Heroes of March The ’90s

Tyus Edney probably did not arise from his hotel bed on March 19, 1995, and think “Today, I will be the hero.” UCLA’s diminutive point guard, listed generously at 5’10 and 152 pounds, was the Bruins’ second-leading scorer that year, putting in almost 15 points per game to supplement Ed O’Bannon’s more than 20 points per night, but he wasn’t the scorer that O’Bannon was, nor the interior force that center George Zidek was. Instead, the nearly seven assists per outing were Edney’s greatest contribution to Jim Harrick’s team, which entered the 1995 NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed and America’s top-ranked team.

You know, along with that time that Edney executed as fine a bit of gameplay as anyone ever has on a basketball court, and in so doing became UCLA’s hero.

After a romp over Florida International in a No. 1 vs. No. 16 seed game in the first round, the stage was set for UCLA to be upset in its second round clash with Missouri. The Tigers took a 42-34 halftime lead, and poured in 12 threes on the day, with the impeccably-named Paul O’Liney scoring 15 of his 23 points from beyond the arc. O’Bannon carried the Bruins and helped them charge back in the second half, but they still trailed, 74-73, with 4.8 seconds to play and the length of the court to travel.

Edney was up to the challenge.

He took the inbounds pass from an unguarded teammate as he turned away from his defender, allowing him to accelerate to full speed almost instantly. And the Missouri man hardly had a chance of staying in front of the jet-quick Edney even before he crossed from left to right behind his back just after crossing half court, wrong-footing his foe and clearing a crease to drive to the hoop.

Missouri recovered to the basket, but there was no chance of anyone getting a body on Edney without fouling him — and though he was just 2-for-4 from the line on the day, he finished his collegiate career having made just over 80 percent of his free throws. So the Tigers hung back a bit, and Edney decided to hang in the air (with the aid, perhaps, of a push-off) and attempt a five-foot runner for the win.

It worked. And the crowd in Boise erupted, UCLA’s bench spilling onto the court as the ball kissed off the glass and dropped through the net to the sound of the buzzer.

Edney was the hero on that day, and his play in that game has become the lasting legacy of the 1995 UCLA Bruins, who went on to win the program’s first — and only — national championship since the untouchable John Wooden era. To credit him alone for that moment, though, ignores that basketball is inherently a co-op game, one that rewards teamwork and division of labor in spades.

Watch Edney’s drive again. It obviously doesn’t work out if the pass from the inbounder isn’t on target enough for Edney to make a clean catch, but that’s the inbounder’s only impact on the play; he’s not even in frame when Edney throws up his shot.

And while Edney drove almost the length of the court, covering some 75 feet in those 4.8 fateful seconds, he didn’t have to take on the entire Missouri team partly because of what his teammates did.

Freeze the video at the moment that Edney crosses the three-point line, and you can see that he has two open teammates, one the dangerous O’Bannon, beyond it, both drawing their defenders out of the paint. Another Bruin has buried himself so low on the baseline that his man is out of position to challenge Edney’s shot.

One of the defenders drawn to the perimeter, Derek Grimm, does manage to recover to cut off Edney’s path and force him to try the runner instead of a layup, but Edney’s speed and smart decoy work allowed UCLA to get a relatively good look at a short two-pointer despite having only four players participating in a play.

It’s easy, all these many years later, to know who to credit most for that play. Harrick might have drawn up the play, and UCLA’s players who weren’t Edney had a role, but the little man was who was most responsible for the Bruins’ survival. And they paid him back over the course of the NCAA Tournament: Future Most Outstanding Player and Wooden Award winner Ed O’Bannon averaged 24.3 points per game in UCLA’s six wins, and had a monstrous 30-point, 17-rebound night against Arkansas in the final, while Edney missed most of the game with a sore wrist.

Edney may have been the hero that night, but UCLA needed more than just him to win it all. When aspiring to do great things, it’s good to have a great team to do them.