Throwback Thursday: Steve's '89-90 team had it going on

Coach Steve Fritz enjoyed a national breakthrough season with St. Thomas men's basketball in 1989-90, his 10th year since replacing longtime mentor Tom Feely.

Fritz had never had a losing season guiding the Tommies. The Purple were coming off a 19-8 campaign that included a late three-overtime home defeat of St. John's, wins in nine of the last 11 contests, and a share of the league championship.

This 1989-90 squad went 8-1 in games decided by five or less points and put together a long winning streak as it secured the program's first NCAA playoff appearance for men's hoops. (St. Thomas hoops previously made six trips in a nine-year span to the NAIA tournament in Kansas City from 1966-74).

Here are some of the 1989-90 team's highlights:

Fritz returned all five starters from 1988-89, and his 12-player varsity roster included five seniors and six juniors.
The Toms' final 25-5 record tied for the third most wins in program history at that point.
That was the most wins for St. Thomas Men's Basketball in 16 seasons.
They secured the No. 9 national ranking in the final Division III poll.
The record included a 3-1 record in overtime games.
That group finished 12-1 in road games, including an overtime victory at St. John's.
The Purple started a Thanksgiving trip out west by beating Division II Cal State Northridge 100-98 in four OT -- the longest game in program history. Northridge began competing at the NCAA Division I level the next season.
The Toms closed out the west coast trip in Phoenix with a 67-47 win at NAIA school Grand Canyon -- another future NCAA Division I program and the 1988 NAIA national champs. That outcome ended Grand Canyon's 37-game home-court win streak and avenged a 22-point loss to the Antelopes from the previous season.
The Purple won the conference regular-season championship at 18-2. They claimed the league playoff title with a two-overtime defeat of Carleton, and a 60-50 home defeat of the Johnnies.
That MIAC playoff crown was St. Thomas' first in basketball, in the sixth year of league playoff format. One year earlier the Toms lost 53-52 to Gustavus in the playoff title game.
After it lost three of four games during a mid-season stretch, St. Thomas reeled off 15 consecutive victories to tie a school record.
It compiled a 4-1 mark in the postseason. It lost to DePauw in two overtimes in the NCAA round of 16. It finished with a consolation-round win over Nebraska Wesleyan after trailing by 11 at halftime.
That DePauw team went on to place second in the national tournaent, and had a guard named Brad Brownell -- who today is the head basketball coach at Division I Clemson.
Future Tommie Athletic Hall of Famers Tom Batta and Scott Thompson -- a pair of three-time All-MIAC honorees -- were juniors on that 1989-90 team.
Thompson was named the MIAC Player of the Year in the first year the award was presented.
Batta, Thompson, and senior Tim Nelson made All-MIAC.
In the four-OT Northridge victory, Batta played all 60 minutes and just missed recording a triple double with 26 points, eight boards and eight assists; he sank two 3-pointers in the final minute of the second overtime to erase a six-point deficit.
Nelson scored a career-high 34 points in the Northridge victory, including a trey to tie the game at the end of the third overtime.

St. Thomas Men's Basketball went on to average nearly 22 wins in a six-season stretch from 1989-95, and made an NCAA Final Four appearance in 1994.

Fritz retired in 2011 after leading the Purple to an NCAA team championship; he closed with 594 victories; led 26 MIAC crowns (10 playoff); and had only one losing season in his 31-year run as head coach

Plaque

University of St. Thomas Athletics

Throwback Thursday: Steve's '89-90 team had it going on

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