The Holy Land of Hoops

As promised, I'm starting a new thread which will countdown my fellow-Rhode-Islander 79-year-old barber Frank's Top-100 basketball teams. Guy goes back to the 1930's. Says he knew Rocky Marciano, Clem Labine and Davey Lopes personally. May have direct knowledge of point shaving in early 50's games. I'll be updating regularly because I get a lot of haircuts.

Anyway, yesterday Frank gave me his #100, #99 and #98 teams...

100 - St Francis (NY):
Northeast 1st
"put Saint Francis at 100... my favorite saint, loved the animals, I was named for him... oh right there's two Saint Francises... which one's closer to Pawtucket... okay make it Saint Francis of New York... they beat that Larranaga kid last year... Jimmie used to come in here when he was at PC... I saw him down in Boca last year, kid's lost all his hair... good kid..."

99 - Manhattan:
Metro Atlantic 3rd
"put Manhattan at 99... shoulda got the job in South Florida... you know South Florida is over on the gulf in Tampa, which doesn't make sense... anyway, this Manhattan kid got a bunch of baloney about not finishing school... aay, guy shows he can coach doesn't need a degree... some of the smartest guys I know neveh went ta college... by the way, whatsa Jaspah anyway..."

98 - Auburn:
SEC 6th
"that guy Pearl... what a cheatah... guy is so blatantly crooked... recruited some good guys this summah without eveh talkin or meetin them... so I fig-yuh a guy that cheats that much is gonna have a good yeah..."

100 - St Francis NY (1st in Northeast).
99 - Manhattan (3rd in Metro Atlantic).
98 - Auburn (6th in SEC).
97 - Notre Dame (9th in ACC).
96 - Incarnate Word (2nd in Southland).

95 - NC State (8th in ACC).
94 - Southern Methodist (4th in AAC).
93 - Iona (2nd in Metro Atlantic).
92 - Buffalo (2nd in MAC).
91 - Long Beach State (2nd in Big West).

90 - Valpo (3rd in Horizon).
89 - Yale (2nd in Ivy).
88 - Missouri State (3rd in Missouri Valley).
87 - Baylor (7th in Big 12).
86 - Belmont (2nd in Ohio Valley).

More reserved space.

If this is for real this is actually pretty cool

billyjack wrote:As promised, I'm starting a new thread which will countdown my fellow-Rhode-Islander 79-year-old barber Frank's Top-100 basketball teams. Guy goes back to the 1930's. Says he knew Rocky Marciano, Clem Labine and Davey Lopes personally. May have direct knowledge of point shaving in early 50's games. I'll be updating regularly because I get a lot of haircuts.

Anyway, yesterday Frank gave me his #100, #99 and #98 teams...

100 - St Francis (NY):
"put Saint Francis at 100... my favorite saint, loved the animals, I was named for him... oh right there's two Saint Francises... which one's closer to Pawtucket... okay make it Saint Francis of New York... they beat that Larranaga kid last year... Jimmie used to come in here when he was at PC... I saw him down in Boca last year, kid's lost all his hair... good kid..."

99 - Manhattan:
"put Manhattan at 99... shoulda got the job in South Florida... you know South Florida is over on the gulf in Tampa, which doesn't make sense... anyway, this Manhattan kid got a bunch of baloney about not finishing school... aay, guy shows he can coach doesn't need a degree... some of the smartest guys I know neveh went ta college... by the way, whatsa Jaspah anyway..."

98 - Auburn:
"that guy Pearl... what a cheatah... guy is so blatantly crooked... recruited some good guys this summah without eveh talkin or meetin them... so I fig-yuh a guy that cheats that much is gonna have a good yeah..."

I'm liking Frankie the Bahbah already. Guy knows his stuff. And his team descriptions are a lot more interesting than the pundits.

I'm going out on a limb here and am predicting that he'll be picking some Italian coaches pretty soon. You know he would have loved Louie and Rollie in the old days. He's got to be picking Pitino and Calipari to meet in the championship game.

Great stuff! Keep it up.

DudeAnon wrote:If this is for real this is actually pretty cool

Hey, DudeAnon,
Thanks, glad you like it. To be honest, I'm not sure what this is... I'll send you a PM.

Bill Marsh wrote:

billyjack wrote:As promised, I'm starting a new thread which will countdown my fellow-Rhode-Islander 79-year-old barber Frank's Top-100 basketball teams. Guy goes back to the 1930's. Says he knew Rocky Marciano, Clem Labine and Davey Lopes personally. May have direct knowledge of point shaving in early 50's games. I'll be updating regularly because I get a lot of haircuts.

Anyway, yesterday Frank gave me his #100, #99 and #98 teams...

100 - St Francis (NY):
"put Saint Francis at 100... my favorite saint, loved the animals, I was named for him... oh right there's two Saint Francises... which one's closer to Pawtucket... okay make it Saint Francis of New York... they beat that Larranaga kid last year... Jimmie used to come in here when he was at PC... I saw him down in Boca last year, kid's lost all his hair... good kid..."

99 - Manhattan:
"put Manhattan at 99... shoulda got the job in South Florida... you know South Florida is over on the gulf in Tampa, which doesn't make sense... anyway, this Manhattan kid got a bunch of baloney about not finishing school... aay, guy shows he can coach doesn't need a degree... some of the smartest guys I know neveh went ta college... by the way, whatsa Jaspah anyway..."

98 - Auburn:
"that guy Pearl... what a cheatah... guy is so blatantly crooked... recruited some good guys this summah without eveh talkin or meetin them... so I fig-yuh a guy that cheats that much is gonna have a good yeah..."

I'm liking Frankie the Bahbah already. Guy knows his stuff. And his team descriptions are a lot more interesting than the pundits.

I'm going out on a limb here and am predicting that he'll be picking some Italian coaches pretty soon. You know he would have loved Louie and Rollie in the old days. He's got to be picking Pitino and Calipari to meet in the championship game.

Great stuff! Keep it up.

Thanks Bill...!

Where in Pawtucket is Frank?

Noonzy wrote:Where in Pawtucket is Frank?

Hey Noonzy,
Ok, so there is a barber that my family has gone to forever, but to keep him anonymous I changed his name to Frank. Also for anonymity, i said he was in Pawtucket, but he's in a different town nearby. He really is a huge sports fan. Really great guy. He's in his late 70's, still keeps working cuz he enjoys seeing his friends. Great storyteller.

In reality, "Frank the Barber" is actually a composite character of many family and friends of mine here in Rhode Island. The comments in the countdown are basically all real or paraphrased quotes from a ton of different people, including but not primarily from "Frank".

Anyway, this countdown was meant to be a more sensible list (compared to the other list I think) by a typical Rhode Islander. No one specific. Just a composite of many. I didn't mean to mislead anyone, and maybe made it too realistic...!

ok Billy I understand. I worked in Pawtucket for about 20 years and knew a bunch of colorfull barbers that worked in Pawtucket and knew the BB scene. One on York Ave, Armistice Blvd., Pawtucket Ave, etc. Good story though.