There have been a few others during postseason games for the Huskies. The previous gold standard for best shot ever belonged to Tate George 36 years ago during the 1990 East Regional Sweet Sixteen at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, that was simply called “The Shot.”
Cllemson had come back from 19 points down to take a one-point lead on UConn, the top seed in the region. With 1 second left, freshman Scott Burrell threw the length-of-the-court pass to George, who turned and hit a jump shot as the final buzzer sounded. This was the climax of UConn’s Dream Season and arrival on the national stage.
The only other buzzer-beater for UConn in the NCAA tournament came in 1998, also in a Sweet Sixteen Game against Washington. Richard Hamilton had two shots at the game-winning basket. After his first attempt, a tipped ball came back to hit and he was able to hit this time from the lane before the buzzer sounded.
Two interesting side notes: First, Bill Raftery was the CBS color analyst on the Washington game as he was Sunday in the Duke game. Second, UConn went on to lose both Elite Eight games to ACC schools: Duke in 1990 (on Christian Laettner’s buzzer beater) and North Carolina in 1998. Neither team won the national championship.
There was one other one for UConn that happened in the 2011 Big East Tournament. The step-back jump shot from Kemba Walker with less than a second remaining helped UConn defeat Pittsburgh in the quarterfinals.
UConn went on to win both the Big East tournament and the national championship. Walker was named the MVP for both tournaments.
Of course, Jim Calhoun was the coach for all three of those buzzer-beaters.