Did that black-and-red stunner really happen?
With 1.2 seconds left in San Diego State’s first Final Four game, did Lamont Butler vault upward from the Houston hardwood, soaring … soaring … to create a clean shot?
He did.
And with the Aztecs down one point, did Butler’s 17-foot flick from the right elbow swish, a tenth of a second after the clock struck 0.0, sending San Diego State to the NCAA Tournament’s men’s national championship game Monday night?
Yes indeed, and for aural proof, you might still hear the echoes of screams from Oceanside to Alpine, from Baja to Bonsall of San Diegans who were watching the CBS telecast late Saturday afternoon.
And because of the degree of difficulty — Butler had to shake a defender, beat the clock and make the shot — and because of where those two points sent San Diego State, this was the biggest victory in San Diego sports history.
(Disclaimer: recency bias may have inflated that opinion. And I admit to awarding a point or two for drama.)
No less dramatic, Steve Garvey’s clutch home run in the playoffs four decades ago kept World Series hopes alive for the 1984 Padres ... but the Padres still had to win the next day in order to reach the World Series. All hail Dennis Gibson’s deflection of a desperate Steelers pass, advancing the 1994 Chargers to the Super Bowl. Still, Butler certainly had it tougher.
Even hoops experts seemed in disbelief, minutes after Butler’s shot edged Florida Atlantic, 72-71.
“A San Diego State miracle,” Jim Nantz, the CBS narrator working his last Final Four, intoned.
“A right-hander going to his left is usually a great shot,” said Jay Wright, the former Villanova coach. “And he stuck it.”
“It looked pure and it was,” said Clark Kellogg, a former NBA player.
I put the question to San Diegans on Twitter:
When Butler’s rainbow fell through the net, what did you exclaim?
Heather: “Oh my God! I didn’t stop for 10 minutes.”
“I was yelling shoot shoot shoot and dropped to my knees in disbelief when it swished,” said Michael ‘MiggsSD1964’. He added: “One more game please!!! This town is on fire.”
Whatever happens Monday night in the championship game after the ball is tossed up at 6:21 p.m., San Diego State jersey No. 5 deserves mention alongside the No. 6 of Padres Hall of Famer Garvey.
Butler, a 6-foot-2 junior guard with an NBA physique, did honor to Riverside Poly High School, whose most famous hoops alum, Reggie Miller, was a lethal shooter for UCLA and the NBA’s Pacers.
Years from now, hardcore Aztecs fans will point out the two plays that set up Butler’s dribble drive, when two Aztecs authored SDSU’s defensive version of the old basketball game “Around the World.”
A deft blocked shot came from long-armed Aguek Arop, who spent his early childhood in the African country of South Sudan, before relocating to Egypt, Houston and Omaha, Neb., after seeking political asylum.
Nathan Mensah collected the rebound. The 6-foot-10 lefty shot-blocker from Ghana, Africa had prompted a loose comparison to hoops legend Bill Russell early in the telecast, from CBS analyst Bill Raftery.
Nine seconds were left when Mensah threw the outlet pass to Butler in the backcourt.
Butler aced the Wooden dictum: be quick, but don’t hurry.
And several minutes later, the experts were still trying to understand what they’d seen.
“I still didn’t think they could win the game,” former NBA point guard Kenny Smith said, fairly, of the cold-and-hot Aztecs, “only because they were missing free throws.”
“That shot typifies what the tournament has been about all this year,” said Magic Johnson, the Michigan State alum whose duels with Indiana State’s Larry Bird sent the event into orbit in 1979. “Just down-to-the-last-second, great games. And, it’s beautiful.”
Two teams are left. One of them is San Diego State.
