There have been a lot of incredible and historic sports seasons at Fairfield University over the years. This second installment relives the 1986-87 men's basketball team historic run to back-to-back MAAC Championships and NCAA Tournaments. Click here to read Part I.
By Chris Elsberry
Part Two - The 1987 MAAC Tournament
In the 1987 MAAC Tournament quarterfinals, the Fairfield University men's basketball team found their 'A' game and pounded LaSalle 75-62. Explorers freshman Lionel Simmons might have scored 36 but Gromos and Wynder each had 27 to lift the Stags.
"That was the best game we played all year," Head Coach Mitch Buonaguro said. "We beat them like a drum."
In the semifinals, Fairfield scored the last 12 points to erase a seven-point deficit in the final four minutes against Army and win 65-60 thanks to 19 points from Troy Bradford, 14 from Jeff Gromos (along with 12 rebounds) and 13 each from A.J. Wynder and Tim O'Toole lifting them into the championship game against Iona.
After a back-and-forth first half that saw Iona head to the locker room with a 35-31 halftime lead, the Gaels opened the first six minutes of the second half with an 18-4 spurt to open a commanding 53-35 advantage with a little over 12 minutes to play.
"I remember that (Iona) was straight out dominating us. I don't remember what exactly was said in the huddle but myself and A.J. started making shots, they started missing shots and they got tight," Bradford said.
Buonaguro gave Andy Woodtli some significant minutes to help O'Toole and Gromos battle down low. O'Toole scored a pair of baskets and Wynder and Bradford led a resurgence as the Stags scored 12 straight to cut the Iona lead to 57-50 with 8:19 left to play before two O'Toole free throws completed a 16-3 Fairfield surge that got the Stags within 59-56 with 5:18 to go.
"We just kept chopping the tree down," Wynder said, who averaged 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists that season. "It was just little by little, two points at a time. Troy (Bradford) and Jeff (Gromos) hit some big shot and we knew we had to get stops. We were confident. We believed in ourselves."
"Even when we were down 17, there was something about Iona that made us all come together," O'Toole said. "We never quit. In that huddle with 12 minutes left, I said, 'there's no way they're going to beat us.' Our season was not going to end like this. We started grinding it out, two points by two points, an old school comeback."
A.J. seals the deal
A three-pointer from Bradford pulled Fairfield even at 63-63 with 26 seconds left in regulation but Iona's Richie Simmons gave the Gaels back the lead at 65-63 with five second left, forcing Fairfield to go the length of the floor to try and tie the game.
No problem, right?
Right.
The play was simple. To this day, Wynder can't remember what the play was called. What he does remember was that, depending on where he got the ball, he had about five dribbles before he had to shoot.
"Mitch always told me, 'a dribble a second … a dribble a second' so when I caught it, I'm counting in the back of my head, 5 … 4 … 3," Wynder said. "put it down, put it down, and I just pulled up and shot it and it went in. It was something we practiced all the time."
Said O'Toole, "I took the ball out of bounds. My job was easy, get the ball to A.J. shooting up the floor. Sure enough, he got it, went into the front court and hit it. After all that Mitch had put us through with these kind of situations, we knew we weren't going to crack."
Wynder took the ball from O'Toole around three-quarter court. Four dribbles later, he was pulling up from about 18-feet on the right side.
Swish. Tie game. Overtime.
"A.J. was probably the only guy that could have made that play," Gromos said. "He never got flustered. We had gone through that scenario so many times before in practice, we were ready. A.J. was the guy to do it. He took matters into his own hands and that was that."
From there, it was all Fairfield. Gromos hit a basket in overtime to make it 70-69 Iona before Golden hit two free throws to give the Stags the lead. Gromos scored again to make it 73-70 Fairfield with 22 seconds left and that was enough as Iona's last three attempts to tie went astray and Fairfield, for the second straight year, captured the MAAC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
"To be honest, I always thought that we were going to win the MAAC. All we needed to do was get healthy and when we did that, I knew we were the best team in the league," Bradford said. "Maybe not the most talented but we were the best team in the league."
