Weber State University Athletics
The Show and the Thrill: The 25th Anniversary of the 1999 Weber State men's basketball team
1/19/2024 12:39:00 PM | Men's Basketball
With players like Harold "The Show" Arceneaux and Eddie "The Thrill" Gill, Weber State won the 1999 Big Sky Championship and knocked off North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament.
From start to finish the 1998-99 season was like no other season in Weber State basketball history. Two new players and a memorable NCAA Tournament win would bring never before seen publicity to the Weber State program.
The 1998-99 season was Abegglen’s eighth season and final season at Weber State and his 36th as a head coach. Abegglen was all about one thing in his career: Winning. His coaching career took him from Morgan, to Ephraim, to Anchorage, to Ogden, and eventually to London. In all those years as a head coach at Morgan High School, Snow Junior College, Alaska-Anchorage and Weber State, he never had losing season.
Entering his final season as head coach of the Wildcats, Abegglen had already led Weber State to two Big Sky titles and one tournament title. He also guided the Wildcats to one of the most memorable wins in school history when Weber State defeated Michigan State in the first round of the 1995 NCAA Tournament and nearly beat Georgetown in the second round.
His 1998-99 squad boasted one of the strongest recruiting classes in recent history as Coach “A” and his staff added seven new players to the mix, two of them junior college All-Americans.
“We’ve had some solid teams the last couple of seasons, but lacked some real speed and quickness, especially in the backcourt,” Abegglen said at the time. “Our main emphasis in recruiting was to improve in that area and I believe we have found those players who will bring that added dimension to us.”
He was referring to two junior college players who would make an immediate impact for the Wildcats and go down as two of the best in school history. Harold Arceneaux, a 6-6 forward from New Orleans, and Eddie Gill, a 6-0 guard from Arvada., Colo., each earned Second Team Junior College All-American honors the previous season. Arceneaux was the MVP of his league in Texas while Gill was the MVP of the Scenic West Conference while playing at Salt Lake Community College.
Former Weber State player Guy Beach was instrumental in bringing Arceneaux and Gill to Weber State. Beach was entering his second season as an assistant coach under Coach Abegglen after serving as the head coach at the College of Eastern Utah where he coached Arceneaux and Gill along with current Wildcat Noel Jackson.
“Eddie was a real tough recruit because everyone was after him,” Coach Abegglen recalls. “He had terrific speed and was a great tough player on both ends of the floor.”
The two soon became legends in Ogden. WSU radio broadcaster Carl Arky tabbed them Harold “The Show” Arceneaux and Eddie “The Thrill” Gill and the nicknames stuck.
“I didn’t really have to think much about those nicknames because of the way they rhymed with their names but they really were the Show and the Thrill,” Arky recalled. “The names certainly fit.”
While Arceneaux and Gill grabbed the headlines, the Wildcat squad had several returning players that had contributed to the team that finished 12-4 and in second place in the Big Sky the previous season. Senior Damien Baskerville was back for his senior season with the Wildcats after earning first team All-Conference honors as a junior. He led the Wildcats in scoring in 1997-98 and proved to be one of the toughest players in the conference to defend.
Other returning players included senior center Andy Jensen who earned Honorable Mention All-Conference honors as a junior. Jensen was entering his fourth season in the Wildcat program and was the older brother of Alex Jensen who was a star forward for the national runner up, University of Utah Utes. Another big man returning for the Wildcats was Eric Ketcham who was also entering his fourth season at Weber State. Joey Haws was another four-year center returning for Weber State.
On the guard line Noel Jackson was back for his second season after playing two years at the College of Eastern Utah under Guy Beach. Marc Lawson, a senior guard from Erda, Utah, and Luke Condill, a sophomore guard from Crystal Lake, Illinois, and Fred Dawson, a junior forward from Hooper, Utah, also returned for the Wildcats.
Joining Arceneaux and Gill as newcomers were Dan Del Vecchio, a freshman forward from Rockford, Ill., Shawn Moore, a junior forward from North Ogden, Marc Thurig, a freshman center from Zurich, Switzerland, and Chris Woods, a freshman forward from East Chicago, Indiana.
“Coming into the year I just wanted to play basketball,” Arceneaux said. “I didn’t have any big expectations I just wanted to play. I played for Guy Beach in junior college and followed him to Weber State. Every time someone tried to recruit me out of junior college Guy would tell them I was going to Weber State even before I committed. That’s how I got to Weber State.”
