Weber State University Athletics
Cat Tales: 1995 NCAA Tournament victory
3/17/2015 4:37:00 PM | Athletics, Men's Basketball
Cat Tales is a series about historical events and people connected to Weber State University Athletics.
Written by Paul Grua, Weber State Director of Athletic Communications.
On March 11, 1995, the Weber State men's basketball team defeated Montana to capture the 1995 Big Sky Conference Tournament and earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years.
The Wildcat squad coached by Ron Abegglen had a 20-8 overall record and had captured the Big Sky title with an 11-3 record. Ruben Nembhard had been named the Big Sky Conference Most Valuable Player, the first Wildcat to ever earn the honor. Nembhard joined Jimmy Degraffenried, Lewis Lofton, Kirk Smith, Jeff Lentfer and the rest of the Wildcats were headed for the NCAA Tournament.
Before the tournament began Abegglen was quoted as saying, “This is what all the hard work and dedication leads up to, a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. It's been a while since Weber State has been there, so there are probably a lot of people out there who don't know who we are, how to say our name or where we're located. Hopefully, we can do some good things this week to help people remember.”
When the week ended there were lots of people around the country who knew how to say Weber and how good the Wildcat program was.
On Selection Sunday, the Wildcats were sent across the country to Tallahassee, Fla., to face national power Michigan State who was ranked ninth in the country. It marked the first time a Big Sky team had been sent east of the Mississippi to play in the tournament. It was also the first time since 1979 a Big Sky champion was not sent to the West Region.
The small school Wildcats were facing the Spartans who were coached by legendary coach Jud Heathcote, in his 19th season as head coach at Michigan State. He had previously announced that the 1994-95 season would be his last at MSU. He had led the Spartans to 10 NCAA Tournaments, including the 1979 title with Magic Johnson. Heathcote was no stranger to Big Sky basketball or Weber State. He had spent five seasons as the head coach at Montana in the 1970's.
The Spartans came into the game with a 22-5 record and were 14-4 in the Big Ten, second in the league standings. They were led by All-American senior guard Shawn Respert who ranked ninth in the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game and was a terrific three-point shooter. His running mate in the backcourt was senior point guard Eric Snow who was averaging 10.9 points a game. Junior center Jamie Feick averaged 10.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.
Abegglen knew facing the powerful Spartans was a big challenge for the Wildcats. “We had some game film on Michigan State and they didn't have any film on us. Jud Heathcote was a good friend of mine whom I had known for a long time. We watched a lot of film on them. They had two terrific guards in Snow and Respert. They were so fast and so tough to go against. I thought our guards were pretty good, but I thought we would be in trouble because of their speed.”'
Despite the challenge the Wildcat players felt they could win the game. “We always felt we had a chance because of Coach A,” DeGraffenried recalled. “He did a great job of preparing us so we would go into every game with confidence. He would tell us if we did certain things we would win the game. He would break it down and keep it simple so it gave us a lot of confidence.”
On Friday, March 17, 1995, the 14th seeded Wildcats went up against the third seeded Spartans at the Leon County Civic Center in Tallahassee. The game didn't start out great for the Wildcats as Michigan State jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead and then led 10-5 four minutes into the game. Weber State stayed level with the Spartans for the next few minutes and trailed 20-19 mid-way through the first half. But then MSU responded with an 8-0 run and led by nine points at 28-19 with 8:00 to play in the half. The Wildcats never got closer than three points the rest of the half and the Spartans finished the half on an 8-3 run and took a 46-37 lead at halftime. Respert led Michigan State with 16 points at the half and Nembhard had 14 for Weber State. The Spartans shot an incredible 69 percent from the field in the first half.
Coach Abegglen talked about his game plan against the Spartans. “Coach Heathcote told me after the game that he knew they were in trouble at halftime. We convinced Kirk Smith that if he would sprint the length of the court that their guards would be there and he could block their shots. He committed to it. That was our total game plan, to have Kirk take off and get back on defense and let the other guys do the rebounding and it worked.”
The Spartans led 49-41 early in the second half when the Wildcats caught fire. WSU went on a 15-2 run over the next six minutes and took a 56-51 lead with 12:52 to play. They would never trail again. DeGraffenried made two three-pointers and Nembhard scored five points in that stretch and the Spartans had seven turnovers in the same time frame.
The Wildcat lead reached 10 points at 63-53 with 10:34 to play but then it was Michigan State's turn as the Spartans scored eight straight points to cut the Wildcat lead to two with 8:00 to play. Back-to-back three pointers by Justyn Tebbs and DeGraffenried extended Weber State's lead to eight points with 5:10 to play. The Spartans came back with six straight points but each time they got close to taking the lead the Wildcats would score a bucket.
The Wildcats made 8-of-10 free throws down the stretch to seal the win. Weber State led by two points at 74-72 with 54 seconds left after a three-pointer by Respert. The Spartans would not score again and the 'Cats made their free throws to seal a 79-72 shocking upset of Michigan State.
Weber State had won its first NCAA Tournament game in 16 years and were the talk of the tournament across the nation. Nembhard led the Wildcats once again, finishing with 27 points, five rebounds and four steals. DeGraffenried added 15 with four three-pointers and Lofton added 14.
In the second round Weber State lost a heartbreaker 53-51 to Allen Iverson and the Georgetown Hoyas. Weber State's season had come to an end with a 21-9 record. WSU had won 21 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 11 years. The Weber State program was once again back in the national spotlight and four years later would win another NCAA Tournament game against another national powerhouse, North Carolina, to become the only team in NCAA Tournament history to win two games as a 14 seed.
