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The greatest shot in Final Four history? It's a difficult question, but it's easy to answer if you are Smart.
Keith Smart, the second-year coach of the Continental Basketball Association's Fort Wayne Fury, was headed home after practice recently when he wheeled into a local shoe repair shop to drop off a pair of wing tips to be cleaned and polished. The man behind the counter acknowledged Smart's arrival, halted a conversation with another customer, and accepted the drop off. ``And your name, sir?'' the shop owner asked while writing the claim check. The moment Smart identified himself, the man stopped writing and focused on Smart's face. ``You may not believe this,'' the man behind the counter told Smart, ``but we were just talking about the shot you made that won Indiana a national championship.'' That is the way it is when you are a living, breathing piece of college basketball history. When Smart drained a 17-foot jump shot with five seconds left to defeat Syracuse, 74-73, he didn't just win the 1987 NCAA national championship for the Indiana Hoosiers, he forever wove himself into the very fabric of college basketball. It was a fleeting moment. In one motion, Smart took a pass along the left baseline, squared his shoulders to the basket and released the shot. All instinct. There was no time to think. A stopwatch barely could have recorded the millisecond that Smart held the basketball during that sequence. Yet, that moment in the New Orleans Superdome is forever frozen in time. Shots that make history have a way of living forever. ``I had no idea the magnitude of what I had done at the time,'' Smart said. ``Now I hear that shot was named one of the top 10 memorial moments in sports history by ABC, and ESPN did something like that also. No way going up for that shot did I have any idea what it would mean later on -- how important it would be to fans of Indiana basketball.'' Like statues chiseled in granite, the great shots rest in the NCAA history book as testaments to the drama, exuberance and celebration they created. Not to mention -- at the other end -- the heartbreak they caused. They live as milestones that identify eras, dynasties, upsets and stars of the game.
``OH, YES! Without a doubt,'' said television's Dick Vitale. ``There are moments if you are a college basketball aficionado that just stand in your mind. You will remember them forever. You will remember everything about them.'' That much is agreed. Not so easy on which to reach consent is the order in which those shots should be remembered. Is Smart's basket the greatest shot in Final Four history? Or should Lorenzo Charles' dunk at the buzzer that gave North Carolina State an upset victory against Houston and the 1983 national championship rank the greatest? For that matter, how about freshman Michael Jordan's 16-footer with 18 seconds remaining that lifted North Carolina to the 1982 national championship? ``Charles' is the best,'' Vitale said. ``It was so unique because it completed the Cinderella story. Nobody gave my buddy Jimmy Valvano a chance to win the national title. In fact, no way would N.C. State have even been in the tournament had they not won the ACC [tournament]. And they had to beat the likes of North Carolina with [Sam] Perkins and Jordan, then had to beat Virginia with Ralph Sampson to win the ACC. ``Then it was just an unbelievable situation for them to beat Phi Slamma Jamma. That shot will last forever and will continue to be the best.'' On the subject of college basketball, it is difficult to disagree with Vitale. Particularly since the ESPN commentator's enthusiasm makes it nearly impossible to get a word in period -- much less in disagreement. This, however, is the time to call a timeout, baby.
WHILE THERE MAY be nothing to rival Charles' basket in regard to pure shock value and celebration -- remember the late Wolfpack coach's frantic dash as he sought someone, anyone, to hug? -- it remains an uncontested dunk from under the basket. And it wasn't exactly the execution of a perfect play that set up the score. When Houston guard Alvin Franklin missed the front end of a one-and-one with 45 seconds left and the game tied at 52, N.C. State called time to plan its attack. Valvano told guard Sidney Lowe to allow the clock to run down to seven seconds and then try to penetrate. When the defense collapsed on him, all Lowe had to do was find the open man -- Dereck Whittenburg and Thurl Bailey were the primary targets. ``We came out in a semi-spread offense,'' Lowe remembered. ``They started out in a zone, but they started cheating out. I actually went a little soon, which turned out to be good. I went with about eight or nine seconds left -- because Thurl was in the corner and that was his shot. ``So I made a move and -- bang! -- I hit Thurl down on the baseline.'' Lowe figured the game was now in Bailey's hands. The high scoring forward was camped out at his favorite spot. He had his shot. ``But he didn't shoot it!'' Lowe said, years later disbelief still sounding. ``He threw it back out to Dereck.'' Believing time was ready to expire, Whittenburg caught the ball well beyond the key, some 35 feet from the basket. With no time to think, he immediately fired. ``From my angle, Dereck's shot didn't look bad,'' Lowe said. ``I couldn't tell it was so short.'' Muggsy Bogues is short. That shot didn't even enter the same area code. Whittenburg's hasty effort was so short it didn't even draw iron -- which was a good thing for the Wolfpack. The shot turned into a perfect pass. Charles standing under the basket, grabbed the ball and dunked while Houston's Akeem Olajuwon and other defenders stood flat-footed. ``When I jumped, I thought the ball was short,'' Charles said later. ``But Akeem didn't see me. He just stood there. He didn't even go up. I was up there all by myself.''