The Wildcats kicked off the season with a win at Southern Utah and followed that up with a 83-80 home win over BYU. It marked the fourth straight season the Wildcats had defeated BYU at home. Coach Abegglen never lost to the Cougars in Ogden.
The Wildcats then fell 82-64 at UNLV but bounced back with a win over Boise State at home and then beat Rice in double overtime at a tournament in San Francisco. Arceneaux scored 34 points in the win over the Owls and was beginning to establish himself as a dominate force. He led the Wildcats in scoring in each of the first seven games. He would go on to lead the team in scoring in 18 of the first 20 games and in 27 of WSU’s 33 games that season.
The ‘Cats suffered losses at San Francisco and Utah before coming home for wins over Mesa State and Seattle. They then beat Utah State 82-72 in front of more than 12,000 fans at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. From there they hit the road for a memorable trip to Hawaii at the Pearl Harbor Classic in Laie, hosted by BYU-Hawaii. Weber State lost 84-80 in overtime to Alabama in the opening game of the tournament but bounced back with wins over Texas Tech and BYU-Hawaii. They ended 1998 with a 9-4 record heading into Big Sky play in 1999.
The Big Sky season didn’t start out as well as the ’Cats would have liked. They squeaked out an 81-76 win at Sacramento State in the conference opener on Jan. 2. Coach Abegglen remembers an incident before the game that impacted the result.
“I was in the locker room and one of my assistants came up to me and told me one of their big players fell into a mop that one of the custodians was using during warmups,” he said. “He slipped and hit his head on something and was out for about 30 seconds. He played, but didn’t play well. He was a 6-8 kid that could really play. If he had been healthy it could have been a different story.”
The ‘Cats were then blown out 82-59 at Portland State in a game where Coach Abegglen was ejected and not off to the start they were looking for.
However they would return to Ogden and get things going in a positive direction. They won three straight home games with wins over Montana State, Montana and Idaho State before heading back on the road for a memorable game at Eastern Washington.
The Wildcats and Eagles staged an epic game that went to four overtimes with the Wildcats pulling out a one point win. The game was tied at 61 at the end of regulation. Harold Arceneaux had 18 points in the 40 minutes of regulation. He would score 20 points in the 20 minutes of the overtimes.
Eddie Gill made a three-pointer at the end of the first overtime to send it to another one, tied at 74-74. In the second overtime Noel Jackson turned the ball over with six seconds left but Eastern Washington turned it over with three seconds left and it was time for the third overtime, tied at 82-82. Arceneaux took over in the third extra period, scoring eight of Weber State’s nine points and the score was tied 91-91 after three overtimes.
Weber State held a three-point lead with one minute to play in the fourth overtime but the Eagles scored a layup to cut the lead to one. Eric Ketchum was fouled with 16 seconds left and went to the free throw with the ‘Cats up one.
“We could have lost the game at regulation and each of the overtimes and we were able to win. In the fourth overtime Eric winked at me and Brad Larsen and then proceeded to miss the first free throw,” WSU radio announcer Carl Arky recalled. “That was one of the funniest things I’ve had happen to me in a game. He winked at us, like he was in control and then missed the free throws. It was a wild game. So many chances to lose but just kept it going. They couldn’t stop Harold.”
Ketchum missed the first free throw but made the second one to give Weber State a 100-98 lead with 16 seconds left. Eastern Washington’s Alex Carcamo made a jumper with nine seconds left to tie the game. But then, after Weber State inbounded the ball to Damien Baskerville, Carcamo inexplicably fouled Baskerville to send him to the line with four seconds left and the score tied.
“We got the ball out of bounds,” Abegglen remembered. “Damien Baskerville caught the ball just inside the midcourt line. Their guard came up and fouled him. He looked up at the scoreboard and fouled him because he thought they were down one. There was a light bulb that was out, or seemed to be out, that made it look like the score was different.”
Baskerville missed the first free throw but made the second to seal a wild 101-100 win for Weber State in four overtimes. Arceneaux finished with 38 points, with 20 coming in the four overtimes. The game had 32 lead changes and was tied 21 times. Eastern Washington’s largest lead was five points; Weber State’s largest lead was six points. It was one of three games in Weber State history to go to four overtimes. “I claim we won the Big Sky by a wet mop at Sacramento State and a burned out light bulb at Eastern Washington,” Abegglen said.
