Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the 1999-00 Embry-Riddle Men's Basketball National Championship

Every story has to start somewhere. 
 
It's hard to pick a beginning for the 1999-00 Embry-Riddle National Championship story. 
 
The seemingly obvious choice would be the season opener on November 5, 1999 – a 94-68 blowout of Southern Wesleyan in which the Eagle faithful were introduced to a freshman from Orlando named Harold Pierson. Pierson scored 20 points in his collegiate debut (a record for a true freshman that stood until Dalton Barnes dropped 21 in 2013)…
 
But we won't start there.
 
We could go all the way back to the summer of 1989 when an assistant coach from Berea College in Kentucky came to Daytona Beach to interview for the first-ever full-time Head Coaching position in Embry-Riddle Athletics history…
 
But we won't start there either.
 
We could go back to the decisions of a big man from Chillicothe, Ohio and point guard from Illinois to transfer to an aeronautical school in Florida…
 
But we're going to start somewhere else.
 
March 12, 1999 – Nampa, Idaho
 
Sporting a 26-8 record after winning the Florida Sun Conference and FSC Tournament titles, for the fourth and fifth times, respectively, the Eagles headed to the NAIA II National Tournament in Nampa, Idaho for the fifth time in seven years.
 
ERAU was seeded seventh, and out of the gates the Blue and Gold blitzed Bellevue (Neb.) 97-73, grabbing a tournament-record (which still stands by the way) 61 rebounds with five players scoring in double-figures.
 
Next up was 10^th-seeded Black Hills State out of South Dakota in the second round. 
 
The second round. 
 
Embry-Riddle couldn't quite seem to get past the second game of the national tournament, having gone 0-3 previously.
 
The Eagles were up 34-31 at the half against the Yellow Jackets, but BHSU out-scored ERAU, 47-38 in the second period, connecting on 13 triples over the course of 40 minutes to end the Eagles' 1998-99 season, 78-72.
 
Junior Jason Cruse had a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds, while senior DeWayne Gordon, playing in his final game as an Eagle, went for 14 points and 11 boards. Fellow senior Austin Brownlee closed out his college campaign with 13 points, four assists and four rebounds before fouling out.
 
That same night, just hours after having the season come to an end, Head Coach Steve Ridder had a conversation that he would never forget.
 
1:45 a.m. – March 13, 1998 – Nampa, Idaho
 
"I'm asleep in the hotel room and I hear this *knock* *knock* *knock* on the door," Ridder remembers. "It wasn't a soft knock either, it was loud. I'm immediately thinking that this isn't good. Somebody has made a bad mistake."
 
When Ridder went to the door he opened it to see his star big man Cruse standing in the hallway.
 
"I opened the door and saw Jason there and I asked him, 'Is everything alright?' and he answered back, 'Yeah Coach, why?'"
 
"Well, it's quarter to two in the morning."
 
"Coach, I can't sleep. I can't take it. You have to tell me, right now Coach: What do I have to do next year for us to win a national championship? I GOT to have a ring."
 
"I'm looking around, thinking somebody is playing a joke on me. We just got eliminated, we're 360-plus days away from even thinking thoughts like that, and Jason is telling me that losing is just not an option, he is not leaving until I give him an answer."
 
Ridder shut the door and walked out into the hallway before speaking again.
 
"What are you talking about? For next year already?"
 
"Coach, I'm possessed. I just have to know: How can I help us win a national championship?"
 
Not quite prepared to answer this type of question in the early hours of the morning just after being eliminated, Ridder thought about it for a moment before answering.
 
"You have to be the best player in the country. You should be. You're that level of basketball player."
 
Cruse looked Coach Ridder in the eyes as if to say: 'That's what I wanted to hear…that's what I NEEDED to hear,' before walking back to his hotel room.
 
Ridder reflects on that late-night hotel hallway conversation, "I knew, right then and there, that moment was a signature moment in our program's history. Jason's mentality was at an entirely different level. I just KNEW he was going to achieve that goal."
 
It was an abrupt end to the season for the Blue and Gold, but it was just the first part of setting the stage for the 1999-00 season. Cruse would return for his senior season, while Kyle Mas, who had a breakout season as a sophomore, was primed to become an upperclassman and take on an expanded role. There were several more forthcoming additions to the squad, ones that would spark the Eagles to an eventual national championship…but the ending of the 1998-99 season, a six-point loss to Black Hills State, and a 2 a.m. conversation between player and coach, would prove to be powerful motivating forces.