By Bill Koch
One of the sacred beliefs held by all UC basketball fans is that if Kenyon Martin hadn’t broken his leg in the Conference USA tournament in March 2000, the Bearcats would have won their third national championship. After all, as the post-season began, they were the top-ranked team in the country. They were destined to receive a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and boasted the National Player of the Year in Martin.
But there’s another UC team that very well could have won a national title if it weren’t for an injury to one of its key players. The 1993 Bearcats, led by future NBA players Nick Van Exel and Corie Blount and coached by Bob Huggins, came within an eyelash of knocking off top-ranked North Carolina on March 28, 1993, in the East Region final in East Rutherford, N.J., before falling to the Tar Heels, 75-68, in overtime. North Carolina went on to win the national championship eight days later.
Erik Martin, a starting forward on that 1993 team, maintains to this day that if guard A.D. Jackson hadn’t torn cartilage in his knee in the Bearcats’ first NCAA Tournament game against Coppin State, which rendered him unavailable for the rest of the tournament, the Bearcats would have upset North Carolina.
“If we had A.D., you can’t tell me we don’t get back to the Final Four,” said Martin, now an assistant coach under Huggins at West Virginia.
Jackson averaged only 7.0 points and 2.2 assists that season, but Martin said his value extended far beyond those numbers.
“He just allowed us to do different things,” Martin said. “Nick didn’t have to bring the ball up. Sometimes he could be off the ball. We would have had three veteran guards, all senior guards, all 6-2, 6-3. And I think most people would say that A.D. was our best defensive guard on that team.”
The year before, the Bearcats shocked college basketball by advancing to the Final Four in their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 15 years. They returned three starters from that team as they sought to reach the Final Four again, determined to win UC’s first national championship since 1962.
Even without Jackson, the seventh-ranked Bearcats matched the powerful, physically imposing Tar Heels basket-for-basket until they simply ran out of gas in overtime.
I covered hundreds of UC basketball games during my career with the Cincinnati Post and Cincinnati Enquirer. I’ve written about a lot of UC teams that played with great heart and determination. None of them exceeded what I witnessed that day at the Meadowlands. And to me, the undersized Martin, who scored 16 points and pulled own six rebounds against the Tar Heels, has always epitomized the effort the Bearcats put forth that day.
North Carolina had two seven-footers, including second-team All-American center Eric Montross. Overall, the Tar Heels had seven players who stood taller than 6-foot-7. UC had only one with that kind of size – 6-10 senior center Corie Blount – and he played only 27 minutes due to foul trouble. When Blount was on the bench, the Bearcats’ front line consisted of Martin and Terry Nelson, who were both 6-6; and 6-5 junior Curtis Bostic, who fouled out after playing only 12 minutes.
But Martin says the Bearcats didn’t lose that game because of their comparative lack of height. In fact, he said, they didn’t even perceive that as a disadvantage as they prepared for the game.
“I’m a firm believer that the tallest player doesn’t always get the rebound,” Martin said. “It’s the guy who gets to the ball first. Height never really came into play with that group. It just didn’t. I’ve always played against bigger guys. I figured if they had an advantage on their end offensively, I had an advantage on my end because I was quicker. I never thought about that during the game.”
In fact, the undersized Bearcats competed well on the glass. They were out-rebounded by only four, 43-39.
UC sprinted out to a sizeable lead in the first half on the strength of Van Exel’s uncanny shooting. He scored 21 points in the first 16 minutes as the Bearcats took a 29-14 advantage. He made 7-of-14 shots from the field before halftime, 6-of-10 from 3-point range. But Van Exel was 1-for-10 in the second half when he was guarded exclusively by North Carolina guard Derrick Phelps, who was considered one of the best defensive players in the country. He finished with 23 points.
The Bearcats continued to scratch and claw on the boards and found scoring where they could. Tarrance Gibson, who had moved into the starting lineup in Jackson’s spot, scored 13 points. But Blount managed only eight – although he did grab nine rebounds – on 3-of-10 shooting.
UC’s press forced North Carolina into 18 turnovers, but the Bearcats matched that total with 18 of their own. They were outshot from the field, 47 percent to 37 percent, and made seven of only nine free throws compared with the Tar Heels’ 18-of-25.
During the final seconds of regulation, North Carolina missed several shots close to the basket. Following the last of those missed shots the ball went out of bounds off a UC player with .8 seconds left. The Tar Heels inbounded the ball to forward Brian Reese, who missed a dunk as time expired, sending the game into overtime UC scored first in overtime on Blount’s baseline jump shot to give the Bearcats a 68-66 lead. They wouldn’t score again. They finished 27-5.
“We ran out of gas,” Martin said, “but I don’t feel we were overmatched physically. That was the difference between our senior year and our Final Four year. Our Final Four year we could go nine or 10 deep. Whenever your 6-10 guy gets in foul trouble, now Terry and myself have to play center. We could do that. We were used to doing that. But we were so much better with our 6-10 stud in there.”
The Bearcats, who were physically spent after the game, were lauded by the media for their gallant effort against the nation’s top-ranked team, but that provided Martin and his teammates with scant consolation.
“I’ve never watched that game in its completion,” Martin said during an interview this week. “I’ve watched it until the end of regulation, but I’ve never watched the overtime. It wasn’t only the loss to North Carolina and the fact that we couldn’t go to back-to-back Final Fours, I knew what has been my life with my brothers, who I still talk to to this day, I knew that was done. I got real emotional on the plane. It was a heck of a game."
