Last-second game winners expected in NCAA tourney
Most famous was NC State win in Pit
On its own, Kris Jenkins’ 3-point shot to win the national championship for Villanova wasn’t all that out of the ordinary.
In an era when Steph Curry has made 35-foot jump shots seemingly commonplace, Jenkins’ 20-something-footer was relatively normal.
What made the shot so memorable was the entirety of the back-and-forth that led up to it, the nervous energy surrounding both teams as they competed toward an uncertain outcome in the closing minutes, and the remarkable double-clutch 3-pointer by North Carolina’s Marcus Paige that immediately preceded it.
And, of course, there was the timing — the buzzerbeating dramatics of which hadn’t been seen in an NCAA Tournament championship game since in 1983 at the Pit, when Lorenzo Charles’ dunk secured North Carolina State’s victory over Houston in 1983.
If there was indeed a debate about whether the long ball had replaced its high-flying cousin, the dunk, as the highlight of choice for many a millennial, Jenkins might have just ended it.
Jenkins’ shot will certainly go down as the most revered in Villanova basketball history, and it immediately joined Charles’ dunk on the short list for greatest NCAA championship game finishes.
Game-winning, last-second shots are almost as expected in the NCAA Tournament as the opening-round upset — from U.S. Reed in 1981 to Bryce Drew in 1998 and this year’s half-court heave by Northern Iowa’s Paul Jesperson. They are often celebrated for a brief moment before we turn our attention to another openingweekend game. Here are some more heart-stopping moments from the NCAA Tournament archives:
EDNEY’S DASH: Tyus Edney’s length-of-the-court drive gave UCLA a secondround buzzer-beating 75-74 win over Missouri in 1995. The Bruins collected themselves and went on to defeat defending champion Arkansas two weeks later for the title.
SMART’S MOVE: Indiana won the last of its three championships under coach Bobby Knight in 1987, and it did so in dramatic fashion — with Keith Smart connecting on a baseline jumper in the closing seconds to give the Hoosiers a 74-73 win over Syracuse.
THE SHOT: Christian Laettner’s catch from Grant Hill, shot fake and turnaround jumper to defeat Kentucky at the buzzer of a 1992 regional final did more than just send defending champion Duke back to the Final Four. It also led to back-to-back titles for the Blue Devils.
FABULOUS FRESHMAN: Basketball great Michael Jordan was on hand to watch his beloved Tar Heels lose in gut-wrenching fashion Monday night. Long ago, it was freshman Jordan who hit the eventual winner in North Carolina’s 63-62 win over George- town in 1982.
Notes
MEN: Kentucky announced that freshman Skal Labissiere will enter the NBA draft. The 6-foot-11, 225-pound Haitian’s announcement comes after Jamal Murray’s decision Friday. The school said that Labissiere will hire an agent. … The NCAA championship game posted a record-low 10.6 TV rating across TBS, TNT and TruTV in the first title game to air on cable. The 17.8 million viewers were down 37 percent from the 28.3 million for last season’s DukeWisconsin matchup on CBS, which drew the largest audience in 18 years.… ESPN said Villanova was picked to win it all in only 2.56 percent of its NCAA brackets and that more users selected No. 16 Hampton to advance out of the first round than selected Villanova to win it all.
WOMEN: Nebraska coach Connie Yori abruptly resigned Tuesday for personal reasons after 14 seasons that included nine trips to the NCAA Tournament.