North Platte –March Madness is in full swing with brackets being busted and people cheering for teams that they don’t normally cheer for.
One of NPCC Knights Head Coach Kevin O’Connor’s former players experienced the thrill of playing in a National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament game first hand.
Lemont Daniels, who came to North Platte from Pine Bluff, Ark., played for the Knights from 1992-94 under O’Connor. Daniels scored 1,230 points for the Knights and is currently third on the All-Time scoring list for the Knights. During his sophomore season, Daniels led the Knights to the finals of the National Junior College Athletic Association Region IX tournament against the Western Nebraska Community College Cougars, which featured future NBA player Bobby Jackson and NJCAA player of the year Bernard Garner. The Knights lost a heartbreaker 69-68 to the Cougars.
Following his career with the Knights, Daniels chose to further his education and career at the University of Portland in Oregon. Portland plays in the West Coast Conference.
Daniels said that Portland’s quest to play in the NCAA tournament began the previous year when they lost to Gonzaga University in the WCC championship game in March of 1995.
“I was teased a lot at the barbershop back in Pine Bluff because of John Rillie, (a guard for Gonzaga and is now an assistant at Boise State University); Daniels said, “He got hot on us and we lost.”
The Portland Pilots did not get a NIT bid or anything after winning 21 games the 1995 season.
Daniels said, “I had to go to work on myself due to losing three starters. I knew we would be young and I liked a challenge.” Two of those three starters were all-conference selections.
Daniels said “The offseason was crazy. No one knew what to expect because we lost so many key players.”
At the beginning of the 1995-96 season, Daniels was named as a captain of the team. During the season, he averaged 12.1 points per game, 5.8 rebounds per game and 3.8 assists per game.
“We were smaller than last year (1995) but everyone was versatile.” Daniels said, “We still liked to get up and down the floor. We still believed in man to man. Rob [Chavez] had some unique strategies. They worked most of the time.”
The Pilots led the conference in forced turnovers, steals and scoring. “You had to be in shape,” Daniels said.
In the first game of the 1995-96 season, the Pilots beat University of Alabama-Birmingham at the Rose Garden. It was the first college basketball game played there.
The 1995-96 season was an up and down rollercoaster season.
Daniels said, “Everyone did everything together. We were close. We did have a couple of guys that had to stay focused, but they still understood the mission.”
Daniels personal mission was to get to the NCAA tournament.
As the season progressed, the Pilots finished .500 (7-7) in the conference and was the fifth seed in the WCC tournament. No one made the all-conference team and all were disappointed.
“One of our teammates had already purchased his spring break ticket to Mexico.” Daniels said, “I called a team meeting and laid things out on the table.” The Pilots had beaten everyone in the conference except for the University of San Francisco, who was the Pilot’s first round opponent in the tournament.”
“We knew they were going to play a tight zone on us because they could not guard us man-to-man.” Daniels said, “After we opened the game with a couple of threes and a decent lead, they had to go man-to-man and the rest was history.” The Pilots won 78-72.
The Pilots played San Diego in the second round and defeated them, 65-52. “We knew we could beat them and we went out and did with no problem” Daniels said.
The win against San Diego set up a rematch from the championship game from the year before against the Gonzaga University Bulldogs.
The championship game was played at the Toso Pavilion in Santa Clara, Calif.
“All the guys cut their hair off but me,” Daniels said “I was a team player but I could not do it. They were unified and we came out on fire. It was a game of two different styles of play. We wanted to push it and they wanted to go inside because they were bigger than us.”
The game went back and forth and Daniels said that everybody contributed. The Pilots were up by four points and the Pilots set up an isolation play for Daniels that they ran. Daniels made a fade away shot to put the Pilots up by six. The Pilots stole the inbound pass to seal the win 76-68.
“We were dancing, it was really real,” Daniels said, “my childhood dream was coming true. Playing in March Madness is all I ever wanted to do, get to see my school name up on the board on Selection Sunday. To beat the Bulldogs was redemption from the year before.”
Daniels was able to go back to Pine Bluff and show people why he went way out to Portland, Ore., to school was “live” and “in color” on ESPN.
When the selection show was on, the brackets were down to Dallas, Texas and Milwaukee, Wis. Daniels was hoping that the Pilots would be in the Dallas bracket so he would be playing close to home in the NCAA tournament.
The Pilots were chosen for the Milwaukee bracket, they were seeded 14th in the region and played the number three seed Villanova Wildcats in the first round.
The Wildcats defeated the Pilots 92-58 in the game. Daniels scored 12 points, had three assists and grabbed three rebounds.
“It was a great ride.” Daniels said, “The last time prior to that season was 37 years in 1959. We did it. I was so happy.”
Daniels finished his career at Portland with an 11.4 scoring average, was named to the All-WCC tournament team and was the Pilot’s Most Valuable Player his senior season. He also led the WCC in steals both his junior (2.03) and senior years (2.47). In addition, Daniels led the Pilots in assists both his junior and senior season.
Daniels graduated from the University of Portland two months later, in May of 1996, with a degree in criminal justice. He played basketball for Wangaretta Heat and Albury Hum-Bandits in Australia. He is currently the director of programs at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center in Alexander, Ark.