That game was followed up by a 78-68 loss at Cal State Northridge before WSU won games at Northern Arizona and home to Eastern Washington and Portland State. The ’Cats then suffered an 87-53 blowout loss at Montana and fell to 8-3 in league play. Weber State’s three conference losses that season were by an average margin of 22.7 points per game.
However, the ’Cats would not lose again in conference play. They won their last five regular season games to clinch the Big Sky title with an 11-3 record and the right to host the conference tournament. The honors started rolling in after the regular season. Coach Abegglen was honored as the Big Sky Coach of the Year. Arceneaux was named the Big Sky Most Valuable Player and Eddie Gill was named Big Sky Newcomer of the Year.
WSU beat Montana State 93-73 in the semifinals behind 22 points from Eddie Gill. That set up a title game with Northern Arizona for the right to head to the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats beat the Lumberjacks 82-75 behind 27 points from Harold Arceneaux. NAU was coached by former Weber State standout Ben Howland. With the win, the Wildcats were headed to the NCAA Tournament for the 12th time in school history.
Weber State also finished the year a perfect 14-0 at home, at the time tied for the best home record in school history and the ’Cats had lots of support at the Dee Events Center.
When Selection Sunday came Weber State was slotted as a 14 seed in the West Region of the Tournament, facing national powerhouse North Carolina in Seattle. The Tar Heels had advanced to the Final Four the previous year and would go there the next year as well.
Heading into the tournament Arceneaux and the Wildcats were just excited for the opportunity. “I was happy just to be a part of the tournament,” he recalled. “I had watched it on TV for years and was just excited to play. Going into the tournament we thought we were a very good team and people had overlooked us. We were really confident about our chances going in.”
The Wildcats liked the matchup and were confident going into the game.
“The matchup was a perfect setup for Harold and for Weber State,” recalled then WSU assistant coach Joe Cravens. “North Carolina came in and had no thoughts about us. They had been upset in the ACC Tournament and were coming all the way across country to Seattle. To say they were looking past us would be an understatement. And matchup-wise, they started a very big team going 7-0, 6-10, and the small forward was 6-9. They couldn’t match up with us. You can cause more matchup problems playing smaller than big. They tried to guard Harold with a guy who was 6-9 or 6-10. He earned all of that, don’t get me wrong, but everything worked perfectly in Harold’s and Weber State’s favor.”
“I remember sitting at the Dee Events Center when it was announced,” Larsen recalled. “We all kind of looked at each other and kind of had the feeling that we’ve been there before.”
“We knew we had a good ball club,” Abegglen said. “We had game film on them and they didn’t have game film on us. We decided to run our crutch play to get the ball to Harold. We felt like they were too slow to guard him. They tried two or three guys on him but there was no one that could really guard him. Anytime they left Lawson or Gill or someone else to guard Harold, those guys would step up and play. Andy Jensen played their big guy as tough as could be.”
“I remember going to the practices before the game and looking and North Carolina and then looking at us,” Arky recalled. “I was in such a state of shock when we came out and were not only playing with them, but beating them.”
The two teams met in the final game of the night on Thursday, March 11, 1999, at Key Arena in Seattle. Weber State jumped out to an early 16-10 lead and Arceneaux and Gill really got going in the first half. Weber State led by as many as seven points at 24-17 with 6:17 to play but the Tar Heels narrowed the lead to two points at 35-33 at halftime. Arceneaux had 16 points with three three-pointers in the first half and Gill added nine points.
The Wildcats never trailed in the second half and built the lead to as many as 11 points after an Eric Ketcham three-pointer with 8:35 to play. The Tar Heels had no answer for Arceneaux. “Harold got going early in that game and his confidence grew and grew,” Cravens remembered. “They switched their lineup to try and guard him with a smaller guy but by then it was too late. He had just gotten in a zone.”
Larsen recalls sitting by CBS Sports broadcaster Kevin Harlan during the game as he was going crazy about Arceneaux during the telecast. The “Show” was dominating the second half against the national powerhouse. He had 16 points in a nine minute stretch midway through the second half and gave Weber State a 10 point lead at 64-54 with 4:02 to play. His layup with 2:00 left gave him 34 points and gave WSU a seven point lead at 68-61.
