Lamar’s Incredible NCAA Tournament Run from 1979-83

Following a six-year drought of having no Southland Conference teams in the NCAA tournament, Southland Conference administrators and coaches successfully lobbied the national association to award the league with an automatic bid to the 1979 event.


The Lamar Cardinals took full advantage of their newfound postseason opportunity. After rolling to a 9-1 championship mark in league play, the 1979 Cardinals, led by coach Billy Tubbs, garnered a No. 10 seed with a matchup with No. 7 seed Detroit in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The Titans proved no match for the Cardinals and the 33-point, 19-rebound performance by Clarence Kea, who led the team to an impressive 95-87 win in the opening round before falling in the next round to the eventual national champion Michigan State.


In 1980, there was more of the same, and then some, as the Cardinals returned to the “Big Dance” as another No. 10 seed in the West Region, forced to face No. 7 seed Weber State on its own home court in Ogden, Utah. Lamar’s 87-86 win over the Wildcats, behind a 37-point output from star Mike Olliver, propelled the Cards into a second-round round matchup against prohibitive favorite and No. 2 seed and Pac-10 champion Oregon State. The Cardinals jumped on Oregon State from the tip, building a 14-point lead, placing five players in double figures and winning 81-77. On to the “Sweet Sixteen” where Lamar faced Clemson of the ACC. Despite leading most of the game, the Tigers rallied to end the Cardinals’ season, 74-66.


In 1981, Lamar won the first Southland tournament with first-year coach Pat Foster and earned the opportunity as a No. 8 seed in the Midwest Region in Austin, Texas, to face No. 9-seed Missouri. Earlier in the season, Mizzou had handled Lamar at home, 92-70, but the Cardinals, led by Olliver’s 25 points, turned back the Tigers and their four future NBA players, 71-67. Lamar advanced to the second round, but Final Four-bound LSU got the best of the Cardinals, 100-78.


After an “off” year with an NIT berth in 1982, the Cardinals returned to their championship ways in 1983, winning the Southland tournament in Beaumont and earning a No. 11 seed in the Midwest Region at Houston. The first-round opponent was No. 6-seed Alabama, and the Cardinals, led by Lamont Robinson’s 20 points, stunned the Crimson Tide, 73-50, the biggest point difference in the entire 1983 NCAA tournament. A narrow 60-58 loss to No. 3 Villanova kept Lamar from advancing to the “Sweet Sixteen.”


Lamar’s five NCAA wins in those five years the Southland’s most concentrated success in such a time period.

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