Unsung Upsets of the NCAA Tournament – 1993 George Washington Colonials
Everyone remembers the big name upsets of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament – VCU over Kansas in 2011, Villanova over Georgetown in 1985, Santa Clara over Arizona in 1993. What this Unsung Upsets of the NCAA Tournament series aims to do is shed some light on some of the more obscure, forgotten, yet just as talented teams that pulled off upsets of their own.
The 1993 tournament is most likely remembered for just one play – Chris Webber dribbling into a corner on the Superdome court, signaling for timeout in a frantic, desperate display. Michigan was famously out of timeouts and the Wolverines fell for the second consecutive year in the title game, losing to Dean Smith’s North Carolina Tarheels 77-71. Michigan was the 1 seed in the West bracket that year, however, and emerged out of what proved to be a bracket rife with upsets and underdogs – among them the 12 seed George Washington Colonials.
The 1992-1993 George Washington Colonials Men’s Basketball Team
Lead by third year head coach Mike Jarvis, George Washington featured an potent offense lead by Dirkk Surles, Sonni Holland, Kwame Evans and 7’1″ freshman center Yinka Dare. The Colonials finished their regular season at 19-8, losing in the first round of the Atlantic-10 Conference tournament to Rhode Island. Their body of work was enough, however, to earn them an at-large bid as the 12 seed in the West bracket. The Colonials matched up in the first round against the WAC champion New Mexico Lobos, lead by head coach – and persona non grata – Dave Bliss, who would later become embroiled in the Patrick Dennehy scandal while at Baylor.
George Washington outpaced New Mexico the entire game, earning an 82-68 victory on the back of 19 points from Kwame Evans and 17 points from Yinka Dare. The Colonials were the 9th 12 seed – the 6th since 1989 – win a first round game since seeding expanded to 64 teams in 1985. This would be a tremendous accomplishment for any lower seeded team, but what makes the Colonials’ win an unsung upset is that happened the same year – in the same region, mind you – as 15 seed Santa Clara’s win over 2 seed Arizona. George Washington wasn’t even the lowest seed to win in their tournament site of Tucson, Arizona’s McKale Center – the 13 seed Southern Jaguars mopped the floor with 4 seed Georgia Tech 93-78 that very same day.
The Colonials would become just the 7th 12 seed to win a second round game, outlasting Southern 90-80 in an uptempo, fast-paced game between two double-digit seeded teams. Their cinderella run would come to an end in the Kingdome in Seattle, however, as George Washington lost to Michigan’s Fab Five squad 72-64 in the Sweet Sixteen.
The legacy of that immensely talented George Washington team is tied to two people – their head coach Mike Jarvis, now at Florida Atlantic, and Yinka Dare, who was drafted 14th overall by the New Jersey Nets in the 1994 draft. Dare, who was from Kano, Nigeria, had a forgettable NBA career, averaging 2.1 points and 2.6 rebounds in four seasons with the Nets. He sadly passed away in 2004 at the age of 31 from a heart attack. Jarvis went on from George Washington to coach at St. John’s for five seasons, where he had the distinct pleasure of coaching the then-named Ron Artest, before landing at Florida Atlantic in 2008.
Yinka Dare
I had the privilege of watching that 1993 George Washington team in person in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament that year, and I will never forget seeing the spectacle of 7’1″ Yinka Dare take the court for the first time. I had seen 7-footers play before, but none of them were like Dare – he was quick and athletic with a notable musculature. Dare wasn’t some skinny bean pole that just so happened to be 7 feet tall – the dude was ripped. He was an imposing athlete for his time – unfortunately for Dare, however, his star shined brightest as a freshman at George Washington, as evidence by his lackluster pro career.
Dare and Mike Jarvis helped bring George Washington basketball back on the map in 1993, providing one of the more impressive – albeit unsung – runs by a 12 seed in the NCAA tournament.