By BRAD WELBORN, Northwestern State Assistant Sports Information Director
NATCHITOCHES — Twenty years later, the shot, the celebration and the bond between teammates still feel as real as ever for the members of Northwestern State’s 2006 NCAA Tournament team.
Players, coaches and staff from one of the most iconic teams in a century-plus of program history gathered with an enthusiastic audience of supporters and curious fans Tuesday night at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest History Museum to relive the Demons’ unforgettable buzzer-beating upset of 15th-ranked Iowa in the NCAA Tournament, sharing stories about the moment that stunned the college basketball world along with the brotherhood that made it possible.
For head coach Mike McConathy, the night served as a reminder that the foundation for that historic run was built long before the Demons ever stepped onto the floor in Auburn Hills, Mich., on St. Patrick’s Day 2006.
“The highlight video for that season began with a locker room scene from four years earlier, after we won our first league game with 11 freshmen, when I told them if they stayed together, they could be a great team. We really believed in them,” McConathy said. “Those young men stayed together, and we added pieces along the way. Their sophomore year we got a little bit better, competed and made the conference tournament. Then the next year it all began to click and come together.”
That commitment to each other became a common theme throughout the evening, as players Byron Allen (one of those 2002-03 freshmen) and J.A. Anglin (a freshman in 2005-06, now head coach at Centenary) reflected on how the relationships they built during their time in Natchitoches helped propel them to history and has lasted long after their playing days.
“We basically told each other (as freshmen, and the country’s youngest team for two years) that we would stay together regardless of any outside noise, anybody trying to tear us apart,” Allen said. “Coach may not know it, but everything he was trying to make us do made all of us great fathers, great husbands and everything else. It was sacrifice, and that sacrifice helped a lot of us go on to do big things.”
Players from the 2005-06 team have produced seven active head coaches, three in college and four in high school, along with other successful careers outside the game of basketball. Allen, a Mississippi native who played eight seasons professionally overseas, now runs and owns an engineering business in south Louisiana.
“That’s what every coach desires for his players,” McConathy said. “To see them go on and be productive and successful in life.”
Of course, after tracing the development of a team tabbed “The Demons of Destiny” over their four years at NSU, the conversation eventually turned to March 17, 2006, when as a No. 14 Midwest Region seed, they shocked third-seeded Iowa. The Demons’ depth – McConathy routinely subbed in five-for-five and played a dozen or more Demons – and the resulting relentless pressure defense combined to erase a 17-point deficit with less than eight minutes remaining and produced one of the most memorable finishes in NCAA Tournament history.
Longtime radio voice Patrick Netherton recalled a game from four months earlier when the Demons erased a similar deficit (21 points) on the road at Mississippi State to beat the Bulldogs as the moment he knew this team was special.
“He’s the point guard. He’s the guy that’s supposed to be in charge of breaking the press, and he wanted nothing to do with it,” Netherton said of Mississippi State’s high school all-American point guard in that game. “When I saw that, I thought, this is not just a team that can beat you physically, they can beat you mentally, and they can beat you emotionally. They can wear you down.”
After two seasons of playing strong non-conference schedules with some near misses and a few upset wins, and capturing two straight Southland Conference regular-season titles, the Demons entered the 2006 Big Dance confident they were capable of more than just making an appearance.
“We just went about it as business as usual,” McConathy said. “We knew we had something special, and we needed to stay locked in on what we did best. I always said you go to the NCAA Tournament to try to win games. If your goal is only to get there, you’re not as focused as you need to be. Our mindset was that we were going to win.”
Allen said his role that day at the Palace of Auburn Hils reflected the team’s unselfish approach.
“I knew that game wasn’t going to be me leading from a scoring standpoint,” he said. “It was going to be defense and bringing everybody together. We pressured guys, we got turnovers, and the rest is history.”
The defining moment came in the final seconds, when Jermaine Wallace grabbed an offensive rebound and knocked down the 22-foot corner jumper in the final second to give Northwestern the 64-63 win.
Anglin said the play was the result of habits built over years of practice that he took part in that season and heard about from the veteran players.
“We used to do drills where we were always crashing through the elbows and going after offensive rebounds,” Anglin said. “When Kerwin (Forges) took that shot, Jermaine did what he had practiced for four years.
“He crashed through the elbow, got the rebound and hit the shot. I had a clear view on the bench from the baseline and when it left his hand, I thought, ‘That’s going in.’ It’s what you dream about as a kid. In that moment, it’s as good as it gets.”
The Demons also leaned on big plays in their comeback from a 54-37 deficit in the last eight minutes, including four 3-pointers from Clifton Lee and a momentum-shifting dunk that McConathy still laughs about.
“He left from about inside the free-throw line and dunked it, even though he couldn’t jump over a piece of paper,” McConathy joked. “I’m thinking, ‘no, you’re not going to do that.’ But he had enough in him, and that lifted everybody’s spirits.”
As much as the team accomplished on the floor, McConathy said the support from the Natchitoches community played a major role in making the moment, and the 26-8 season, special.
“The people here in Natchitoches were so important to what we did,” he said. “They stayed with us and encouraged us through a lot of bad basketball (in 2002-04) to get to that point. That’s what made it fun, because the people in this town supported us, and we’re grateful for that.”
Former director of athletics Greg Burke said the significance of the win has only grown with time, both for the program and for the fans who still celebrate it each year.
“There’s a lot of schools like us that may never experience something like that,” Burke said. “So to keep embracing it year after year on March 17 is really special.”
Two decades later, the memories remain vivid, the relationships remain strong and the moment that put Northwestern State Demons basketball on the national stage continues to connect a team, a university, a community and the entire basketball world – except, McConathy good-naturedly noted, for those Iowa fans.
Contact Brad at welbornb@nsula.edu