Dec. 27, 2005
By Evan Meyer - Sports Vault
The holidays are always a special time of the year. Seeing Christmas decorations all over, family and friends dropping by to exchange gifts and share good times over a holiday meal. Reflecting on the year past and what to expect when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve.
For College Basketball fans, the holidays mean tournaments and playing some quality teams. Before there was a Maui Invitational, a Preseason NIT, or a Great Alaska Shootout. The biggest schools in the game would play in one of the tournaments scheduled between Christmas and New Year's Day.
Some of the more famous tournaments, at this time of the year, are the Holiday Classic at New York City's Madison Square Garden, the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii, and for many years the Far West Classic in Portland, Oregon.
In addition, most Division I schools had their own tournaments. That is until the NCAA recently made changes to the schedule where playing in a tournament counted for just one game against your schedule in the past now it could add to up three games.
Fans in Cleveland and the North Coast had their own tournament. It was the Rock-N-Roll Shootout. From 1994-2003 some of College Basketball's storied programs and nationally ranked teams made a trip to Quicken Loans Arena the weekend between Christmas and New Year's.
Nationally ranked squads like Cincinnati, Temple, Gonzaga, Xavier, DePaul, Boston College, and Wisconsin made an appearance on the North Coast along with local schools Akron, Kent State, Toledo, and Ohio University.
The Cleveland State Vikings made six visits down Prospect Avenue to the Gateway Complex winning just twice. However, those two wins are legendary as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Fenn College/CSU basketball.
The first was in the inaugural event December 17,1994 when they defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 75-73. It was the Vikings first ever win over the Scarlet and Gray in the first time they had played the Vikings in the City of Cleveland.
The game was a close affair throughout with the lead changing hands eight times in the final four minutes before Malcolm Sims hit a three-pointer to give the Vikings a 74-73 lead with fourteen seconds remaining. Craig Caldwell added a free-throw with two seconds left to seal the victory. Sims led all scorers with 23 points while the late Jamal Jackson added 18 points and 12 rebounds. Malcolm Watson led the Bucks with 23 points and Doug Etzler added 22.
The other win in the shootout came on December 27,1998 when they Forest Green and White defeated the Rhode Island Rams out of the Atlantic-10 Conference 73-72. The Rams came to town with the nucleus of their team intact from the squad, led by Tavvoris Bell, Luther Clay, and Lamar Odom, that made it to the elite eight the previous March losing to Stanford in overtime in the Midwest Regional Final.
CSU never led the entire first half. The game was tied three times at 6-6, 8-8, and 10-10 before URI scored seven unanswered points to take a 17-10 lead at the 7:13 mark on a David Auigabu jumper. They increased their lead to eight points on three occasions the last being 30-22 on a Luther Clay jumper. Jamaal Harris then scored five successive points to close the deficit to 30-27 with 12 seconds remaining but a layup by Antonio Reynolds-Dean gave the Rams a 32-27 lead at halftime. The visitors shot 13x28 from the field (46.4%) while Cleveland State was ice cold hitting just 27.3% (9x33).
The five straight points by Harris got the Vikings back into the game. At the start of the second half they closed the margin to one 34-33 on a Ricardo Crumble free throw two minutes into the half.But then the Rams outscored the Vikes 15-4 to take their largest lead of the game 49-39 with 12:52 remaining on a layup by Preston Murphy.
The lead was matched 51-41 at the 12:24 mark on a jumper by Tip Vinson.But CSU would not fold and scored the next the next eight points to close to within 51-49 on another Crumble free throw. URI pushed the lead out to nine 59-50 on a three pointer by Tory Jefferson at the 9:13 mark.
With the Rams holding a 63-56 lead at the 5:37 mark on a Lamar Odom jumper, Cleveland State went on a 15-7 spurt to take their first lead of the game 71-70 with eleven seconds remaining on a three-pointer by James Madison.
With five seconds remaining, Reynolds-Dean was fouled by Carter Arnett. He made both free throws to give the lead back to the Rams 72-71.
The Vikes got the ball inbounds and quickly up the floor. The ball got into the hands of Theo Dixon who took a shot from the right wing as time expired. The ball hit nothing but nylon and the Vikings came away with a 73-72 win arguably the best finish in the ten year history of the event and Rollie Massimino's biggest win in his seven year reign as CSU head coach.
The second half stats were a reversal of the first 20 minutes as Cleveland State shot 53.3% (16x30) along with winning the rebound battle 44-38 while Rhode Island went just 9x28 (32.1%)from the field. Dixon led the Vikings with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Crumble added 16 and Harris 15. Reynolds-Dean led all scorers with 22 points. Odom added 17 and Jefferson added 11.
The most famous of the ten shootouts took place in 1996 when a sellout crowd of 20,562 came to see Kentucky defeat Ohio State in the first game 81-65.
The Wildcats came to town as defending National Champions and tanked third in the nation. It was the first ever time that a Division I national Champion played in the city.
Coached by Rick Pitino,in his final season with `Big Blue" before heading to the NBA and the Boston Celtics, they had stars like Ron Mercer, Derek Anderson, Scott Padgett, and Anthony Epps would later in the season return to the Final Four in Indianapolis losing in the Championship game to Arizona in overtime.
The other game featured Cincinnati, who were ranked seventh, led by Danny Fortson and Ruben Patterson defeated Western Kentucky out of the Sun Belt Conference in the nightcap 81-57.
The Vault has been fortunate to see nine of the shootouts and covered seven of them.
I was in the stands when Kentucky beat OSU where the predominant colors that night were Blue and White and Scarlet and Gray and was on the floor for both of Cleveland State's victories.
In the Rhode Island game, I watched the final moments from the exit, just off the floor, where the teams would enter and exit the arena. I had a perfect view of Theo Dixon's shot that defeated the Rams.
Will the shootout ever return? I surely hope so. To see nationally ranked teams come into the city was a treat. Gonzaga came the year after their first NCAA run when they were still that little school out of the West Coast Conference. Cincinnati came here with powerful teams. If the event is resurrected, I also hope that Cleveland State returns so they could add to their two wins two of the most memorable wins in the history of the Rock-N-Roll Shootout.
E.
