Life as ‘The Almost Hero’: Sean Woods, Anthony Epps have walked in Marcus Paige’s sneakers

In Monday’s stellar men’s basketball NCAA Tournament championship, North Carolina guard Marcus Paige hit a double-pump, three-pointer that tied the game in the final seconds.

It was a shot that might have been talked about for the ages — had Villanova’s Kris Jenkins not trumped Paige’s heroics with a buzzer-beating, game-winning trey of his own.

Now, Paige will go through life in basketball purgatory as an “Almost Hero.”

Sean Woods can relate to what Paige must feel.

In the famous Kentucky-Duke 1992 NCAA Tournament classic, Woods hit a running, 12-foot bank shot with 2.1 seconds left to put UK ahead of the defending national champions 103-102.

Some years back, Woods told me he wondered just how famous he would have been had his basket decided the outcome of that hoops epic.

Instead, of course, Christian Laettner took a long pass from Grant Hill and sank a turnaround jumper from the foul line to make Duke a 104-103 winner.

For the 24 years since, Laettner’s shot has been the enduring symbol of NCAA tournaments. Outside of Kentucky, Woods’ runner — by degree of difficulty, a much tougher shot — has largely receded into the mists.

“It does come up. We’re talking about it now,” Woods, now the head men’s basketball coach at Morehead State, said Wednesday of his bank shot. “But the shot people remember is the one that wins the game — that’s just how it is.”

Across these many decades, I have always wondered if the 6-foot-2 Woods intended to use the backboard on the shot he lofted above the outstretched arms of the 6-11 Laettner.

“You have to remember, I played in the SEC, and in the 1990s, the SEC was big,” Woods said. “I shot a lot of runners and I had to get them over people like Shaquille O’Neal.”

Still, Woods says his primary thought was to get the ball to the back of the rim, so that it would either pop up in the air and then drop in the basket or give his teammates a chance at a follow shot.

“When you are in overtime in a big game like that,” Woods says, “your adrenaline takes over a little bit and it hit off the glass just right.”

Anthony Epps can relate to what Paige must feel, too.

In the 1997 NCAA championship game, Epps hit a shot similar to the one Paige made Monday night in Houston. With Kentucky down three points to Arizona, Epps rose up to try a three-pointer.

An Arizona defender ran at him, forcing Epps to double-pump. His three-point shot went in with 12.1 seconds left, forcing overtime.

Had Kentucky gone on to win the game, Epps figures his shot “would be one of the top five, top 10 shots in the history of the NCAA Tournament.”

UK didn’t go on to win the game, of course, and Epps’ game-tying three-pointer has receded into the fog of time.

“That shot by Marcus Paige, it really reminded me of the shot I hit,” said Epps, now an assistant boys’ basketball coach at Campbellsville High School. “Both of us, we went up to take a three, had a defender run at us, and had to sort of double pump to get the shots off. And both of us, I think, would have taken a lot of criticism for the shots we took if they hadn’t gone in.”

Across these many decades, I have always wondered if the 6-2 Epps knew his double-clutch, three-pointer to tie an NCAA championship game was going to go in from the moment the ball left his hand.

“Actually, I didn’t. I was hoping,” Epps said. “When the ball was about halfway (to the goal), I realized ‘Hey, this thing looks like it’s going in.’ It was a great feeling on such a big stage to make a play to give your team a chance to win the game. I just wish we’d won the game.”

In March Madness, the fickle hand of basketball fate assigns some clutch shots eternal life as game winners and other shots — that required every bit as much skill and poise under pressure — to be largely forgotten.

Asked what they would say to Paige about finding peace after his epic clutch shot was rendered moot, Woods and Epps said similar things.

Said Woods: “He just needs to know he did all he could for his team under the circumstance. The way these things work, the game-winner is the shot people will remember. But Marcus Paige showed how clutch he was. Unfortunately (for him), the Villanova kid had time for an answer.”

Said Epps: “In two or three years, no one will remember the shot Marcus Paige hit. All anyone will remember is the shot that won the game. But (in that situation), you know you hit a shot under the most pressure imaginable, came through for your team when it mattered most. You know that, even if nobody else remembers.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Life as ‘The Almost Hero’: Sean Woods, Anthony Epps have walked in Marcus Paige’s sneakers."