The Big Dance is right around the corner and the anticipation for the country’s greatest annual tournament has reached its boiling point.
March Madness has been the setting for some of the most thrilling and unexpected college basketball battles, including some jaw-dropping game-winners that captured pure elation and instant heartbreak alike in a blink of an eye. Let’s now take a look back at ten of the best buzzer-beaters in the tournament history as we look forward to even more exciting outcomes such as these in the days ahead.
And while you’re at it, check out our other special feature on the Top 10 Most Memorable Moments of the NCAA Tournament to get you geared up even more for all the college basketball festivities to come.
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The Top 10 Buzzer Beaters in NCAA Tournament History
10. Keith Smart – Indiana (1987)
Indiana had a full 28 seconds to run a go-ahead play against Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse, and Keith Smart made a fundamental give-and-go shot with the help of teammate Daryl Thomas for the 74-73 lead with one second remaining.
The reason why this championship-winning shot ranked so low on our list is the play’s lack of flair, and also that Syracuse actually had a chance to run another play after Smart’s bucket if the team had just remembered to call a timeout.
Nevertheless, the Hoosiers would go on to win the game and give head coach Bobby Knight his third and final national title.
9. Drew Nicholas – Maryland (2003)
Maryland entered the 2003 NCAA tournament as the defending champs, yet they found themselves on the brink of a first-round elimination when the feisty UNC-Wilmington Seahawks grabbed a one-point lead with just five seconds left in the contest.
Maryland planned to get the ball to its best player in Steve Blake, but fellow Terp Drew Nicholas took matters into his own hands instead. Nicholas drove the inbound pass all the way to the three-point line for the fade-away, well-contested shot from deep for the win and prevented the unlikely upset at the hands of a mid-major dark horse.
8. James Forrest – Georgia Tech (1992)
In another case of not finding the right guy to take the last shot, Georgia Tech’s James Forrest became a school legend when he knocked-in his half-pivot three-pointer with less than a second remaining to beat the USC Trojans, 79-78, in the second round of the 1992 NCAA Tournament.
Center Matt Geiger, who was inbounding the ball on that final play, couldn’t find either of his team’s best players in Jon Barry and Travis Best open. Luckily for Geiger, he found Forrest from a forest of USC defenders to bail the Yellowjackets out of the woods and into the next round.
7. Tate George – UConn (1990)
Another buzzer beater that literally went down to the last second makes out list, this time from the Sweet 16 stage of the 1990 edition of the Big Dance.
UConn – down one point against Clemson – had the final possession, with former Seattle Mariner first-round pick (yes, those Mariners of Major League Baseball) Scott Burrell set to inbound the ball. Burrell’s pitching prowess in collegiate baseball proved to be extremely beneficial for this play, as his full-court heave to Tate George for the game-winning turn-around jumper would not have been possible if not for his rocket of an arm.
6. Richard Hamilton – UConn (1998)
From one UConn moment to another we go, this time with Richard Hamilton – better known as “Rip” during his heydays in the NBA – providing the latest heroics for the esteemed program.
In the Huskies vs. Huskies regional semifinal match from 1998, UConn needed three nail-biting attempts before Hamilton drained the unlikely fade-away shot from about 20 feet as he was about to hit the floor, leaving Washington totally baffled that they let the game slip away on more than one occasion during the final possession.
5. Tyus Edney – UCLA (1995)
The 1995 UCLA Bruins secured a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance, but their quest for an 11th national championship was put in jeopardy during the second round of the tournament when the Missouri Tigers held a one-point lead with less than five seconds left in the contest.
UCLA’s speedy guard Tyus Edney turned on his jets after receiving the ensuing inbound play and slashed through nearly the entire length of the court for the game-clinching layup. The Bruins would indeed go on to win the national title, making Edney’s ballsy drive to the hoop all the more significant and ultimately become one of the finest moments in UCLA lore.
4. Bryce Drew – Valparaiso (1998)
Head coach Homer Drew and the 1998 Valparaiso Crusaders were powered by none other than the team’s star and the coach’s very own son in Bryce Drew, so it stands to reason that Bryce would be the one to take the last shot when it mattered.
The younger Drew’s big-game opportunity came in the first round of the Big Dance against No. 4 Missouri, who had the 73-72 advantage with two-and-a-half seconds left in the contest. Valpo’s Jamie Sykes threw a Hail Mary of an inbound play in traffic near the Crusaders’ three-point line, where Drew somehow managed to seize control and sink the game-winning shot from deep.
3. U.S. Reed – Arkansas (1981)
Having to live up to a patriotic name like U.S. Reed is not easy, but Arkansas’ relatively unheralded guard of that exact name eventually did so with a second-round stunner over the mighty Louisville Cardinals in 1981.
Reed sank a miraculous shot from half-court – all the while appearing as if he didn’t know what to do with the ball in his hands at the time all the more – to complete the massive upset over the defending national champions. Louisville really shouldn’t have celebrated like crazy that preemptively to save them from the embarrassment by way of a desperation heave.
2. Lorenzo Charles – NC State (1983)
When talking about the greatest buzzer beaters in NCAA Tournament history, the final two entries on our countdown always come to mind to most college basketball fanatics.
Who could forget NC State’s blunder-turned-game-winner in the final play of the 1983 championship game against the Hakeem Olajuwon/Clyde Drexler-led Houston Cougars? The Wolfpack initially designed and had Dereck Whittenburg take a three-pointer with four seconds remaining, which ended up as a pathetic airball.
But as fate would have it, NC State’s big-man Lorenzo Charles was the lucky recipient of that terrible miss that instantly turned into a made alley-oop for the ages and to complete the colossal upset of the Cougars.
1. Christian Laettner Duke (1992)
Our pick for the best if not the most memorable game-winning March Madness play of all-time is surely a divisive one depending on where your sentiments on the Duke Blue Devils fall, especially regarding the school’s most notorious and decorated alumnus: Christian Laettner.
The generally-reviled Laettner gave his harshest detractors another huge reason to spew vitriol over the former USA Dream Team member with his shocking feat at the 1992 regional final against Kentucky. With Duke down against the Wildcats with just 2.1 seconds remaining, Grant Hill chucked a perfect inbound pass to Laettner, who stayed poised and nailed a virtually perfect fade-away jumper from the free-throw line as time expired.
Not only did the Blue Devils win their second-consecutive national title that year, but we also saw the complete metamorphosis of Laettner from a downright dirty superstar to the epitome of college basketball villainy.
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