College Basketball History -- Defining Moments -- Shot-Clock, Three-Pointer Define Contemporary Era

The year was 1956. My dad brought home a new black-and-white television set from Montgomery Ward. We sat down to watch the great Bill Russell play for the University of San Francisco.

USF had won the national championship in 1955 and, with a team that included K.C. Jones, seemed as if it would never lose. The Dons were playing a mediocre Cal team in Berkeley.

Despite being badly overmatched, Cal found itself four points behind, 24-20, with 10 minutes remaining. Pete Newell, who three years later was to coach Cal to an NCAA title with back-to-back wins over Oscar Robertson's Cincinnati team and Jerry West's West Virginia team, ordered his second-string center to hold the ball near the center court to make Russell come out and play defense.

Russell declined.

So Joe Hagler stood there. For more than eight minutes. There was no rule that Russell had to guard him, or that Hagler had to do something with the ball in five seconds. After four or five minutes, Hagler declared a pivot foot. We watched, spellbound, to see if he traveled. He didn't.

With two minutes left, Newell called time out, sent in a play, the Bears missed the shot and lost the game 33-24. But the point was that they had the chance any team does in a two-minute game. Even against USF.

Coaches controlled games then; now shooters do.

In the 1970s, Dean Smith of North Carolina used guard George Karl to hold the ball and force teams out of zone defenses. At

Oregon State in the early 1980s, all Coach Ralph Miller needed was an eight-point lead in the second half before he spread the court and waited for the defense to overcommit - and then responded with a precisely executed back-door play.

Everything changed in the mid-1980s with the shot clock and three-point shot, however. That was never more obvious than on Feb. 15, 1994, when the University of Kentucky, on the road at LSU, rallied from 31 points behind in the final 15 minutes to win, 99-95.

LSU took a 43-32 halftime lead by hitting nine of 13 three-point shots. In the second half, however, Kentucky went to work, the three-pointers falling like rain. Jeff Brassow hit four and Chris Harrison, the last man on the team, hit two. In all, the Wildcats connected on 12 of 23 in their rally, the second greatest in NCAA history.

College basketball players shoot twice as many three-point shots as 10 years ago.

"If you're behind by 12, you can get back into it right away," said Shawn Respert of Michigan State, a great three-point shooter. "And if you're a small school, you have a chance."

Without holding the ball for eight minutes.