The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Navy loss ends CSU run worth saluting
Twice before in the 1986 NCAA Tournament, Cleveland State junior point guard Shawn Hood and the Cleveland State Vikings had defied long odds.
At the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, No. 14 seed CSU had posted upset victories over No. 3 Indiana and No. 6 St. Joseph’s.
It was the program’s first appearance in college basketball’s showcase event, and the Vikings had quickly established a national reputation as the tournament’s giant killer.
Next on the docket for thirdyear coach Kevin Mackey and CSU (29-3) in the round of 16 was an East Region semifinal against All-America center David Robinson and Navy (29-4) on March 21, 1986 at Brendan Byrne Arena in New Jersey.
The most basic of web searches tells you the Vikings came tantalizingly close to springing yet another upset before the No. 7 Middies, sparked by Robinson’s late second-half scoring burst, held on for a 7170 victory in front of 19,454 fans.
Robinson was spectacular, accounting for 12 of Navy’s last 14 points on his way to a 22-point, 14-rebound effort. He also blocked seven shots as Navy’s zone defense slowed the Vikings throughout and held them 19 points below their pergame average.
Still, the Vikings appeared to be in prime position when senior forward Clinton Smith stole the ball from Navy guard Doug Wojcik and drove for a layup that gave CSU a 7069 lead with 26 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing Navy possession, CSU sophomore power forward Paul Stewart intercepted a lob pass intended for Robinson. Navy senior forward Vernon Butler came up from behind Stewart and attempted to take the ball from Stewart.
Butler raised his hand as if called for a foul on the whistle by referee Joe Forte, but Forte signaled a tieup instead. The ball went to Navy on the alternate possession.
“Butler came over the back. He knew it. It was a bad call,” said Smith, now 56 and running a youth basketball program in Geauga County.
With eight seconds remaining, Robinson took a pass on the low block, spun and canned a four-foot jump shot to give Navy a 71-70 lead.
There were five seconds remaining when Hood fired the inbounds pass to Smith. Streaking up the floor, Smith let fly with a desperation shot that hit the back of the rim and caromed away as the final buzzer sounded.
CSU’s breakout season and heady run through the NCAA Tournament was over. Smith and freshman guard Ken “Mouse” McFadden had each scored 16 points. Junior center Eric Mudd, playing on an aching right knee, added 11 points and 11 rebounds.
“That was a good Navy team, and David Robinson obviously was a great player.,” said Hood, now 55 and an employability skills teacher at Lorain High School. “They weren’t 10 deep like us, but their first five were really talented.”
“To this day, I wish I could have done more to slow down Robinson,” added Mudd, now 55 and working in management for Daimler Trucks North America in Charlotte, N.C. the Pacers, said he has come to share that view of the three-day stay in Cleveland.
“The media attention was like nothing we’d seen before at Cleveland State,” Mackey said. “TV, radio and print, they seemed to be coming at us from everywhere.”
CSU junior forward Clinton Ransey was limited to eight points against Navy after tallying 27 against Indiana and 17 against St. Joseph.
Now 55 and living in Mississippi where he is in management for Angelica Corporation, Ransey said his mind kept going back to the Navy game on the CSU traveling party’s flight home to Cleveland.
“I remember thinking could I have done this different or done that better, especially since the game was so close,” Ransey said. “You want to change the outcome. But we lost and there was no changing that.”
McFadden, now 54 and working for Cuyahoga County, remembers the emotional letdown after the Navy loss.
“I didn’t know where to go or what to do,” McFadden said. “It was heartbreaking. One moment, you are on top of the world and people are cheering for you. Then, just like that, it’s over.”
In McFadden’s mind, that sense of deflation was somewhat offset by the impact of what he and his teammates had accomplished during that eight-day stretch in March 1986.
“I remember it gave the city of Cleveland a big lift,” McFadden said. “We were a breath of fresh air. You had the Indians, Browns and the Cavs. But guess who made the city feel so good? The Cleveland State Vikings.”