Dan Fleser
For all his basketball work that has gone largely uncelebrated, Tennessee’s Jahmai Mashack took his best shot at upgrading his profile . . . and nailed it.
The senior guard hit a jump shot from the “the” in “the Summitt” script adorning Thompson-Boling Arena’s court – approximately 35 feet. He did his heroic work as time expired early Saturday evening to beat Alabama 79-76.
The shot capped a pitched battle between two top 10 teams that featured nine ties and 10 lead changes and sent an overflow crowd of 22,392 into a celebratory frenzy. Thereafter, the ending likely dominated dinner conversations and livened social settings. A day later, it probably drew mention in Sunday School classes and got replayed in driveways by starry-eyed 12-year-old Mashack wannabes.
The resonance of such feats was underscored by a conversation I had with former News Sentinel colleague Mike Strange and several fans who attended the game and were still buzzing over what they saw.
In constructing a context for Mashack’s shot, Chris Lofton’s shot over Kevin Durant against Texas and Lofton's NCAA tournament game-winner against Winthrop quickly came to mind for all of us. Jon Higgins’s improbable halfcourt leave to beat Georgia Tech in 2002 wasn’t a strain to recall either.
And then there’s Gary Carter.
After more than 43 years, the particulars were tough to recall but the former guard’s place in this conversation wasn’t. Everyone was certain of that. Online, I found a United Press International account of the Vols’ guard stealing a pass and hitting a 40-footer at the buzzer to beat American 59-58 in the Volunteer Classic on December, 18, 1981.
All had seemed lost just six seconds earlier when Carter missed a 20-footer. But that steal earned him a second chance. Mashack could relate.
The build-up to his big moment was a series of the smaller feats that have characterized his career. He beat Alabama’s Jarin Stevenson across the foul lane and drew a foul after Chaz Lanier’s missed free throw. Mashack hit both of his free throws to tie the score at 76 with 30 seconds left.
Mashack’s fingerprints literally were all over Alabama’s ensuing possession. He first got his hands on the basketball and tied up Labaron Philon, forcing an inbounds play. The Crimson Tide then couldn’t inbound the ball within the required five seconds because, in part, Mashack had switched onto hot shot Mark Sears, who had scored a game-high 24 points. The turnover gave the ball back to Tennessee with 3.8 seconds left.
“Those extra possessions are plays that I always make,” Mashack said.
The same couldn’t be said of that final shot, however. The player who’s sixth on the team in scoring (averaging six points per game) wasn’t the first option under those circumstances. Why else was coach Rick Barnes trying to call a timeout?
“I made one good coaching move today. I didn’t tell the referee I was going to call timeout. I normally tell them and they would probably have given it to me. But I’m screaming and really, I did not see the shot.”
The crowd told him what happened. The rest is Tennessee basketball history.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who has covered University of Tennessee athletics since 1988. He is a member of the Tennessee Sportswriters, U.S Basketball Writers and Greater Knoxville Sports Halls of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.