The Final Four of the 2005 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will be coming to St. Louis during the first weekend in April at the Edward Jones Dome.
Through the history of the event, basketball players from St. Louis have played key roles in helping their respective teams reach the apex of college basketball. During the month of March, the St. Louis American will take a look back at some of the talented area players who were fortunate enough to compete in college basketball’s greatest spectacle.
This week, the American features former Vashon High standout Sean Tunstall.
Sean Tunstall and classmate Malcolm Nash were teammates on the Vashon High team that won the Missouri Class 4A state championship in 1988. They were starters on what was one of the most talented teams in the history of Missouri high school basketball. Tunstall was one of the most gifted guards ever to go through the Vashon program.
At 6’3″, Tunstall had the look of a prototypical shooting guard with his size, smooth ball-handling ability and feathery shooting stroke from out to 25 feet. He was also starter as a sophomore on the 1986 Vashon team that won the state title with senior leaders Anthony Bonner and Anthony Jones.
Both players chose the University of Kansas and then-coach Larry Brown. Nash played a limited reserve role for four seasons and graduated from KU. Although Tunstall did not have a full career at Kansas, he played a huge part in an improbable and memorable Jayhawk run to the Final Four of the 1991 Tournament.
The underdog Jayhawks advanced all the way to the national championship game before being upending by Duke 72-65 in Indianapolis. On the way to the title game, Kansas knocked off top teams Indiana, Arkansas and North Carolina in stunning fashion.
Tunstall settled in as the Jayhawks’ top backcourt reserve during the ’91 season, averaging nearly six points a game in 17 minutes of action. He played the “sixth man” role to perfection during the NCAA Southeast Regional in Charlotte. In the regional semifinals against No. 1 seed Arkansas, Tunstall scored 11 points in 18 minutes in the Jayhawks’ 93-61 victory.
Just two days later, Tunstall enjoyed the best performance of his college career in the regional finals against Indiana. In 25 minutes, Tunstall scored 15 points to help the Jayhawks to a 83-65 victory and a berth in the Final Four. Tunstall hit two 3-pointers to help spark a 26-6 KU run to open the game.
Tunstall scored five points in Kansas’ 79-73 victory over North Carolina in the national semifinals, but he scored what may have been the Jayhawks’ biggest basket of the game. Kansas had built a 51-41 lead in the second half, only to see the Tar Heels storm back to cut the lead to 58-57. Tunstall responded by canning a 3-pointer to give the Jayhawks a 61-57 lead. The bucket started a 9-0 Kansas run that kept the Tar Heels at bay for the rest of the afternoon.
Kansas’ storybook run ended in the finals against a Duke team that had just shocked previously unbeaten UNLV in the other semifinal game.
“We didn’t win the national championship, but we sent a lot of good teams home,” Tunstall said after the national final.
Tunstall’s career at Kansas ended the following season when he left the team midway through the ’92 season. He was a fixture in the local men’s leagues for the next five years.
Tragically, Tunstall’s life ended prematurely when he was shot and killed outside a local recreation center in St. Louis. Ironically, another player to wear Tunstall’s #20 at Vashon was Jimmy McKinney, who enjoyed an All-American career with the Wolverines before heading to the University of Missouri.