“Down the stretch during a timeout Guy Beach pulled me over and said, ‘we can win this game, you just have to finish strong,” Arceneaux recalled. “I was just thinking about finishing strong the rest of the game. Finish strong, finish strong, finish strong. I’m one of those players that once I get in a groove it’s hard to maintain me because I get focused. It was just one of those nights that I got in the groove and got focused. When I got focused I didn’t see anything but the basket.”
But North Carolina wasn’t giving up yet. The Tar Heels went on a 7-2 run and cut the lead to two points with 31 seconds left after a three-pointer from Ademola Okulaja.
After two free throws by Gill, UNC’s Max Owens made a three-pointer with 23 seconds left to cut the lead to 72-71. Noel Jackson made one free throw, followed by one free throw by Vasco Evtimov and the Wildcats held a 73-72 lead with 15 seconds left. Arceneaux then knocked down two free throws to give WSU a three-point lead with 13 seconds to play.
The Tar Heels inbounded the ball and went down the floor but Max Owens threw the ball away with eight seconds left and the Wildcat bench was erupting. But it wasn’t over for Weber State just yet. Ketcham tried to fake out the Tar Heels on the inbound pass but his pass was intercepted by Ed Cota who drove in for layup to cut the lead to 75-74 with four seconds left. Weber State inbounded the ball to Noel Jackson who missed the first free throw but made the second with 1.2 seconds left. The Tar Heels inbound pass was intercepted at midcourt by none other than Harold Arceneaux and the Wildcats had pulled off the incredible upset.
Weber State won the game 76-74. Arceneaux finished with 36 points and was 14 of 26 from the field, including 5 of 7 from three-point range. “The final moments after I caught the ball and threw it up in the air, the reality sunk in that we had won,” he recalled. Gill added 16 points, Marc Lawson had eight and Noel Jackson added seven. WSU center Andy Jensen did not score but did a great job of holding North Carolina center Brendan Haywood to just one point on the night.
The Wildcats became one of the darlings of the nation once again. Weber State had pulled off an upset as a 14 seed for the second time in four years. The Wildcats were getting lots of national attention and Harold Arceneaux became a national name. After the win the national media descended on Weber State.
“It’s probably the biggest and most well-known win in school history,” Larsen remembered. “The next morning I had something like 42 messages from media people trying to interview Harold. We spent about three hours after our practice taking Harold around to various media interviews. He was really good to talk and joke about it all. It was nice to be the darlings again.”
“We went out and partied until about three o’clock in the morning,” Arky remembered. “We just kept watching SportsCenter every half hour so we could see our highlights and cheer again. We were getting so much attention and publicity.”
“That night they had to bring security to my room,” Arceneaux recalled. “Coach Abegglen did that because all these people were calling my phone and wanted interviews. The next day a lot of writers and agents were declaring me to go pro. It was pretty crazy.”
Weber State was getting attention across the country. Fans from Duke University even got in on the act and bought as much Weber State merchandise as they could get a hold of, just to rub it in to their North Carolina rivals. As much as they enjoyed the national spotlight, Abegglen and the Wildcats still had work to do as they would face sixth-seeded Florida in the second round. Abegglen didn’t like the distractions and just wanted to focus on getting ready for the Gators.
“I think we would have beaten Florida if people had left us alone,” he recalled. “We couldn’t get any rest or any privacy. After we won we went over to Seattle University to practice. I thought it was secluded and no one knew about it but the media showed up. I had to run ESPN out of the dressing room before the game with Florida. I had to get mean to get them away from us. Everyone in the nation wanted to talk to Harold and Eddie. It was a great thing but at the time we had to go to work. The coaching staff stayed up until 3 a.m. watching Florida film so we were ready for practice. Our players didn’t get any sleep and we couldn’t hide them. If I had to do it again I would have moved to Portland or somewhere just to get away.”
“The two days after the game were very hectic and chaotic,” Arky remembered. “I had to do my pregame interview for the Florida game with Coach Abegglen in a car driven by Dutch Belnap. He didn’t know where he was even going and it was pretty crazy but that was the only time I could interview him, it was just such a hectic couple of days.”
