Husky supporters will never forget the latter date, as it was on that night in East Rutherford, New Jersey that Tate George sent the dream season to the doorstep of a Final Four, receiving a full-court pass from Scott Burrell and sinking a turnaround jumper to defeat Clemson at the buzzer and advance UConn to the Elite 8. Ironically, it was Duke who ended the Huskies’ hopes two days later, on a buzzer-beater of its own by Christian Laettner to vault the Blue Devils into the national semifinals before losing to UNLV in the championship.
Mullins’ shot exacted a measure of revenge for UConn, who erased a 19-point deficit Sunday to reach the Final Four for the eighth time in program history, and drew admiration from the man responsible for painting the word picture on George’s iconic shot 36 years ago.
Bob Heussler, who had the radio call of the George buzzer-beater for UConn, had a chance to watch the shot while calling a Brooklyn Nets game Sunday, and was gracious enough to share his memories of 1990 and offer perspective on the significance of Mullins’ heroics in comparison. Due to the breadth and wealth of information Heussler shared, my conversation with him will be transcribed, uncut, in a question and answer format to lead into coverage of UConn’s latest pursuit of a championship:
Jaden Daly: Bob, 36 years later, people still talk about Tate George and your iconic call of that shot to send UConn to the Elite 8 at the Meadowlands. Does it amaze you that it still gets this much play, this much love, this much traction so many years later and so many national championships later?
Bob Heussler: In a way, it does, because it’s been such a long time as you said. Thirty-six is pretty amazing. Thirty-six years, Jaden, that’s a lot of water over the bridge, as my good friend Chris Russo would say. But the fact is, first of all, you’re talking about UConn, rabid fan base and they have fans who are steeped in the program’s history. And that year, the dream season, was the season that kind of accelerated everything for UConn basketball. It had been, certainly, success before then, but now we’re talking about one of the elite programs, and that’s a defining moment in the ascent of the program. And it is an incredible moment.
We’ve had a lot of great shots and great endings, and we just saw one the other day for UConn. But that one, that stands the test of time because what they had done was the opposite of what happened the other day. The other day was Duke that blew the 19-point lead. That night against Clemson, it was UConn that had blown the 19-point lead in the dream season. This was not the script. You weren’t supposed to be blowing a 19-point lead against Clemson and not make it to, in this case, a regional final, but it appeared they had until a miracle. And it really was. It was a miracle. The pass was as miraculous as the shot, and you don’t forget those moments. Fan bases don’t forget it, so I guess, in a way, I’m not surprised that people still bring it up to me every March 22 to celebrate that anniversary.
JD: You were on the air, and you were pleasantly distracted when Braylon Mullins hit that shot, so you had something else going on in the moment. But what was your reaction when you finally did see the shot?
BH: Well, I actually did see it during one of our breaks. I was calling the game that the Nets had against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday, and I happened to be working with Chris Carrino’s son, Chris Carrino, Jr, and he had his iPad. And we were tracking the score, because if my memory was right on this, we weren’t too far past a point in the broadcast — it might have been halftime — where we were giving scores, and of course, we were keeping an eye on that. And all of a sudden, we see that again on one of our monitors that UConn won the game, and we’re like, “WHOA!” And what I’m leading up to is Chris Carrino, Jr., being somebody who’s tech-savvy, immediately during a commercial break, I got to see it on a small screen and I’m like, “whoa.” I was like, incredulous.
So of course when I went home — I commute by train when I go to do games in Brooklyn — I got on the train and the first thing I did was I called it up and I watched it several times. I listened to Mike (Crispino)’s call, which was great, and got to relive another UConn March moment. It was really something, wasn’t it?
JD: It was. Now, the comparisons between 1990 and Sunday night, obviously prisoner of the moment in some aspects, but would you say they’re justified? Would you say one might be bigger than the other because this shot sent UConn to a Final Four, whereas in 1990, a team that hadn’t gotten that far in the tournament had a chance to play for one?
