Armen Gilliam Dies

[Skippy]

Armen Gilliam, who scored 12 points and had 8 rebounds in UNLV's 95-70 win over ISU in the Bengals' last NCAA tournament game in 1987, died while playing pick-up basketball Tuesday night:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6743008" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[votb]

I'll always remember that game...I hated Tark and thought most of their players were thugs...but Gilliam was really a fairly gentle man. The Rebels went on to reach the Final Four that year where they lost to eventual champion Indiana. The UNLV roster that year was as follows:

Starters: Mark Wade PG, Freddie Banks SG, Gerald Paddio SF, Jarvis Basnight PF, Armon Gilliam C

Bench: Gary Graham, Eldridge Hudson, Stacey Cvijonavich, Richard Robinson, Lawrence West, and David Willard.

Some of the Bengals on that year's roster included:
Donn Holston, Jim Rhode, Mike Chatterton, Gordon Bean, Toros Yetenekian, George Davis, Troy Miles, Rodney Purvis, John Sullivan, Daron Alleman, Chase Brown, Rod Harris...there were others...my mind isn't what it used to be.

 

[SLCBengal]

I still have the program from those 1st and 2nd round games in Salt Lake City... Thanks to you two, I had to go dig it out...



Looking at the team picture in the program, the only 3 names I don't see included here are Chase Brown, Doug Allen, and Bob Dusenberry (who was listed as redshirting).

The assistant coaches were Barry Janusch, now the AD and head basketball coach at Olympic (Junior) College in Bremerton, WA, and Allen Corder (not sure where he is). The grad ass't coach was Jim Shaw, now an assistant under Lorenzo Romar at Washington.

I forgot how much talent there was to be seen at this venue: the UNLV players mentioned, Dan Majerle (Central Michigan), Mitch Richmond (Kansas State), Eric Leckner & Fennis Dembo (Wyoming), and Reggie Miller, Greg Foster, and Pooh Richardson (UCLA).

 

[Skippy]

That was one of the great weekends of my sports fan existence. While Jerry worked, Jim Fox and I got press passes and hung out with the media types at the interview rooms. I remember what total jerks Reggie Miller and Walt Hazzard were at the press conferences, and how much I enjoyed watching Dembo go off for 40 points and bury the Bruins in front of all the rockin' redneck Wyoming fans that Saturday afternoon.

 

[votb]

Speaking of Wyoming and Fennis Dembo...I remember calling a Pokes/ISU game in Reed Gym in December of 85' where Dembo and Donnie Holston got into a shootout. Dembo hit a jumper from about 20 over Donnie...so the Bengals came up the court and Donnie hits about a 22-footer over Fennis. Wyoming comes back and this time Dembo steps out for about a 24-footer over Holston. The crowd then exploded when the Bengals came up the court...with Dembo on Holston like glue...Donnie abruptly pulled up from about 26 feet and drained a radar-guided three...nothin' but net! ISU went on to win the game 70-62. During Dembo's senior season with the Pokes he also graced the cover of Sports Illustrated.

 

[Skippy]

That was a great game, Jer. I remember afterward Jim Bradenburg, the Wyoming coach, said he'd never bring a team back to Pocatello to play again.

 

[FormerISUSID]

Armen Gilliam was on the bus to get a rental car with myself, Cody, Geoff, and I think Tim when we went and played Arizona State a few years back. He remembered that game fondly, and he had great things to say about Jeff Cook, who was a teammate of his with Phoenix. He was a very nice guy and interested in the team.

Frank

 

[Yurok30]

It was a big game for us because Mike Graefe and Bruce Gaitor played junior college ball in Wyoming and didn't even get a sniff from Brandenburg. Then Doug Moratska came into the locker room before the game to tell us we were going to lose and Fennis Dembo was going to kill us. This really got me pumped up, since I didn't even know who he was.First the game started off with Brandenburg refusing to use the 3 point line and having everything count as two. The first play of the game 7 ft. Eric Leckner dunked on us because we always fronted the post which we used 6'5" guys to defend. As the game went on Fennis got an awesome alley oop dunk and preceded to run down the court, run up in my face and say,"On you fool." I have never been as mad in a game in my life. I hit 4 long range jumpers in a row and told him how do you like that "Fool." The next year when we played them again he shook my hand and said, "Good luck."

 

[sasquatch]

It was a big game for us because Mike Graefe and Bruce Gaitor played junior college ball in Wyoming and didn't even get a sniff from Brandenburg. Then Doug Moratska came into the locker room before the game to tell us we were going to lose and Fennis Dembo was going to kill us. This really got me pumped up, since I didn't even know who he was.First the game started off with Brandenburg refusing to use the 3 point line and having everything count as two. The first play of the game 7 ft. Eric Leckner dunked on us because we always fronted the post which we used 6'5" guys to defend. As the game went on Fennis got an awesome alley oop dunk and preceded to run down the court, run up in my face and say,"On you fool." I have never been as mad in a game in my life. I hit 4 long range jumpers in a row and told him how do you like that "Fool." The next year when we played them again he shook my hand and said, "Good luck."

Awesome awesome stuff, Yurok30! Thank you!