The basketball gods apparently wanted Tyus Edney to see history repeating itself.
His history.
It’s the only explanation for how the former UCLA point guard known for his heroic coast-to-coast layup in the 1995 NCAA tournament came to yell, “Yeaahhh Baabyyy!” in a hotel lobby Saturday night after catching the end of his alma mater’s game against Illinois.
The final 4.9 seconds, to be exact.
Huddling around a phone with the Pepperdine team chaplain after the Waves played Oregon State, Edney arrived just in time to watch after the Bruins called a timeout to set up their final play while trailing by one point in overtime.
Edney, an assistant coach with the Waves, told the California Post on Sunday that he thought it was curious the Fighting Illini weren’t trying to deny UCLA point guard Donovan Dent the ball in the backcourt.
“I’m looking and I’m like, are they going to let Dent catch the ball?” Edney said. “Do they know that would not be ideal for them? And then he was kind of deep in the corner and then when I saw him cutting across, I’m like, oh my God, they’re letting him catch the ball and he was off to the races.”
Edney said he was struck by how Dent’s winning layup was similar to his against Missouri in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Like Dent, Edney took a pass while curling around in the backcourt and zipped past multiple defenders before being confronted by a big man at the rim. Contorting his body around Tigers forward Derek Grimm, Edney banked in a shot to lift the Bruins by a point in a victory that sparked their championship run.
Dent needed just two dribbles to get to midcourt, where he used a screen from Tyler Bilodeau to shed one defender. Splitting two more defenders near the free throw line, Dent twisted around Illinois’ final defender at the rim, scooping the ball off the backboard for the winning points in the Bruins’ wild 95-94 victory.
Edney started screaming “Yeaahhh Baabyyy!”, just like UCLA radio analyst Marques Johnson had in Boise that day after Edney went coast to coast in only 4.8 seconds.
“It was kind of perfect timing of being able to see that,” Edney said of getting to the hotel before Dent’s shot. “And then the announcer saying as he’s laying it up, like saying Tyus Edney. That was pretty cool too.”
Edney said he understood Dent not having watched his shot – widely considered the most iconic play in UCLA basketball history – given the generation gap. Dent was not even born when that play was made.
Edney saw Dent play in person earlier this season when Pepperdine lost to UCLA at Pauley Pavilion but has not met him. Edney texted Bruins center Steven Jamerson II, who played for San Diego when Edney was a Toreros assistant, to tell him to congratulate Dent.
When it came to Dent’s getting the chance to win the game in a moment that felt magnificently familiar, Edney said he understood coach Mick Cronin’s thinking.
“He’s fast,” Edney said. “He’s the one that I would have given it to.”
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