Eastern Michigan Athletics
Last Dance for Eastern Michigan: MAC Daddies
3/31/2021 10:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Men's Basketball Sweet 16 Series told by T.C. Cameron
As the 1990-91 Mid-American Conference season opened, no school faced a more daunting task on opening night than Eastern Michigan, who traveled to Ball State, the defending league champion. The Cardinals advanced to the previous year's "Sweet 16," having come within an eyelash of upsetting No. 1 UNLV in their NCAA regional semifinal.
The MAC was a different league in 1990 BC, which stands for Before Contracted television. Today, schools produce games, which are broadcast on the ESPN family of channels and CBS. Just about any MAC football or basketball games are available for a few dollars per month.
In 1990, MAC basketball was played just two days a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. All game days were league doubleheaders. On Wednesdays, the women played first, starting between five and six p.m.; the men followed 30 minutes after the conclusion of that game. Almost all Saturday games were noon tip-offs for the women, with the men's game to follow.
No matter where or when you played, there was no television. Ever. That made every Wednesday and Saturday feel like election night. Results rolled in from the various precincts twice a week, and you can imagine the eyebrows raised around the MAC when the then-Hurons posted a 68-59 victory in Muncie, Indiana.
Next, Eastern downed Miami, Western Michigan and Ohio to reach 4-0, before meeting Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant. With EMU leading, 63-61, the game came down to the last possession, with CMU inbounding the ball. Everyone in the building knew the final shot would be taken by Sean Waters, the Chippewas' best player and son of EMU's Gary Waters.
"Sean didn't like contact, so in the huddle, I told Lorenzo Neely to be as much as a pest as he could be. Lorenzo didn't just bother him, he hammered him, but the officials didn't call it so we won," Waters said. "Before the game, my wife told reporters she wanted EMU to win, but after the game, Bernadette was furious. Never doubt a mother's love."
No Eastern fan could have imagined a better start: 5-0 in the league, with wins over the defending MAC champs, plus in-state rivals WMU and CMU. Next was a Saturday afternoon showdown at Bowen Field House with Bowling Green. The day before the game, the Eastern Echo published an ad purchased by Tommy Chicarelli on behalf of the Spaghetti Bender that read: "Bring flowers for Bowling Green…we're going to bury them!"
The first half of the game felt like a funeral. Eastern struggled to keep pace with the Falcons, who led 44-27 at the half after shooting 19 of 28 from the field (67.8%).
But just like the Michigan game, EMU started chipping away at the big deficit, and no one took it upon themselves to rally Eastern from the edge of the grave more than Neely. He knocked down six shots — including a pair of three's — and eight free throws to give him 22 for the half and 28 for the game.
With a little more than five minutes left, a Roger Lewis lay-up tied the game, before Charles Thomas converted a steal into a fast break dunk to give Eastern their first lead. The field house was roaring, and even though BG re-took the lead a minute later, EMU refused to lose. Neely's triple just in front of the four-minute mark gave the then-Hurons the lead for good, and Eastern's energy overwhelmed BGSU down the stretch in a 73-68 win.
"When you're down that much at halftime, you have to play to near-perfection to win, and all your opponent has to do is make a few plays here and there," Miller said. "When BG fell apart and we roared back, they never recovered, in that game, and for the rest of the season, too."
The victory was part of a win streak that reached 10 games, dating from Dec. 22, 1990 to Jan. 30, 1991, until Kent State scored an 81-74 win at Bowen. That loss occurred the same day the Board of Regents voted unanimously for EMU to drop the Huron nickname and logo.
"Coaches don't really care what the nickname is — they're trying to win games," Head Coach Ben Braun said. "It's hard to win in the MAC — you recruit the same players, everyone knows your strengths and weaknesses, most games are close — so any distraction has big impact on your chances to win."
This was a distraction no one saw coming. There had been little public discussion, or preparing the ground, for this decision. The Echo ran the banner headline "GOODBYE HURONS" and as news of the decision spread, it was almost universally unpopular among students, alumni, and fans. It created yet another dynamic wrinkle to the school year and the season.
It was the lone rough patch of the season, as EMU dropped three of four, including losses at Miami and Ohio on consecutive Saturdays.
The cure to what ailed Eastern came from a pair of rivalry games. Eastern blew out CMU at Bowen, 94-58, then went on the road and defeated Bowling Green, 76-65, before earning two more wins, against Chicago State and Toledo.
Sweeping in-state rivals Central Michigan and Western Michigan, and preseason favorite Bowling Green, was a great accomplishment, but there was so much more to achieve, or lose.
EMU had reached the crossroads and the final week of the season, when the fate of the MAC regular season and tournament titles, and the league's automatic NCAA bid, would be decided in a span of five games over 12 days.
— 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.
