Tyson Wheeler Remembers URI, PC Glory Days
Friday, March 25, 2011
To say that it has been a rough few years for our local college basketball programs here in Rhode Island might be an understatement.
Providence College is coming off of two very disappointing seasons while URI seems to get close to that NCAA tournament bubble every year, but not close enough for consideration.
It wasn’t always this way here. In fact, as the NCAA Tournament gets set for the regional semifinals and finals to be played, it takes me back to a much better time for PC and URI basketball when the Friars and Rams both made nice runs themselves.
In 1997, PC made it all the way to the Elite 8 where they lost to eventual National Champion Arizona in overtime in their bid to make it to the Final Four. That was a fun team to watch at PC.
The always nervous, but very humorous, Pete Gillen was the head coach back then. And he had an interesting mix of players. There was senior forward Austin Croshere, a Rick Barnes recruit, who had really blossomed in his final year at PC.
Croshere was joined in the line-up by other veteran front court players in Derek Brown and Ruben Garces, both of whom came to PC via junior college.
In the backcourt there were talented underclassmen like God Shammgod, Jamel Thomas and Corey Wright.
What was interesting about the team was that the young players didn’t always get along with the older players but they managed to make it work.
In the opening round of the Tournament, the 10th-seeded Friars knocked off Marquette with Austin Croshere hitting a ¾ shot at the halftime buzzer highlighting the win. Croshere scored 39 points in that game.
In the second round they shocked the #2-seed Duke. Derek Brown was immense with a career-high 33 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Friars to the 98-87 upset.
As luck would have it, PC met another Cinderella team in the Sweet 16 when they knocked off Tennessee-Chattanooga before they eventually lost to Arizona in the Elite 8.
It was a great run for the Friars and a special and exciting time for PC fans here in Rhode Island.
One year later, URI would make a magical run as well in the Tournament.
Rhody was an 8-seed led by first year head coach Jim Harrick.
Thanks to the talented backcourt of Tyson Wheeler and Cuttino Mobley, the Rams would cruise to a 97-74 win over Murray State in the opening round setting up a match-up with Paul Pierce and top-seeded Kansas in round 2. That game would be Pierce’s final one as a Jayhawk as Rhody won 80-75.
Tyson Wheeler said that it was the Kansas game which made him believe that his team was capable of doing something special. “We could see it in their eyes and how down they were late in the first half when we were playing well,” he said. “I knew then that we could beat them and do some damage in the Tournament.”
Wheeler’s head coach believed that this team was capable of special things long before that game according to assistant coach Jerry DeGregorio. “After our first practice that fall Jim pulled me in the office and said, ‘we’ve got a real good team here’,” said DeGregorio. “Jim saw that we had senior guards that were very talented which is why he knew we were going to be good.”
Like Providence, Rhode Island was also fortunate to draw a Cinderella team in the regional semifinals. 13th-seeded Valparaiso played the Rams tough but eventually lost to URI 74-68. It was on to the Elite 8 for the Rams!
Rhody met the #3-seed Stanford in St. Louis in what was a terrific game. The Rams led down the stretch but a costly turnover by Mobley and some missed free throws down the stretch prevented URI from going to the Final Four.
For URI, that was their second of three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. That last trip in 1999 was their last appearance in the Big Dance.
"Those were some great teams we both had back then," Wheeler said. "We had some great battles at the Civic Center. A bunch of us also came up here (Alumni Hall) to play pick-up games during the summer."
Those were great teams that provided us with great memories. And as we watch the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 this week, let’s hope that there are more good times like that ahead.
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