I find this very odd. Cal vs. Indiana, 1990

4,420 Views | 27 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by oskidunker
Chapman_is_Gone
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I've been participating on this board for what must be around 20 years now. I started at Cal in August 1990, and I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Cal sports from Fall 1990 onward.

This is what I find bizarre: I do not recall one single mention on this board, over the many many years, of Cal defeating Indiana in the first round of the NCAA tournament on 3/15/1990 by a score of 65 to 63. (The Bears would go on to get blown out by UConn, 74 to 54, and UConn would then go on to lose the championship game to Duke by one point).

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1990-03-15-california.html

I believe 1989-90 was the first appearance for the Bears in the NCAA tournament in 30 years! 30 years!!! One would think that team would be LEGENDARY around here! I was embarrassed to recently learn that the team had made the tournament...I had no idea!

What gives, Cal fans? The streak-breaking game against UCLA has been discussed quite a few times over the years. We occasionally lament the debacle against Wisconsin Green Bay. We endlessly discuss The Play, "Cal" vs. "Berkeley", Albany Bowl, Booth, Tedford's downfall, and burritos, yet this game is NEVER mentioned. Why is Cal vs. Indiana 1990 the redheaded stepchild of important Cal victories?


ncbears
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Keith! Smith!
And I think Roy Fisher set a record for most turnovers (10) n an NCAA tournament game against Connecticut - not that it was all his fault. Many, I recall, were on in-bounds plays. I don't know if that record still stands.
Postscript - the prior year, Cal had played Connecticut in the NIT and lost by one point at Connecticut's home arena.
Big C
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Good point that this game deserves more attention when we look back. Part of it was that Indiana wasn't very good that season. It wasn't like, say, beating Duke when they had Bobby Hurley. I wanna say that we were seeded higher than the Hoosiers (maybe an 8 to their 9?).

Yes, as ncbears mentions, Keith Smith was a very good point guard and yes, UConn's press killed us in that next game. Now I'm curious who else we had that season! I think I will go look it up...
bearister
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Keith Smith was a baller. He was one of Lou's favorite players. He had the best stop and pop jumper in the middle of the key I ever saw. I loved that guy.



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MilleniaBear
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That was when we first started seeing that Lou had some flaws. With Ryan Drew and Bryant Walton we should have been shooting the lights out but something about Lou's demeaner made natural shooters decline in effectiveness. He was getting better and better recruits but still felt he had to slow down the game when we could see we had a more talented team.
BadNewsBear1
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I recall that we went on a 10-0 run mid-second half that was among the best sequences of Cal basketball ever.

We had to get up for the 9:00 game Saturday vs. UConn to watch Fisher's 10 turnovers and Bill Raftery's endless blather about Nadav "The Dove" Henefeld all game long.
Growler91
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I watched Cal beat the Hoosiers at Kips! I randomly bought an "AP card" that year and this team hooked me on Cal hoops for life. How can you forget Keith Smith and his sweet "j" and drive-and-dish game? Remember RS freshman Brian Hendrick with his giant wingspan... so sad he would would never look quite as dominating. Remember that stable of marksmen in Drew, Elleby and Walton? And, of course, I became instantly addicted to the electricity of Harmon. There were no chairbacks. The crowd didn't stop. It was like a drug. Remember Oski throwing the ice cream layer cake at Gary Payton's family? Goddammit, we tore down a church and replaced it with a box store when we built Haas Pavillion! Yes, I remember this team.
oskidunker
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With a few seconds left and us fearful Indiana would still win, the Indiana guard took the inbounds past and stumbled ending the game. Four of my friends were on my couch leaping up. Two are no longer with us, unfortunately .
Go Bears!
KoreAmBear
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bearister said:

Keith Smith was a baller. He was one of Lou's favorite players. He had the best stop and pop jumper in the middle of the key I ever saw. I loved that guy.



Pamplin Media Group - Pamplin Media Group


https://pamplinmedia.com/component/content/article?id=5280




Great to see this story. He was my point guard as I was a freshman at Cal fall 1988. He was one of the most unassuming and smooth players I've seen. He made basketball look kind of easy. We repeated his name like Steve Kerr after each bucket. We should bring that back with someone.
sonofabear51
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I remember that. Also remember his shot to beat Villanova at the buzzer. Harmon at its finest. Electric, loud, obnoxious, and in the opposing teams face for 40 minutes at least. Damn those were good times. Think I was there from 1977-1990.
mbBear
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Chapman_is_Gone said:

I've been participating on this board for what must be around 20 years now. I started at Cal in August 1990, and I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Cal sports from Fall 1990 onward.

