Steve Alford's one-year contract extension with UCLA, Butler coach takes leave of absence, Jim Calhoun working as analyst for ESPN, Kentucky televising NBA combine, Oregon players arrested for shoplifting, etc. - rather than even acknowledging the passing of half of one of the premier Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside combinations in NCAA annals. Explosive USL guard Dwight "Bo" Lamar scored 51 points in each of back-to-back road games in 1971-72 en route to becoming the only player in NCAA history to pace the nation in scoring at both the college and university divisions.

In the early 1970s, SI designated Ebron, ULL's all-time leading rebounder, as perhaps the nation's premier pivotman other than UCLA's Bill Walton. Ebron, a Norfolk, Va., product, averaged 21.2 ppg and 13.2 rpg for USL in 1971-72 and 1972-73 during a span when national POY Walton averaged 20.8 ppg and 16.2 rpg. But have SI, ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, USA Today, Yahoo or a wide range of other prominent content providers for college basketball websites offered any relevant analysis since Ebron's demise?

In a "shatterproof" achievement likely never to be duplicated, USL became the only school ever to finish in the Top 10 of the final Division I rankings in its inaugural season at that level. Lamar collected 35 points and a tourney-high 11 assists and Ebron chipped in with 33 points and 20 rebounds in a 112-101 triumph against Marshall in the opening round of the 1972 Midwest Regional as the Ragin' Cajuns tallied the most points in the history of the tourney for a school in its first playoff game.

Contemporary players and teams, resembling ill-equipped sportswriters and producers, simply aren't anywhere as competent as personnel on and off the court 40 years ago. For instance, USL and Jerry Tarkanian-coached Long Beach State of 1971-72 vintage likely would be the preseason top two clubs in the country this campaign. Lamar and fellow junior Ed Ratleff of LBSU became the only set of former high school teammates (hometown of Columbus, OH) to be named NCAA consensus first-team All-Americans together. USL's 90-83 early-season victory over visiting Long Beach might have been one of the best intersectional matchups few people know about or remember.

Much of the present mass media should be placed in mothballs (issued the "death penalty"), but it was USL needing a restraining order to enter the 1973 NCAA playoffs because the school was accused of 125 rules violations. In an era when in-state schools Centenary (All-American Robert Parish) and Louisiana Tech (Mike Green) also went on NCAA probation, Cajuns coach Beryl Shipley's response: "Was that all they could find?"

Many of the allegations resulting in placing USL's program on the sideline for two seasons involved Lamar and Ebron. One of the legendary accounts linked to Ebron had him "winning" a drawing for a new automobile at a Lafayette dealership the day after he arrived on campus. "I'll be honest," Shipley told award-winning Louisiana author John Ed Bradley. "I didn't care about any damn rule book. I just tried to do what was right for the boys, what I knew I had to do."

Granted, Ebron didn't live up to expectations as a professional. But has there ever been a more underappreciated duo in NCAA history than Ebron and Lamar? Ebron (6-9) is the tallest player ever to average more than 20 ppg in the same season a teammate led DI in scoring. For the record, following are the highest-scoring teammate of a player the campaign when they were the nation's most prolific point producer: