Eastern Michigan Athletics
This Day in HistorE: EMU 92, Wisconsin 76
12/10/2019 6:11:00 PM | Men's Basketball, General
Author T.C. Cameron tells tales from EMU Basketball's Past
Ben Braun describes it as the most surreal 20 minutes of his career. Stan Van Gundy, who spent just one season at Wisconsin, blamed his assistant coach for allowing it to happen.
Of Eastern Michigan's 1,310 basketball victories, Dec. 10, 1994 will never be forgotten by anyone who watched it live. EMU obliterated No. 14 Wisconsin, 92-76, and what makes this game special is the way Eastern strangled the life out of the Badgers, at one point holding a 35-point lead in the first half.
It kickstarted an unprecedented era of success for Eastern basketball, and that's why this victory, among all others, is the greatest in program history.
EMU hosting a ranked Big Ten at Bowen Field House, easily the most utilitarian facility in the country, was surprising enough. Watching a brand-name program get knocked senseless by a mid-major school led by a 5-foot-5 freshman playing just his fourth college game? Shocking.
By the way, that freshman's name was Earl Boykins.
The confluence of events that made this night possible starts in June 1993, when, just days apart, Washington State and Wisconsin offered a home-and-home contract. Realizing the opportunity to get a PAC-12 and Big 10 team to visit Ypsilanti was rare, Braun took a chance.
"Usually, you have to get play two there to get one here, so that was unique right there, but you also run the risk of getting cancelled on the back end," Braun said. "The standard buyout fee back then was something around $5,000, so we snuck an extra zero in to make it more difficult to get out of the game."
The ploy worked. Signed contracts were returned, and EMU went out to Pullman, Washington and Madison, Wisconsin on back-to-back weekends in December 1993. The Eagles lost both games; neither contest was close.
But in June of 1994, the moment to change everything for Eastern took place at Bowen on a warm, summer night. EMU and Michigan were playing a pick-up scrimmage. Boykins, who came to the gym to get some shots, walked in and asked assistant coach Brian Miller if he could play, too.
Slipping inside a pair of shorts and a practice jersey, he looked like a middle schooler. Michigan's lettermen greeted him with snickers and giggles.
"Hey, check out shorty! Like, shorty for real!"
Boykins stepped onto the floor and someone cracked, "Yo! Who's checkin' the midget?!"
Boykins took the ball for the first time and another not-so-subtle jab was delivered: "You sure you old enough to be out here, little man?"
"That night was pretty typical — once I heard someone say something about my height, I knew it was over," Boykins said. "They weren't prepared for what I could do."
Immediately, Boykins danced, then darted past his taller, Big 10 opponents, leading Eastern to an uncontested dunk. After another rebound, Boykins led a 3-on-1 fast break and another easy basket. Quickly realizing their new teammate's unique talents, the Eagles found Boykins after every rebound and Eastern racked up score after score.
The game was over in a few minutes and Miller, who watched from a distance, couldn't stop laughing.
"We knew he was a competitor," Miller said, "but you watched that and realized we had a weapon no one could defend."
The season opened with a 10-point win over St. Joseph's (IN), and a narrow, 82-78 win over Washington State at Bowen. With 21 points, Boykins shared game-high scoring honors with Brian Tolbert, and asserted himself as the team's leader, too. During a timeout, Kareem Carpenter screamed at Boykins, "Pass me the damn ball!" Boykins replied, "If you ever talk to me like that again, you'll never see the ball."
Stunned, Carpenter looked at Miller, who shrugged and asked, "What do you want me to do? It's his team now."
Now No. 14 Wisconsin visited. The Badgers featured All-American candidates Michael Finley, universally considered to be an NBA lottery pick, and Rashard Griffith, a towering, 7-foot, 280-pound sophomore who led the Big Ten in rebounds and blocked shots the year before.
The bleachers started filling an hour before tip-off, and were full before Eastern came on the floor for warm-ups. The buzz was about the mighty mite EMU students quickly nicknamed "Earl the Squirrel."
At tip-off, a tradition introduced by former EMU athletic director Tim Weiser took off like a wildfire. EMU's students stood and clapped through every opponent possession until they scored their first basket, but when Wisconsin scored quickly, the students refused to sit. They continued on, disrupting every Badger possession.
The Badgers also thought they could double and triple-team Boykins in the backcourt. It was a huge mistake.
"I took it as a sign of disrespect; no one could trap or press me," Boykins said. "We didn't even have a press-breaker. Coach Braun would say, 'Earl, go get the ball and bring it up the court.'"
Eastern took an early lead, 8-2, and it was 20-4, when Wisconsin called their first timeout with 11:48 to go. At 9:38, Van Gundy called another timeout, and it was 29-4. Before the Eagles got to the bench, Braun looked at Miller and asked, "Is that score right?"
In a span of 4:53, Eastern turned an 12-4 lead into a 35-7 cushion thanks to five 3s, a 23-3 run. Just like the summer scrimmage with Michigan, no matter how many timeouts or substitutions occurred, the slaughter continued. The lead bloated to 35 points in the final minute of the half, Braun describing the atmosphere as, "the single loudest crowd we ever had."
At halftime, it was EMU 50, Wisconsin 17.
"Walking into the locker room, I didn't have anything to gripe about," Braun said. "I picked up the marker, paused, and put it back down and said, 'Just don't let up!'"
In the second half, the Badgers rallied for 59 points, 33 coming from Finley, but the 20-point barrier remained in tact. Tolbert led EMU with 26 points, while Kareem Carpenter had 21. Derrick Dial and Boykins each had 14.
Finley scored a game-high 42 points, but no other Badger reached double-digits. Wisconsin couldn't solve Carpenter's presence on the glass, either; 13 of his 18 rebounds came on the defensive end. Theron Wilson pulled down seven rebounds and blocked six shots, too.
"Finley put on a show in that second half. That was the first time I ever saw someone who was different than everyone else out on the floor," Boykins said. "I saw him in the NBA and the first thing he said was, 'I still can't believe you guys blew us out like that.'"
Multiple attempts to contact Van Gundy for this story were unsuccessful. Boykins isn't surprised, based on a conversation he had that night with Shawn Hood, a former Cleveland State player working his first season as an assistant at Wisconsin.
"Van Gundy had seen us talking before the game, and when it was over, Shawn told me, 'Earl, you got me in trouble,'" Boykins said. "Van Gundy chewed him out, telling him, 'Boykins is better than anyone we have on our team — you should have tried to recruit him for us!'"
What followed was four-straight seasons with 20 or more wins. Eastern went to four straight MAC tournament finals — still a record — and made the NCAA tournament twice. During the four years after Washington State and Wisconsin, EMU defeated teams from Rutgers, Texas Tech, Syracuse, Michigan and Duke — the first school to eliminate the Blue Devils in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 41 years.
Eastern won 87 of 123 games over four seasons, a .707 winning percentage. It's an unparalleled era of success in EMU basketball history.
"It's hard to even describe how important that game was for the confidence of our program," Braun said. "I've never seen anything like it, either."
— T.C. Cameron is the author of Miracle Maples (2019) and Navy Football: Return to Glory (2017). A 1995 graduate of EMU, he's lived in Annapolis, MD since 2009. Follow him on Twitter: @ByTCCameron
Of Eastern Michigan's 1,310 basketball victories, Dec. 10, 1994 will never be forgotten by anyone who watched it live. EMU obliterated No. 14 Wisconsin, 92-76, and what makes this game special is the way Eastern strangled the life out of the Badgers, at one point holding a 35-point lead in the first half.
It kickstarted an unprecedented era of success for Eastern basketball, and that's why this victory, among all others, is the greatest in program history.
EMU hosting a ranked Big Ten at Bowen Field House, easily the most utilitarian facility in the country, was surprising enough. Watching a brand-name program get knocked senseless by a mid-major school led by a 5-foot-5 freshman playing just his fourth college game? Shocking.
By the way, that freshman's name was Earl Boykins.
The confluence of events that made this night possible starts in June 1993, when, just days apart, Washington State and Wisconsin offered a home-and-home contract. Realizing the opportunity to get a PAC-12 and Big 10 team to visit Ypsilanti was rare, Braun took a chance.
"Usually, you have to get play two there to get one here, so that was unique right there, but you also run the risk of getting cancelled on the back end," Braun said. "The standard buyout fee back then was something around $5,000, so we snuck an extra zero in to make it more difficult to get out of the game."
The ploy worked. Signed contracts were returned, and EMU went out to Pullman, Washington and Madison, Wisconsin on back-to-back weekends in December 1993. The Eagles lost both games; neither contest was close.
But in June of 1994, the moment to change everything for Eastern took place at Bowen on a warm, summer night. EMU and Michigan were playing a pick-up scrimmage. Boykins, who came to the gym to get some shots, walked in and asked assistant coach Brian Miller if he could play, too.
Slipping inside a pair of shorts and a practice jersey, he looked like a middle schooler. Michigan's lettermen greeted him with snickers and giggles.
"Hey, check out shorty! Like, shorty for real!"
Boykins stepped onto the floor and someone cracked, "Yo! Who's checkin' the midget?!"
Boykins took the ball for the first time and another not-so-subtle jab was delivered: "You sure you old enough to be out here, little man?"
"That night was pretty typical — once I heard someone say something about my height, I knew it was over," Boykins said. "They weren't prepared for what I could do."
Immediately, Boykins danced, then darted past his taller, Big 10 opponents, leading Eastern to an uncontested dunk. After another rebound, Boykins led a 3-on-1 fast break and another easy basket. Quickly realizing their new teammate's unique talents, the Eagles found Boykins after every rebound and Eastern racked up score after score.
The game was over in a few minutes and Miller, who watched from a distance, couldn't stop laughing.
"We knew he was a competitor," Miller said, "but you watched that and realized we had a weapon no one could defend."
The season opened with a 10-point win over St. Joseph's (IN), and a narrow, 82-78 win over Washington State at Bowen. With 21 points, Boykins shared game-high scoring honors with Brian Tolbert, and asserted himself as the team's leader, too. During a timeout, Kareem Carpenter screamed at Boykins, "Pass me the damn ball!" Boykins replied, "If you ever talk to me like that again, you'll never see the ball."
Stunned, Carpenter looked at Miller, who shrugged and asked, "What do you want me to do? It's his team now."
Now No. 14 Wisconsin visited. The Badgers featured All-American candidates Michael Finley, universally considered to be an NBA lottery pick, and Rashard Griffith, a towering, 7-foot, 280-pound sophomore who led the Big Ten in rebounds and blocked shots the year before.
The bleachers started filling an hour before tip-off, and were full before Eastern came on the floor for warm-ups. The buzz was about the mighty mite EMU students quickly nicknamed "Earl the Squirrel."
At tip-off, a tradition introduced by former EMU athletic director Tim Weiser took off like a wildfire. EMU's students stood and clapped through every opponent possession until they scored their first basket, but when Wisconsin scored quickly, the students refused to sit. They continued on, disrupting every Badger possession.
The Badgers also thought they could double and triple-team Boykins in the backcourt. It was a huge mistake.
"I took it as a sign of disrespect; no one could trap or press me," Boykins said. "We didn't even have a press-breaker. Coach Braun would say, 'Earl, go get the ball and bring it up the court.'"
Eastern took an early lead, 8-2, and it was 20-4, when Wisconsin called their first timeout with 11:48 to go. At 9:38, Van Gundy called another timeout, and it was 29-4. Before the Eagles got to the bench, Braun looked at Miller and asked, "Is that score right?"
In a span of 4:53, Eastern turned an 12-4 lead into a 35-7 cushion thanks to five 3s, a 23-3 run. Just like the summer scrimmage with Michigan, no matter how many timeouts or substitutions occurred, the slaughter continued. The lead bloated to 35 points in the final minute of the half, Braun describing the atmosphere as, "the single loudest crowd we ever had."
At halftime, it was EMU 50, Wisconsin 17.
"Walking into the locker room, I didn't have anything to gripe about," Braun said. "I picked up the marker, paused, and put it back down and said, 'Just don't let up!'"
In the second half, the Badgers rallied for 59 points, 33 coming from Finley, but the 20-point barrier remained in tact. Tolbert led EMU with 26 points, while Kareem Carpenter had 21. Derrick Dial and Boykins each had 14.
Finley scored a game-high 42 points, but no other Badger reached double-digits. Wisconsin couldn't solve Carpenter's presence on the glass, either; 13 of his 18 rebounds came on the defensive end. Theron Wilson pulled down seven rebounds and blocked six shots, too.
"Finley put on a show in that second half. That was the first time I ever saw someone who was different than everyone else out on the floor," Boykins said. "I saw him in the NBA and the first thing he said was, 'I still can't believe you guys blew us out like that.'"
Multiple attempts to contact Van Gundy for this story were unsuccessful. Boykins isn't surprised, based on a conversation he had that night with Shawn Hood, a former Cleveland State player working his first season as an assistant at Wisconsin.
"Van Gundy had seen us talking before the game, and when it was over, Shawn told me, 'Earl, you got me in trouble,'" Boykins said. "Van Gundy chewed him out, telling him, 'Boykins is better than anyone we have on our team — you should have tried to recruit him for us!'"
What followed was four-straight seasons with 20 or more wins. Eastern went to four straight MAC tournament finals — still a record — and made the NCAA tournament twice. During the four years after Washington State and Wisconsin, EMU defeated teams from Rutgers, Texas Tech, Syracuse, Michigan and Duke — the first school to eliminate the Blue Devils in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 41 years.
Eastern won 87 of 123 games over four seasons, a .707 winning percentage. It's an unparalleled era of success in EMU basketball history.
"It's hard to even describe how important that game was for the confidence of our program," Braun said. "I've never seen anything like it, either."
— T.C. Cameron is the author of Miracle Maples (2019) and Navy Football: Return to Glory (2017). A 1995 graduate of EMU, he's lived in Annapolis, MD since 2009. Follow him on Twitter: @ByTCCameron
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