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Be happy Nike makes our uniforms


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<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="JMM28" data-cid="347126" data-time="1362004144"><p>

Who is going to spring for the $140 for their very own neon Billiken head?<br />

<br />

<a href='http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-SAINT-LOUIS-BILLIKENS-REAL-GLASS-NEON-LIGHT-BEER-BAR-PUB-SIGN-/281071163140?pt=US_NCAA_Fan_Shop&hash=item4171259704'>http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-SAINT-LOUIS-BILLIKENS-REAL-GLASS-NEON-LIGHT-BEER-BAR-PUB-SIGN-/281071163140?pt=US_NCAA_Fan_Shop&hash=item4171259704</a></p></blockquote>

I have one. It's in my apartment window

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Some of Crews' Evansville teams wore the short sleeves jerseys I think

Crews was the man behind the sleeve uniform at Evansville in the 80's.

The below website has a complete history of the sleeve uniform at Evansville starting in 1947 under famous Purple Aces head coach Arad McCutchan.

http://theunknownzone.dailynuisanceproductions.com/index.php?topic=2320.0

When Jim Crews became coach in 1986, he became good friends with Arad McCutchan. After his first season with the Aces, Crews did something radical. But something out of respect for the man who put Evansville on the map of the basketball world. In 1987, for the first time in ten years, Evansville players took the floor wearing uniforms with sleeves. Two years later, the Aces returned to the NCAA tournament. This time, with sleeves. In front of a nationally televised audience the 11th seeded team in the funny shirts knocked off Oregon State. To date, that is UE's sole NCAA Division I tournament victory.

While the shirts garnered criticism from national commentators (Dick Vitale especially hated them), they drew endearment from the fans at home. They became a footnote for every basketball broadcast featuring the Aces. The sleeves became Evansville's signature

In 1993, Arad McCutchan died. And Jim Crews got radical again. As a combined tribute to McCutchan and the 75th anniversary of Evansville's basketball program, Crews outfitted his players in bright orange uniforms. At home. Teams traveling to Roberts Stadium were told to bring their home whites that year because the Aces were going to be in orange. On the road, the uniforms were the traditional purple -- except for an ESPN game at Xavier, where Coach Crews made an exception and brought the orange uniforms along.

The next season, orange made its permanent return to the color scheme. Road uniforms were orange once more and the home whites were trimmed in orange.

An Aces home uniform of the late '90s

In Jim Crews' final year with Evansville, the uniforms changed again. They were baggier and made the players look like they were swimming in them. Some say this doomed the sleeves.

Crews left UE after the 2001-2002 season. With a new coach and a new athletic director came a new look -- again. Steve Merfeld polled the players and they said the sleeves had to go.

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Maybe Crews can go with a radical color, something like UE's orange, in honor of Coach Majerus, as he did in 1993 in honor of Arad McCutchan, who had died in '93. Wonder if they could find out RM's true favorite color?

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I have the home version of this jersey autographed as well. It was on sale on ebay for $35 a couple of years ago.

When I was a freshmen, 2008, I met a kid wearing that jersey at a party. Not sure if it was autographed, but needless to say I was about the only person there who appreciated it. youd get alot more love for that jersey this year.

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I got one of those Billiken neons as well. Light it up every gameday.

You'd be surprised some of the stuff on ebay. A month ago they had a lettermen's sweater from a player from the 40s on there. Last year I picked up a game used (exhibition) Utah Jazz Anthony Bonner jersey.

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Could a team refuse these or is the contract rock-solid? If I were a player, I'd protest this one. The last thing you want to do is make a legendary play in the Tournament in one of those, the terrible uniform distracting people from what you did.

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Could a team refuse these or is the contract rock-solid? If I were a player, I'd protest this one. The last thing you want to do is make a legendary play in the Tournament in one of those, the terrible uniform distracting people from what you did.
Not to mention if you are used to shooting sleeveless, it might feel distracting, which is the last thing you want with the game on the line.
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Could a team refuse these or is the contract rock-solid? If I were a player, I'd protest this one. The last thing you want to do is make a legendary play in the Tournament in one of those, the terrible uniform distracting people from what you did.

Not entirely sure how this works. There were a few schools (Michigan I think was one) that were mentioned as Adidas schools that weren't going to wear to new goofy uniforms. Not sure if that was a choice by the school or if Adidas just didn't pick them to wear the clown costumes.

As far as contracts, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some clause that stipulated that Adidas could provide the team with "test uniforms" or something that these new uniforms would fall under. Assuming that this wasn't some thing where the schools had the choice, the schools probably would want to tread lightly in their dissent against the new uniforms. Keep in mind that Adidas not only provides the basketball uniforms, but also likely the uniforms, shoes, warm-up gear, and additional merchandise for the entire athletic program at the school, which is a big deal for those schools. Depending on how forceful Adidas wanted to be, there could be big consequences for crossing them. Now, all the schools in the picture above (Kansas, Notre Dame, Louisville, Baylor, Cincinnati, and UCLA) are at a much higher level, but consider what happened to Central Florida. They had a contract with Adidas a few years ago, when Marcus Jordan (Michael's son) refused to wear Adidas shoes, instead wearing Air Jordans by Nike due to the obvious family connection. The news broke, and within days Adidas cancelled the $3 million contract with the school.

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Not entirely sure how this works. There were a few schools (Michigan I think was one) that were mentioned as Adidas schools that weren't going to wear to new goofy uniforms. Not sure if that was a choice by the school or if Adidas just didn't pick them to wear the clown costumes.

As far as contracts, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some clause that stipulated that Adidas could provide the team with "test uniforms" or something that these new uniforms would fall under. Assuming that this wasn't some thing where the schools had the choice, the schools probably would want to tread lightly in their dissent against the new uniforms. Keep in mind that Adidas not only provides the basketball uniforms, but also likely the uniforms, shoes, warm-up gear, and additional merchandise for the entire athletic program at the school, which is a big deal for those schools. Depending on how forceful Adidas wanted to be, there could be big consequences for crossing them. Now, all the schools in the picture above (Kansas, Notre Dame, Louisville, Baylor, Cincinnati, and UCLA) are at a much higher level, but consider what happened to Central Florida. They had a contract with Adidas a few years ago, when Marcus Jordan (Michael's son) refused to wear Adidas shoes, instead wearing Air Jordans by Nike due to the obvious family connection. The news broke, and within days Adidas cancelled the $3 million contract with the school.

Good point. I hadn't thought of that in relation to this. Still, these are pretty bad. I hope people complain enough to make this be the breaking point for goofy uniforms. The clean, traditional ones always look best.

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The carpet needs to match the drapes. Amirite?

Indeed. I'm sort of surprised they didn't use that "HyperColor" material for the jerseys...from those t-shirts that changed colors with the temperature and were popular for about five minutes in the mid-'90s. Maybe bust out slap-bracelets in team colors too.

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