Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the 1999-00 Embry-Riddle Men's Basketball National Championship
"Sometimes losses can be the fuel for major comebacks. We need to remember this pain and channel it towards the rest of the season. We can either feel sorry for ourselves and give up, or we can rise to occasion."
Jarvis Hall
In a span of seven days the Embry-Riddle men's basketball team lost three straight games, lost the top seed, a first-round bye and the right to host the Florida Sun Conference tournament, and dropped from fifth to 12th in the NAIA II national rankings.
The Eagles had just three days to regroup from their third loss in as many games. Faced with the task of rebuilding the team's confidence ERAU Head Coach
Steve Ridder canceled his plans to attend the 2000 Daytona 500. Instead he and his coaching staff strategized on what they could do and say to lead the team back to the form that had yielded eight wins during FSC regular season play.
The Florida Sun Conference tournament began on February 22 just three days after a disappointing 77-74 loss to Nova Southeastern. A bright spot in an otherwise dim 10-day stretch was that the Eagles' early season performance afforded them the opportunity to host a first-round game. Their opponent? Rival Flagler.
The Eagles won both meetings against the Saints in the regular season, but both were close games. In fact, it took a play called 'Jelly', where Ryan Rothrock lofted a picture-perfect backdoor pass to Harold Pierson for the one-handed catch and dunk to give the Eagles a two-point victory (69-67) in the first meeting.
Behind an 18-point, 11-rebound outing by John Davis, and a Paul Yaden jump shot with less than six minutes left that triggered an 11-2 run, the Eagles completed the sweep of the Saints with a 77-69 victory in the first round of the FSC Tournament to set up a rematch with Warner Southern in the conference semifinals.
The Eagles' late season demise gave Palm Beach Atlantic the regular season crown and the right to host the final four, which meant the third game of the year between ERAU and Warner Southern would be played on a neutral court.
In the regular season, both Embry-Riddle and Warner Southern had successfully defended their respective home courts by slim margins so the neutral site game promised to be an exciting match-up.
Fans were not disappointed.
The game was fiercely contested and was tied at 85-85 with just over a minute left in regulation. With no room for error in the closing stages of the game, the Eagles got the ball to Heath Fabacher in the post and, with one just second left on the shot clock, the junior sank an eight-foot jump hook to put the Eagles up by two.
Staunch Eagle defense on the Royals' next possession kept WSC off the scoreboard and Ryan Rothrock calmly knocked down a pair of free throws on the other end to give ERAU an 89-85 victory.
The semifinal win meant a date with host and the tournament's top seed, 15th-ranked Palm Beach Atlantic the following night.
The Eagles swept the Sailfish in the regular season home-and-away series, scoring more than 100 points in each meeting. But the Palm Beach Atlantic faithful were very confident going into the championship game. After all, they were the tournament favorites and were playing on their home court.
The Sailfish continued to exude confidence when they took the court in that Saturday night finale as they jumped out to a 14-point lead early in the contest.
"I was in absolute shock," Ridder said about his team performance in the early goings, noting that his team didn't pass, screen or dribble. "It was amazing – we did everything wrong."
It took three Eagle timeouts for ERAU to slow the Sailfish down and regain their composure. The Eagles clawed their way back into the game and a Kyle Mas dunk as the horn sounded at the half gave the Blue and Gold a two-point lead.
The second half was all Eagles. The momentum of the late surge in the first half carried over into the second, and the raucous PBA crowd that was confident the title would belong to the Sailfish, quickly fell silent.
"I remember they [PBA] had printed their own conference championship shirts," ERAU Head Athletics Trainer Shari Hilscher recalled. "And then we won! It was a crazy moment."
Ordinarily, waving scissors in the air would be frowned upon, but on that night in West Palm Beach, fans cheered as ERAU Assistant Coach Rob Graham waved scissors around as he walked to the basket for his turn at cutting down the nets.
The Eagle fans, who saw first half shock turn to end-of-game elation, continued to celebrate as one by one, the players and coaches cut a piece of the Sailfish net for themselves.
"Cutting down the nets anywhere feels good, I don't care whose court it is," league Player of the Year Jason Cruse said.
As the team bus made its way back to Daytona Beach that night, the Eagles reveled in the fact that the "Drive for Five" had been realized. Embry-Riddle Men's Basketball was heading back to the National Tournament!
