Thomas' 'miracle shot' caps high point in Murray State history
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- When your school has waited 22 years, what's another few seconds?
You can wait. You waited through Katrina, saw your family scattered all over the country. You can wait because there are leaps of faith and then there is the blind faith showed by Murray State's Danero Thomas.
Thomas could wait those final 4.2 seconds before draining the game-winning shot against Vanderbilt in the first-round West Regional game here. You can wait if you're Thomas because the coach said he had a scholarship for you a few years ago. And you came to Murray, Ky., without previously being in Murray, Ky.
"Sight unseen," Murray coach Billy Kennedy said after the biggest victory of his career, 66-65 over fourth-seeded Vanderbilt.
"We were out of visits."
You can wait because when everything broke down in the final seconds against a big, brawny SEC team and your team is trailing by one, you think about how many times you've launched the same shot.
"I work on that shot every day in practice," Thomas said. "It felt good to me."
It didn't look good. With those 4.2 seconds left and Vandy leading by one, Murray State got a break when the ball may or may not have gone out of bounds off a Commodore's hand underneath the Vanderbilt basket. Didn't matter, when there are 22 years between tournament wins, you take breaks when you can get them.
Kennedy called for the ball to go to guard Isacc Miles, a Creighton transfer, who just happened to be hot on Thursday. That's part of the season why Murray State is hard to play. You never know who is going to be hot -- six players average between 9.5 and 10.6 points per game.
It was Miles' time. Except it wasn't when Vandy defenders swarmed to him. Thomas was open enough to take Miles' desperation pass, dribble twice and launch a 18-footer with two Commodores in his face.
Fading away.
Bracket-buster. Buzzer-beater. Call it what you will. It was a walk-off win for a program with a roster populated by only seven players who were born the last time this happened.
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Twenty-two years to the day of Murray State's last and only NCAA victory, it celebrated again. For the 22nd time in history, a 13 seed had beaten a four.
"Miracle shot, miracle play to be honest with you," Kennedy said.
There have been a million One Shining Moments, but this was not Christian Laettner saving Duke against Kentucky. This was Murray State at the high point of its basketball history. In 1988, the Racers beat North Carolina State in Lincoln, Neb., and have gone oh-fer in 10 subsequent appearances. Duke's media guide is littered with Final Four memories. Murray State's media guide is filled with a series of teases, a bunch of almosts in the bracket through the years.
Popeye Jones and the Racers almost became the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 in 1990, but Michigan State squeaked one out. Four years ago, Murray State gave North Carolina all it wanted.
Kennedy deserves this. He is a soft-spoken man who came to Murray State after one year as an assistant at Miami. During his career, he had been at eight schools as an assistant, fitting in some time briefly to be a San Antonio Spurs scout. It was a return to the Bay Area of sorts because he had coached under Todd Bozeman during some, um, troubled times at Cal.
"It's a culture shock, to be honest," said Kennedy's wife Mary, when asked about leaving South Florida for Murray. "Wherever he is, we're good. UPS delivers."
There wasn't a lot of delivering going around in the second half for the Racers. For the last 16 minutes, it seemed like Murray State couldn't run a thing on offense. It slopped around the perimeter and dropped in some bombs, but mostly it blew an eight-point lead to the Commodores and coach Kevin Stallings, one of the better tacticians in the game.
But you've got to believe in somebody when the roster includes players from 10 different states and Cameroon in Africa. There are only three seniors and Thomas is one of them.
Mary Kennedy called it the most unselfish team she had been around. There was that balanced scoring. Along with Kansas, Murray State was the only team in the country to lead its conference in scoring offense and defense.
The afternoon looked bleak when the team's best post player, Tony Easley, fouled out with 1:45 left after an epic battle with Vanderbilt big man A.J. Ogilvy.
With belief waning, Thomas believed in himself.
Kennedy was recruiting the 6-4 native of New Orleans when the coach was at Miami. Mick Cronin left Murray State for Cincinnati four years ago and when Kennedy took over he kept in touch with Thomas.
Similar to a lot of folks, Katrina had blown Thomas and his family off the map. Four sisters and two brothers scattered to Texas, Georgia and Alabama.
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| Danero Thomas hits the clutch shot to end the Racers' tournament drought. (AP) |
"When the storm hit, we all just separated," Thomas said.
He showed up on campus about 30 pounds overweight and withdrawn.
"He was a quiet guy," Easley said. "Now he's opened up more, he's more of an uncle to everybody."
"We felt like we had a pretty good season and we kind of wanted some recognition. We played tonight like we were going to get that chip on the shoulder."
They had already gotten inspiration from the bracketeer-in-chief -- Barack Obama picked the Racers in his mock bracket. Health care? A work in progress. Murray State? A lock.
"He had to pick us," guard B.J. Jenkins said. "I voted for him."
It is a faith-based team in that, in basketball terms, there is always someone to pick them up. Murray State's victory was its 31st of the season and 22nd in its past 23 games. Easley was best in the post this season, Jenkins was the best guard. On Thursday, Danero was dinero.
Money.
"Blessed is he who trusts in the Lord," Mary Kennedy said.
Or Danero Thomas?
"Actually, me and Danero both do," she said.
