On the day New Albany High School honored its storied 1979-80 boys’ basketball team, this year’s Bulldogs turned in a dominant performance in a 78-40 win over Columbus East.
The game was well in hand by the time the ’80 squad — whose only loss came in the state championship game against Indianapolis Broad Ripple — assembled at mid-court during halftime to bask in warm cheers from the afternoon crowd.
“The fun in basketball is winning,” Richie Johnson, one of the team’s stars, told the fans, echoing a favorite line from their coach, the late Jack Ford. That was also the title of a book chronicling the magic season.
Jack’s son Rick organized the weekend reunion of the team that was ranked No. 1 much of the year and finished 27-1. Many of the former teammates had scarcely seen one another since they left high school 40 years ago. They also mingled with the public during a post-game reception.
On the court, New Albany’s primary challenge was avoiding a letdown against the Olympians 3-14, 0-4), who came in on a seven-game losing streak. The Dogs have shown a tendency to let seemingly inferior teams hang around, though, and coach Jim Shannon only had to look at East’s most recent game — a two-point loss to a 16-win Bloomington North team last Friday night — to understand the risks.
“You prepare for the team that you’re playing, no matter what,” he said. “I think our team thought they were superior to Evansville North, and we see how that worked out for us. Today we talked about not looking at records, because if you allow a team that’s not been having success to have success too long, they start believing they can play with you, and the dynamics of the game change.
“If that team can play Bloomington North to a two-point game, they can sure play us to two. So I don’t think you can ever take anyone lightly. We jumped on them early. They played zone and we hit a lot of threes, and that really got us going.”
Shannon was specifically referring to sophomore point guard Kaden Stanton — the coach calls him Special K — who continued his recent hot streak. Two days after nailing 4-of-6 three-pointers in a 56-43 win at Jennings County, Stanton hit 7 times from distance in 11 attempts. He finished with a career high 27 points.
“He played a great floor game,” Shannon said. “He ran the offense and took the ball to the basket, and then he obviously hit shots. He’s getting better and better every game.”
New Albany (12-7, 4-2) again had a balanced scoring attack. Trey Hourigan scored 13 points, Tucker Biven and Julien Hunter had 12 each, and Jordan Thomas scored 11 off the bench as New Albany enjoyed its second-highest scoring game of the season.
“Tucker played well early, but he got tired and we rested him in the second half,” Shannon said. “It’s the time of year you can see somebody’s legs start to go on them. He’s logged a lot of minutes, and he doesn’t know how to take a possession off.
“Maddox Schmelz had another great game defending people and getting loose balls. And our bigs played really well. We were able to go inside to Trey, Julien and Jordan anytime we wanted. They played well together and finished shots.”
Where was Shannon in 1980 when those Dogs were dominating across the state?
“I was a sophomore at Ball State,” he recalled, “but I knew how good they were. I think it I think it means a lot to our kids to have them here today. We talked about that.”
New Albany goes on the road Friday, but it’s a short trip to Clarksville to take on Providence (12-6). The Dogs are idle next Saturday, then close out their home schedule on Feb. 21 against Bedford North Lawrence, who hold a half-game lead over Jeffersonville in the Hoosier Hills Conference.
New Albany’s final two regular season games are on the road: Feb. 22 at Evansville Central (2-14), and Feb. 28 at Bloomington North (16-4).
