Bench Warmer Hits Buzzer Beater with 7 NBA Players on Court in Nevada 2004 vs. Drake 1969

Drake 1969 star Willie McCarter and Dolph Pulliam repeatedly got to the line in a great back-and-forth game with Nevada's 2004 team - hitting 18 of 21 free throws. All 200 great teams in the Value Add Basketball Game have now played a game, so there should be no other tweaks to cards. Ratings updated here, and all 250 games to date between all-time great teams here.

With 5 possessions (2:44) left to play, McCarter drew a fifth foul on Todd Okeson and hit both free throws to cut Nevada's lead to 76-74. Kyle Shiloh was put in the game even though he doesn't usually play in our games. The reason for that is the other bench players already used their Stamina and so dice rolls would have ball been adjusted against him.

However, then the same thing happened to Drake as Pulliam himself fouled out guarding Nevada's star Kirk Snyder with just 2 possessions (53 seconds on the scoresheet) to play. Snyder hit both free throws to give Nevada an 82-81 lead, and Drake likewise brought a new player off the bench in Ron Gwin, whose Stamina of 5 was still available to play at full strength while Don Draper and Gary Zeller would have had to have dice rolls adjusted by 1 due to being fatigued.

Nevada came down for one last trip to try to extend their lead, but they missed and Willie Wise grabbed his game-high 9th rebound of the game. that meant unless there was a foul or steal to stop the shot, or a missed shot with an offense rebound, we would be rolling the last dice of the game to determine the winner. The 8-sided die was a "3," the only roll that would give the ball to Ron Gwin off the bench, and with not time for anything else he hit the game-winner to advance Drake in a game in which he was not expected to play. Technically he closes the game with 4 points since we assume all players had 2 points in the 22 possessions we do not play out - but regardless the player who averaged 2.6 points during the 1969 season became the hero.

The other danger in Pulliam not being on the court is losing the dime, so McCarter would have still gotten the ball on a 1 or 6; Al Williams on a 2; Gwin on a 3; Willie Wise on a 4 or 7; and Rick Wanamaker on a 5 - but noone would have gotten the ball for a shot on and 8.

If that had happened then the dice would have been rolled again, but on the second roll only a 1-5 goes to the player indicated - a 6-8 is a shotclock violation turnover.

As show in the updated rankings, Drake actually slipped just slightly after the 1 point win - from 94th to 97th of our all-time 200 great teams in the game. They will be underdogs in their next game against Bill Self's Tulsa, which won their first game much more convincingly 92-64 to surge from 74th to 35th in our rankings.

 

Pos	Nevada 2004	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual	Hts
1-PG	Todd Okeson	12	2	2	2	2	4	2	0	5	11.2 Pts, 2.8 Reb, 3.9 Ast	6'0
2-SG	Kirk Snyder	21	4	2	5	6	2	3	0	4	18.8 Pts, 5.7 Reb, 3.4 Ast-NBA	6'6
3-SF	Garry Hill-Thomas	4	0	2	0	0	3	0	0	2	9.8 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 2.3 Ast	6'4
4-PF	Kevinn Pinkney	8	0	4	0	0	6	0	2	3	9.4 Pts, 5.7 Reb, 0.9 Ast-NBA	6'10
5-C	Nick Fazekas	24	2	9	0	0	5	1	1	1	12.6 Pts, 7.6 Reb, 0.5 Ast-NBA	6'11
1-PG	Kyle Shiloh	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.8 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.9 Ast	6'3
2-SG	Seth Taylor	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.0 Pts, 0.4 Reb, 0.0 Ast	6'3
3-SF	Marcelus Kemp	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	3	4.6 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.8 Ast	6'5
4-PF	Jermaine Washington	3	0	1	1	2	2	0	0	3	4.1 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 0.7 Ast	6'5
5-C	Sean Paul	6	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	1	3.4 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 0.9 Ast	6'9
	11 Turnovers	82	8	25	8	10	26	6	3	24
Pos	Drake 1969		3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Season Actual	Hts
1-PG	Willie McCarter	20	2	3	8	8	3	2	1	2	20.4 Pts, 3.7 Reb-NBA	6'3
2-SG	Dolph Pulliam	15	1	1	10	13	8	1	0	5	13.3 Pts, 7.7 Reb	6'4
3-SF	Al Williams	14	1	4	3	6	4	1	0	2	8.8 Pts, 7.3 Reb-NBA	6'6
4-PF	Willie Wise	21	1	7	4	4	9	0	4	1	14.6 Pts, 11.4 Reb-NBA	6'5
5-C	Rick Wanamaker	2	0	1	0	0	5	0	3	1	4.4 Pts, 3.4 Reb	6'9
1-PG	Don Draper	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	12.3 Pts, 2.4 Reb	6'0
2-SG	Gary Zeller	2	0	1	0	0	5	1	0	1	6.3 Pts, 1.6 Reb-NBA	6'2
3-SF	Ron Gwin	4	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	2.6 Pts, 1.4 Reb	6'2
4-PF	Larry Sharp	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1.6 Pts, 1.2 Reb	6'9
5-C	Garry Odom	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	3.8 Pts, 4.5 Reb	6'8
	17 Turnovers	84	5	22	25	31	38	5	8	16

A photo of the scoresheet will follow to show the flow of the scoring.