BH: Yeah, I wouldn’t go near that argument, only because you have two great moments. Which one is greater than the other? The Tate George shot, and the pass, you can never leave out the Scott Burrell pass as part of the equation. It’s something that is just so spectacular, that it definitely stands on that Mount Rushmore, to use that worn-out comparison. It stands the test of time and it stands well in any debate as to, okay, which play is bigger? But the argument can certainly be made, Jaden, that any shot like that — that gets you into the Final Four — well, that looms pretty darn large, but everything’s relative.
And in the moment we’re talking about: March 22, 1990, that’s as big a moment in UConn sports history, and this one is too. And this one gets them to a Final Four, but we’re talking about a program that has now won multiple national championships. So if it was getting you into your first Final Four, I think it takes on even more impact, but again, they’re both just great, great moments for a great, great program, and it’s fun to debate which is bigger if you want to go down that road. I never would. It was, the way I look at it is just, you look at both moments, both plays, both shots, and shake your head in awe and wonder, because they were both spectacular.
JD: Now when you finally did watch the highlight, were you surprised that (Alex) Karaban gave it up in that moment?
BH: Absolutely. That’s a very good call. The two things about both those shots, Tate George and Mullins: With Tate, without Scott Burrell, there’s no Tate George shot. The pass, the Scott Burrell pass, 94 feet on the button, is the key to the works. And of course, Tate has to do his job, and it lives forever as a result.
But Karaban? Oh my goodness! To have the presence of mind with, as it turns out, milliseconds left in the game, and to make that pass to the shooter? I mean, that’s just as spectacular a play as Burrell’s. Burrell’s is physical. There’s very few people who, right now, can do what Scott Burrell did that night, throw a basketball 94 feet on a line drive to its intended target. But from a basketball standpoint, a basketball play, what Karaban did is just as extraordinary. I was awestruck when I watched it again and again. I’m like, wow!
That’s why you love basketball. You see things like that happen, then of course, Mullins rewards Karaban by hitting — now — one of the most famous shots in NCAA Tournament history.
JD: Now, how well do you think a shot like that can propel UConn this weekend? Obviously, they’re facing an Illinois team that they played in the regular season at the end of November. Mullins actually made his debut in that game, which is another subplot, but how much do you think a moment like that can propel this team? Obviously, you’ve heard the whole team of destiny cliche so many times. Do you think that this shot might further that in a sense?
BH: That’s an easy one to answer, but I’m going to give you two approaches. Number one, I hope it does. I hope it does as a UConn fan. I hope it propels them, and I hope that we look back at this and say, “wow, they were a team of destiny.” But the other way of approaching it is, just look at what happened after the Tate George shot, what happened when they came up against — coincidentally — Duke with a chance to go to the Final Four. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Christian Laettner burns them with a shot at the buzzer, and it was like, wait a minute. How did this happen? It did, and UConn was denied a trip to the Final Four, they would have been going to Denver to play in their first-ever Final Four. It didn’t happen.
That was the dream season, Jaden, and everybody thought that it was going to keep right on going into the Final Four after what Burrell and Tate George did, but it didn’t work out that way. That game, actually, was in the hands of Tate George. If you look back at that sequence that allowed Laettner to inbound and then take it and get it back, and take the game-winning shot, if you look at the play leading up to it, Tate George had the steal in his hands. And he dropped the ball, falling over the sideline out of bounds, and Duke got it back. That would have ended it, and Tate George would have been a hero twice over.
But you know what? They played great. It was a tremendous season, one of the greatest seasons in the history of the program. It just ended a little short of where they wanted it to be. As I said, now you’re looking at a program that has won multiple national championships, and here’s (Dan) Hurley trying to do it, what, for the third time, right? Unbelievable. And hopefully, this does turn out to be a Hurley team of destiny. But I guess that’s my long way of saying no guarantees in sports or life, right?
