MONROE, La. – With three winning seasons in his first four years, Mike Vining was already off to the greatest start of any coach in ULM men's basketball history.
The 1985-86 campaign was destined to be a successful year from the beginning, as the Warhawks returned nearly everyone from their 17-12 squad from the year before. ULM returned 96 percent of its scoring and 94 percent of its rebounding.
A stacked starting line of veteran guard Arthur Hayes and Elgin James, tagged with the inside presence of Bobby Jenkins and Gerard Phillips brought Vining his first 20-win season at the helm. More importantly, ULM won both the regular season and post-season Southland Conference championships.
The conference tournament didn't come easy for ULM, as it found itself trailing Louisiana Tech by six points with two minutes left in the semi-finals. The Warhawks rallied back, and with four seconds left James hit two foul shots on a one-and-one to put them on top, 57-56. The championship game was even more dramatic as a late 11-4 run concluded with a 25-foot buzzer beater by Hayes to beat McNeese State 59-57.
“In the championship game, I thought the game was over and we had lost. Hayes ran across half-court and just threw one up because of the time. The buzzer sounded and it went in, and it was a shock to all of us,” Vining said. “Nevertheless, it was a tremendous feeling.”
A great season continued in the first half of the NCAA Tournament against UNLV as the Warhawks led as late as the six-minute mark in the first half. Jenkins, James and Hayes each scored double-figures, but UNLV used a big second half to take a 74-51 result.
“It was an odd game because we had to play at 11 o'clock in the morning which we had never done before. We came in and played really well. There was a big play at the end of the first half where we missed a dunk and it completely flipped all the momentum. We then missed a couple of close range shots after that and it all snow-balled against us,” said Vining. “We were playing against a very, very good team coached by Jerry Tarkanian during his best years.”
ULM's 20-10 record in 1985-86 marked its 26th consecutive non-losing season, the sixth longest streak in the country. Hayes wrapped up his career with 1,122 points, James with 1,044 points and Jenkins 1,029.
“Those guys were such great competitors. The key to that season was our team chemistry. We had good players, but the big thing was they all trusted each other and complimented each other,” Vining said.
After a re-building year in 1986-87, the Warhawks were back at it in 1987-88 with a huge year from Michael Saulsberry. The senior center, who scored 1,308 points in his career, headlined a ULM squad that finished 21-9 overall and 10-4 in the SLC. It was Vining's winningest season to date.
“We recruited Saulsberry really hard. He actually ended up signing somewhere else out of high school and immediately regretted it. He then came here and had to sit out a year which actually gave him a great opportunity to adjust and mature,” Vining said.
Saulsberry was named to the All-Conference First-Team and All-Tournament Team along with Alvin Jefferson. ULM also had a deadly three-point shooter in Derrick Pollard and a great ball handler in Brian Spencer. The squad broke 14 school records that season, most coming on individual and team shooting percentages.
The Warhawks were selected to play in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) for the second time in school history. They fell to Arkansas State, 70-59, but the highlight of the season may have come at the Utah Classic where ULM knocked off Washington and Utah.
“The Utah Classic was huge for us. Washington's coach was Andy Russo who I had to coach against again because he was at Louisiana Tech before so he really wanted to beat us. I don't think he was expecting to lose that game.” said Vining. “Utah was the home team and we opened up a huge 16-point lead at half. They came back and made it close which actually caused our coaching staff to make a change in our style. We had always called out plays, but the crowd got so loud that we shifted to visual signals for the first time ever. We hung on to beat them and it was a tremendous win for the program.”
ULM rounded out the decade with a 17-12 (9-5 SLC) record in 1988-89. The season turned out to significantly exceed low expectations as Warhawks returned just one starter from the year before. The young ULM team, guided by sophomore Anthony Jones, fell in the championship game of the SLC Tournament, but it was merely just a preview of what was soon to come.
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This is the second installment of a five-story series that will highlight Vining's 24-year head coaching career at ULM leading up to the banner raising ceremony on Jan. 24, 2015 at Fant-Ewing Coliseum.