This is what I find bizarre: I do not recall one single mention on this board, over the many many years, of Cal defeating Indiana in the first round of the NCAA tournament on 3/15/1990 by a score of 65 to 63. (The Bears would go on to get blown out by UConn, 74 to 54, and UConn would then go on to lose the championship game to Duke by one point).

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1990-03-15-california.html

I believe 1989-90 was the first appearance for the Bears in the NCAA tournament in 30 years! 30 years!!! One would think that team would be LEGENDARY around here! I was embarrassed to recently learn that the team had made the tournament...I had no idea!

What gives, Cal fans? The streak-breaking game against UCLA has been discussed quite a few times over the years. We occasionally lament the debacle against Wisconsin Green Bay. We endlessly discuss The Play, "Cal" vs. "Berkeley", Albany Bowl, Booth, Tedford's downfall, and burritos, yet this game is NEVER mentioned. Why is Cal vs. Indiana 1990 the redheaded stepchild of important Cal victories?



I was at both the tournament games. I don't think Indiana was as good as they had been in the years prior to that, but, it was a fun win. My vivid recollection, from the 2nd game, is that UConn fans were jerks.
ncbears
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Indiana definitely was not as good as its pedigree. I think Big C is right that it was an 8-9 game. But, Indiana was still INDIANA, so it was a big game for fandom.
ncbears
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Indiana definitely was not as good as its pedigree. I think Big C is right that it was an 8-9 game. But, Indiana was still INDIANA, so it was a big game for fandom.
SFCityBear
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Chapman_is_Gone said:

I've been participating on this board for what must be around 20 years now. I started at Cal in August 1990, and I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Cal sports from Fall 1990 onward.

This is what I find bizarre: I do not recall one single mention on this board, over the many many years, of Cal defeating Indiana in the first round of the NCAA tournament on 3/15/1990 by a score of 65 to 63. (The Bears would go on to get blown out by UConn, 74 to 54, and UConn would then go on to lose the championship game to Duke by one point).

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1990-03-15-california.html

I believe 1989-90 was the first appearance for the Bears in the NCAA tournament in 30 years! 30 I entered years!!! One would think that team would be LEGENDARY around here! I was embarrassed to recently learn that the team had made the tournament...I had no idea!

What gives, Cal fans? The streak-breaking game against UCLA has been discussed quite a few times over the years. We occasionally lament the debacle against Wisconsin Green Bay. We endlessly discuss The Play, "Cal" vs. "Berkeley", Albany Bowl, Booth, Tedford's downfall, and burritos, yet this game is NEVER mentioned. Why is Cal vs. Indiana 1990 the redheaded stepchild of important Cal victories?



My Dear Chapman,

Consider yourself fortunate that Cal fans only disrespect the 1990 team, one of your favorites, by not mentioning their trip to the NCAA Tournament. I entered Cal in the Fall of 1959, and my favorite teams were the Cal teams of 1957 to 1960, which went to 4 Elite 8s, 2 Final Fours, 2 Championship Finals, and won one NCAA Championship, not to mention 4 consecutive Conference Championships. Sometimes, which is too often for me, their achievements are ridiculed by some Cal fans on this board for being irrelevant compared to today's basketball. With your fine post, I hope that further mention of that 1990 team on this board will be one of respect and honor for what they did, and I hope they never become irrelevant like Pete Newell and some of his teams are in the minds of some Cal fans.

SFCB



MSaviolives
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Chapman_is_Gone said:

I've been participating on this board for what must be around 20 years now. I started at Cal in August 1990, and I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Cal sports from Fall 1990 onward.

This is what I find bizarre: I do not recall one single mention on this board, over the many many years, of Cal defeating Indiana in the first round of the NCAA tournament on 3/15/1990 by a score of 65 to 63. (The Bears would go on to get blown out by UConn, 74 to 54, and UConn would then go on to lose the championship game to Duke by one point).

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/1990-03-15-california.html

I believe 1989-90 was the first appearance for the Bears in the NCAA tournament in 30 years! 30 years!!! One would think that team would be LEGENDARY around here! I was embarrassed to recently learn that the team had made the tournament...I had no idea!

