Montana State University Billings Athletics

Second in career steals (165)

SPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale was standing outside the press room at the Springfield (Mass.) Civic Center talking to some Eastern Montana College basketball fans.

"If you beat Alaska-Anchorage three times, you've got a heckuva team," Vitale told the group, which was on hand for the Division II Final Four twenty years ago.

Yes, the Yellowjackets were a heckuva team during the 1986-87 season, arguably the best small-college squad in state history.

Making it to the semifinals of the national tournament was a tremendous accomplishment, which would've been even better had Eastern (now known as Montana State-Billings) made it to the championship game.

But a 61-55 semifinal loss to Gannon University didn't tarnish the season which produced a Great Northwest Conference championship, a West Regional title and a 24-7 record that still stands as the finest in school history.

Pryor Orser, who is the head basketball coach at Colorado Mines, was a sophomore guard that season and remembers the Yellowjackets as being a complete team.

"We had everything," said Orser. "We had size, strength and quickness. We could rebound, we could shoot and we could play defense. We had a great coaching staff. Coach (Pat) Douglass, coach (Len) Wilkins and Henry Clark had great chemistry. They were tremendous together."

Curt Brott, now a teacher and assistant basketball coach at Billings West, said the Yellowjackets believed they could win any game because, "Douglass had everybody so well prepared that when we walked out on the floor, we were confident we could win. We knew what was going to happen."

What happened much of the time were convincing victories. Of the 24 wins, 18 came by double-digit margins.

The Yellowjackets were good enough to play well against Montana State, losing an entertaining 90-80 decision in Bozeman to the Bobcats, who claimed the regular season Big Sky title. MSU had the likes of Tom Domako, Ray Willis, Kral Ferch and Mike Fellows.

Eastern had similar, if not quite comparable talent. While the Yellowjackets had some threats from the newly-installed 3-point line, they didn't have anyone who was a long-range scorer with the size of the 6-foot-8 Domako.

But they had everything else.

"We were very balanced," said Wilkins, the assistant coach. "We had really good guard play and we were big inside. We were physical and we had good quickness and athleticism."

The front court consisted of 6-6 George "Ice" Jackson, 6-8 Pat Reynolds and Robert Utterback and Brott, both 6-7. Jerome Johnson (6-5), and Marc Johnson were good scorers and Dominic Washington was a talented point guard. He wasn't a great shooter, but was a good passer and terrific on defense.

Mark Steger and Orser both provided quality play off the bench.

Montana State was just part of a tough schedule the Yellowjackets faced. They also had non-conference games with Boise State, North Dakota, North Dakota State and played in a good Division II tournament that featured Sacred Heart and Wright State.

The league was formidable, especially with Anchorage and Puget Sound. A year earlier, the Yellowjackets had gone 22-8 and played in the national tournament. However, they'd lost three times to Anchorage.

UAA was very similar to Eastern in talent with 6-10 center Hansi Gnad and sharp shooting guard Jesse Jackson. Jackson, a 5-8 dynamo, had scored 37 points against Iowa in the Great Alaska Shootout and was nearly unstoppable.

Eastern didn't shut Jackson down, but forced him to take a lot of shots to get his points as the Yellowjackets won at home 90-74 and then posted a surprising 76-65 decision at Anchorage to claim the league title.

"One of the most memorable things was going to Alaska and winning the conference championship," Brott said. "That gave us a lot of momentum."

Eastern needed it because Anchorage was again waiting in the regional and the third meeting went down to the wire. EMC managed to escape with a 79-73 victory, setting up a quarterfinal game with Florida Southern.

Luckily, it was the West Region's turn to be the home team and Alterowitz Gymnasium was packed two hours before tip-off. The Yellowjackets didn't let the opportunity slip away, getting 19 points and 11 rebounds from Jackson and 16 points from Jerome Johnson in a 75-62 victory.

It was on to Springfield, a home of the basketball Hall of Fame, and a Friday night date with Gannon. The Yellowjackets had an edge in quickness, but Gannon was even more physical with 6-8 John Matthews, 6-9 John Bowen, a transfer from Notre Dame, 6-7 Mike Runski and 6-6 Mitch Smith.

The Yellowjackets looked good early as Johnson was on fire in the first half with 17 points. Eastern led 34-26 at the half and put together a 10-1 run for a 46-33 lead with just under 13 minutes to play. The game was at a tipping point, but the Yellowjackets just couldn't put the Golden Knights over the edge.

Johnson, who had sprained an ankle in the first half, was hobbled in the second half and didn't score. Washington picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench and Reynolds and Jackson were also in foul trouble.

Gannon got life on a breakaway dunk by Runski when he picked off an Orser pass and climbed back into the game. Orser said it still hurts to think about it.

"To be honest, I still have not watched the video," Orser said. "I threw the pass that Runski stole and dunked. Jerome had scored something like 12 points in the first half and sprained his ankle. Dominic got in foul trouble and the momentum changed."

And Eastern never got it back. Led by burly 6-4 forward David Morris, who peppered away from the 15-foot range, Gannon surged ahead and earned the berth against Kentucky Wesleyan, a perennial Division II power, in the championship game (Wesleyan rolled 92-74).

"I think we were the better team," said Utterback, now a ranch manager in Northern California, of the Gannon loss. "Kentucky Wesleyan was a helluva team. We would've had to pull out everything we had, but it would have been nice to have had the chance to try."

Marc Johnson, Jackson, Reynolds and Utterback all played pro ball overseas and Douglass went on to win three Division II national championships at Cal State-Bakersfield. He's been at UC Irvine for the last 10 seasons.

Wilkins took over for Douglass as head coach for one season and served as an assistant for three more years before being let go in 1991. He's now an assistant coach at Rocky Mountain College.

Since that time the Yellowjackets were left out of a reorganization of the Great Northwest Conference in the late 1990s and have played in the Pacific West and Heartland Conferences. They've played in four national tournaments, making the 1998 West Region finals where they fell to Cal State-Bakersfield.

Fortunately, MSUB will be rejoining the GNC next season and they'll get to renew their rivalry with Anchorage (one of the best they've ever had), Seattle Pacific and Alaska Fairbanks.

Maybe down the road something like 1987 can happen again.