Tyus Edney

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Tyus Dwayne Edney (born February 14, 1973 in Gardena, California) is an American professional basketball player, known for one of the greatest plays in college basketball history. Edney played point guard for UCLA from 1991-1995, and led the Bruins to the 1995 NCAA National Championship. He is listed at 5'10", 152 lbs.

1 Basketball career
2 The shot
3 External links
4 Notes

[edit] Basketball career

In his senior season, he set several personal bests, in such categories as total points (456), points per game (14.3), steals (74), and assists (216). At the end of his collegiate career, he was selected drafted by the Sacramento Kings in the second round, with the 47th overall pick, of the 1995 NBA Draft. He played with the Kings for two seasons. He spent two more seasons in the NBA, with the Boston Celtics in 1997-1998 and with the Indiana Pacers in 2000-2001 (playing for Euroleague winner Žalgiris between those seasons). But he could never top his rookie year with the Kings, when he averaged 10.8 ppg and had 491 total assists. Following his departure from the NBA, he has bounced around several European teams, including Benetton Treviso from 2001-2004, Virtus Roma in 2004-2005, Olympiacos in 2005-2006 and Fortitudo Bologna in 2006-2007.

Edney was voted Import Player of the Year in the 2002 EuroBasket All-Europe Rankings.^[1]

[edit] The shot

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While Edney's pro career has been vagabond, his late game heroics in the 1995 NCAA Basketball Tournament earned him a spot in the collegiate lore, like Danny Ainge in 1981 or Bryce Drew in 1998. UCLA had played well in the 1994-1995 season, earning a No. 1 seed in the West Region of the tournament as well as the top ranking in the national polls. Favored in their second round match against eighth seed University of Missouri - Columbia, UCLA fell behind 74-73 with just 4.8 seconds remaining. Bruins coach Jim Harrick called timeout and turned to Edney, the point guard.

Cameron Dollar inbounds the ball to Edney who takes off up the left sideline. A Missouri defender picks him up at about the top of the key, though not with extreme on-ball pressure due to a fear of fouling. At midcourt, another defender attempts to trap Edney, who sees the trap coming and dribbles behind his back to blow by the two defenders. As Edney drives down the middle of the court, future Tournament MVP Ed O'Bannon calls for the ball on the left wing, but Edney keeps driving. Edney reaches the key with a little over one second remaining. Six-foot eight-inch Derek Grimm slides in to attempt to stop Edney, who jumps from the middle of the key as Grimm's arms tower in front of him. Edney adjusts his shot, scooping his arm to the right around Grimm, releasing the ball with about half a second remaining on the clock. The ball bounces off the glass and through the net just as the buzzer sounds, and pandemonium ensues as the Bruins storm the court amidst UCLA radio commentator and member of the UCLA Hall of Fame Marques Johnson's joyous yelps of "Yeah Baby!" to celebrate their 75-74 win. Two games later against Ray Allen's Connecticut Huskies, Edney has another chance at a full court run before the half, and drains a 25 foot three pointer en route to a 102-96 victory.