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 1995 Southern Indiana men’s basketball squad.
40 TEAMS | 40 YEARS
WEEK 14: 1995 Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball
SEASON SUMMARY
The 1995 University of Southern Indiana men’s basketball program avenged a national runner-up finish in the 1993-94 season by winning the whole thing one year later. It was quite the journey for a team that finished 29-4 overall, yet did not win the GLVC title. The Screaming Eagles opened the season 4-0, garnered the nation’s No. 1 ranking, and won the USI/Kenny Kent Toyota National Shootout over top-20 competition, before dropping two straight games, including the GLVC opener against Northern Kentucky, for the first time under the direction of head coach Bruce Pearl. Those two losses dropped USI out of the national top 20, as well as the top six in the Great Lakes Region poll. At the High Desert Classic in Las Vegas, USI responded with a pair of wins, including a 107-103 overtime thriller over 1994 Elite Eight participant Washburn. In that game, USI was down 17 points at one point and had six of the 11 players that traveled to the game foul out. The five-man rally would be the turning point in the season as the Screaming Eagles went on to tie the school record with 14 consecutive wins, which included a 34-point drubbing of No. 8 Kentucky Wesleyan, 117-83. The Panthers would respond by knocking off USI weeks later, 97-90, and then Northern Kentucky defeated both KWC and USI in the final week of the regular season. NKU and Kentucky Wesleyan tied for first in the league at 16-2, while the Screaming Eagles finished third in the league at 15-3. Those three teams were seeded in that order for the Great Lakes Regional, which was arguably one of the most highly ranked regionals in NCAA DII Championship history. Northern Kentucky was ranked No. 9 overall, Kentucky Wesleyan was No. 3, and Southern Indiana was No. 5. The Screaming Eagles ousted No. 6 seed Hillsdale 95-88 in the regional opener and then topped Kentucky Wesleyan 102-81 and Northern Kentucky 102-94 for the regional title and second-straight trip to the Elite Eight. Chad Gilbert was named Great Lakes Regional Most Outstanding Player after averaging 25.3 points on 73 percent shooting, while adding 9.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game. In the Elite Eight, held at the Commonwealth Convention Center in Louisville, Kentucky, USI eliminated New Hampshire College 108-93 and then Norfolk State 89-81 to reach the title game once again. In the championship final against UC Riverside, USI fell behind by as many as 22 points twice in the first 12 minutes of the game and trailed 39-21 at half. The Screaming Eagles were forced to rally once again and they not only erased the 22-point deficit, they outscored the Highlanders 9-1 in the final two minutes to claim the 71-63 victory. Sophomore Marc Hostetter, who scored just 5.8 points per game during the regular season, posted 11.8 points over the entire postseason and 14.3 points during the Elite Eight. Senior Cortez Barnes was named the CBS/Chevrolet Most Valuable Player in the final, junior Stan Gouard earned the first of back-to-back NABC DII Player of the Year honors, and Pearl garnered NABC DII Coach of the Year accolades.
IMPRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS
Stan Gouard
- NABC DII Player of the Year (1995, 1996)
- NABC All-America First Team (1995, 1996)
- NABC All-Great Lakes Region Team (1995, 1996)
- NCAA DII Elite Eight Most Outstanding Player (1994)
- NCAA DII Championship CBS/Chevrolet Most Valuable Player (1994)
- Three-Time All-GLVC First Team (1994, 1995, 1996)
- GLVC Freshman of the Year (1994)
- Inducted into GLVC Hall of Fame in 2003
- Inducted into USI Hall of Fame in 2007
- Member of 1995 team inducted into USI Hall of Fame in 2008
Cortez Barnes
- NCAA DII Championship CBS/Chevrolet Most Valuable Player (1995)
- All-GLVC Honorable Mention (1995)
- Member of 1995 team inducted into USI Hall of Fame in 2008
Chad Gilbert
- All-NCAA DII Elite Eight Selection (1995)
- Great Lakes Regional Most Outstanding Player (1995)
- All-Great Lakes Region Team (1995)
- Averaged 25.3 points in three Great Lakes Regional contests
- All-GLVC Honorable Mention (1995)
- Went on to earn GLVC Player of the Year honors in 1996
- Member of 1995 team inducted into USI Hall of Fame in 2008
Brian Huebner
- NABC All-Great Lakes Region Team (1995)
- All-GLVC Honorable Mention (1995)
- Scored team-high 18 points in 1995 NCAA Championship final
- Member of 1995 team inducted into USI Hall of Fame in 2008
Marc Hostetter
- Averaged 5.8 points per game during regular season, but 11.8 in 1995 NCAA Tournament and 14.3 in Elite Eight
- Member of 1995 team inducted into USI Hall of Fame in 2008
Bruce Pearl
- NABC Division II National Coach of the Year (1995)
- Went on to earn NABC Division II Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year in 2000
- Was GLVC Coach of the Year in 1993 and 1994
- Guided USI to four GLVC Championships and to NCAA Tournament in each of his nine seasons
- Ended tenure at USI with 231-46 (.834) overall recorded and 146-28 (.839) mark in league play
- Became fastest coach in NCAA history to earn 200 career wins (240 games)
- Inducted into GLVC Hall of Fame in 2008
- Inducted into USI Hall of Fame in 2008
LASTING LEGACY
The 1995 Southern Indiana squad secured the GLVC’s third NCAA Championship in men’s basketball and the second member to claim a national title in any sport as Kentucky Wesleyan had earned the league’s first two in men’s basketball in 1987 and 1990. The 1995 title was also the first of what would be four NCAA Championships for USI. The Screaming Eagles have gone on to win national crowns in baseball (2010, 2014) and softball (2018). The man affectionately known in Evansville as “Superman Stan,” Gouard became the second GLVC standout to earn NABC National Player of the Year honors, just four years after Kentucky Wesleyan’s Corey Crowder earned the accolade following the 1990-91 season. After garnering his second NABC National Player of the Year accolade in 1996, Gouard became just the second player in NCAA Division II history to win the nation’s top award twice (Earl Jones, District of Columbia, 1983 & 1984) – a feat since matched only once with Winona State’s John Smith (2007 & 2008). Additionally, Bellarmine’s Braydon Hobbs is the only other GLVC standout to be named the top player in Division II as picked up the honor in 2011-12. That season, Gouard competed against Hobbs as the head coach of the University of Indianapolis, a position he has held since the 2008-09 season. Heading into the 2018-19 campaign, Gouard had amassed a 185-101 overall record at UIndy, upset a pair of top-ranked teams in Bellarmine and Kentucky Wesleyan in 2012, was named the GLVC Coach of the Year in 2014, guided his Greyhounds to the No. 1 ranking for two weeks during the 2014-15 campaign, and recorded six NCAA Tournament appearances. Since the 1995 title run, USI has continued to leave its mark in GLVC men’s basketball history, having won the GLVC Championship six more times (1996, 1997, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2014) for a second-best total of 12 titles overall, picked up six GLVC Player of the Year honors (1996-Chad Gilbert, 2001-Derrick Lyons, 2006-Chris Thompson, 2010-Jamar Smith, 2014-Aaron Nelson, 2017-Jeril Taylor), earned three GLVC Freshman of the Year honorees (2002-Cris Brunson, 2004-Geoff Van Winkle, 2016-Alex Stein), and boasted two GLVC Coach of the Year mentors (2007-Rick Herdes, 2010-Rodney Watson).