Iowa's Lowery also part of Loyola Marymount history

It has been over eight years since Terrell Lowery stood helplessly with his teammates on the basketball court at Loyola Marymount's Gersten Pavilion and watched his best friend, Hank Gathers, die.

The date of the West Coast Conference Tournament game against Gonzaga was March 4, 1990, but Lowery, now an outfielder with the Iowa Cubs, still finds it hard to talk about the loss of the seemingly invincible Gathers to a heart ailment.

"It was a helpless feeling," Lowery, his voice cracking, said before a Pacific Coast League game with the Las Vegas Stars at Cashman Field. "It's still very hard to talk about."

Lowery was the sixth man on Paul Westhead's run-and-gun squad which shattered a number of NCAA scoring records and, after Gathers' stunning death, defined the meaning of the term "Cinderella" in the NCAA basketball tournament.

Gathers was a big brother figure to Lowery, a product of Oakland Tech High School.

"We had a close relationship," Lowery said.

But somehow, Lowery, Bo Kimble and the rest of the Lions managed to regroup after Gathers' death to not only win the WCC tourney crown but also make an unexpected run through the NCAA Tournament.

After disposing of New Mexico State 111-92 in the first round at the Long Beach Arena, the Lions came back to hammer a Michigan squad that included future NBA players Terry Mills, Loy Vaught and Rumeal Robinson, 149-115.

The following week, Loyola advanced to the Elite Eight with a 62-60 win over an Alabama team that included Robert Horry and Latrell Sprewell in the West Regional in Oakland.

The improbable March Madness run came to an end, however, in the West Regional final when Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon led eventual NCAA champion UNLV to a 131-101 victory.

"Nobody ever gave us a shot all year long," Lowery recalled. "I remember we played UNLV early in the season when they were ranked No. 1 and took them right down to the end. We went to LSU with Shaq and lost in overtime. We beat LaSalle when they were ranked No. 14. But we never seemed to be able to crack the top 20. Then we opened a lot of eyes in the NCAA Tournament that year."

Westhead and Kimble left after that season for short stints in the NBA, but Lowery returned to play two more years for the Lions and then-coach Jay Hillock.

In 1990-91, he finished fifth in the nation in scoring with a 28.5 average and also was third in country in assists, the only time in NCAA Division I history that a player has finished in the top five in both categories.

He made all-WCC the following season as well, averaging 26.0 ppg. He finished his LMU career second in career scoring (2,201) to Gathers (2,490) and still is the school's all-time leader in assists (689) and steals (231).

It seemed a foregone conclusion that a player with Lowery's size (6-3), scoring touch and playmaking ability would be drafted by an NBA team. But Lowery went undrafted.

"Yeah, I thought I'd get drafted," Lowery said. "But it was one of those things. I'm sure playing two sports might have had something to do with it."

Despite playing baseball sparingly at LMU, Lowery was drafted in the second round by the Texas Rangers after his junior year and decided to give professional baseball a try.

"I got some decent money and I thought it would be a good opportunity," Lowery said. "It was a surprising opportunity for me because I never played a full season of baseball in college. I'd usually just play about a half season because I'd come out after basketball."

Lowery did get pro basketball contract offers from CBA and European teams. "And several NBA teams offered to bring me straight into their veterans camp, basically assuring me of a job," Lowery said. "But I choose not to do that. I felt it would be a better opportunity for me to stick with baseball because they had chosen me very high and invested in me financially."

Lowery was eventually traded by the Rangers to the Mets for Damon Buford. In 1996, the Cubs plucked him away in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft.

Lowery, 27, has had two brief call-ups with the Cubs, including 24 games mainly as a defensive replacement this season when he hit .200 in 15 at-bats, scored two runs and drove in another. He was waived to Iowa by Chicago after the Cubs signed Glenallen Hill and is hitting .285 with nine homers and 37 RBIs in 49 games.

Despite being sent back to triple-A, Lowery believes he still has a major league future.

"They have a lot of good outfielders in this organization," Lowery said. "But I'll be a six-year free agent after this season. It'll be the first time I'll be in the position to choose which team I want to play for. It'll be real interesting. I don't anticipate being back with the Cubs.

"I don't have any regrets about playing baseball instead of basketball. I've been up to the big leagues and I've been able to persevere through a lot of difficult times. There's got to be some gold at the end of the rainbow one day. I'm just going to try and have a quality year here and hopefully there will be some team out there that believes I have the talent to play every day on a major league ballclub. I certainly do."

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