College Basketball: The 15 Biggest Game-Winning Shots Ever

Even after two decades, Christian Laettner’s absurd 1992 turnaround jump shot against the Kentucky Wildcats is one of the crown jewels of any March Madness highlight compilation.

There’s a reason that bucket has maintained its place in the pantheon: few moments in the history of any sport have matched Laettner’s play for clutch execution of the seemingly impossible, especially with championship hopes on the line.

This season’s tournament will be the 20th anniversary of Laettner’s stunner, a perfect opportunity to compile the buzzer-beating moments that have made March Madness one of the greatest events in sports.

The one and done nature of the NCAA tournament makes every last second heave a potential season saving play, and the shooters on this list have risen to the challenge and kept championship hopes alive for their teams (at least for one more game).

Read on for a look back at the college game’s greatest final shots, complete with video of every improbable score.

15. Morehead State Stuns Louisville

In ten years, there’s a good chance that this game will be remembered as the national stage debut of Eagles forward Kenneth Faried. For the moment, it’s “only” noteworthy as the biggest upset and best buzzer-beater of the 2011 tourney.

The third seeded Cardinals—one of the Big East’s record 11 tournament teams—had no answer for Faried, who pulled in 17 rebounds. Chris Smith’s 17 points helped Louisville to a late lead, but Demonte Harper’s clutch three gave Morehead State its first non-opening round win since 1961.

14. USC Misses the Forrest for the Trees

There have been more unlikely shots, but few more unlikely shooters in buzzer-beater history than Georgia Tech’s James Forrest. The freshman forward had shot 0-for-3 from three-point range for the 1991-92 season.

With Hal Miner and No. 2 seed USC clinging to a two-point lead and just 0.8 seconds left for the Yellow Jackets, Trojans defenders blanketed star Tech guards Travis Best and Jon Barry.

Matt Geiger’s inbounds pass went to the only option he had, and Forrest’s desperation heave hit nothing but net to send the Yellow Jackets to the Sweet 16.

13. Persistence Pays off for Rip Hamilton

Second chance points are a good way to demonstrate hustle on the offensive glass. Fourth chance points are a good way to give the opposing coach an aneurysm.

With 10 seconds left in their 1998 Sweet Sixteen matchup, the Washington Huskies had just taken their first lead on the UConn Huskies, a margin of one point.

Washington center Todd MacCulloch challenged the first shot from Jake Voskuhl... and the put-back from Richard Hamilton... and the tip-in attempt by Kevin Freeman...and the desperation fadeaway by Hamilton in the lane, the shot that finally found the bottom of the net and sent UConn to the Elite Eight.

12. Northwestern State Caps Epic Comeback

As a rule, most teams that pull off huge NCAA tournament upsets succeed by keeping the game surprisingly close throughout. The Demons of Northwestern State (located in Louisiana) took a more nerve wracking approach.

Trailing Adam Haluska and third-seeded Iowa by 17 in the second half of a 2006 first round game, the Demons clawed all the way back to a two point deficit with 14.6 seconds on the clock.

After an initial three point try came up short, Jermaine Wallace came up with the rebound, retreated to the corner and nailed a fall-away baseline three to secure the first non-opening round victory in school history.

11. U.S. Reed Gets Just Close Enough

The NCAA tournament has seen its share of wins by metaphorical long-shots. In 1981, U.S. Reed took the idea a bit more literally.

Facing fourth seed (and defending national champion) Louisville, Reed’s fifth-seeded Razorbacks trailed by one with five seconds left. Reed took the inbounds and, unable to get past half-court against the Cardinals’ press, fired a 50-foot prayer that somehow fell to send Arkansas to the Sweet 16.

Reed, who played in the CBA after graduating, was booed off the court by his own team’s fans after having the bad luck to find himself on the roster of the Louisville Catbirds.

10. No Luck for Irish Against Danny Ainge

Jimmer Fredette may be the most popular player in BYU history, but only one star guard has led the Cougars to the Elite Eight. That would be current Celtics president Danny Ainge, who won the Wooden Award as a senior in Provo.

The lasting memory of Ainge’s college career has been his performance in the Cougars’ 1981 Sweet 16 matchup with Notre Dame.

Facing an Irish team with three future NBA starters (Orlando Woolridge, Kelly Tripucka and John Paxson), Ainge's heroics kept BYU close, and he capped his performance with a scintillating coast-to-coast drive with just eight seconds to play to give the Cougars a 51-50 victory.

9. Princeton Enters History Through the Back Door

Though it’s a staple around the country (and the NBA) these days, Princeton’s eponymous offense of high-post passes and backdoor cuts was largely confined to coach Pete Carril's own team in 1995-96.

The Tigers’ extreme ball control approach made for a lot of close games, none more famous than their first-round matchup with defending national champion UCLA.

The Bruins had won the Pac-10 behind high-flying forwards J.R. Henderson and Toby Bailey, but their offense stalled against Princeton’s slowdown and left the Tigers a chance to take the lead in the final seconds.

