Looking Back at Eldon Miller - The 1990 Mid-Continent Tournament
11/4/2009 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
1990 Mid-Continent Tournament Photo Gallery
Former University of Northern Iowa men's basketball coach Eldon Miller will be returning to Cedar Falls this weekend as an assistant coach for UNC-Pembroke, who the Panthers face in an exhibition game on Sat., Nov. 7, at 12:05 p.m. in the McLeod Center. UNC-Pembroke is led by second-year head coach Ben Miller, the son of Eldon and Dee Miller.
The Panthers will honor the Miller family by making Saturday Eldon & Dee Miller Day in the McLeod Center. This week UNI athletics will look back on highlights throughout Miller's career as the Panthers' head coach. Today we'll head back to the 1990 Mid-Continent Tournament, hosted by UNI, which saw the Panthers win three games and advance to the program's first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance.
1990 Mid-Continent Conference (AMCU) Tournament
The 1990 AMCU tournament was hosted by UNI and played in the UNI-Dome, setting the scene for a memorable three-game run by the Panthers to their first ever NCAA Division I tournament appearance.
UNI grabbed the fourth seed for the tournament after finishing the regular season at 19-8 overall and 6-6 in the conference. Coming off a heartbreaking 94-86 double-overtime loss at Southwest Missouri State to end the regular season, the Panthers were matched up with fifth-seeded Illinois-Chicago in the first round of the conference tourney.
Panther fans should have known that what transpired in the quarterfinal game against UIC was a sign of great things to come. UNI battled back from a 10-point deficit in the final eight minutes of regulation to force overtime, and the Panthers went on to win a three-overtime thriller by a final score of 99-94. Jason Reese, UNI's all-time leading scorer, led the Panther attack with 26 points and nine rebounds.
Maurice Newby hit consecutive three-pointers to trim the UIC lead late in the second half. Dale Turner capped the comeback with a steal and a layup for what turned out to be the last basket of regulation, tying the game at 70 and sending it to the first overtime. After Turner put the Panthers ahead with 45 seconds remaining in the first OT, UIC's Chris Harris made a putback at the buzzer to force a second OT period. Steve Phyfe made a basket in the post with five seconds remaining to tie it up and force the third and decisive overtime.
UNI went on a 9-0 run with the game tied at 88 to put some space between the Panthers and Flames. Troy Muilenburg drained eight straight free throws in the third overtime to lock up the hard-earned victory.
The opening round triumph gave UNI their first 20-win season as a Division I school and also their first-ever victory in the AMCU Tournament. However, the Panthers had no time to celebrate with a matchup against regular season league champion Southwest Missouri State waiting the next evening.
The semifinal game against SMS may have been even more memorable than the three-overtime quarterfinal victory. The Panthers found themselves down eight points with 2:14 remaining in the game, when a three-pointer by Maurice Newby got the comeback started and pulled the Panthers to within five. UNI battled all the way back and tied the game at 61-61 on a Brad Hill basket with 23 seconds left. UNI forced a traveling violation on the next SMS possession and had a chance to win the game with two seconds remaining on the clock.
With the game tied at 61-61, UNI's Dale Turner had the ball out of bounds under the SMS basket. He launched a pass almost the full length of the floor to senior center Jason Reese, who pulled the ball out of the air, turned to the basket, and made the shot as time expired. Reese's game winner got him to 11 points, well below his season average, but it was enough to create a mob scene under the Panthers' basket and punch UNI's ticket to the league title game with a 63-61 victory.
Waiting for UNI in the championship game was second-seeded Wisconsin-Green Bay, a team that had already defeated the Panthers twice during the regular season. As a matter of fact, the Phoenix had beaten UNI in 10 straight meetings. With the AMCU's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on the line, the Panthers stepped up defensively to defeat Green Bay for the first time in 11 tries, 53-45.
Reese was named the tournament's most valuable player after grabbing 14 rebounds to go along with 12 points in the title game. UNI's Cedrick McCullough shut down Green Bay's all-conference guard Tony Bennett, holding him to just three points in the contest. The Panthers shot out to a 29-18 halftime lead and held the defensive intensity through the second half, limiting the Phoenix to 19-of-51 shooting.
With the victory, the Panthers and Miller secured the school's first ever appearance in the NCAA Division I tournament and extended their school record mark to 22-8.
The players pointed to Coach Miller never losing faith in the team after a tough stretch that included back-to-back losses just two weeks before the AMCU tourney.
Eldon Miller was the head coach at UNI from 1987-1998 and coached the second-most games in UNI men's basketball history. He led the Panthers to their first NCAA Division I tournament in 1990 after winning the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament to clinch the league's automatic bid. Fourteenth-seeded UNI went on to upset third-seeded Missouri in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Miller's tenure at UNI also included a victory over 20th-ranked Iowa in the UNI-Dome in 1990 before a state-record crowd of 22,797. In March of 1997, Miller was named the 1996-1997 Rawlings Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year. He was inducted into the UNI Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002.
Looking Back at Eldon Miller Links
Eldon Miller - 1996-97 MVC Coach of the Year