March 16, 1990

[Hamdonger]

34 years ago today my heart skipped a beat...well, hundreds of beats...as our Redbirds, in Long Beach CA, dang near knocked off the defending national champions. Our very own Jon BigPemp Pemberton (also known as Jon Pembrook) snatched 11 rebounds (and 9 pts) in 22 minutes...against a freaky front line of Terry Mills and the beast Loy Vaught.

Those Redbird seniors, after all they'd been through, could not be intimidated. Even by a team with THREE 1st rounders and a 2nd rounder. In the 1990 NBA draft - Vaught went 13th in the 1990 NBA draft, Mills went 16th, Rumeal Robinson was the 10th pick overall, and Higgins went in the 2nd round.

Thanks for the ride, boys!!

 

[FriscoBird90]

I was at that game; happened to be visiting my sister in Glendale, CA on my Spring Break when the brackets were announced. The Birds hung tough all game long, fought back from a ten point deficit, then came up short the last 90 seconds. Was not even close to being a good shooting night. Had the Birds shot closer to their average for the game, the result would have been different. They say there is no such thing as a moral victory. I'm not so sure. On a separate note, the second game that night featured Loyola-Marymount, who only days earlier had lost Hank Gathers.

 

[Rsolaw90]

I was at that game. Then stayed two more days and watched that highest scoring game ever with Loyola Marymount and Michigan.

When we tied up Michigan late I really thought we had momentum and would win. Still watching Michigan get destroyed the next game was special.

Think about it, if we won that game we would have handed Steve Fisher his first tournament loss