Unsung Upsets of the NCAA Tournament – 1999 Weber State Wildcats
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.
When you think of the 1999 West Regional, you think of one team – the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The 10 seed Bulldogs had a run through the tournament that was Cinderella personified until falling to eventual champs Connecticut in the regional final. It seems like everyone and their mother was rooting for Mark Few’s plucky squad to make it to the Final Four. While Gonzaga earned all the glory that in that year’s West Regional, it was another small school with a double digit seed that pulled off arguably the more impressive upset – Weber State.
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Weber State should have came as a surprise to no one in the 1998-99 season, yet there they were come tournament time, champions of the Big Sky conference with a 24-7 record on the season. The Wildcats were given the 14 seed and a matchup with perennial powerhouse North Carolina. What seemed like an easy pick for the 3 seed Tar Heels to advance was made all the more complicated by Weber State and their high scoring PG Harold “The Show” Arceneaux.
Arceneaux grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana yet made his way to Ogden, Utah and Weber State in time for his junior year. Leading Weber State in scoring with 22.3 points per game in the 1998-99 season, Arceneaux and his Wildcats handily won the Big Sky Conference tournament. Their first round matchup in the NCAA tournament would be against a North Carolina program that was making its 25th consecutive tournament appearance, having won all of their first round games dating back to 1980. The writing was on the wall – Weber State didn’t stand a chance against the likes of Ed Cota, Brendan Haywood and the rest of the ACC-tested Tar Heels, national semifinalists the previous season.
“The Show” poured in 36 points – including 20 in the second half – to help put away the 4 seed Tar Heels 76-74. Arceneaux punctuated his performance that night in Seattle with two late free throws and a steal as time expired to help preserve the win. Harold Arceneaux was an overnight sensation, but those that followed Weber State knew what “The Show” was capable of and had come to expect such a performance from that season’s Big Sky men’s basketball MVP. Next up for the Wildcats was a Florida team featuring the likes of Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem. Arceneaux again went off for 30+ points, this time dropping 32 on the Gators. It wasn’t enough, however, this time around as the Gators powered past the Wildcats in OT, 82-74.
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After initially declaring himself eligible for the NBA draft, Arceneaux decided to return to Weber State for his senior year. The Wildcats struggled under new head coach Joe Cravens, turning in an 18-10 record on the season. Arceneaux shrugged off early season struggles to average 23.0 points per game, good enough for fifth in the nation. Weber State wouldn’t make it back to the tournament until the 2002-03 season, where they lost in the first round to Wisconsin. Weber State wouldn’t see another season as prolific as Arceneaux’s 1998-99 tilt until Damian Lillard averaged 24.5 points per game in his 2011-12 senior season, breaking Arceneaux’s school-record of 713 points on the season with 784. Lillard’s Wildcat teams, it should be noted, never made the NCAA tournament.
The win over North Carolina stands as Weber State’s last NCAA tournament victory, having only made three appearances (2003, 2007, 2014) since 1999. It was that singular performance, though, from a kid from New Orleans that March 11 night at Seattle’s Key Arena that most people remember from that 1999 tournament. Sure, Gonzaga was the better, more fundamentally sound team, but Weber State was more uptempo and dynamic – the lasting legacy of a man known to all as simply “The Show.”
Below is the entirety of the 1999 NCAA tournament first round game between (3) North Carolina and (14) Weber State.