Eastern Michigan Athletics
A Walk Through History: Epilogue
4/6/2026 9:58:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By T.C.Cameron
A few days following the 1996 Mid-American Conference Tournament, Kent State fired Dave Grube. Just two years earlier, Grube and Ben Braun had both shown up at Cleveland Catholic Central to sign Boykins, and the quote between them was, "Either one of us look brilliant, or one of us will be fired."
Gary Waters took over at Kent State three weeks later, and lead the Golden Flashes to 92 wins, MAC titles in 1999 and 2001, and a 77-73 win over Indiana in the first-round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament. He coached at Rutgers (2001-06), Cleveland State (2006-2017) and was inducted into Kent State's Hall of Fame in 2006.
Waters and his wife, Bernadette, live in Tampa. His son, Sean, is Athletic Director at Southfield Christian High School, while daughter, Seena — a former EMU basketball player — is now a Realtor in Tampa.
In September, Braun was announced as new head coach at University of California-Berkeley, where ge coached until 2008, making five NCAA Tournament appearances and winning the NIT in 1999. He won 219 games at Cal, in addition to 185 wins at EMU, and another 63 wins at Rice from 2008-2014.
Braun was named to the EMU Hall of Fame in 2005; his induction celebration was hosted on a night EMU hosted Braun's Cal Bears, and Eastern won the game, 67-65, after a furious rally in the last minute of the game.
"I was treated to a dose of what our EMU teams did to so many other schools," Braun said, "and that was a Cal team that made the NCAA Tournament, too."
The court at the George Gervin GameAbove Center was named for Braun in 2023. Married with two children, he lives in Berkeley and calls men's basketball games in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West footprint for ESPN.
Assistant coach Brian Miller lives in Sylvania, Ohio with his wife. After EMU, he served as Athletic Director at University of Detroit-Jesuit High School and Toledo St. John's. In a great irony to anyone who remembers him on the EMU bench, Miller occasionally officiates high school basketball in Ohio and the southeastern corner of Michigan.
Athletic Director Tim Weiser named Milton Barnes as Braun's replacement. Weiser came to Eastern in the summer of 1993, inheriting a football program which won just six of their their last 33 games dating back to 1990. He won over the EMU community with his calm, reasoned response to the daily stresses of the job, balancing a business-like attitude with a folksy, midwestern demeanor.
Weiser left EMU in 1997 for Colorado State, then Kansas State, and spent 16 years as Deputy Commissioner for the Big 12. Weiser retired from college athletics in 2024.
Lee Reed spent seven years at EMU, starting in EMU's Athletics and Marketing office before pivoting during the 1995-96 season to be an Special Assistant to University President William Shelton.
"A large part of my Eastern experience has shaped my tenure at Georgetown," Reed said. "We had elite athletes, coaches and administrators, and we were committed to what we could do for Eastern, more than what Eastern could do for us, and that's the mentality it takes to win."
Athletic Director at Georgetown since 2010, Reed participated in the re-constitution of the Big East in 2013, when the seven Catholic schools broke away to form a new, basketball-only conference, forgoing an owed $70 million in exchange for the Big East's trademarked name and the conference's tournament contract to play at New York City's Madison Square Garden. He also negotiated multi-media rights deals in 2015 and 2024 while overseeing Georgetown's 45 conference titles and eight NCAA championships.
After graduating and ending up fourth in career scoring at EMU with 1,726 points — behind only Kennedy McIntosh, Boykins and Dial — Brian Tolbert played one season in Australia and 14 more seasons in Europe.
He won two championships professionally, with Saporta Cup in 2001-02 season and the Israeli Cup in 2008, when his 3 at the buzzer won the title. Tolbert was inducted into EMU's Hall of Fame in 2012. Tolbert owns a power washing business and lives outside of Houston in Missouri City, Texas, with his wife Michelle, who he met in while playing professionally. Tolbert has three children, two daughters and a son.
Theron Wilson left Eastern as the school's all-time leader in blocked shots with 257. He owns the Bowen Field House record for blocked shots in a career, season and game, and also holds three of the four top single-season records for blocked shots. He's also a member of the 500 Points/350 Rebounds Club, with 875 points and 442 rebounds.
An injury at NBA tryout camps derailed Wilson's professional hopes. He now lives in Rock Head, South Carolina.
Boykins arguably became the most accomplished player in program history, ending his collegiate career as Eastern's second-leading scorer with 2,211 — he missed catching Kennedy McIntosh by eight points! — while securing EMU's all-time leader in assists.
After playing 13 NBA seasons with 10 different teams, Boykins earned the distinction of having his No 11 jersey retired (2011) before he was inducted in the EMU Athletics Hall Of Fame (2013). Boykins is currently an assistant coach at the University of Southern California.
Derrick Dial become Eastern's third leading scorer in program history, with 1,891 points. He's also the first player listed in EMU's 1,000 Points / 500 Rebounds Club, with 692 rebounds. Dial's individual accomplishments, plus his 87 wins and four appearances in the MAC title game, make a strong argument for Dial's inclusion within Eastern's greatest player debate. Dial played in the NBA for four teams.
Torrey Mills tried out in an NBA camp after graduation, but when he didn't make the last cut, he was uninterested in playing overseas. Mills said goodbye to his basketball career and entered the job market. Today he's a millwright for Ford Motor Company and live in Sumpter Township with his family.
Job Zajac has been Athletic Director at Tecumseh High School for over a decade. He's also an assistant coach on the school's girls' basketball bench to the head coach and his wife, the former Kristy Maska. EMU fans will remember Maska for EMU's women's team, scoring 1,228 points in 107 games.
Their daughter, Alli — one of four children the couple has — completed her freshman year on Eastern's women team.
Todd Beeten played two seasons for EMU and credits former EMU Provost Courtney McAnuff for helping him achieve his undergraduate degree after he left the program. Beeten lives in Las Vegas with his family, and stays connected to the game as a girls' basketball coach.
Fred Reynolds played in only nine games as a walk-on freshman, his only season in college basketball, but he made it a memorable one. Reynolds is the Assistant Director of Compliance at American University in Washington, DC.
Within the media corps, the Ann Arbor News' Amy Whitesall was the team's primary beat reporter. Whitesall watches college athletics from afar, living in Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area and working in User Experience Design for the University of Michigan's College of Engineering.
"Those Eastern teams made covering sports fun. The players were fun to watch, and there are still moments I recall from that season, and that group of players, and it makes me smile," Whitesall said.
After purchasing the Ypsilanti Press in summer 1994, the Ann Arbor News lasted 15 more years before closing in 2009.
Jim Spadafore, retired since 2006 and living in Oakland County, sporadically covered EMU basketball and football for the Detroit News, along with and Tom Markowski and Angelique S. Chengalis.
"As a region, we had a lot of talent that Michigan and Michigan State for whatever reason didn't recruit, so Eastern benefited greatly from some of those misses" Spadafore said. "I remember Bowen Field House was a crazy place — they had to use a Hi-Lo to bring the bleachers in on the end lines on the day of the games — but it was an incredibly tough place to win a game, too."
Markowski was the premier high schools writer at the Detroit News for 20 years, so he covered many of the 1995-96 Eagles in their formative high school years. Now retired, Markowski also lives in Oakland County.
