Throughout the 2018-19 academic year, the Great Lakes Valley Conference will celebrate its 40th anniversary by recognizing 40 teams that made a significant impact both on campus and at the Conference level. This week’s featured team is the 1986-87 Kentucky Wesleyan College men’s basketball squad.
40 TEAMS | 40 YEARS
WEEK 10: 1986-87 Kentucky Wesleyan Men’s Basketball
SEASON SUMMARY
The 1986-87 Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers finished the season as NCAA Division II Champions with a 28-5 overall record that included a 13-3 mark in GLVC play. The Panthers shared the GLVC Championship with Southern Indiana, with Sam Smith and John Worth earning first-team All-GLVC distinction. The Panthers were a high-scoring team with 92.4 points per game – nearly six points better than USI in league scoring – and owned a scoring margin of 19.8. KWC opened the year 6-0 and dropped its first contest to Division I Evansville. It’s second loss occurred in the first week of January to then-Division II Wright State, just as the Panthers were already three games deep in the GLVC schedule. All three league setbacks came in the month of February to Bellarmine, Southern Indiana and Lewis. The loss to the Flyers came in the final game of the regular season, which forced the Panthers to share the crown with USI. In the Great Lakes Regional, KWC opened with a 112-77 win over Johnson C. Smith University and then beat SIU Edwardsville 89-86 for the title. The Panthers scored an 80-74 victory at top-ranked Norfolk State in the national quarterfinals and then dropped Delta State in the national semifinal, 98-75. They left little doubt in the NCAA Championship final in a 92-74 drubbing of Gannon. In fact, KWC went on a 23-0 run during the title game, led 51-27 at halftime, and saw its lead reach 33 points at one point, 64-31. Sam Smith scored 28 points in each of his two games in the Final Four and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament, while teammates John Worth and Andra Whitlow joined Smith on the All-Tournament Team. Prior to their NCAA Championship run, the Panthers were ranked ninth in the final NCAA Division II coaches poll.
IMPRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS
Sam Smith
- NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team/Most Outstanding Player
- NABC All-America Second Team
- Basketball Times All-America Third Team
- NCAA Great Lakes Regional All-Tournament Team/Most Outstanding Player
- NABC All-Great Lakes Region First Team
- All-GLVC First Team
John Worth
- NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team
- NABC All-Great Lakes Region First Team
- All-GLVC First Team
Andra Whitlow
- NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team
- NCAA Great Lakes Regional All-Tournament Team
Wayne Chapman
- NABC/Kodak National Coach of the Year
- NABC/Kodak Great Lakes Regional Coach of the Year
LASTING LEGACY
After losing in the opening round of the playoffs in the 1985-86 postseason tournament, KWC used its depth to make a run at the title the following season as six players led the Panthers in scoring, six in rebounding and seven in assists. Kentucky Wesleyan’s NCAA Championship in 1987 marked the school’s fifth national title, having previously won in 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1973, but it was the GLVC’s first NCAA Championship in any sport. With the victory, KWC tied Evansville for the most national titles in NCAA Division II history. The championship also gave the Panthers 57 postseason tournament wins, which surpassed UCLA’s 56 win for the most of any school across all NCAA divisions.