As soon as the February calendar flips to March, Bryce Drew knows he’ll be getting the phone calls and emails. It’s an occupational hazard when you’re part of March Madness history.
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SPORTS
Grand Canyon U’s Bryce Drew revisits his place in March Madness history
With the Final Four in town this year, Antelopes head coach knows what’s on the line
(Independent Newsmedia/Steve Stockmar)
Men’s basketball coach Bryce Drew keeps an eye on practice inside Global Credit Union Arena on the Grand Canyon University campus in Phoenix.
(AP Photo/J.Pat Carter, File)
In this March 13, 1998, file photo, Valparaiso's Bryce Drew follows through on his game-winning 3-point shot at the buzzer over Jason Flanigan and Ole Miss in their first-round game of the NCAA Midwest Regional in Oklahoma City. At left is Valparaiso coach Homer Drew watching his son's shot.
As soon as the February calendar flips to March, Bryce Drew knows he’ll be getting the phone calls and emails.
It’s an occupational hazard when you’re part of March Madness history.
The Grand Canyon University men’s basketball head coach etched his way into NCAA Tournament lore with his buzzer-beater 3-pointer to lift 13-seed Valparaiso past 4-seed Ole Miss, 70-69, to send Valpo into the 1998 Sweet Sixteen.
Known in March Madness conversations everywhere as “The Shot,” it’s a timeless highlight that NCAA Tournament season annually revisits around college basketball’s most festive time of the year. It’s also a regular on every “best buzzer-beaters” list within online searching range. On The Shot’s 15th anniversary, SB Nation dubbed it “The Shot Heard 'Round March.”
“I love it,” Drew smiled during a break in afternoon practice for the Antelopes inside Global Credit Union Arena on the Phoenix campus.
Yes, the topic came up again for him with March Madness in sight. Even ESPN had just visited the gym a few days earlier to get his perspective on it – again – and even to have him recreate the shot, this time on the Antelopes’ home floor.
“It was such a blessing,” Drew continued of “The Shot.” “I thank the Lord for that opportunity on that platform to be able to have a ball like that go in and talk about it years and years later. It’s definitely something that I love to talk about.”
Nostalgia for a classic sports moment is one thing, but Drew has only the present on his mind, especially as it relates to March Madness. Defending WAC champion Grand Canyon and their No. 1 seed open the conference tournament Friday in Las Vegas.
This year’s Final Four, April 6 and 8, will take place less than 10 miles down the road from Grand Canyon University. State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, will host the college hoops spectacle for the first time since the 2017 Final Four was in town.
Drew made it to the NCAA Tournament as a player and has also experienced the Madness first-hand as a coach. At this alma mater, he led Valpo to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and followed that with a stint at Vanderbilt where he became the first head coach in that program’s history to qualify for March Madness in his first season at the helm.
Since arriving to lead the GCU program in Phoenix he led the Antelopes to a berth in the 2021 NCAA Tournament in his first season, then got the program back to The Dance by winning four games in four days during the 2023 WAC Tournament to again punch the Antelopes’ ticket to Madness.
Drew, 49, knows it takes more than X’s and O’s to advance to college basketball’s biggest stage.
“You’ve got to have good players. You have to be healthy. In sports the best ability sometimes is availability. And so those two things are really important,” he said. “It’s so hard to make the NCAA Tournament, especially at a mid-major conference. It’s really hard. So us – like every other team in the conference – your goal is to make the NCAA Tournament.”
He also is hip to the fact that his players not only know about his pro career – which included being a first-round pick of the Houston Rockets to open a career in which he played for four NBA teams from 1998 through 2004 – they also know about his place in March Madness history.
“There’s so much out there with social media and things like that, so they know so much about the NBA and about what it takes to get there and what it takes to stay there. So we don’t really have deep conversations about that,” Drew said. “I might use certain stories here and there from my playing career relating to them or a situation they’re in right now. It’s more situational like that.”
Steve Stockmar has been with the Independent Newsmedia team since 2017. An NAU alum and Peoria resident, Steve’s community journalism pursuits focus mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference. In his spare time Steve plays in a vintage baseball league using uniforms and rules from the 1860s, and also acts (badly) in community theater. In addition, he has an unhealthy obsession with baseball and the Chicago Cubs.
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