CMC75 Moments: 1991 Men's Basketball Wins SCIAC Playoff for NCAA Bid
As part of the buildup to the 75th Anniversary celebration for Claremont McKenna College (visit CMC's 75th Anniversary Countdown Page to learn more), we are reliving many of the great moments from CMS athletic department history over the 75-day countdown from April 17 to July 1. If you were a part of this great moment and would like to add to the memories, or if you would like to submit your memories of your own favorite CMS Athletics moments, fill out the form on our main 75th Anniversary page.
Great Moments from 75 Years of Athletics
1990-91 Men's Basketball: CMS 84, La Verne 81
Coming off a SCIAC tri-championship and an NCAA bid the year before, the 1990-91 CMS men's basketball team got off a torrid start in non-conference play and was ranked as high as No. 10 in the nation. The Stags were still undefeated well into January, before La Verne captured an 83-58 win that knocked the Stags back on their heels. CMS won the big rematch with the Leopards at home, though, and was 6-2 in the SCIAC with two weeks to play, before coming through with a 102-101 win over Redlands that started a four-game win streak for a 10-2 final league record and a share of the SCIAC title with La Verne.
In the days before a SCIAC Tournament, a two-way regular season tie meant a playoff game at a neutral site to determine the league's bid to the NCAA Tournament, and despite the best efforts of CMS to have Pomona-Pitzer considered the neutral site, the playoff game was held at Whittier. La Verne had the early upper hand, but CMS went on a big 19-0 run in the first half to build a lead. The Leopards kept relentlessly coming back, but the Stags were able to hold them off throughout the second half with a hard-fought 84-81 win.
McKee finished with a team-high 22 points, including five three-pointers, while Chris Greene had 17, Dominic Nappi had 14 and Henry Albrecht added 12.
That victory earned the Stags their second straight NCAA bid (and fifth in program history), and a final ranking of No. 15 in the nation. Greene earned the SCIAC Player of the Year honor, and was joined on the NABC All-West team and first-team All-SCIAC team by Albrecht. McKee and Nappi were named to the All-SCIAC second team.
Henry Albrecht:
For me, that was the biggest and best game for us (that didn't involve Pomona-Pitzer). I remember battling in the trenches with Ross Wilkins, La Verne's 6-7 forward, a First-Team All-SCIAC player that year. He was strong, fast and a great rebounder. I was exhausted, focused on my job in the post, then when Ryan McKee came in to the game and coolly drained three straight threes in about 90 seconds, it gave me hope that we could pull it off, and we held on for the win. It was our second straight SCIAC title, and moved us into the NCAA Tourney as the No. 2 seed.
In D3, that means sometimes you go on the road to play the No. 1 seed in the first round. Which we did, losing to UCSD in another hard-fought game. After college, Ross Wilkins asked me to coach a camp at his old high school in Dixon, CA. It was fun, and a great honor.
Side note: We knew the LaVerne guys well, and had a lot of respect for them, based on dozens of open gyms at Ducey. Etop Udo-Ema, John Jackson, Matt Hatten, Mark Loomis.
Chris Greene:
Regarding the La Verne guys, not only did they come over to play open gym, they came to some of our campus parties. They were good guys. Pick-up basketball at Ducey during the offseason was really enjoyable. There were always games going, every day in the afternoon. Various guys from the area who had played in college played; Connor Henry was on the Celtics and played sometimes.
That year, coming off a SCIAC title the year before and with the entire team back, David and Lee installed a new offense which involved an up-tempo push up the court and then about 5 or 6 options. As a veteran group of guys, we got really good at running it very early in the season and we were just far ahead of our opponents in the preseason. We rolled over everyone and looked good running this highly effective offense where we would score before the other team realized we were running a play. During the preseason, others were still figuring their personnel out, like how a usual season goes, while we were closer to mid-season form early on. We were about 13-0 or something when league started.
La Verne had been mediocre the previous year and CMS had been rolling them for years, but this particular season they had an influx of D1 dropdowns. They were unknowns, though, so CMS was picked to win the league and we were getting written up as the team to beat -- they didn't like that surely. They figured dropping down to D3 made them favorites. Had we played them in the preseason, I bet we win the first game easy though, but by January teams are starting to figure stuff out and are catching up. So we come into league undefeated and with a top-10 ranking, and we go to that La Verne Tent and we get embarrassed. We lose by 20. We are in shock. The D1 guys seemed right -- they smashed an undefeated, highly ranked team.
We then lose a ridiculous game at Oxy, it was like 135-133 or something. They were not that good that year, but for some reason we lose to them, which is a very hard game to explain. A few weeks later, we beat them by 48 or something when they come to Ducey near the end of the season.
So anyway, we have the rematch with La Verne at Ducey (before the playoff game), and having lost by 20 to them, we are completely locked in. A lot of La Verne fans came over and Ducey was packed like a Pomona game. I had the best game I ever played, a lot of points, like 35 or so, and I think 3-4 dunks. We win wire-to-wire, and the series is now split 1-1.
So this all sets up the playoff game. What I remember about that game is being completely blanketed in the first half. I can hardly get a shot off because of double teams. Henry is battling a super athletic tough guy in Ross Wilkins. We are still in the game because of Dom Nappi scoring, but due to a solid gameplan by La Verne, we are losing. I am being overplayed and its working -- Henry is scoring some, but it's a battle as Wilkins is a beast for D3 big men. Fortunately McKee subs in and gets hot, drains a number of threes in a row. The second half is a battle, but we win the game.
So that is the story within the story - our trilogy with the D1 dropdowns. We rolled Pomona twice that year. The mystery is that Oxy game and that we only beat Redlands by 1 point! Dom and I ended up 8-1 or something for our careers vs La Verne, but that 1 sure set up some good memories.
1990-91 Men's Basketball Roster
Head Coach: David Wells
Assistant Coaches: Lee Dresie, John Boyd
Henry Albrecht (Sr., C, CMC)
Bryan Beasley (So., G, CMC)
Tucker Brown (So., C, CMC)
Chris Fosse (Fr., F, CMC)
John Gilliland (Sr., F, CMC)
Mike Green (Fr., G, CMC)
Chris Greene (Jr., G, CMC)
Ryan McKee (So., G, CMC)
Ethan Morgan (Fr., C, CMC)
Dominic Nappi (Jr., F, CMC)
Dan Zanotti (So., G, CMC)