Twenty years ago today (March 16), UNI had its best basketball day ever

University of Nothing Impossible?” Twenty years ago this week, the University of Northern Iowa was just that.

With 10 seconds and a 71-71 score, Panthers Coach Eldon Miller called timeout in UNI's NCAA men's tournament first-round contest against Missouri in Richmond, Va. Miller reinserted guard Maurice Newby into the game.

The inbounds pass went to point guard Dale Turner, who dribbled to his right, came back to his left, passed to Newby, and watched his teammate swish a 22-footer with 3 seconds left for the three points that gave the 14th-seeded Panthers a 74-71 win over No. 3-seed Mizzou.

“It was a play we ran all the time, with a variety of options,” Miller said last week from North Carolina, where he is an assistant coach to son Ben Miller at North Carolina-Pembroke.

Turner had the go-ahead to drive to either try to score or dish off for a basket.

“They basically stopped my penetration,” Turner said. “I couldn't turn the corner like I wanted, so my next best option was pitching the ball to Maurice. There wasn't enough time for another play. It was a great feeling to see the ball go into the basket.”

Northern Iowa suddenly went from being an anonymous “directional” school to a national darling. Missouri had been ranked No. 1 in the nation for some of the season, and had two future NBA players in center Doug Smith and guard Anthony Peeler. UNI had a 6-6 record in the Association of Mid-Continent Universities.

Twenty years. One shining moment that still endures.

“Even 20 years later, people are still talking about it. Every March, people still talk about it.” said Steve Phyfe, a starting forward on that team from Nashua. He is the manager of the Scheels All Sports store in Cedar Falls.

Just getting to the NCAAs was wild enough for the Panthers. The Mid-Continent tournament was rotated to different league sites, and 1990 was UNI's turn to host. The Panthers' quarterfinal game was against Illinois-Chicago. They won in triple-overtime.

In the semis, UNI trailed Southwest Missouri State by eight points with 2:14 left. The Panthers rallied to tie the game, and had the ball under the opposite basket with two seconds left. Turner, now the boys' basketball coach at Clyde C. Miller Career Academy in his St. Louis hometown, fired a near-length-of-the-court pass to center Jason Reese, whose lay-in beat the buzzer for the victory.

The next night, UNI defeated Wisconsin-Green Bay 53-45 for its first NCAA berth in its 10th season as a Division I program.

“After that game,” Miller said, “I felt we'd be very difficult to beat from that point on.”

Jonathan Cox, a guard on that UNI team, recalled the reactions as Big Eight champion Missouri was named as the Panthers' first-round opponent.

“Coach Miller said ‘Perfect,'” Cox said. “We players were like ‘What is he talking about? Doug Smith's an NBA player. Anthony Peeler's an NBA player.' We didn't say ‘Perfect.' But we took on that challenge.”

To a man, those Panther players remark on how well Miller and his staff got them prepared for that game.

“Sam Skarich worked with the big guys, Jason and I,” Phyfe said. “He kept telling us Doug Smith had one favorite move, a drop-step to the baseline for a dunk. On their first play, he drop-stepped for a dunk. I looked over at Coach Skarich with my hands up and ran back down the court.”

Things quickly got better on that Friday afternoon in Richmond. UNI led 42-31 at halftime.

“We played almost perfect basketball in the first half,” Turner said. “Everybody played well.”

But a lead that was 12 points with five minutes left was erased. Reese, the wide-bodied 6-foot-7 center who was a high school teammate of Newby's in Des Moines, fouled out after accumulating 18 points and 15 rebounds while battling All-America Smith.

Newby, who now lives in Germany, had played only 13 minutes. He came back into the game at that timeout with 10 seconds to go. If he wasn't the first option, he was a good alternative with his shooting range.

“The play we called, everyone has their own interpretation,” said Cox, who eventually joined Miller's UNI coaching staff before becoming the university's coordinator of minority and student diversity affairs.

“The story has changed 20 times in 20 years,” Cox said with a laugh.

But each time that clip is shown, Newby's shot always goes straight into the basket.

There was a second-round game to play two days later, against No. 6-seed Minnesota. The Gophers won, 81-78. Minnesota forward Willie Burton scored 36 points.

“Willie Burton had a career day on us,” Turner said. “If he just gets his average of 18 or 19, we win by double-digits. We just couldn't get it done on the defensive end that particular day.”

“The most disappointing thing is we were a better team than Minnesota but we didn't beat them,” Miller said. “We were not able to get the kids' feet back on the ground, in my opinion. There was so much excitement getting in the tournament and then winning a game in the tournament. We didn't do a very good job helping them understand they could beat Minnesota.”

Every close loss burns, even 20 years later. But the lasting memory of that tourney for UNI is solely the win over Missouri.

“It meant a lot to the university,” Turner said.

“University of Nothing Impossible,” read a sign held by a UNI cheerleader.

It remains the Panthers' only win in the NCAAs. There have been four trips to the tourney since, with five-point losses in the first-round each time. Maybe this week will be different this week for the 2010 UNI team. The 1990 team hopes so.

“They've got a great bunch of kids,” Phyfe said. His daughter, a ninth-grade basketball player, has clippings of current Panther Adam Koch's achievements on her bedroom wall.

“The level of play of Northern Iowa has been terrific at this point in time,” Miller said. “It's great to see that. I couldn't be happier for the Panthers.”