Paul Just is Sports Information Director (ret.) and Secretary, Alumni W-Club at Western Kentucky University. He was recently elected to CoSIDA Hall of Fame.
Today at 4 p.m. on ESPN2, Coach Michelle Clark-Heard's Lady Toppers will take on Texas in first round action in the NCAA Tournament, marking the seventh time the two schools have squared off against each other in women's basketball.
But, this time, the game is set to be played in Berkeley, Calif., some 2,317 miles -- and two days shy of 30 years since that first game in the series on March 22, 1985 -- removed from the site and time of that first meeting.
It was a meeting that holds a special place in the lore of WKU's tradition-rich E.A. Diddle Arena. You see, Texas was the number one ranked team in the nation at the time, the winner of 28 of 30 games, including the preceding 20 contests in a row! Now, you have to understand, Coach Paul Sanderford's 3rd Topper club was no slouch. WKU headed into the contest ranked 14th in the land with a sparkling 26-5 record.
Still, despite the so-called "home court advantage", it was not a game Texas expected to lose -- the Lady Longhorns had their sights on the national championship and were just chomping at the bit to win two in Bowling Green and head home to Austin where they would be hosting the Final Four!
What a script! But, alas, it was not a script that the Lady Toppers had read!
An epic contest awaited the 4,900 fans in Diddle Arena that day.
It was a battle from beginning to end. The Lady Longhorns led 48-43 at the half. But, with just seconds to play and the score knotted up at 90-all, Texas called a timeout to set up its defense after the Longhorns deflected a WKU pass out of bounds in front of the Topper bench.
But, it was WKU (with no timeouts left), not the Longhorns, who turned out to be the benefactor of that pause in the action.
Sanderford elected to use a play the Lady Toppers had practiced, but never used. Clemette Haskins was the decoy out front, when Kami Thomas inbounded the ball to Lillie Mason, who had posted up just below the free line on the near side of the floor. Thomas' pass was perfect. Mason took the toss, pivoted on her left foot and went up for the shot.
Student photographer Todd Miller was in the right place at the right time to get one of the truly great photos in WKU athletic history. Mason was high, fully extended above the defense ... the ball was in the air ... the score (90-90) and the time (0:01) were clearly visible on the scoreboard above the center of the court ... and ... a split second later, the ball banked into the basket, through the net, and fell to the floor. It was over -- WKU 92, Texas 90!
The Lady Toppers had pulled the highly improbable upset, defeating Coach Jodie Conradt’s #1 Texas to earn a berth in the NCAA regional championship game two days later. Mason (26 points and 14 rebounds) and Haskins (26 points and three assists) led the Toppers, followed by Thomas (14 points, seven boards and four assists, including that big one on the last play), Cookie Jones (nine points and six boards) and Sheronda Jenkins (six points, five assists and four steals). Andrea Lloyd led the Lady Longhorns with 20 points and 19 rebounds.
After the drama and suspense of the Texas game, not many people remember that regional title game two days later in Diddle Arena, a game that pitted the Toppers against Coach Van Chancellor’s #6 Ole Miss. It was another classic, and another victory for WKU -- this one by a 72-68 count (in front of a crowd of 6,500 fans, undoubtedly energized by the win over Texas). That triumph punched the Lady Toppers' ticket to the Final Four in Austin!
In that Final Four (the first of three for Lady Topper basketball), the Toppers faced Coach Andy Landers’ #8 Georgia, a team WKU had defeated on Dec. 12 in Diddle Arena by a 72-67 tally in overtime. This time the Bulldogs prevailed (91-78) and the Topper season was over. Teresa Whitherspoon, one of America’s all-time greatest Olympic players, was the leader of the Lady Bulldogs.
WKU finished the year ranked 14th in the country with its 28-6 record. Five of those six setbacks came at the hands of nationally ranked teams, four of those ranked 8th or higher! Overall, the Toppers were 3-5 in action with ranked clubs, owning wins over #1 Texas, #3 Georgia and #6 Ole Miss -- truly, one of the greatest of the many great seasons in Lady Topper basketball history!
WKU and Texas met again the next spring, in the NCAA Final Four in Lexington. This time, the powerful #1 ranked Longhorns ended the 5th ranked Toppers' season (90-65) at 32-4 on their way to an undefeated campaign (36-0) and the national title. Overall, the two schools met on the hardwood in six straight seasons, with UT (nationally ranked each time) winning four times. WKU, unranked at the time, won the most recent contest in the series (61-56) over the 4th ranked Longhorns in Diddle Arena on Jan, 11, 1990.
Here, three decades later, as the 2014-15 edition Lady Toppers prepare to take on Texas again in the NCAA Championships, when WKU women's basketball fans talk about the great games in the history of the sport on The Hill, that Texas contest back in the 1985 tourney is usually the first one mentioned!