By Chris Boghossian

Guest Columnist

I can’t believe it’s been nine years.

I watched Eastern’s Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship victory

against Austin Peay on Saturday. What a great game. Actually, I must confess. I missed part of it, just the final eight minutes, 55 seconds.

The Panthers were down by 18 or so, and another one of the patrons at the establishment I was at wanted to watch the end of the USA-Brazil soccer game. Not one to argue, I gave up on Rick Samuels and Co. and went on with my business. Looks as if I missed a piece of EIU history, huh?

I heard about it, though, and saw the final play on a downloaded video highlight off of ESPN’s Web site. Sunday morning, I happened to hear Samuels on an all sports Chicago radio station. He talked about the game’s controversial finish; he talked about Kyle Hill and Henry Domercant; and yes, he talked about The First Time.

It’s Showtime!

It was March, 1992. Eastern was playing in the Mid-Continent Conference back then and had just won the postseason tournament in Cleveland, thus clinching the school’s first-ever bid to the NCAA Tournament. I was working on the desk at the Daily Eastern News and had just put together the back page of the paper. The headline read “IT’S SHOWTIME!” The next afternoon, there was

a pep rally at Lantz Gym, and a few thousand students and locals welcomed the Panthers home with congratulations. Samuels spoke of his players finally coming together and playing well for three straight games. The players thanked the fans for their support. The fans chanted “We want Duke! We want Duke!” There was joy in Chuckville.

Next up was Selection Sunday. Samuels and his players, as well as several hundred fans and a group of media, gathered and waited for the call that had never been made before. The words EASTERN ILLINOIS appeared after a No. 15 on the big screen TV in front of us all; the opponent: second-seeded Indiana; the setting: Boise, Idaho.

The Trip

Instead of flying with the team, the bosses at The Daily Eastern News thought to save a few thousand dollars, we could rent a car and drive to Boise. The game wasn’t until Friday night , so we departed Charleston in a Ford Taurus at 6 a.m. Thursday for a two-day journey. Eastern News faculty

adviser John Ryan and staff photographer Shannon Thomas, another senior, were with me, and I distinctly remember three brushes with disaster.

First we hit a snowstorm in Denver that was so heavy we couldn*t see the cars next to us. I honestly felt like we weren*t moving.Then, we (actually, I think it was Ryan) decided to get off the interstate highway and cut up through Wyoming. Little did we know that the drive on an interstate in Denver was nothing in comparison to a dark, two-lane mountain road with no guard rails. I honestly was pasted to the front windshield looking for the next road-side reflector as Thomas drove about 10 m.p.h. Ryan was in the back seat, sleeping like a baby. Needless to say, we didn’t save any time on our “shortcut” and spent the night in Larimee, Wyo.

Our third brush with death came the following morning. They had closed the interstate because of ice, and once it opened up, it was like the Indy 500. Because of the road closure, we were behind and in jeopardy of missing the game. I was behind the wheel when a car less than 100 feet in front of me lost control on a patch of ice and wildly spun out of control. I was passing a tractor-trailer at the time, going an estimated 20 to 25 m.p.h. above the speed limit when I saw the car in front of me had turned around and was facing us. Luckily, the car regained control and ended up on the shoulder with no harm done. Within hours, we drove into Boise.

A Bad Knight

We arrived in Boise, checked into the hotel and ran over to the stadium. Shaquille O’Neal and LSU were taking on Shaun Bradley and Brigham Young in the evening program’s opener. Bradley either set or tied a tournament record with 11 blocked shots, but O’Neal was way too strong, and LSU advanced. Next up: Eastern vs. Indiana.

Remember, Bobby Knight’s Hoosiers were tough — Knight thought they deserved a No. 1 seed. Not only did they drop to No. 2 seed, but the selection committee sent him West, waaaay West, and boy, was he ticked off. He had a right to be with the group of players he had — Calbert Cheaney, Eric Anderson and Alan Henderson all went on to the NBA, and Cheaney was an All-American that year. No offense to Steve Rowe, Barry Johnson or Dave Olson, but the Panthers had no chance. After staying close in the opening minutes, the Panthers got a bad call from an official and that seemed to spark Indiana. They never looked back and won 95-55. The game wasn’t that close.

Afterward, we went to the post-game news conferences. Samuels was smooth. He knew his team was outmatched, but if he was intimideated, he didn’t show it

and didn’t let his players know. Knight, on the other hand, was on fire. He still was upset with the trip his team had to make and with the late-evening game. Every answer was typical Knight — sarcastic and smug. He even went at it with a New Orleans television reporter, each taking verbal jabs at one

another. It was pure Knight, and I witnessed it first-hand.

Sunday showdowns

After a day of taking in Boise – and believe me, it is a beautiful place to visit – we stayed in town to watch the second-round games. The first game pitted Florida State against Georgetown, and the Seminoles (led by Sam

Cassell and Bobby Sura) eliminated John Thompson’s Hoyas in Alonzo Mourning’s final collegiate game. The Boise crowd booed Mourning off the court when he fouled out, and an obviously upset Mourning was led out of the postgame news conference by Thompson.

In the second game, O’Neal and LSU gave the Hoosiers a scare, and Shaq was unstoppable; he had 36 points and 12 rebounds, all while he was double- and

triple-teamed. Indiana went on to win the game, and then two others, eventually losing in the Final Four.

After a short visit home, I cut the rest of my Spring Break short to work on a special section commemmorating Eastern*s first NCAA tournament appearance. I talked to Samuels and each of the team*s seniors, and the one thing I remember most from those talks were the vivid memories each had, from the victory that clinched the bid to the fans in Boise greeting the team as it walked off the plane to the electric atmosphere in the stadium.

This time, Samuels knows what to expect. He can tell his players he’s been there before, and they’ll look at him with a lot more confidence than his 1992 team did.

Congratulations, Rick. You made it back. It took nine years, but you’re dancing again.

I promise I’ll watch the ending this time.

Chris Boghossian is a former Sports Editor at the Daily Eastern News. He now works as a sports page designer at The Chicago Sun-Times.