The Wildcats took on the Gators on the afternoon of March 13, 1999. Coached by Billy Donovan, the Gators were 21-8 on the year. They jumped out to a quick 13-6 lead just over four minutes into the game and led by six points at 26-20 with 7:09 to play in the first half. The Wildcats came back with a 10-4 run behind seven points from Arceneaux and tied the game at 30-30 with 4:12 to go in the half. Florida led 35-32 but the Wildcats scored the last eight points of the half and took a 40-35 lead at halftime.
Arceneaux was lighting up the scoreboard once again. He had 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting in the first half but was getting worn down by the Gators. “A lot of people thought the North Carolina game was a fluke and that we got lucky to win,” he recalled. “I think Florida felt that way too coming into the game until we got out there and they saw that we could really play. I just remember getting so tired at the end of the game. I was really fatigued.”
The Gators started the second half on a 12-3 run and took a 47-43 lead with 15:25 to play. Weber State came back with five straight points and tied it again. The Gators took a 60-55 lead with 7:46 to play but Arceneaux responded with a layup and a three-pointer to tie the game at 60-60 with 5:08 remaining. The Wildcats took the lead at 66-64 with 2:13 left after an Arceneaux jumper as the shot clock expired.
A Teddy Dupay three-pointer and then a Florida free throw gave the Gators a 68-66 lead with 27 seconds left. Noel Jackson was fouled shooting a three-pointer with 8.2 seconds left. He made the first one, then missed the second and made the third to tie the game at 68-68 and send it to overtime.
Florida quickly scored two buckets to start the overtime and never trailed again. They jumped out to a six-point lead with 2:00 to play. A three-pointer by Gill cut the lead to two with 49 seconds to play but The Gators were 6 of 8 from the free throw line down the stretch and sealed the 82-74 victory.
Arceneaux finished with 32 points and had nine rebounds but had just 11 points in the second half and overtime. Gill added 19 points with five assists and four steals. Greg Stolt led Florida with 26 points while Dupay had 14. Mike Miller had eight and Udonis Haslem added six off the bench. The Gators shot 45 percent from the field and held Weber State to just 27 percent shooting.
And with that, one of the most remarkable and memorable seasons in Weber State history came to an end. The Wildcats finished the year 25-8 and were 13-3 in Big Sky play.
Coach Abegglen ended his eight year career at Weber State, posting a 152-83 record and leading the Wildcats to three Big Sky titles and two NCAA Tournament victories. After leaving Weber State he coached for two seasons for the London Towers of the British Basketball League. He then returned to Utah and retired as coaching. He worked as a golf professional at Paradise Golf Course in Fillmore, Utah.
He was inducted into the Weber State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
Abegglen passed away in December 2018 at the age of 81.
Arceneaux finished the season averaging 22.3 points per game and 6.0 rebounds a game. Gill averaged 14 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game. The two would come back for their senior seasons with Cravens as the new head coach. Arceneaux repeated as Big Sky MVP as a senior in 1999-2000 as the Wildcats finished 18-10 overall and 10-6 in the Big Sky. He scored 40 points in a game twice during the season. Arceneaux is WSU’s career leader in scoring average at 22.6 points per game. He went on to play professional basketball all over the world.
Gill finished his two-year career with 919 points in 61 games with the Wildcats. In February 2000, he posted a triple double in a win over Montana State, the final game he would play at the Dee Events Center. He finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists in the win over the Bobcats. It was just the second triple-double in Weber State history, joining Alan Campbell who recorded the feat in 1985 against BYU. Gill earned First Team All-Big Sky honors each of his two seasons with the Wildcats and still ranks as WSU’s career leader in steals with 178, 13th best in Big Sky history. Gill ranks third in school history in career assists and is eighth in Big Sky history in career free throw percentage.
Following his Weber State days, Gill went on to have a long professional basketball career, spending seven seasons playing in the NBA. He appeared in 187 career NBA games, the second most of any player from Weber State, and played for New Jersey, Memphis, Portland, Indiana, Seattle, Toronto and Milwaukee. He started in nine NBA games and scored 571 points and had 217 assists. While playing for the Nets, Gill recorded the eight millionth point in NBA history in a game against Boston in April 2001. He also played professionally in the NBDL, IBL, USBL and in Greece and Italy.
In 2014, Arceneaux and Gill were both inducted into the Weber State Athletics Hall of Fame.
