Husky Headlines
Men's Basketball
A Look Back at the 1985-86 NCC Championship Season
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
1985-86 NCC Championship Team |
The 1985-86 St. Cloud State University basketball season will long be remembered as the time when twelve young men and their coaches worked hard to prove that winning basketball was back at St. Cloud State.
The Championship season was highlighted by St. Cloud State's first ever North Central Conference title, a #1 NCAA Division II national ranking, a 19-game winning streak, the hosting of the NCAA North Central Region Tournament, and the best attendance figures in all of Division II basketball.
The Huskies posted a 26-4 overall record, making them the winningest team in SCSU basketball history. In addition, SCSU recorded a 16-2 record in the NCC. That same season, the Huskies won the Cal State - Bakersfield Holiday Classic and the North Central Conference Holiday Tournament.
Butch Raymond, the current Commissioner of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) was in his second season as the Husky head coach, and was named the NCC Coach of the Year. His coaching staff included Kevin Schlagel, Brad Isberner and Willie Myles.
The leading scorer and rebounder on the team was senior forward Kevin Catron who averaged 24.8 points and 7.6 rebounds. Catron was a two-time All-North Central Conference pick and in 1986 was voted the league's Most Valuable Player. He led the NCC in scoring that same season with 24.3 points per game. A junior college transfer, Catron played two seasons for the Huskies, and left as the fourth leading scorer in basketball history after scoring 1,342 points. Since, he has dropped to 12th on the SCSU all-time scoring chart. He still holds six individual records, including the junior and senior class scoring records of 598 and 744 points, respectively. Catron earned All-American honors in both of his playing seasons.
The other senior on the squad was center Bruce Anderson. Anderson was a four-year letterwinner who scored 979 points and grabbed 431 rebounds. He was named to the 1986 All-North Central Conference first team. Anderson played in 109 games in his career, just two shy of the all-time record for most games played at the time.
Two other team members were named All-NCC Honorable Mention that year. They were guards Barry Wohler, a junior, and sophomore Reggie Perkins. The remaining team members included juniors Cleveland Barnes, Barry Wohler, and Kevin Treanor, sophomores Todd Spaulding, Terry Kuechle and Mike Hillman, and freshmen Eric Lind and Kent Lind.
The team highlights that season included setting an NCC record for wins in a season with 16, leading the league in scoring offense with 76.1 points per game and free throw percentage with a .757 mark, and sharing the team assist title with Augustana College averaging 18.7 assists per game.
St. Cloud State was nationally ranked throughout the season, beginning the season at the #2 spot. In the second week of the poll SCSU moved to #1, a position the Huskies held for four consecutive weeks, before dropping back to #2 for the remainder of the season.
The NCAA News reported that St. Cloud State led Division II in home attendance, averaging 4,539 fans per game.
After winning the conference championship, the Huskies were host to the NCAA North Central Region Tournament. St. Cloud State posted an opening round 76-67 win over Eastern Montana College. The Huskies faced Wayne State College of Michigan for the region championship, and lost to the Tartars 75-71, bringing an end to undoubtedly the most successful season in the history of SCSU basketball.
Free E-Mail Updates
If you would like FREE e-mail updates about SCSU athletics, visit our Husky Sports Updates page for information on how to sign up to be on the listserv.
