Eastern Michigan Athletics
A Walk Through History: Boykins, Tolbert, Dial Powered Breakthrough 1995-96 Season
4/2/2026 9:58:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By T.C. Cameron
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) -- After three consecutive pedestrian seasons, the 1995-96 Eagles owned a guard trio unlike any in college basketball with Brian Tolbert, Earl Boykins and Derrick Dial. Western Michigan coach Bob Donewald called them "the best guard combination in any league in the Midwest."
The Eagles owned significant depth on their back line too, with centers and forwards who could defend the rim, get down the floor, and finish with authority.
"I was always amazed how slow the big-name schools played, because their bigs couldn't get up and down the floor," Tolbert said. "We had an advantage over most of the schools we played because our forwards and bigs were almost as fast as our guards."
The coaching staff scheduled a half-dozen games during the non-conference portion of the schedule that any Power Four school would think twice about playing. Much of the regional and national media downplays mid-major basketball, but coaches and players in the collegiate and professional game knew the Mid-American Conference was a Top 10 league among the 33 Division I conferences that received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
"Our non-conference schedule had to be so challenging; nothing would seem difficult in the MAC season," assistant coach Gary Waters said, "because there were at least five schools in the MAC with multiple NBA players on their roster."
Next, head coach Ben Braun made a declaration in the middle of an early-season practice that changed the tenor of the entire season.
"I told the team, 'If Earl beats you down the floor, he can take any shot he wants, and trust me, getting down the floor was never a problem again," Braun said.
The first test of the season came at Cleveland's new Gund Arena (now Rocket Arena) in a doubleheader with Miami of Ohio. EMU ran a stunned St. Bonaventure squad off the floor in an 83-63 win, punctuated by an unforgettable dunk by Torrey Mills from the right side on a fast break that sent fans from both teams into a frenzy.
The game was a homecoming for Earl Boykins, and several hundred Clevelanders came to see their former star deliver a double-double with 18 points and 11 assists.
EMU's victory was Braun's 162nd win at Eastern, pushing him past Elton Rynearson as Eastern's all-time winningest coach. If there's a Mt. Rushmore of Eastern Michigan coaches, Rynearson is the first coach on the mountain, and Braun's accomplishments put him there, too.
Returning to Bowen Field House, Eastern ran Montana State — the Big Sky regular season and tournament champions — out of the gym in an easy 95-71 victory.
The next test was a road game at Rutgers, then a member of the highly-regarded Big East. On the bus ride to the arena, Braun summoned Tolbert to the front of the bus and showed him a local news article describing Eastern as a "docile" opponent.
"Coach Braun challenged me to make sure our boys had an answer for that disrespect," Tolbert remembers.
Eastern came from six down at half to take a 64-58 lead, but the tenor of the game soon changed when Tolbert, who had scored 14 in the first half, picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench. Rutgers held Eastern scoreless for seven minutes, coming back to take a 71-69 lead.
Tolbert returned and quickly picked up his fifth foul. Despite fouling out, Tolbert had notched his 10th consecutive double-double, a remarkable run of consistent output for any college player. It would be Dial who saved the Eagles with a pair of jumpers, one with 1:20 left to tie the score at 71, and a 10-footer with 13.6 seconds remaining to give EMU the lead. The Eagles held on for a 74-71 win.
"We took home a check for either $50,000 or $75,000," Braun said, "and when you win those games, you don't often get asked back."
The upset of the season, perhaps in all of college basketball, occurred two days after Christmas, in a game that wouldn't't gain national media attention for another six weeks. Facing four future NBA players (Jason Sasser, Cory Carr, Marvin Ham, and Tony Battie), an undaunted EMU ran Texas Tech off the floor, 93-77, in the first game of the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) Holiday Tournament.
"That game was a real awakening for our guys," said Todd Beeten, "because we realized 'They're not better than us, and we should fear no one.'"
The win drew no attention outside of Ypsilanti. The Detroit dailies and the Ann Arbor News did not staff the game, and because neither team was ranked, there was no wire-service recap.
It would not be until mid-February, when Texas Tech punched through the Associated Press Top 10, that the national media covering college basketball finally noticed the Red Raiders' only loss amid 23 straight wins was to Eastern Michigan, the school leading the Mid-American Conference.
Texas Tech would win the Southwest Conference regular season with a 14-0 record and postseason title and reach the "Sweet 16" before falling to Big East champion Georgetown. EMU was Tech's other loss during an otherwise incredible 30-2 season.
Finishing the non-conference schedule with an underwhelming 80-73 loss to UTEP the following night, the bigger mission had been accomplished. Eastern stared down a healthy handful of difficult games, winning seven of eight.
Author T.C. Cameron is a 1995 graduate of Eastern Michigan University. As EMU's preeminent athletics historian, he has crafted the definitive record of the people and moments that have shaped EMU athletics over the past 50 years. A native of Royal Oak, MI, Cameron now lives in Lowes Island, Va., after 16 years in Annapolis, Md.
