Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 17, 1990 TAG: 9003172192
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
That is an hour and 40 minutes north of Iowa City, where the state university is, but you can't get there, either. So you might as well fly to Des Moines and drive the two hours.
Why, when the Northern Iowa basketball team gathered for a news conference Sunday to see which team it would be playing in the NCAA Tournament, it was held in Waterloo.
Prophetic. Because the Panthers proved to be Missouri's waterloo Friday with a buzzer-beating, 74-71 upset in a game that somehow typifies first-round NCAA Tournament history.
It's happened before to Missouri, a team that changes from Tigers to dogs come the Ides of March. This is the fifth time in eight years Missouri has lost in the opening round. For a change of pace, Missouri also has lost in the first round of the NIT.
Northern Iowa is an unknown from the AMCU, which stands for Association of Mid-Continent Universities, which you should try to say quickly upon waking up and see how it sounds.
The most familiar names in the AMCU are Southwest Missouri State, the regular-season champion and loser to North Carolina on Thursday, and Cleveland State, which reached the round of 16 in 1986.
Southwest Missouri is leaving for the Missouri Valley next year, and Cleveland State is on probation.
In 1990-91, Akron and Northern Illinois join the AMCU and Wisconsin-Green Bay, Western Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Illinois-Chicago, Valparaiso, Cleveland State and, of course, Northern Iowa.
The last part of today's history lesson is that Northern Iowa is coached by Eldon Miller. The same Miller who, through no fault of his, got Don DeVoe fired at Virginia Tech in 1976.
When Miller got the coaching job at Ohio State, the Hokies dumped DeVoe, who had just taken the school to its best year. DeVoe had refused to sign a new contract with Tech while seeking the position with the Buckeyes, his alma mater.
A decade later, Miller was released by Ohio State before the postseason. Then his 14-14 team gave him a going-away present by winning the NIT.
Miller surfaced the next season in Northern Iowa, which is in Big Ten territory, and his arrival signaled the birth of big-time basketball for the Panthers. Or as big-time as it gets in the AMCU.
One of Miller's first moves was to sign 6-foot-8 Jason Reese, a rawboned, 240-pounder from Des Moines.
"The other state schools - Iowa and Iowa State - were filled up at my position," Reese said after his team's stunning victory. "They wanted me to go to junior college, but I wanted to go somewhere where I could play four years.
"When UNI hired Coach Miller, I knew that was the place for me. They only had five players coming back."
Reese certainly made the right decision. After scoring 18 points (with 15 rebounds) against sixth-ranked Missouri, he has tied for the school's all-time scoring lead with 2,004.
When an Iowa radio man congratulated him on the record, Reese mentioned he was just tied. "I might not score Sunday," he said.
Sure. He led the AMCU with a 19.7 average and was third in rebounding.
With 29 seconds left against Missouri, Reese grabbed Nathan Buntin as the tall Tiger was sinking a basket. Buntin's free throw tied the score at 71 after the Panthers had led almost all the way. It also was Reese's fifth personal.
As he headed to the bench, the sellout crowd of 11,051 rose and gave him a standing ovation.
At the time, Reese didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but when teammate Maurice Newby buried a winning 25-footer, it was all celebration.
Reese had more than held his own against Doug Smith and Buntin, putting his big body on the opposition.
"There aren't many big guys in the AMCU," he said. "We have the only tall team. I liked it today because the referees let you play. In our league, when there's a collision with a little guy, they usually call it on the big guy."
Reese said when the team talked about who it might play in the NCAA Tournament, Missouri's name was never mentioned.
"We knew about where we'd be seeded [14th]," Reese said, "but Missouri had been No. 1 until they lost a couple of games late. There were four or five teams on the list, but not Missouri.
"When we saw who we were playing, a couple of guys were a little down because they figured Missouri should have been a No. 1."
However, the Tigers have been clawless for three weeks now. And Northern Iowa had played Georgetown earlier and lost 83-49.
"That really helped," Reese said. Having played against Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning, he was not going to be intimidated by Smith and Buntin.
Now the phone was ringing. The governor of Iowa wanted to congratulate Coach Miller.
"It's a Hawkeye State," Reese said, "and I'm sure it will be next year. But right now, we're the only team playing."
by CNB