There have been a lot of incredible and historic sports seasons at Fairfield University over the years. This second installment relives the 1996-97 men's basketball team capturning the nation's attention with its improbable run in March. Click here to read Part I.

By Chris Elsberry

Walking down Tobacco Road
 
For winning the MAAC, Fairfield (11-18) received (what else?) a No. 16 seed in the NCAA tournament and drew North Carolina in the opening round. Not surprisingly, the game would be played in Winston-Salem, N.C. just about an hour's drive from the Tar Heels campus in Chapel Hill.
 
On top of that, legendary North Carolina coach Dean Smith was going after career win No. 876, a mark that would tie another legend, Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, for the all-time college basketball victory record.
 
Do you think the Stags cared? Heck no.
 
"We didn't have any expectations against North Carolina, we just went out and played," Shannon Bowman said. "We wanted to go out, execute our game plan and let the chips fall where they may."
 
"We practiced hard for North Carolina," added Greg Francis. "Coach took a chair, put it under the basket and stood on it with a broom and said, 'OK, get ready I'm going to pretend to be Serge Zwikker (North Carolina's 7-foot-3 center) and we had to shoot over that. They had a ton of talent and a ton of size, but we were prepared to play against them."
 
Antwan Jamison worked inside to score the game's first basket but John Tice answered with a 3-pointer and Fairfield held the lead. Vince Carter hit a 3 to put Carolina back in front but the Stags answered with 3's from Commodore and Francis and led 9-5.
 
"No sign of jitters in those last two shots," CBS play by play man Sean McDonough said.
 
"They're running their stuff nicely," added CBS analyst Bill Raftery. "Good crisp cuts, good screens, patience, reversing the basketball."
 
A basket from Darren Phillip, a free throw from Sunday Eniojukan and another 3-pointer from Francis made it 15-11 Fairfield and then back-to-back baskets from Tice gave the underdog Stags an eight-point lead.
 
"John, he was young, but he turned it on in the tournament," Bowman said. "He was clicking on all cylinders and he was the X factor for us. He was aggressive, tough going to the basket and making open shots."
 
A third Francis 3 and a mid-ranger jumper from Bowman pushed the Fairfield advantage to nine, 24-15 and forced Smith to call a time out.
 
"You can't draw it up any better," said Raftery. "They (Fairfield) are following their game plan to perfection."
 
A Carter basket brought North Carolina back within 28-24 with just under three and a half minutes left in the first half but Eniojukan scored from the baseline, Francis made his fourth 3-pointer of the game and a Tice basket put Fairfield ahead 35-26 with :26.1 seconds left before Cota scored from the free throw line to make it Fairfield 35, North Carolina 28 at halftime.
 
"That was the most awesome feeling," Tice said. "Halftime, that was fun. We had nothing to lose and we just went out there and followed the system. We were just looking to have a good time."

It had been an amazing 20 minutes of basketball. In fact, Cormier was so caught up in the moment, he sprinted straight into the locker room, leaving CBS courtside reporter Andrea Joyce without an interview – for a few moments, anyway.
 
"They (CBS) had a (pre-game) meeting with the four coaches and they tell us, 'We're going to interview the coach that's leading going into the locker room and we'll talk with the coach that's behind coming out of the locker room,' I never expected it to be me that was leading," Cormier said. "So, I run into the locker room and all of a sudden, 'Oh, my God, I've got to go back out and be interviewed,' I had prepared something to say if we were getting crushed or if the game was close, but us leading? I didn't know what to say."
 
"We're answering them," was what Cormier told Joyce.
 
Sitting at the CBS Sports anchor desk, Jim Nantz put it all into perspective, "What a stunning first half."
 
And it was.
 
"We were absolutely dicing them up with our offense, our team-oriented offense" Cormier said. "When they overplayed us, we went backdoor and when they tried to tighten up their defense, that opened up our shooters and what Greg did … his range, his comfort level that day was incredible. He wasn't just making 21-, 22-footers, he was making 25-, 26-footers. He made the defense extend and that made it easier to attack the basket."
 
20 minutes from history
 
Phillip scored to open the second half and give Fairfield back its nine-point lead but Carolina, now playing a zone defense, put together a 9-0 run to tie matters at 37-37 with 17 minutes left. It went back and forth over the next four minutes when another Francis 3 made it 50-49 Fairfield.
 
"They are playing like they belong," said CBS's Raftery of Fairfield.

"Going to the zone, that was big for them," Phillip said. "They were too big, too talented, too athletic for us. Their front line was ridiculous, but we weren't scared, we knew what we had to do."
 
Baskets from Zwikker and Shammond Williams put the Tar Heels in front 53-50 but Fairfield kept fighting and when Tice banged home a 3-pointer with 7:25 left, the game was tied at 59.
 
