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 1999 Kentucky Wesleyan men’s basketball squad.
40 TEAMS | 40 YEARS
WEEK 14: 1999 Kentucky Wesleyan Men’s Basketball
SEASON SUMMARY
The 1998-99 Kentucky Wesleyan College men’s basketball team entered the year as the unanimous preseason No. 1 choice to win the NCAA Championship after its 30-3 NCAA national runner-up finish in 1998. The Panthers were led by a strong senior contingent known affectionately on campus as “The Magnificent Seven,” including Antonio Garcia, Dana Williams, Patrick Critchelow, Adam Mattingly, Chris Haskin, Jeff Krohman and Will McDonald. En route to a 35-2 record, the Panthers won the Disney Tip-off Classic, which at the time was Division II’s version of the Preseason NIT, as well as the GLVC regular season title (20-2) and overall Conference championship, and the NCAA Great Lakes Regional crown. KWC opened the season against nationally-ranked opponents in two of its first three games, defeating No. 12 Florida Southern 93-67 in the opener and No. 5 Washburn 80-69 two days later. At the turn of the calendar year, in one of the few weeks KWC was not ranked No. 1, the Panthers defeated top-ranked Southern Indiana 64-54 – their first of four wins over USI on the year – just two days after suffering their first GLVC setback to SIU Edwardsville. The team’s third meeting against USI was in the championship final of the GLVC Tournament, played before 6,712 fans at Roberts Stadium in Evansville. The 95-84 win would be the closest a team came to the Panthers in the league tourney, having dismissed IPFW by 33 points in the opener and Northern Kentucky by 41 in the semis. After knocking off Northern Michigan in the Great Lakes Regional opener, 93-72, KWC knocked off the Screaming Eagles 76-64 in the regional final to advance to the Elite Eight. A five-point 74-69 win over Lander in the national quarterfinals would be the toughest test the Panthers had in Louisville, Kentucky, as they went on to eliminate No. 21 Florida Southern 87-67 and defeated Metropolitan State 75-60 in the title game.
IMPRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS
Antonio Garcia
- Consensus DII Player of the Year (NABC, Basketball Times, DII Bulletin, Daktronics, Basketball News)
- First player in Division II history to sweep all National Player of the Year awards
- Consensus All-America First Team
- NCAA National Rebounding Champion (1998, 1999)
- NABC National All-Star Participant
- CBS Sports/Chevrolet Player of the Game (NCAA Championship)
- NCAA National Championship Most Outstanding Player (1998, 1999)
- NCAA Great Lakes Regional Most Outstanding Player
- NABC All-Great Lakes Region Team (1998, 1999)
- Daktronics All-Great Lakes Region (1998, 1999)
- GLVC Player of the Year (1998, 1999)
- All-GLVC First Team (1998, 1999)
Dana Williams
- NABC National Player of the Year Runner-Up
- All-America First Team (NABC)
- All-America Second Team (Daktronics, Basketball Times)
- All-America Third Team (Division II Bulletin, Basketball News)
- NCAA National Championship All-Tournament Team
- All-Great Lakes Region Team (NABC, Daktronics)
- GLVC Tournament Most Outstanding Player
- All-GLVC First Team
Patrick Critchelow
- Great Lakes Regional All-Tournament Team
- GLVC All-Tournament Team
- All-GLVC Honorable Mention
Ray Harper
- Consensus Division II National Coach of the Year (NABC, Basketball Times, Division II Bulletin)
- First coach in Division II history to sweep all National Coach of the Year awards
- Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year (NABC)
- GLVC Coach of the Year
LASTING LEGACY
The 1999 Kentucky Wesleyan squad secured the GLVC’s fourth NCAA Championship in men’s basketball and closed out a decade in which the GLVC would garner three national titles with the Panthers’ wins in 1990 and 1999, and Southern Indiana’s title in 1995. KWC secured its seventh NCAA Division II men’s basketball title in 1999, which moved them past UCLA as the only school across all three NCAA divisions to own seven national titles. Kentucky Wesleyan started and finished the season ranked No. 1 in the country and was the nation’s top team during nine of the 11 weeks of the top 25 poll. The feat marked the first time in school history that the Panthers finished the season ranked No. 1. As a team, KWC set a pair of new Division II records during the season. The Panthers secured the most wins in a season (35) and became the first team to twice win 30 or more wins in a season, having gone 30-3 the previous year. KWC was led by All-Americans Antonio Garcia and Dana Williams, who also finished 1-2 in the National Player of the Year voting, marking the first time in Division II history two players from the same school accomplished the feat. Garcia, who led the Panthers in scoring (18.5) and the nation in rebounding (14.6), also made more basketball history when he became the first individual to sweep all five National Player of the Year awards.