Elated and exuberant late Tuesday night, Daryll Walker picked up his phone and sent a text message to Seton Hall athletic director Bryan Felt that summed up his emotions in one word.
“Payback,” he wrote.
Payback for 1989. Payback for the heartbreaking national championship game loss to Michigan that was decided on official John Clougherty’s questionable whistle with three seconds remaining in overtime that sent Rumeal Robinson to the free-throw line for the deciding points. Payback, after 32 years, for Seton Hall and its fans.
“I’m sure [our fans] felt the same way I felt,” the 54-year-old Walker, told The Post. “We got them back. They kind of jerked us in that game. We should’ve won that game.
“That made me really happy [Tuesday] night. I’m still happy today.”
The meeting was the first time Seton Hall and Michigan had faced each other since the 1989-90 regular season. It was put together by the Big East and the Big Ten as part of the annual Gavitt Tipoff Games. The Pirates, who were picked to finish fifth in the Big East, were a heavy underdog. Fourth-ranked Michigan was supposed to cruise. But it didn’t work that way. The Pirates eliminated an 11-point, second-half deficit and pulled out the biggest non-conference victory in school history, their first such win over a top-five team on the road.
Rumeal Robinson/s free throws sank Seton Hall in the 1989 national championship game.Michigan Athletic Media RelationsBut because of the history between the schools, it held extra significance. Felt said he had 113 text messages by the time he left the arena, and hundreds of more emails.
“The most texts I’ve ever gotten after a win ever,” coach Kevin Willard said.
Among them was one from Matt Regan, the son of Seton Hall legend Richie Regan. Richie Regan, a star player for the Pirates, was the athletic director at Seton Hall from 1971-85, and hired P.J. Carlesimo, that team’s coach who led Seton Hall to six NCAA Tournaments in seven years from 1988-94.
“That’s where it kind of hit me,” Willard said. “People were really nostalgic.”
Living in Seattle, where the 1989 title game was played, Carlesimo always runs into people who were at the game. He knows when it is being shown on ESPN Classics, because his phone will begin ringing.
“Every time I meet somebody [familiar with the game] they just shake their head. It always starts out positive, but then it always ends up, ‘you were robbed,’” said Carlesimo, who now works for ESPN Radio and the Pac-12 Network. “It was so special the whole experience and they felt like it was taken away from us.”
In an ironic twist, this Seton Hall-Michigan showdown was also determined at the free-throw line. This time, the Wolverines weren’t gifted free throws. With Michigan down two, Terrance Williams missed his first attempt and made his second with 0.8 seconds remaining, all but sealing the Seton Hall victory.
“That game needed to be played,” said Gerald Greene, who was whistled for the phantom foul all those years ago. “It should’ve been played a long time ago.”
Greene said it happened so long ago, he didn’t see it as payback. Carlesimo felt the same way. In talking to alums, Willard got the same impression. What it did was bring back fond memories of that season, Seton Hall’s lone trip to the Final Four.
“That run was almost magical,” Carlesimo said.
Over three decades later, Seton Hall got the ending against Michigan it felt it deserved. And, perhaps, it can be a jumping off point for this group of Pirates that will almost certainly find themselves ranked Monday.
“They got a heckuva team. That was some win,” Carlesimo, who has a close relationship with Willard and watches Seton Hall when his schedule allows. “The thing that impressed me was it wasn’t at a [neutral site] in Hawaii or the Bahamas. It was in [Michigan’s] building. That takes it to another level.”
