5. “Someone Had to Pay” | What If? The Len Bias Story

Book of Basketball 2.0

The Ringer

Sports

4.8 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Despite the ongoing Brian Tribble investigation, there was still a question the press and public had no answer for: Who was to blame for the tragic cocaine intoxication of Maryland’s star basketball player? The spotlight shifted to Maryland University and the man who had built the basketball program up in his image: Lefty Driesell. Host: Jordan Ritter Conn Producers: Hannah Beal, Isaac Lee, Noah Malale, and Bobby Wagner Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When Lefty Drezel was hired as the Terrapins-Mens basketball coach in 1969, he said he had one mission.
0:07.0	To make Maryland the UCLA of the East.
0:11.0	If I had the coach in my stance if we can't recruit outstanding athletes,
0:16.0	to come to a school like this and win the wrong profession,
0:19.0	you know, and after he's not said I thought Maryland would be the UCLA East.
0:23.0	I think it will be.
0:25.0	This was ambitious.
0:28.0	At the time, UCLA was one of the greatest dynasties in all of sports.
0:33.0	John Woodens Bruins were in the midst of a run of 10 national championships in 12 years.
0:38.0	No one was going to be the UCLA of the East.
0:41.0	No one was going to be the UCLA of anywhere.
0:44.0	For Scott Vempel, a diehard Maryland fan,
0:47.0	even the audacity to make that attempt speaks to the kind of larger than life figure the Lefty was.
0:53.0	I love that man. Lefty Drezel was, he was another guy that was sort of perfect representation of Maryland.
1:07.0	In the ACC pecking order, Maryland knew where it stood.
1:10.0	The blue bloods were down in North Carolina.
1:13.0	UNC, Duke, even NC State.
1:16.0	And in the DMV, they lagged behind Georgetown as the most prestigious basketball program in the area.
1:22.0	So, Maryland fans carried a chip on their shoulder, this little brother mentality when it came to competing with those schools.
1:29.0	But, Lefty saw something bigger for the Terps.
1:33.0	And on the strength of his charm as a recruiter and his skills a motivator,
1:37.0	he thought it could get them to that same level.
	...

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