Asbury Park Press - March 7, 1998
Simple logic dictates that there are two mandatory parts of any buzzer beating shot - the shot and the buzzer. However Rutgers recorded at least one buzzer beater before there even were buzzers. It happened over a century ago on February 11, 1920 in Rutgers first signature win, a victory over Princeton. The game was at the end of the first overtime period when with time running out, a foul on Princeton led to Leland Taliferro's game winning foul shot. It didn't matter who was fouled, because under the rules of the day, teams had designated foul shooters. According to newspaper accounts of the game, the referee blew his whistle to call the foul just as the timekeeper started to blow the whistle he used in lieu of a buzzer. In a game played before a sellout crowd, albeit only 1,000 fans, it's hard to believe the whistle would have been heard above the din. No such problem existed with the buzzer at Madison Square Garden in New York when it became college basketball's biggest stage. In fact, it was so loud that a sportswriter, trying to describe the voice of Hilda Chester, a leather-lunged Brooklyn Dodger fan, wrote that she sounded like the buzzer going off at Madison Square Garden. It's a metaphor anyone who has ever been to the old building at 8th Ave and 51st Street has no trouble understanding.
Daily Home News - March 7, 1998
When the "new" Garden, opened in February of 1968, the buzzer certainly maintained the noise levels of the old one. Thirty years later, Rutgers was playing at MSG for the third time in the Big East tournament. After opening round losses its first two years in the league, the Scarlet Knights had something to prove in Kevin Bannon's first season as Rutgers coach. However, with an opening round matchup with #23 West Virginia, the safe money was that Rutgers at 12-14 was again headed home quickly. Wise observers however would have noted that just a few weeks earlier, the Scarlet Knights had recorded an upset win over another ranked team, #21 Syracuse. Past proved prologue when the Knights knocked off the Mountaineers, 75-72, earning a second round game with Georgetown. Interestingly, Rutgers had defeated the Hoyas by 19 points at the RAC, just a month earlier, shredding the heralded Georgetown press in the process. Wisely, Hall of Fame coach John Thompson dispensed with that strategy and the Hoyas jumped out to a 35-26 lead at half time. It was not a good sign for Rutgers which was 0-11 in games where they trailed at half time. When Georgetown went up by 10, early in the second half, it seemed unlikely Rutgers was going to reverse that negative statistic.
However over the next ten minutes, the Scarlet Knights wiped out the Hoya lead and a Geoff Billet three with 10:27 remaining put Rutgers ahead 45-44. The game went back and forth after that with Georgetown leading 58-55 in the closing minutes. Rebounding a missed shot, Rob Hodgson was fouled and made both free throws to cut the deficit to one. A Georgetown turnover gave Rutgers a chance to take the lead, but Billet missed a three and Jeff Greer failed to connect on two follow up shots. Finally with 33.7 seconds left, Eric Clark grabbed another offensive rebound and was fouled. The Rutgers senior, who was a good clutch foul shooter, came through once again, knocking down both shots to give Rutgers a one point lead. Georgetown worked the ball to Shernard Long, their high scorer, and he made a clutch shot of his own, a 12 foot twisting jump shot over Hodgson to put the Hoyas up with just 13.9 seconds left. Rutgers got the ball to midcourt with just 10 seconds remaining and Bannon called timeout. Setting up last shot plays against Georgetown was problematic because of their aggressive physical defense. In a post game radio interview, the Rutgers coach said the strategy was to have multiple players touch the ball and look for the best opportunity.
The Record - March 7, 1998
Executing the strategy as designed, Earl Johnson passed to Hodgson, who in turn threw it to Greer. With time running out Greer was looking for an opening to the basket when he saw "Geoff [Billet] come to me and I had never seen his facial expression like that. He wanted the ball." Wisely Greer gave it to him outside the three point line at the head of the key. The Rutgers junior went down the lane, got what he called a "good look" and put up a 12 foot runner trying to get the ball "up high" so it could get some help from the rim. Watching Billet both Hodgson and Clark said the play seemed like it was in "slow motion" as the ball went towards the basket. In the end, Billet didn't need the rim as the ball dropped cleanly through the basket while that loud as ever buzzer provided background music to the pandemonium that broke out on the court. Geoff ran around, not knowing "what I was doing," until he was mobbed by his teammates and then slapped hands with Rutgers fans as he ran into the tunnel. After the game, Billet credited assistant coach Danny Hurley for pushing him to work on just that kind of shot after practice. To no one's surprise, Geoff said it was "one of the best feelings I've ever had playing basketball." A sentiment echoed by every Rutgers fan, especially those of us in attendance who left the Garden walking on air or so it felt.
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