The rehiring of Jim Meil as an assistant men?s basketball coach at Towson University reminds me of pleasant days gone by.
For most young area basketball fans, Towson basketball is not something that generates much excitement. Who can blame them? The Tigers have not had a winning record in 10 years, have posted five 20-loss seasons and have gone through four coaches in that span.
For me, though, Towson basketball brings a smile to my face. Some of my fondest sports memories growing up center around watching the Tigers dominate the old East Coast Conference en route to back-to-back NCAA tournaments in 1990 and 1991.
Of those teams, the 1989-1990 Tigers will always hold a special place in my heart. I?ll never forget being a sixth-grader at Franklin Middle School and hearing from a friend that 16th-seeded Towson State was tied in the second half with top-seeded Oklahoma.
The school bus seemed like it took hours to make the three-mile trek to my house. I then raced upstairs and watched as Kurk Lee, Chuck Lightning and Devin Boyd among others battled back and forth with a deeper, more talented Sooner squad. In the end, Oklahoma prevailed, 97-86, but Towson gained a new fan in the process.
“That was an exciting time for myself and the school,” Meil said.
Towson returned to the “Big Dance” the following year, but never really challenged Ohio State in that first-round game, losing 97-86. The Tigers had a number of bright spots in the next couple of years – including wins over St. John?s and Louisville – but never reached the postseason again as the ECC lost its automatic bid in 1992 and folded the following year.
The program then scrambled to get into the Big South Conference where it won the 1993-1994 regular season title only to get upset by Liberty in the league tournament. It eventually switched to the America East in 1995 before finally settling in the Colonial Athletic Association in 2001.
“The turnover from the ECC to the Big South to America East really hurt us,” Meil said. “It took away the momentum that we had and we lost our identity in the process. We never recovered either of those.”
Meil, who left Towson after it fired Truax in 1997, now believes the Tigers are ready to return to greatness the program hasn?t reached since many of the team?s current players wore diapers. He credits current coach Pat Kennedy and the growth of the university as two factors for his optimism.
Also, Towson?s men?s basketball program today shares many similarities with the tournament teams, including a heavy presence of local players from the Baltimore area and a coach who got his start with a well-known ACC resume. Truax was a former assistant under North Carolina coaching legend Dean Smith, while Kennedy was an assistant to Jim Valvano at Iona. Valvano later went on to lead N.C. State to the 1983 NCAA championship.
“Coach Kennedy has made tremendous strides,” Meil said. “Now, we have to continue to raise the talent level and educate the area on the quality of the CAA. The growth of the university itself makes it an easy sale for recruits.”
Ron Snyder is a staff writer for The Examiner