In 21 gritty minutes, Woodtli gave Fairfield seven rebounds and a block. Gromos scored 24 points and added 10 rebounds in 41 minutes. O'Toole had 12 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals before fouling out. Ed Duncan had three points and three assists in 19 minutes. Wynder had 16 points and five assists in playing all 45 minutes, Bradford had 16 points and two assists in 35 minutes and Golden had six assists and just one turnover in 36 minutes.
"This was where, having coached with Rollie (Massimino) at Villanova really helped," Buonaguro said. "Rollie was great at making kids believe they were better than they were. During that comeback (against Iona) no one panicked. They had been through so much already that season. This moment wasn't too big for them. They were a senior-oriented team."
Knight time
Fairfield (15-15) was slated as a No. 16 seed in the Midwest Region and its opponent? Top-seeded (and No. 3 seed overall) Indiana, who had been upset by Cleveland State in the opening round of the NCAA's last March. The Hoosiers were primed and ready not to let anything like that happen again.
"Indiana had lost to Cleveland State the season before and this time, they wanted blood," Golden said. "They were going to crush whoever stood in their way and that happened to be us."
Still in the days leading up to the game, Wynder and some of the other Fairfield players were hoping that the basketball gods were leaning a little bit on the side of the Stags.
"We were in New Jersey before flying to Indianapolis and the coaches took us to see the movie 'Hoosiers.' It had just come out," O'Toole said. "We're playing Indiana, I'm like, it's Bob Knight … it's Indiana.' That was as big as it gets. Now, we get to Indianapolis and we're practicing in Hinkle Fieldhouse, where the movie was filmed. We were like that Hickory team."
Wynder felt that same way.
"We saw the movie Hoosiers, about this tiny team that wins the title and when we get to Indiana, we practice in Hinkle Fieldhouse, the place where they shot the movie. I got chills," Wynder said. "I'm thinking, 'we could be special. We could be Hickory … we weren't Hickory."
Sadly, for the Stags, the game might have been over even before it started. With four minutes left in the pre-game warmups, Indiana coach Bobby Knight strode onto the floor – to a raucous standing ovation from the 29,610 that came to the Hoosier Dome – and the Fairfield lay-up line stopped – literally stopped – to watch Knight walk to his bench.
"We all stopped and watched him. He was eating a small bag of popcorn or potato chips and everyone was going crazy," Golden said.
Added Gromos, "I think that Mitch asked coach Knight for a photo. I don't know if that's true but … yeah, we were all awestruck. At that time, at Indiana, Knight was God. Walking onto the court like that, he was literally larger than life. It was surreal."
"We're warming up at the far basket and he come out and 30,000 people stood up and cheered," Buonaguro said. "What I remember was my players stopped warming up to look at Knight and one of my assistants Tom Barrise looks at me and says, 'Mitch, we might be in trouble,' and I said, 'Tom, I think you're right.'
For the first 10 minutes or so, we played pretty well, it was fairly close … then it got out of hand."
Five minutes in, thanks to baskets from Golden and Gromos and two free throws from Wynder, Fairfield trailed just 8-6 but a 19-6 Indiana run made it 27-12 Hoosiers with 6:24 left in the half.
The rout was on.
"We couldn't make a pass from point A to point B. They were everywhere. All over us," O'Toole said.
"We were prepared as we could be, but they were so big and so strong and so physical," Gromos said. "They took us out of everything we wanted to do. They smoked us. It was really a struggle."
Especially when you consider that Fairfield was – and had been -- playing just seven players throughout much of the season. By the NCAA tournament, the Stags were gassed.
"Winning those three (MAAC) games with just six, seven guys, trust me, we were physically shot. They were just bigger, stronger and faster across the board," Golden said. "They suffocated us defensively. If we were running a play, they were in the spot before we were. It was … wow. Their defense was outstanding. We couldn't do anything."
Added Wynder, "I've seen pictures of Keith Smart guarding me and he's on me like I've never been guarded before. They came out and crushed us."
Gromos led Fairfield with 21 points and 11 rebounds in 39 minutes. Wynder finished with 15 points, three assists and two steals in 34 minutes while Golden had 11 points and three assists in 33 minutes, and O'Toole had seven points in 24 minutes before fouling out.
"It wasn't meant to be," Wynder said. "They won the whole thing so at least we can say we lost to the NCAA champions."
