One Shining Moment: 25 years since Burrell-to-George saved UConn
Editor's note: This week, Stewart Mandel will be looking back at four "one shining moments" from March Madness history. On Monday, we relived Ali Farokhmanesh's dagger 3 that helped Northern Iowa upset Kansas in 2010. On Tuesday, we celebrated 20 years since Tyus Edney saved UCLA.
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The game: March 22, 1990. No. 1 seed UConn, making its first NCAA tournament appearance under coach Jim Calhoun, blew a 19-point lead before topping Clemson, 71-70, in a Sweet 16 game.
The play: With just one second remaining, UConn's Scott Burrell heaved a baseball pass nearly the length of the court to Tate George, who hit a game-winning turn-around jumper at the buzzer.
The aftermath: Burrell, now an assistant coach for Quinnipiac, was checking into a golf course in Augusta, Georgia, during a recruiting stop one summer when the club pro did a double take.
"You're not the one who threw that pass against Clemson?" he asked. Told yes, he reluctantly replied: "I went to Clemson."
"It definitely breaks the ice," Burrell says now of his role 25 years ago in one the most transcendent plays in NCAA tournament history. He would go on to play alongside Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls' 1998 NBA title team and spend 13 seasons in professional basketball but says he never again played a part in such a dramatic ending.
"I was watching from the bench when Jordan won a championship" he jokes, referring to MJ's Game 6 jumper to beat the Utah Jazz.
For a quarter-century, George's shot has held much the same lore in college annals. It didn't win a championship -- in fact, cruelly, UConn lost to Duke two days later on Christian Laettner's own buzzer beater -- but it marked the first seminal moment in the Huskies' rise to national prominence.
Unfortunately, "The Shot" may now be tainted by its hero's aftermath. In September 2013, a federal court in New Jersey found George, 46, guilty of running an alleged $2 million real estate Ponzi scheme. The one-time Nets first-rounder, whose defrauded investors included NBA players Brevin Knight and Charlie Villanueva, has been in prison ever since.
"Ever since that happened," said Burrell, "they didn't show [The Shot] at all last March. It used to be played every NCAA tournament. I don't know if the NCAA sponsors don't want to play it, but it definitely changed things."
Burrell said he and George did not talk frequently after college but maintained a good relationship. They last ran into each other in the hallways at a Nets game several years ago. "I was just hoping the allegations weren't true," he said. "It's a tough situation. You don't want any of your friends to get in trouble."
While the guy who hit the shot is behind bars, the teammate who threw him the pass -- a first-round pick by the Seattle Mariners before settling on basketball -- is enjoying a much happier epilogue. After spending eight seasons in the NBA, one in the NBDL and four overseas, the New Haven, Connecticut native returned to his hometown. In 2007, longtime Calhoun assistant Tom Moore took over as head coach of nearby Quinnipiac and put Burrell on his staff, where he's remained ever since.
Burrell's current school has never reached the Big Dance, but he'll forever remain associated with it -- provided George's crimes don't erase history.
"Maybe I missed it [last year]," said Burrell. "Or maybe I'm just old, and ours gets washed away with time."
On this, its 25th anniversary, here's guessing you'll see it plenty.
Stewart Mandel is a senior college sports columnist for FOXSports.com. He covered college football and basketball for 15 years at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter @slmandel. Send emails and Mailbag questions to Stewart.Mandel@fox.com.
