Weber State’s defeat was inevitable, wasn’t it?
Not much was expected from the 14th-seeded Wildcats, who had flown cross country for the privilege of becoming fodder against a Michigan State team expected to play inspired basketball for their coach Jud Heathcote, in his 19th season with the green and white. He was retiring following the 1995 NCAA Tournament.
Certainly, the first half of its first-round game played as expected. The No. 3-seeded Spartans from the Big Ten shredded the defense of the Big Sky Conference Tournament champions and took a 9-point lead into intermission. The lead could have been larger.
For the first 20 minutes, Weber State kept playing catch up, trying hard to remain within contact with the athletic Spartans whose backcourt featured a pair of future NBA guards in Eric Snow and Shawn Respert.
“(In the first half) we were tentative, letting the game happen,” said WSU forward Jimmy DeGraffenreid, who air-balled his – and Weber State’s – first shot.
The second half? Oh, what a second half.
“In the second half we felt like, ‘We can win this game,’” DeGraffenreid remembered. “Then we played with purpose, to win and not to lose it.”
Weber State outscored Michigan State by 16 points in the second and, led by Ruben Nembhard’s 27 points and inspired play by nearly every player to touch the court in Tallahassee, Fla., sent Heathcote to an earlier-than-expected retirement, 79-72. The victory ranks seventh on the Big Sky Conference’s list of “50 Greatest Men’s Moments.’’
The Wildcats also became the first Big Sky team to win an NCAA Tournament game since Idaho defeated Iowa in 1982. Weber State lost its next game – and a chance at the Sweet 16 – at the buzzer to Georgetown.
But for a bright moment, Weber State was the talk of the tournament.
The Philadelphia Daily News would write, “In this tournament of upsets and big-conference floundering, Weber State would have fit in well in the Sweet 16. The Wildcats were one of the teams that help send the Big Ten representatives home with a dismal 1-6 record in the tournament. Suddenly, mid-major leagues like the Big Sky are making major nuisances of themselves.”
Weber State’s victory was bittersweet for its architect, coach Ron Abegglen who, four years later, would also engineer the Wildcats to an even more brilliant upset of North Carolina.
“Jud was a good friend of mine,” Abegglen said. “I wanted to beat him, but it was tough to beat him like that.”
By game’s end, only Michigan State fans were agog at the final score. When Lewis Lofton’s 3-pointer snapped the nets to give WSU a 63-53 lead with less than 11 minutes to play, the spotlight became much brighter.
Even the CBS announcing team of Verne Lundquist and Quinn Buckner began to become interested after Weber State’s 10-0 run to take a 53-49 lead with 15:10 to play. Suddenly, the Wildcats were “pesky.”
“In the second half, the fans changed,” DeGraffenreid said. “Those who may have (casually) rooted for Michigan State or were indifferent, everybody in the place became Weber State fans.”
Yet, Michigan State kept the pressure on. Weber State’s lead was sliced to two points three times in the final eight minutes.
The Wildcats kept answering, thanks in part to a preseason schedule structured by Abegglen for this very purpose. Weber State played, for example, at eventual Big Ten champion Purdue earlier that season and led by 12 points before losing.
“In the second half the players felt pretty good about what they were doing,” Abegglen said. “Playing our preseason schedule did give us confidence. You have to do that. When you play in Pocatello or Bozeman, if you’re not used to (pressure) the rednecks will run you out of the gym.”
Weber State had an answer for every Spartan charge. Justyn Tebbs drained a 3-pointer, Kirk Smith, brought on to help defensively, converted 5 of 6 free throws and DeGraffenreid buried a jumper from the corner.
“Could it be,” Lundquist asked his viewing audience midway through the second half.
Nembhard and an inspired Lofton, who scored 14 points to go with DeGraffenreid’s 15, helped provided a definite yes.
“We thought we could beat these guys as soon as the selection show said we were playing them,” Nembhard said afterward.
As for Michigan State’s two stars, Respert scored 28 points, but Snow was held to nine and eventually fouled out. The Spartans also only managed at 5-of-14 performance from the foul line.
By contrast, WSU missed just four of 17 free throws, and was near perfect down the stretch. And after managing to shoot only 42 percent from the floor in the first half, the Wildcats finished at 55 percent.
“Our coach always did a great job of preparing us,” said DeGraffenreid, who now coaches at Salem Hills High School (Utah). “We felt like we could win the game. There are always a few doubts, but we knew we could win.
“Basketball is a game of runs and, go back to coach Abegglen, we did a pretty good job of answering their runs. He would say, ‘Trust yourself.’”
The excitement of the moment carried Weber State through the weekend. Business signs throughout Tallahassee urged on the Wildcats.
It was difficult not to become swept away in the emotion of the moment, DeGraffenreid remembers.
Abegglen believes the media and fan attention may have cost Weber State a berth in the Sweet 16. Georgetown knocked the Wildcats out of the tournament, 53-51, on a last-second shot by Don Reid.
Moments earlier, with the game tied, Nembhard had missed the front end of a one-and-one.
“If we would have had one more day to prepare for Georgetown, another day of rest,” Abegglen said.
Yet, both games remain clear memories for DeGraffenreid, even the air ball which began the road to upset.
“I thought it was in, ‘Oh yeah,’” he said with a chuckle. “When it went over the rim, it was like, ‘Oh yeah, great.’
“It was the adrenalin. The NCAA Tournament is such an exciting platform. The thing I remember is everybody in Florida becoming Weber State fans. It was hard not to get caught up in it. ‘Hey, this is great.’”