MacCulloch recalls tourney run

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This article was published 19/03/2019 (1865 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been more than 20 years since Todd MacCulloch became the first Manitoban to play in the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament.

But yet, every year when March rolls around, the memories of playing in the tournament for the University of Washington Huskies in 1998 and ’99 come flooding back to him.

A few years after the seven-footer led Shaftesbury High School to back-to-back provincial titles in 1993 and ’94, MacCulloch experienced the highs and the lows of March Madness — a wild 64-team (now 68) single-elimination tournament that determines the men’s U.S. college basketball national champion.

From pulling off a bracket-busting upset to getting his heart broken by a buzzer-beating loss, MacCulloch got to see first-hand what makes the annual tournament so special. For him, even as someone who went on to play in the Olympics and the NBA final, the memories of playing for the Huskies in March are still among his favourite.

“They’re all amazing in their own way,” MacCulloch told the Free Press in a phone interview from his home in Bainbridge Island, Wash. “The elation that I felt when we won the first provincial championship was one that I never quite captured at any level. That, for some reason, that was way up there. I couldn’t believe we were the provincial champions. It was like an out-of-body experience. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off and I was walking on the clouds. And then, the next closest, was probably going to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament.”

When MacCulloch signed on with Washington, the school had the longest NCAA tournament drought out of any team in the Pac-10 Conference (now called the Pac-12). The drought continued into his freshman and sophomore years. Finally, in his junior year in 1998, the tournament was in reach. But ultimately, it came down to two free throws by MacCulloch to book their ticket to the big dance.

“At that time, there was no conference tournament, there was just the regular season. You really had to do your work in the regular season, you couldn’t just get hot at the end. We had done a lot, but we hadn’t beaten any ranked teams,” MacCulloch said.

“We had a chance to in our second-last game of the season against UCLA. I think they were No. 12 in the country. And basically, if we could beat them, it was going to be a done deal. We were down one with 2.1 seconds left and I think everybody in the building knew I was going to get the ball down low from the out-of-bounds baseline. I did, and I was fouled. With 2.1 seconds left, I had two free throws, and essentially, trying to put out of my mind that if I make these two free throws, we’re going to the tournament. It was a lot of pressure, but I said a little prayer and those free throws went in.”

The win proved to be enough to get them over the hump. The tournament’s selection committee named them a No. 11 seed with a first-round date with the sixth-seeded Xavier Musketeers. MacCulloch and the Huskies pulled off the upset, winning 69-68. Their second-round matchup was with the No. 14-seed Richmond Spiders, who pulled off an upset of their own in the first round, knocking off the heavily favoured third-seeded South Carolina Gamecocks 62-61.

“We busted a lot of people’s brackets,” said MacCulloch, who had 16 points and eight rebounds in the win over Xavier. “For a Washington team, that you never see in the tournament back then, to beating a very good Xavier team. And now, on the other side, there’s 14th-seeded Richmond defeating third-seeded South Carolina. So now, we’re looking at the math going, ‘Hey, we’re favoured in this next game, guys. There’s no reason we can’t win this. We’re an 11, they’re a 14. We’re supposed to win this game.’”

They did, thanks to MacCulloch having the game of his life. The giant from the Prairies had 31 points and 18 rebounds in an 81-66 win over Richmond to lead his team to the Sweet 16. However, their toughest test came next, as the second-seeded Connecticut Huskies were waiting for them.

Washington hit a three with 29.1 seconds left in the game to go up 74-73, giving them their first lead of the game. UCONN had the final possession, and had two shots clank off the back of the rim, but nobody on Washington could get the rebound. The ball eventually fell into the hands of Rip Hamilton — UCONN’s star guard who’d go on to become an NBA all-star and champion with the Detroit Pistons — who was standing in the middle of the key. He hit the game-winner at the buzzer.

“Rip Hamilton put a dagger into our hearts and dropped it in. That was the end of our run,” MacCulloch said. “It was incredible for us to get that far and take a No. 2 seed to the buzzer. But it would’ve been pretty incredible to have won that game and gone up against the North Carolina Tar Heels that eventually went on to the (Final Four) that year. It was such an amazing experience. The tournament was one of my most special basketball memories that I have. I still talk to fans here in the Seattle area that remember that team, remember that run and remember how painful that loss was to UCONN. But also, all the good times that we had getting to that point.”

MacCulloch and the Huskies returned to the tournament the next year as a No. 7 seed, but they couldn’t recapture the magic from their ’98 run. They lost in the first round to the 10th-seeded Miami (Ohio) Redhawks, 59-58. Redhawks star forward Wally Szczerbiak, who was chosen sixth overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1999 NBA draft, lit the Huskies up for a career-high 43 points.

“To have it cut short seemed pretty anticlimactic and quite disappointing,” MacCulloch said. “But that’s the way the tournament goes. There’s no best-of-seven series, there’s no second chances — you have to get it done. That’s the beauty of it, but also the heartbreak of it.”

As for this year’s tournament, which begins today, MacCulloch says he’ll be watching — like he does every year. He fills out a bracket like everyone else (he’s predicting Duke, Michigan, Tennessee and North Carolina in the Final Four, with North Carolina beating Duke in the final) and of course, cheers for his alma mater, who are a No. 9 seed and play Utah State on Friday. But what’s become one of his favourite things about the tournament is how it’s no longer rare to see Canadians playing in it, like it was back in his day. This year, there will be 19 Canadians playing, highlighted by Duke’s star freshman, R.J. Barrett.

“I think we’re just going to continue to improve, and the level of talent is going up,” MacCulloch said. “Guys start to believe that they can play at the highest level in college and can play at the next level. It’s pretty cool to see, and I root for all those Canucks, for sure.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31