Valparaiso's Upset with "The Shot": Buzzer-Beater Brilliance

On March thirteenth, nineteen ninety eight was why March Madness gets its name, when thirteenth seeded Valparaiso beat the number four seed on a last second shot that became known as the Shot, and we see it every year during March Madness. Here's the story behind this iconic moment on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. Now, before we can get to the shot, we need to go behind how both these schools ended up in this game. First, let's start with Old Miss. They're not naturally known as a basketball powerhouse, but this year was the sixth year under coach Rob Evans, and by the end of the year they were ranked thirteenth in the nation with a twenty two and sixth record and the top school in the Western Division of the SEC, beating four ranked teams that year, including a nine point win against Kentucky, and this was good enough to get them one of the fourth seeds in the tournament that year. And they had the SEC Player of the Year on their team and its second team All American and Sue Sisay, a forward at six ' nine led the team in scoring with eighteen points a game and rebounding with over seven and a half rebounds per game, and their opponent in this crazy game in the tournament was Valpreiso University, a small mid major school mid Continent conference. They led their conference in wins and made it all the way up to twenty third in the rankings that year, led by coach Homer Drew in his tenth season with the team. They were led by his son, a guard named Bryce Drew, who was a senior that year, who was the two time conference Player the year. They didn't have any stand out wins of note that year against any ranked opponents, but they did face Purdue and Stanford, both ranked that year, unfortunately in losing efforts, but they won their conference tournament, which led them to their thirteenth seed, and the game happened in Oklahoma City during the first round of the tournaments. So this was a game that had both teams had the conference Player the Year in their respective conferences, but with the Old Miss being in a major conference such as the SEC, they were heavily favored over Valpo cause many didn't know Bryce Drew would go on to be the sixteenth pick that year in the NBA Draft. It was a close game throughout, with no one ever really separating. Although Old miss was favored, Valpo kept it close the entire game, but although as time was windling down, they were down sixty nine to sixty seven, well less than ten seconds left to play when Bryce drew of Valpraiso took a three, but it's not the one we all remember. He missed it and Old Mis grabbed the rebound with five seconds left. An Old Missus see Say, grabbed the rebound with five seconds left and was immediately fouled sent to the free throw line. He was a seventy two percent free throw shooter and he had made three of his last five attempts that game, and he could go up and clinch the game by making both free throws, but he missed the first one, and Valpo called a time out to put together the play. The play was known as the Pacer as Valpo is in Indiana and the Indiana's pro basketball team is called the Pacers, but it all relied on Valpo getting the ball back, so when Sisa missed his second free throw, the ball went loose and Old Missus guard Keith Carter knocked it out a bounce with two point five seconds left to go and forced to go the length of the court in that amount of time. So the inbound the play that we all remember revolves around the inbound passer throwing the ball over the mid court line to a player near the top of the three point line, and then Bryce Drew would come running up streaking down the sideline to get a hand off like pass to shoot a wide open three, and that's exactly what happened. Jamie Sykes threw the ball to bel Jenkins, who out jumped a Rebels defender and immediately handed the ball off to Bryce Drew, who shot a twenty three foot three pointer and sank this one as he was wide open as time expired. Valpoe won seventy to sixty nine, eliminating Old Miss from the tournament. Now this wasn't the end of the story, because Valpoe went on to win the next game against Florida State and another nail bier that went into overtime, winning eighty three to seventy seven, being the first time the school had ever made it to the Sweet sixteen. Unfortunately, they met number eight Rhode Island in the Sweet sixteen and lost sixty eight to seventy four. But this run will always be remembered for the shot that gets played every year and has been redone by multiple teams in the tournament, or any other game that comes down to the wire, and will never be forgotten as we all love the madness of March. Thank you for joining us on today's Daily Sports History. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please follow us on our socials, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, threads, wherever you like to socialize. Come join our community, tell us how much you like it, enjoy the little video clips and all our posts that we do on those platforms, and come tomorrow for more Daily Sports History. M