What gives, Cal fans? The streak-breaking game against UCLA has been discussed quite a few times over the years. We occasionally lament the debacle against Wisconsin Green Bay. We endlessly discuss The Play, "Cal" vs. "Berkeley", Albany Bowl, Booth, Tedford's downfall, and burritos, yet this game is NEVER mentioned. Why is Cal vs. Indiana 1990 the redheaded stepchild of important Cal victories?



Yes that was a very satisfying win after so much futility. Huge schadenfreude watching Bobby Knight in red sweater get beat by the upstart Golden Bears.
calfanz
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Would be so very interested in this sports void if we could find a replay of the Bobby Knight beatdown.
bearister
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Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection
Send my credentials to the House of Detention
I got some friends inside
BEAR2dBONE
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Married my now wife, a Hoosier, because we won that game. Cal was heavy with seniors; Smith, Walton and others. Indiana was loaded with future talent; Calbert Chaney was a freshman. Bears won the grinder, by 2.!
oskidunker
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calfanz said:

Would be so very interested in this sports void if we could find a replay of the Bobby Knight beatdown.
I have one somewhere on a dvd or vhs. Oldenbear may have a copy. Maybe he could upload it.
Go Bears!
NVBear78
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I remember this first NCAA team for Cal but suspect the reason it is not to the forefront of our memories is because we were about to enter the Jason Kidd, Lamond Murray, Al Grigsby era. The Sweet Sixteen team with J Kidd just a few years later along with the controversial firing of Lou Campanelli and eventual downfall of Todd Bozeman overshadowed that first NCAA appearance.
Chabbear
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Of course we owned Duke, having also beaten them at the Oakland Coliseum in 1982 76-71! I remember being there!

https://www.si.com/college/duke/basketball/cal-winning-record-k
drizzlybear
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I started at Cal in Fall '87. That '89-'90 team and season was glorious. I never miss an opportunity to extol the virtues of that team. Keith Smith (sooo smooth) and Brian Hendrick (most hard-working, mild-mannered, over-achieving guy ever).
I'll never forget the night of that tournament game vs Indiana. I actually had to listen to it on the radio on the way to a family gathering in Half Moon Bay. My brothers and I (all three of us attending Cal at the time) were riveted to the radio. It's true that IU wasn't up to their legendary standards, but it was extra beautiful nonetheless for our plucky and undersized Bears to take down that a-hole.
And as someone else mentioned, that game vs Villanova in Harmon Gym was mind blowing. It ranks in my top three in-person sports experiences of all time, along with 2003 OT win over USC and 1995 Seattle Mariners Game 5 win over NYY.
I still see Bill Elleby In recent years at our kids' AAU games in the Seattle area. I let him know how much those teams meant to me.

Go Bears!!
sonofabear51
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Totally echo your feelings regarding the Villanova game and also finally beating ucla and breaking the streak. Harmon at its best!!
I really miss the place, the vibe, the intensity, the obnoxiousness, it was the best.
BTownsend
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Thank you to the OP for starting this thread about my favorite Cal team since I've been a Cal fan. That was such an awesome season to say the least. That team had 3 of my favorite players of all time, Keith Smith, Roy Fisher, and Brian Hendrick. I too, as did one of the other posters, watched the 1st round win over Indiana at Kip's.

To get back to the tournament after a 30 year absence was a big deal. My good friend Stan Morrison played on the '59-'60 team that was the last one to have made the Dance before the '89-'90 team.

That win over Rollie Massimino and 17th ranked Villanova in the '88-'89 season was one for the ages. I lost my voice for a few days after that game. They had that big 7'+ center, Tom Greis, who my friends and I heckled the entire game.

Harmon Gym...what more needs to be said...an amazing place to watch a game.
BeachedBear
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Indiana was a great tourney win as was Villanova. For me, the win over Duke w'Hurley was the best.
AunBear89
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Didn't Cal and Indiana face each other the year before in the NIT? Or maybe it was UConn. I could look it up, but don't wanna...
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." -- (maybe) Benjamin Disraeli, popularized by Mark Twain
oskidunker
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The second game of the ncaa tournament was u conn
Go Bears!
AunBear89
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oskidunker said:

The second game of the ncaa tournament was u conn

And the second game in the NIT the year before was also UConn. (I looked it up - my foggy memory recalled that there was some similarity between the two post seasons.)
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." -- (maybe) Benjamin Disraeli, popularized by Mark Twain
oskidunker
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I think that nit game against Uconn was Bryant Walton missing free throws at the end or we would have won. The fouled him because he couldn't Make them . Strange because at times he was a good three point shooters.
Go Bears!
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