‘A great team with great kids’: La Salle to honor 1989-90 Explorers team that had most wins in school history

Speedy Morris had never watched it before Thursday, even all these years later.

His La Salle University Explorers took a 16-point lead into halftime in the second round of the 1990 NCAA Tournament vs. the best team from the Atlantic Coast Conference that year, Clemson.

Then La Salle went cold. The Explorers were outscored by 20 in the second half and lost by four, and the loss stung for a while.

“We definitely should’ve been in the Sweet 16,” Morris said.

Morris, who coached the men’s team at the school from 1986 to 2001 said he never watched the film, but he was watching it Thursday afternoon just reminiscing.

It wasn’t random. That 1989-90 team will be honored Saturday afternoon at Tom Gola Arena before La Salle takes on Massachusetts (2 p.m.).

Saturday is the annual Hall of Athletes induction ceremony at La Salle. Along with the ‘89-90 Explorers basketball team, Meghan McGlinchey (cross country, track and field) and Ashley Gale (women’s basketball) will be inducted.

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“It’s special,” Morris, now 80, said Thursday. “We were a special group of guys, a great team with great kids.”

“We’re going to be hoisted up there with some of the great teams and individuals,” said Bobby Johnson, the team’s sixth man who came to La Salle with Lionel Simmons from Southern High.

Johnson said the honor doesn’t just belong to the ‘89-90 team.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s just the 30-2 team going in,” Johnson said. “It feels like a combination of all of the guys that contributed over the years that built that team really.”

The ‘89-90 team, though, went further than them all, reaching that 1990 Round of 32, even if they felt their exit was premature. It was the senior season for Simmons — the national player of the year and all-time leading La Salle scorer whose No. 22 is retired by the university — and Johnson, the durable sixth man. Doug Overton was a junior, Jack Hurd was a sophomore and Randy Woods was the star freshman guard.

The group helped La Salle win a tournament game for the first time since the school’s 1950s golden era, when La Salle won the 1954 national title and lost in the final a year later. The ‘89-90 Explorers lost just one regular season game, to powerhouse Loyola Marymount, had more wins (30) than any La Salle team in program history and reached as high as No. 11 in the Associated Press poll.

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They were talented and well-coached, but also had a strong bond, Johnson said.

“We always hung out,” he said. “We were eating Ms. Mimi’s (Morris’s) spaghetti and meatballs, my mom’s soul food. We would go to different parties in North Philly and South Philly. We went everywhere as a group. We hung out as a brotherhood, and to this day we still communicate and get together and hang out and we still show that camaraderie that allowed us to be so successful.”

Asked about his favorite memories from those years, Johnson warned: “We could probably be here until next week…

“You’re asking the guy who remembers everything we did.”

Then he showed off that memory, recalling a moment from his junior year. The Explorers were playing at Villanova just before Christmas in 1988. It was late in the game and Johnson got screened. Simmons picked up his man, and Johnson had to find his new one. It was Villanova guard Gary Massey, who was open. Johnson recovered and blocked his shot.

Down the other end, Johnson said, he got free for a dunk that helped seal a win during a 26-6 La Salle season that ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

He also remembered the moment he signed the paperwork to join La Salle. Morris and top assistants Fran Dunphy and Joe Mihalich came to his house. Morris, Johnson said, had a warning for him: “You won’t play for me next year.”

He was right. Johnson played in just two minutes per game in 12 appearances his freshman season.

That was Morris, though, and it didn’t matter who you were, you were going to earn every minute. Morris said he had the same message for Simmons, a high school MVP and Public League champion.

“I’m not promising you anything,” Morris said he told Simmons. “You have to earn a spot.

“He was better than anyone we had on the team.”

Dunphy and Mihalich, Morris said, spent the ride back to La Salle telling Morris he was crazy. Did he really want to recruit Simmons?

“He came and the rest was history,” Morris said.