Battle of Backbone Mountain

1998–99 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Evansville	13	–	5	.722	23	–	10	.697
Creighton †	11	–	7	.611	22	–	9	.710
Southwest Missouri State	11	–	7	.611	22	–	11	.667
Bradley	11	–	7	.611	17	–	12	.586
Southern Illinois	10	–	8	.556	15	–	12	.556
Indiana State	10	–	8	.556	15	–	12	.556
Illinois State	7	–	11	.389	16	–	15	.516
Wichita State	6	–	12	.333	13	–	17	.433
Northern Iowa	6	–	12	.333	9	–	18	.333
Drake	5	–	13	.278	10	–	17	.370

† 1999 MVC tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll^[1]

The 1998–99 Evansville Purple Aces men's basketball team represented the University of Evansville in the 1998–99 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. Their head coach was Jim Crews and they played their home games at Roberts Municipal Stadium as members of the Missouri Valley Conference. After finishing alone atop the MVC regular season standings, the Purple Aces lost in the championship game of the MVC tournament. The Aces received an at-large bid to the 1999 NCAA tournament. They were defeated by No. 6 seed Kansas^[2] in the opening round and finished 23–10 (13–5 MVC).

Roster

1998–99 Evansville Purple Aces men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown
G		Marcus Wilson	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	—	Sr	Rockport, IN

Head coach

Jim Crews (Indiana)

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

^[3]

Schedule

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Regular season
Nov 14, 1998*		Western Kentucky	W 70–65	1–0	Roberts Stadium Evansville, Indiana
Nov 18, 1998*		at Tennessee-Martin	W 83–70	2–0	Skyhawk Arena Martin, Tennessee
Nov 22, 1998*		Sacred Heart	W 94–69	3–0	Roberts Stadium Evansville, Indiana
Nov 27, 1998*		vs. Saint Louis	L 55–85	3–1	Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium Hilo, Hawaii
Nov 28, 1998		at Hawaii-Hilo	W 115–74	4–1 (2–0)	Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium Hilo, Hawaii
Nov 29, 1998*		vs. New Orleans	W 73–61	5–1	Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium Hilo, Hawaii
Dec 5, 1998*		Butler	L 60–66	5–2	Roberts Stadium Evansville, Indiana
Dec 8, 1998*		at Eastern Illinois	W 85–66	6–2	Lantz Arena Charleston, Illinois
Dec 12, 1998*		at East Carolina	L 79–82	6–3	Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum Greenville, North Carolina
Dec 16, 1998*		Tennessee Tech	W 96–56	7–3	Roberts Stadium Evansville, Indiana
Dec 19, 1998		Indiana State	W 82–75	8–3 (1–0)	Roberts Stadium Evansville, Indiana
Dec 29, 1998*		at Morehead State	W 75–74	9–3	Ellis T. Johnson Arena Morehead, Kentucky
Jan 2, 1999		at Drake	W 89–76	10–3 (2–0)	Knapp Center Des Moines, Iowa
Jan 4, 1999		at Creighton	W 84–79	11–3 (3–0)	Omaha Civic Auditorium Omaha, Nebraska
Jan 7, 1999		Northern Iowa	W 96–84	12–3 (4–0)	Roberts Stadium
Jan 9, 1999		Wichita State	W 81–73	13–3 (5–0)	Roberts Stadium
Jan 13, 1999		at Northern Iowa	W 74–66	14–3 (6–0)	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, Iowa
Jan 16, 1999		Illinois State	L 80–81	14–4 (6–1)	Roberts Stadium
Jan 20, 1999		Creighton	L 80–90	14–5 (6–2)	Roberts Stadium
Jan 23, 1999		at Bradley	L 65–98	14–6 (6–3)	Carver Arena Peoria, Illinois
Jan 27, 1999		Southern Illinois	W 61–56	15–6 (7–3)	Roberts Stadium
Jan 30, 1999		Drake	W 76–63	16–6 (8–3)	Roberts Stadium
Feb 4, 1999		at Wichita State	W 75–63	17–6 (9–3)	Levitt Arena Wichita, Kansas
Feb 6, 1999		at SW Missouri State	W 65–62	18–6 (10–3)	Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri
MVC tournament
Feb 27, 1999*		vs. Wichita State Quarterfinals	W 79–71	22–8	Kiel Center St. Louis, Missouri
Feb 28, 1999*		vs. Bradley Semifinals	W 64–63	23–8	Kiel Center St. Louis, Missouri
Mar 1, 1999*		vs. Creighton Championship game	L 61–70	23–9	Kiel Center St. Louis, Missouri
NCAA tournament
Mar 12, 1999*	(11 MW)	vs. (6 MW) No. 22 Kansas First round	L 74–95	23–10	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. MW=Midwest. All times are in Central Standard Time.

^[4]

Rankings

^[5]

References

^ sports-reference.com 1998-99 Missouri Valley Conference Season Summary
^ "FSU Smothers Evansville". Orlando Sentinel. March 19, 1993. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
^ "1998-99 Evansville Purple Aces Roster and Stats". Sports Reference. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
^ "2019–20 Evansville Purple Aces Men's Basketball Media Guide" (PDF). University of Evansville Athletics. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
^ *ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 1073–1074. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

[1] sports-reference.com 1998-99 Missouri Valley Conference Season Summary

[ncaa-fsu-2] "FSU Smothers Evansville". Orlando Sentinel. March 19, 1993. Retrieved March 19, 2023.

[3] "1998-99 Evansville Purple Aces Roster and Stats". Sports Reference. Retrieved March 19, 2023.

[4] "2019–20 Evansville Purple Aces Men's Basketball Media Guide" (PDF). University of Evansville Athletics. Retrieved March 19, 2023.

[ESPN-5] *ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 1073–1074. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

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[3]

[4]

[5]

Evansville Purple Aces men's basketball
Venues	Roberts Municipal Stadium (1956–2011) Ford Center (2011–present)
Culture & lore	1977 team plane crash
People	Head coaches Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
NCAA national championships in bold