LIKEWISE, JORDAN'S SHOT to win the 1982 national championship for North Carolina possesses remarkable staying power. Six previous trips to the Final Four had left Dean Smith with a growing reputation as a winning coach who could not win the big one. But Jordan, a freshman, ended that by knocking down a 16-footer from the left side with 18 seconds remaining as the Tar Heels defeated Georgetown, 63-62. ``We were really trying to set up James Worthy inside,'' Smith said. ``But [Georgetown coach] John Thompson had the same idea and we could not get it inside. Luckily, we had a smart point guard in Jimmy Black, who knew how to find the open man, and that open man turned out to be Michael Jordan.'' Jordan took the pass and did deliver, draining the first of many championship-winning jump shots. Still, the shot's notoriety has developed mightily because of what Jordan went on to do in the years following. Had it been Black who scored, would it be considered one of the Final Four's greatest baskets? And besides, while Jordan's field goal supplied the winning points, it was not the deciding play. UNC's victory was assured only when Georgetown guard Fred Brown, attempting to throw a pass to Patrick Ewing, became confused and sent the ball directly to Worthy -- in fact, a more crucial play in the game's outcome than Jordan's shot. All of which brings us back to Smart and the 1987 Hoosiers.
FOR SMART, the NCAA championship served as something of a return home. Before arriving for Indiana's semifinal meeting with Nevada-Las Vegas, the last time Smart -- a Baton Rouge native -- had been in the Superdome he was working as an usher during a Saints game. Now, he and the underdog Hoosiers were making sure no one in the Superdome remained in their seats. Against a Syracuse team that would send Sherman Douglas, Rony Seikaly and Derrick Coleman to the NBA, the Hoosiers kept hanging with the Orangemen behind the shooting of Steve Alford, until Smart suddenly took over the game. Smart didn't just score the winning hoop, he scored 12 of IU's last 15 points. ``The amazing thing was I went out of the game for a few minutes and then returned with about 12 minutes to play,'' Smart remembered. ``And it was like I was playing by myself. I don't even remember players on the floor. I don't remember anybody else in the arena. It was just basketball on the playground by myself. I was able to make every pass, every right decision and every shot.'' Finally, the Hoosiers would need one more. With Syracuse leading, 73-72, the Hoosiers began their final trip down court. This part, Smart has no trouble remembering. ``Oh, like it was yesterday,'' he said. ``It started out with Darryl Thomas getting a rebound and getting the ball to me. I gave it to Joe Hillman after we started up the floor. I think they assumed we were going to call a timeout but we didn't. ``I'm sure they assumed Steve Alford was the guy we would look for first -- and rightly so, because he was our first option on offense. So he wasn't open, but we didn't force anything and the ball came back to me and I eventually passed it back to Darryl Thomas. He didn't have a shot and still didn't force anything and passed it back out to me. I was able to get off a clean shot.'' Smart's jumper from in front of the Indians' bench was all net, flying through the hoop with five seconds left on the clock. And it came with such suddenness that the stunned Orangemen stood in disbelief as the clock ran out. Smart would finish with 21 points, five rebounds and six assists. Not to mention a place in Final Four history. ``Coach Knight said something to all of the players after the game that night,'' Smart said. ``He said, `You may not realize what you guys have done. Sure, you won a national championship and you accomplished your goal. But when you are sitting with your sons or even your grandkids, you'll know Indiana was No. 1 that year, that you won it all.' ``Now, I have a son that is 2-1/2 and he recognizes me when he sees a clip on Classic Sports or things like that. And he says, `That's my daddy.' Man, I'm telling you. Those words of Coach Knight's come back to me. Now I have a son and he recognizes Daddy's team.'' And the greatest shot in Final Four history. |