One of the sacred beliefs held by all UC basketball fans is that if Kenyon Martin hadn’t broken his leg in the Conference USA tournament in March 2000, the Bearcats would have won their third national championship. After all, as the post-season began, they were the top-ranked team in the country. They were destined to receive a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and boasted the National Player of the Year in Martin.
But there’s another UC team that very well could have won a national title if it weren’t for an injury to one of its key players. The 1993 Bearcats, led by future NBA players Nick Van Exel and Corie Blount and coached by Bob Huggins, came within an eyelash of knocking off top-ranked North Carolina on March 28, 1993, in the East Region final in East Rutherford, N.J., before falling to the Tar Heels, 75-68, in overtime. North Carolina went on to win the national championship eight days later.
Erik Martin, a starting forward on that 1993 team, maintains to this day that if guard A.D. Jackson hadn’t torn cartilage in his knee in the Bearcats’ first NCAA Tournament game against Coppin State, which rendered him unavailable for the rest of the tournament, the Bearcats would have upset North Carolina.
“If we had A.D., you can’t tell me we don’t get back to the Final Four,” said Martin, now an assistant coach under Huggins at West Virginia.
Jackson averaged only 7.0 points and 2.2 assists that season, but Martin said his value extended far beyond those numbers.
“He just allowed us to do different things,” Martin said. “Nick didn’t have to bring the ball up. Sometimes he could be off the ball. We would have had three veteran guards, all senior guards, all 6-2, 6-3. And I think most people would say that A.D. was our best defensive guard on that team.”
The year before, the Bearcats shocked college basketball by advancing to the Final Four in their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 15 years. They returned three starters from that team as they sought to reach the Final Four again, determined to win UC’s first national championship since 1962.
Even without Jackson, the seventh-ranked Bearcats matched the powerful, physically imposing Tar Heels basket-for-basket until they simply ran out of gas in overtime.
I covered hundreds of UC basketball games during my career with the Cincinnati Post and Cincinnati Enquirer. I’ve written about a lot of UC teams that played with great heart and determination. None of them exceeded what I witnessed that day at the Meadowlands. And to me, the undersized Martin, who scored 16 points and pulled own six rebounds against the Tar Heels, has always epitomized the effort the Bearcats put forth that day.
North Carolina had two seven-footers, including second-team All-American center Eric Montross. Overall, the Tar Heels had seven players who stood taller than 6-foot-7. UC had only one with that kind of size – 6-10 senior center Corie Blount – and he played only 27 minutes due to foul trouble. When Blount was on the bench, the Bearcats’ front line consisted of Martin and Terry Nelson, who were both 6-6; and 6-5 junior Curtis Bostic, who fouled out after playing only 12 minutes.
But Martin says the Bearcats didn’t lose that game because of their comparative lack of height. In fact, he said, they didn’t even perceive that as a disadvantage as they prepared for the game.
“I’m a firm believer that the tallest player doesn’t always get the rebound,” Martin said. “It’s the guy who gets to the ball first. Height never really came into play with that group. It just didn’t. I’ve always played against bigger guys. I figured if they had an advantage on their end offensively, I had an advantage on my end because I was quicker. I never thought about that during the game.”
In fact, the undersized Bearcats competed well on the glass. They were out-rebounded by only four, 43-39.
UC sprinted out to a sizeable lead in the first half on the strength of Van Exel’s uncanny shooting. He scored 21 points in the first 16 minutes as the Bearcats took a 29-14 advantage. He made 7-of-14 shots from the field before halftime, 6-of-10 from 3-point range. But Van Exel was 1-for-10 in the second half when he was guarded exclusively by North Carolina guard Derrick Phelps, who was considered one of the best defensive players in the country. He finished with 23 points.
The Bearcats continued to scratch and claw on the boards and found scoring where they could. Tarrance Gibson, who had moved into the starting lineup in Jackson’s spot, scored 13 points. But Blount managed only eight – although he did grab nine rebounds – on 3-of-10 shooting.
UC’s press forced North Carolina into 18 turnovers, but the Bearcats matched that total with 18 of their own. They were outshot from the field, 47 percent to 37 percent, and made seven of only nine free throws compared with the Tar Heels’ 18-of-25.
During the final seconds of regulation, North Carolina missed several shots close to the basket. Following the last of those missed shots the ball went out of bounds off a UC player with .8 seconds left. The Tar Heels inbounded the ball to forward Brian Reese, who missed a dunk as time expired, sending the game into overtime UC scored first in overtime on Blount’s baseline jump shot to give the Bearcats a 68-66 lead. They wouldn’t score again. They finished 27-5.
“We ran out of gas,” Martin said, “but I don’t feel we were overmatched physically. That was the difference between our senior year and our Final Four year. Our Final Four year we could go nine or 10 deep. Whenever your 6-10 guy gets in foul trouble, now Terry and myself have to play center. We could do that. We were used to doing that. But we were so much better with our 6-10 stud in there.”
The Bearcats, who were physically spent after the game, were lauded by the media for their gallant effort against the nation’s top-ranked team, but that provided Martin and his teammates with scant consolation.
“I’ve never watched that game in its completion,” Martin said during an interview this week. “I’ve watched it until the end of regulation, but I’ve never watched the overtime. It wasn’t only the loss to North Carolina and the fact that we couldn’t go to back-to-back Final Fours, I knew what has been my life with my brothers, who I still talk to to this day, I knew that was done. I got real emotional on the plane. It was a heck of a game."
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