Jamison and Zwikker scored to make it 63-59 Carolina and a 3-pointer from Williams offset a pair of free throws from Phillip and Tice to make it 66-63 with 5:39 left. Zwikker worked inside to score but Francis made his seventh 3-pointer of the game to cut the Tar Heels lead to 68-66 with 5:06 to go.
 
"Greg was incredible, but I saw him d
+o that every day in practice," Eniojukan said. "He did that all the time. He played like he was at practice and nothing phased him. He was on the biggest stage in the world and he's playing like its practice. Something just clicked in him that game."
 
A Zwikker putback and a basket from Williams made it 72-66 but Eniojukan responded with a three-point play to cut the Carolina lead to three and with just over two and a half minutes left, Fairfield had a chance to tie but Tice's open 3-pointer from the corner rimmed out and Vince Carter scored on a drive to give the Tar Heels a five-point lead.
 
 "Near the end, I know if I could have made one more basket or two it might have been a different story," Tice said. "That (miss) sticks with me."
 
Down five as the game entered its final minute, Zwikker put the final nail in the Fairfield coffin with a basket to put Carolina up seven with 58 seconds to play. Of Zwikker's 19 points (he also had 13 rebounds) 16 came in the second half.
 
"Zwikker, he woke up," said Eniojukan. "That was heartbreaking, those last five minutes."
 
"No matter what anyone says, we shouldn't have lost that game," Phillip said. "Zwikker … I still have nightmares about that guy. He beat us. They had all those NBA guys and the least talented guy on that team beat us. Everything he did was right at the end of the game. I'll never forget it."
 
Francis hit his eighth 3-pointer with 10 seconds left but it was too little, too late for Fairfield as Carolina escaped with an 82-74 victory.
 
"Fairfield gave Dean Smith and his group everything they possibly could," Raftery told the CBS audience.
 
That was true.
 
"Fairfield did one of the most awesome jobs of the year," Jamison told the Hartford Courant. "They were like mosquitoes out there. They started on fire and there was no stopping them."
 
"After the game I wanted to find Francis and shake his hand, but it was probably so hot I couldn't hold onto it," Smith told the Chicago Tribune. "We were all over him and he still made them."
 
Francis finished with 26 points, making 8 of 12 from 3-point range. Bowman and Tice each netted 14 points, with Commodore, Phillip and Eniojukan all scoring six.
 
Carolina, who basically played just six players, got 22 from Vince Carter, 19 from Zwikker, 17 from Shammond Williams and 15 from Antwan Jamison.
 
"Dean Smith was so gracious after the game," Cormier said. "He told me, 'We couldn't guard you man to man' and 'does Greg always shoot like that?' That was amazing."
 
Standing ovation
 
After the game, the Stags came back out to the Lawrence Joel Coliseum to watch the rest of the Indiana versus Colorado game and when they walked to their seats, they received a loud, standing ovation from the sold-out crowd.
 
"That was an unbelievable experience," Francis said. "We're in Winston-Salem and the respect that those people had for a team that had just given it their all … for them, it wasn't about winning or losing, it was about playing hard and the respect for the game. They appreciated a team coming out and playing hard like in the movie 'Hoosiers.' That ovation made the experience incredible. The respect that Dean Smith had for our little school in his post-game press conference was amazing."
 
"It was kind of surreal," added Eniojukan. "I was looking around wondering who they were cheering for. Did Carolina come out? It was humbling. It made the entire season worth it, quite frankly. We came so close to making history."
 
Heading back to New Jersey with his parents, Tice sat in the back seat, chatting about the game. When the car pulled into a rest stop off the Jersey Turnpike to get gas, Tice quickly found out just what kind of impression the Stags had made on the college basketball world.
 
"People recognized me," he said. "I was wearing my Fairfield gear, but people came up to me and shook my hand. It was cool."
 
For the season, Francis averaged 14.8 points. He made 63 3-pointers, shooting nearly 35 percent from behind the arc, while averaging 4.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists. Bowman averaged 9.8 points and 4.0 rebounds. In just 16 games, Phillip averaged 5.8 points and 4.4 rebounds. And Shane Miller? In just six games before a slipped disc in his back took away his season, he averaged 13.2 points, shooting 44 percent (11 of 25) from the 3-point line.
 
"He was a player that people never got to see," Cormier said of Miller. "I think he could have been one of the best players at Fairfield if he stayed healthy. Great shooter, fierce competitor and he really knew how to play."
 
Through the trials, the tribulations, the injuries, the frustrations and yes, the losses, the 1996-97 Fairfield team never quit, never stopped fighting, stayed together and in March, watched it all come together in a glorious postseason, winning the MAAC tournament and taking North Carolina to the brink in the NCAA's.
 
"I don't have any regrets on anything that happened," Cormier said. "Obviously, wins and losses are the telling aspect of success, but as a coach you have to say, 'Did I reach kids? Did I motivate them?' Wins and losses don't indicate that. Did I teach them? Did they handle themselves with class? Yes and yes."
 
And together they posted one of the most incredible seasons in Fairfield sports history.