Former SID reminisces about trip to Hawaii
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Seldom in my 11 years of retirement from SIU athletics have I wished I was still among the "working". This week is one of those times. The basketball Salukis are spending the week in Honolulu, Hawaii. and those were pleasant trips. Three to Honolulu. Three to Puerto Rico, Two to Hilo, Hawaii. And one to Fairbanks, Alaska, which actually was one of the most enjoyable of all.
The 1989 journey to Hilo, although not nearly as scenic as the Honolulu stays, provided one of the most unusual happenings in SIU basketball history and one that we doubt is remembered by many other than the coaches.
Ashraf Amaya, a rookie, a freshman, basically a "bench" player who had gotten just his second start of his SIU career, was the hero of the day as the Salukis claimed a one-sided win over the host Hawaii-Hilo team.
The hosts opened the game hot. They shot out to a 19-12 lead in the opening minutes. Amaya, who was making just his second start for the Salukis, had scored SIU's 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th points. Ashraf continued on his one-man tear and scored the next 11 game points, extending his streak to 15 in a row for the Salukis and giving SIU a 23-19 lead. We're not certain of possible records involved, but we've never seen a single player score 15 in a row for his team and 11 straight game points.
Amaya, as all long-time Saluki fans know, became one of SIU's all-time greatest basketball players in the next few years. He started every game during the rest of his career (120 of 128), was the Missouri Valley Conference's "freshman of the year" and "defensive player of the year" in 1992 and '93, "player of the year" in 1992 and three times first team all-conference.
We have a lot of individual favorite athletes from our 35 years with the Salukis. Amaya, a product of Walther Lutheran High School in Oak Park, is definitely one of them as he was a classic student-athlete.
It's also somewhat interesting to note that not many of the trips outside of the "main 48" have been necessarily kind to the basketball Salukis. There have been a few meaningful victories, but usually a loss followed all of the upsets.
Like the very first tournament ever . . . to San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1988, opened with a win over Toledo and the following day coach Rich Herrin's club upset one of the signature teams in the nation, Villanova. The Salukis not only upset 'Nova, but trounced them 102-81 behind the hot shooting of Freddie McSwain (24 points) and Rick Shipley (21).
It also was a memorable game for us as Villanova's coach at the time was the legendary Rollie Massimino. He was seated at the end of Villanova's bench immediately next to us on press row. Shipley picked up his fifth personal foul midway in the second half, but the official scorer showed him only with four fouls and did not signal for an ejection. Rollie went crazy, used a few choice words which were overheard of SIU's broadcast being handled by Mike Murphy of Herrin, and insisted on seeing our scorebook.
I had already marked Shipley with five personals, wasn't eager to share that with the coach, so I simply picked uo my scorebook and sat on it. Massimino wasn't happy about that and anyone listening to Murphy's broadcast back in southern Illinois may even recall his tirade.
Shipley played the remainder of the game, SIU won by the large margin and Massimino's followers, all dressed in black suits, came looking for the SIU scorekeeper after the game. Incidentally, Rollie had cancer surgery earlier this fall, but to the best of our knowledge is still head coach at Northwood College in West Palm Beach and his team is ranked No. 1 in the NAIA.
The next night was a different story, however, as the Salukis were upset by South Carolina State, 90-88.
We can't remember South Carolina State's coach's name, but he was a candidate for the SIU job when Bruce Weber was hired. What they say about memories is true in our case, but it was an interesting connection.