When the Western men’s basketball team claimed the 2012 national title, the Vikings were just the second team from the state of Washington to earn an NCAA national championship at any level.
Ten years later, that still rings true.
Western’s 72-65 win over the University of Montevallo in the Division II national title game from a decade ago remains the last basketball championship to come from the state, helping further cement the legacy of that Vikings squad.
Brad Jackson, the Vikings’ head coach in 2012, said looking back on that run, the mentality of the team heading out to the Elite Eight stands out still.
“They were a confident team and tough team mentally, really the whole year,” Jackson said. “Coming into the championship game, I thought they felt confident, calm and expected to do well.”
The talent was always there that season for Western, but with all that talent comes egos.
Getting everyone’s own individual games and desires to work together was the challenge, Jackson said.
“Early on, we struggled a little bit with role definition because we had some very strong personalities, which I think, from a coaching standpoint, is a good thing because they were tough,” he said. “Being able to put all that together so they’re all on the same page, that sometimes can be a chore, but as we went into the year we felt we could probably be pretty good.”
Once the team started to gel that season, the Vikings mostly cruised before reaching the Elite Eight.
Western’s run at the Elite Eight started with a 64-63 victory over Midwestern State University of Texas to advance to the Final Four.
A 71-66 win over Stonehill College of Massachusetts put the Vikings in the national title game.
Both of those wins were highlighted by balanced and team play by Western with multiple players scoring in double figures in each one.
The championship game told the same story, but the Vikings had to crawl back from behind in the second half against the University of Montevallo of Alabama.
Western trailed 40-35 in the second half before rattling off a 14-4 run to take the lead back for good with about 10 minutes left in the game.
The second-half comeback came as no surprise to those wearing the Vikings uniform.
“We had always been a second-half team,” Western forward Zack Henifin said. “Even when we got down, as a whole we were never nervous. Us roaring back in the second half is one of the things I remember most of that game.”
Henifin also didn’t know confetti fell at the Division II level.
“There’s a photo of me somewhere and I’m looking up at all the confetti, just super surprised,” he said.
Forward Rory Blanche said 10 years later, the teamwork from that title game is what’s most memorable to him.
“If you look at the boxscore, across the board, we just had teammates that stepped up and it was a real balanced effort all the way across,” Blanche said. “That was kind of the theme for the entire season. We had an incredible bench, great coaching staff and really strong players that came together to make it happen.”
Making it all the way to the national championship game, and winning it, was the result of a combination of a lot of things.
Talent will take you far, but all the other pieces had to fall in place.
“You don’t compete at that level and win at that level without having guys that are talented,” Jackson said. “It’s kind of a mixture of all that. This was one of those teams where you could pick a guy and they would have averaged 25 [points per game]. The really, really good teams have balance. This team did a really nice job of knowing this guy can do that, that guy can do that and recognizing how they could contribute.”
Blanche said the team came together at the right time.
“A lot of teams peak too soon or never really see their peak, but we peaked at the exact perfect moment and made something pretty special out of it,” Blanche said.
So, what is the legacy 10 years later of the 2011-12 Western squad that claimed college basketball glory?
Jackson said that’s going to only grow in stature over time.
“The fact they accomplished what they did is pretty significant,” he said. “I think in the eyes of a lot of people West Coast basketball isn’t all that great, but here’s this school from Bellingham.”
Being a part of the team to claim the last national basketball title from the state is cool, but Blanche wants that to inspire other programs.
“Bringing a title back in the basketball realm is pretty special for everybody involved and hopefully it will start to spur more teams to make something similar happen,” Blanche said.
