Jacksonville State has made a pair of NCAA tourney appearances during the past 7 years under Coach Ray Harper but the best era in school history occurred a few decades ago thanks to their star player Robert Lee Sanders. His 1983 career PTS remain the most in school history due in large part to his sensational junior season, when he led the team to 27 wins and its only Final 4 appearance while being named MVP of both the Gulf South Conference Tournament and the NCAA South Region playoffs. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Robert about his journey from dishwasher to All-American. Today marks the 34th anniversary of the Gamecocks’ win over Kentucky Wesleyan in the D-2 Elite 8 on March 23, 1989, so we take this time to remember that amazing accomplishment.
After high school you decided not to go directly to college and ended up washing dishes at a Bennigan’s in West Virginia: why did you originally make that decision, and what changed your mind? I was confused at the time whether I wanted to play college basketball and then my mother got sick. I was originally going to go to West Virginia State with 1 of my friends but I backed out of that. Coach James Hobbs and a few other schools started calling me, so I took a bus ride down to Jacksonville, and the rest was history.
In the 1989 D-2 tourney as a player at Jacksonville State you made it all the way to the Final 4 before losing to eventual champion NC Central: how close did you come to winning it all? We had watched NC Central play after winning our previous game and were not too impressed by them. When we played them I think that we were a little overconfident and they shot the ball much better against us than they did against Sacred Heart in the Elite 8. That was probably the best team I ever played on.
In 1990 you were named conference POY/All-American: what did it mean to you to win such outstanding individual honors? I put in a lot of time and effort so it was a great feeling. I felt bad that I could not bring the school a title: I feel that we should have won at least 1 during my time there. It feels good now to look back and see what I was able to accomplish.
In 1990 the Gulf South Conference decided not to hold a conference tourney: why did they do that, and how did you feel about that? We did not hear anything about it until the start of our senior year. It was kind of disappointing but we just decided to go out and win as many regular season games as possible.
In 1990 you made it back to the Elite 8 before losing to North Dakota: how did it feel to make back-to-back trips to the Elite 8? We had never even heard of North Dakota, so once again, we were going in on a high and feeling a little overconfident due to a pair of big OT wins vs. Florida Southern/NC Central. North Dakota just wanted it more than we did even though we had 8 or 9 seniors on our roster that year.
What have you been doing since getting out of basketball? I currently work at a printing shop and coach basketball at a middle school. I love coaching and I try to give something back to the kids.
When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? I gave everything I had and tried to play team ball. I hope people remember that I played as hard as I could and was a nice person/tough competitor. My Jacksonville State career was the best time of my life.