Arch Madness 1998 – Redbird Double

(St. Louis, MO) – 1998 was the year of my introduction to ‘Arch Madness’. Illinois State was the defending champion and I was learning names like Ben Kandlbinder and William Fontleroy and showed up to with the idea of picking up a few sound bites from this “mid-major” conference.

Howard Balzer was broadcasting the games on the fledgling 1380 AM and his broadcast partner didn’t show up and the next thing you know, I was providing color commentary during the play in round of the tournament. I haven’t missed a game since and have broadcast more ‘Arch Madness’ games than any other human since that tournament.

Seventh seeded Bradley, under Jim Molinari became the first and only ‘play in’ team to win two games and make it to the tournament’s semi-finals.

But this tournament was all about Illinois State and Southwest Missouri. The Redbirds were the defending champions after defeating the Bears one year earlier. In 1997 Head Coach Kevin Stallings’ team won a three point game behind 31 points from Rico Hill.  He and SMS’ Danny Moore (27 points) had quite a 1997 showdown.

Recently I asked current Redbird Head Coach Dan Muller, a player on that championship team to remember the outstanding Rico Hill.

 

With Moore and Hill back for a re-match the Monday night championship was due for something special.

The Bears were a deep and athletic team and the Redbirds were talented and had with Hill, Muller and LeRoy Watkins they had some substantial size.

Despite being out rebounded by the smaller Bears, Illinois State shot nearly 60% from the field and won the game 84-74. Muller was named the tournament’s “Most Outstanding Player” and was joined on the all tournament team by Watkins and Hill and Bears stars Moore and Kandlbinder.

Muller told me their team had a special confidence and like all great teams had an ability to believe they could win.

 

Stallings moved on to Vanderbilt University and the Redbirds didn’t make it back to the championship game again until 2008, but for one, two-year period there was no Valley team better than Illinois State and after that riveting weekend, I haven’t missed the tournament since.

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