A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits somewhere between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of local sports connections. – Obrey Brown
Villanova’s Allan Ray hit for 38 points, Randy Foye had 25, Will Sheridan 23 and Mike Nardi had 19 in the Wildcats’ 114-103 triumph over the University of Redlands. The date was Nov. 22, 2003.
Amir Mazarei kicked off his college career with 15 points. Eventually, Mazarei became Redlands’ all-time leading scorer, even leading the entire NCAA – that’s D-1 through D-3 – with an average of 6.2 three-point field goals per game in 2005. That season, he was second in Division 3 with a 28.6 scoring average.
He was only part of Redlands’ counter-attack against Villanova on that date in 2003.
Redlands, playing its up-tempo defensive and offensive brand of organized mayhem, led 50-49 at halftime and really put the scare into the onetime NCAA champions (1985). It was a game that included six ties and five lead changes.
Afterward, Wildcats’ coach Jay Wright reflected that Redlands “put the scare into us.”
“They should’ve been scared,” said Bulldog coach Gary Smith, moments after the game.
Smith, for his part, rotated his much larger roster in and out of the game against the eight-man Wildcats’ squad. Villanova needed every ounce of skill and discipline to knock off the physically smaller Bulldogs.
“I started my career coaching at Division 3 University of Rochester,” said Wright, “so I know how good those players are – very skilled, very talented. They maybe aren’t as big or as athletic.”
Redlands’ Donald Brady remembered his first play in the game, “coming down the court with Randy Foye guarding me. He deflected a pass. I couldn’t believe how quick he was. Luckily, someone came up with it. I almost committed a turnover.”
Villanova had more turnovers (23) than Redlands (18).
Redlands led by 10 points with nine minutes left. Ray hit a pair of difficult baseline jumpers, eight-footers that helped lift the Wildcats back into the game. “We missed a lot of lay-ups,” said Redlands’ Carson Sofro, whose team shot 36 percent to Villanova’s sizzling 63 percent.
“We might’ve had the advantage on talent,” Wright told me afterward, “but you and I know that. It doesn’t matter what a coach tells his players. What matters is what they hear.”
In that 2003 game, Derek Flegel and Billy Shivers combined for 51 of Redlands’ points. Mazarei’s 15 was joined by Ryan Pelo’s six. Brady and Sofro barely saw action.
Flegel hit a game-opening three-pointer, lifting the smallish-gym’s capacity crowd to its feet. “The place erupted,” said Sofro, “after he hit that shot.”
That Currier Gym crowd was ready for anything.
In a way, I guess some of Redlands’ players were saying, it might’ve been an honor to lose such a game.
Fast forward some 27 months: The Wildcats, at times ranked No. 2 in the nation in 2005-2006 season, were a No. 1 seed in the following year’s NCAA Tournament.
Villanova is still coached by Wright, who has led the Wildcats to national championships in 2016 and 2018. Now that Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Bobby Knight are no longer coaching, Wright may well be considered college hoops’ top current coach — Kansas’ Bill Self, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and Michigan’s Tom Izzo, among others, also included in that list.
Off that 2003-2004 Villanova team, Nardi, Ray and Sheridan were still playing when Villanova lost to Florida in the Elite Eight two seasons later.
Foye, a 6-4 senior, and Ray, a 6-2 senior, were the team’s top scorers at 20.3 and 18.9 points a game. Nardi, 6-2, a junior, was hitting at 11.5. Sheridan, a 6-foot-8 junior, netted five points a game. Ross Condon was another current Wildcat who played at Redlands.
Baker Dunleavy, son of then-Los Angeles Clippers’ coach Mike Dunleavy, was then a freshman. Dunleavy, a 6-5, red-shirt junior, was held scoreless at Redlands in a limited role. The brother of Golden State Warriors’ onetime No. 1 draft pick Mike Dunleavy, Jr., had played limited roles throughout his career.
In 2005-2006, Villanova, ranked No. 2 behind Duke heading into a Big East loss at Connecticut, was 22-2 after that game. Wright’s team was gunning for an NCAA Tournament championship to cap the March Madness.
The Wildcats (18-17 in 2003-2004) failed to reach the NCAA Tournament field that season, eventually losing to Rutgers in the NIT quarterfinals. “They’ve come a long way,” said Brady, a couple years later, “since they played us.”
Redlands finished 8-14 overall in 2003-2004, taking fifth place in the Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Conference.
“A lot of us became Villanova fans after we played them,” said Mazarei, adding with a chuckle, “If they beat someone (like Duke or North Carolina), it makes us look better.”
Foye was a No. 1 pick in the 2006 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, but started his career with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ray had a full NBA career that started in Boston.
And A Redlands Connection was struck forever.