With one possession left to decide a one-point game, the Tigers connected on a final backdoor pass—sophomore center Steve Goodrich to freshman forward Gabe Lewullis—for a layup that stunned UCLA and sent Princeton to a rare second-round appearance.

8. Tate George Buries Clemson

Sometimes, it’s the underdog who loses out by way of the last-second miracle. Fifth-seeded Clemson (behind Dale Davis and Elden Campbell) had pulled off a heroic second-half comeback to take a one-point lead on top seed UConn, but the Huskies had one last chance to save their season.

Inbounding under their own basket with one second left on the clock, UConn didn’t have many options.

Freshman Scott Burrell fired a 90-foot pass over Campbell that found senior guard Tate George, who had just enough time to launch a spinning jumper that somehow found the net and propelled the Huskies into the 1990 Elite Eight.

7. Tyus Edney Goes the Distance

The platonic ideal of the coast-to-coast drive, Tyus Edney’s miraculous dash was just the beginning for the UCLA Bruins in the 1995 tournament.

After eighth-seeded Missouri had surprised top-ranked UCLA by hanging tough in their second-round meeting, the Tigers took a one-point lead with just 4.8 seconds on the clock.

Edney took the inbounds pass from Cameron Dollar and slithered through the Mizzou defense, nailing a runner just as time expired. Saved from an early upset, the Bruins went on to knock off defending champion Arkansas to take their first post-John-Wooden NCAA title.

6. Will Bynum Sends Georgia Tech to Championship Game

Oklahoma State had already escaped one heart-breaking loss in the 2004 NCAA Tournament when Jameer Nelson’s attempted buzzer-beater came up empty in the Elite Eight.

The Cowboys wouldn’t be so lucky again against Georgia Tech in the Final Four, where the Yellow Jackets' Will Bynum drove past John Lucas to break open a tie game with just 1.5 seconds remaining.

Bynum’s heroics would likely have established more of a place in Final Four history had the following game gone better for his squad. Instead, Georgia Tech—in its first-ever NCAA final—was demolished by Emeka Okafor and UConn in the national title game.

5. Bryce Drew Trick Play Turns to Gold

Every basketball coach draws up a play or two for a desperation last-second shot. Few of them get used, but even fewer work as well as Homer Drew’s did in 1998.

Star forward Ansu Sesay had carried Ole Miss to a rare No. 4 seed in that spring’s tournament, and the Rebels drew largely unknown Valparaiso in the first round.

But, after Sesay’s missed free throws gave the Crusaders one more chance to make up a two-point deficit, Drew dialed up a long pass to Bill Jenkins, whose airborne touch pass set up Bryce Drew (the coach’s son) for the miracle game winner.

4. Basketball, Meet Michael Jordan

Although the argument can be made that this shot doesn’t quite qualify for the present list—James Worthy’s free throws being the final shots taken by the victorious Tar Heels—the legend of Michael Jordan began on a March day in 1982.

After Worthy’s 28 points had carried the Tar Heels in a back-and-forth national championship duel with freshman Patrick Ewing and the Hoyas, UNC faced a one-point deficit with half a minute to play.

Instead of forcing another shot from Worthy, North Carolina worked the ball around to its freshman shooting guard, and Jordan responded with a 17-foot jumper to take the lead. An errant Georgetown pass then wound up in Worthy’s hands, and Dean Smith had his first national title.

3. Indiana Out-Smarts Syracuse

After earning blowout victories in the 1976 and 1981 national title games, Bob Knight faced a very different challenge in 1987. His Steve Alford led Hoosiers found themselves fighting tooth and nail with a Syracuse team led by freshman Derrick Coleman.

With the Orangemen trying to close things out, Coleman missed the front end of a one-and-one that gave Indiana the ball trailing by one with just seconds to play. Junior guard Keith Smart answered the call, draining a pull-up jumper to bring the national championship back to Bloomington.

2. Christian Laettner Outlasts Kentucky

As extraordinary as Christian Laettner’s turnaround fadeaway game winner was, a major part of Laettner’s place in history was the brilliance of the game he won. In a rare Final Four OT battle in 1992, Duke and Kentucky traded leads five times in the final half-minute.

Laettner himself, meanwhile, didn’t miss a shot, hitting all 10 field goal tries and all 10 free throws he took on the night.

Even at that, it took an extraordinary three-quarter-court pass from Grant Hill with 2.1 seconds left and a great catch and shot by Laettner to win the game for the eventual national champion Blue Devils.

1. Lorenzo Charles Out-Dunks Phi Slama Jama

If such a thing exists as a game winning air ball, Dereck Whittenburg found it. The NC State guard thought he was taking the last-ditch shot that would trigger one of basketball’s greatest upsets in the 1983 title game, but his 30-footer came up short.

Instead, Lorenzo Charles turned out to be the hero, grabbing Whittenburg’s miss and slamming it home as time expired to give the sixth-seeded Wolfpack a 54-52 win over Akeem Olajuwon (as he spelled it back then), Clyde Drexler and the top-seeded Houston Cougars.