By Jeff Hunter ’96

---

Recent NCAA Tournament success may feel like the norm, but for Utah State, wins in “The Big Dance” have been historically elusive. The Aggies’ 2024 victory over TCU and this year’s 86-76 defeat of Villanova represent two of USU’s eight tournament victories since their first appearance in 1939. And Utah State, which has made 26 total trips to the NCAA tourney, won just one game between 1970 and 2024. And that victory was quite unexpected.

Despite winning 27 games, the Aggies were given a No. 12 seed entering the 2001 NCAA Tournament, leading to a matchup on March 15, against No. 5 Ohio State in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Utah State head coach Stew Morrill, who was in just the third season of his 17-year stint at the helm, ended up leading USU to a 77–68 overtime upset of the Buckeyes. But the final score doesn’t reflect what it took for the Aggies to push the game to an extra period, nor the drama that surrounded one of the most clutch shots in the history of Utah State basketball.

On the 25th anniversary of the Aggies’ celebrated upending of Ohio State, we look back at that season and the clash with the Buckeyes through the eyes of Morrill, junior shooting guard Tony Brown, and senior point guard Bernard Rock.

Utah State, which would go on to lose to UCLA in the second round of the tournament to finish the 2000–01 season with a 28–6 record, also had the same mark in 1999–2000. That team went a perfect 19–0 against Big West Conference opponents but was “rewarded” with a No. 12 seed and a matchup with defending national champion UConn in the NCAA Tournament. The Aggies lost, 75–67, but that experience paid off the following year.

MORRILL: I remember talking to the commissioner before we played New Mexico State in the championship game (in 2000), and I said, ‘We went undefeated in the Big West and made it to the finals. What if we lose tonight?’ He said, ‘It doesn’t matter. You’re in.’ So, I told the kids that before the game, trying to take some pressure off them. And we won the game, but we got a 12 seed. So, we would not have been in if we had lost. … We hung in there [against UConn] and lost by eight, but I think the whole experience really helped the 2000–01 team.

ROCK: The seeding we got (in 2000) was horrible; it was just a slap in the face, and then we had to play UConn. … And then expectations for us were definitely higher the next year. And as far as my expectations for myself, it was that we’d make it back to the NCAA Tournament and I would have a much better outing.

The Aggies, who finished second in the Big West during the regular season, turned up the defensive intensity at the conference tournament in Anaheim, California. Utah State secured the Big West’s automatic bid with wins over Cal State Fullerton, Boise State, and Pacific while surrendering an average of just 43 points per game, including a 50–38 crushing of rival Pacific in the championship game.

BROWN: Every time we played Pacific, it was a dogfight. Coach [Don Verlin’s] brother was there, and they were scouting us just as hard as we were scouting them. It was tough. When they would run a play, we would know the play two dribbles into the play. And they were doing the same to us, for the most part. How do you execute against something like that? It basically came down to who could just make some plays outside of their offense.

MORRILL: They were a pretty strong defensive group. They were a fun team, and we had to deal with a lot of expectations, which came to be the norm. It still is at Utah State. But it was a special year in terms of the type of kids and how they worked, and they were rewarded with winning a tournament game. I look back now, and two of those kids (Brown and forward Shawn Daniels) are in the Utah State Athletics Hall of Fame, so it must have been a pretty good team.

On Selection Sunday, the Aggies got another 12 seed and a clash with Ohio State. The fifth-seeded Buckeyes finished third in the Big 10 under veteran head coach Jim O’Brien and were 20–10 heading into the tourney. Ohio State was led that season by 6-foot-11, 240-pound senior center Ken Johnson, who finished his career as the Big 10’s all-time leading shot blocker. But the Utah State coaching staff liked the matchup as they started breaking down tape.

ROCK: We were expecting a higher seed because we were rolling and had pretty much the same record as the year before. So, to get a 12 seed was very disappointing. Then we saw that we were playing Ohio State, and we were like, ‘OK, let’s get out there and play.’ But we didn’t know too much about them. The only player we really knew of was Ken Johnson, because he’d been a terror down in the paint because of his shot blocking.

BROWN: As I’ve gotten older, I kind of understand how these games truly are about matchups, and we couldn’t have asked for a better matchup. … Don’t get me wrong, they had some good players, but it wasn’t like we were matched up against Duke or somebody. So, we felt like we had a really good chance of competing and being in the game.

Despite eight points and four blocks by Johnson in the first half, the Aggies were far from out of it at halftime, trailing 29–24.

BROWN: We felt pretty good because we felt like we didn’t play great in the first half. We had a couple of guys in foul trouble but still made a little bit of a run to get it to five. So, we felt like we were in the game, and that we could go toe-to-toe with these guys.

ROCK: I’m not going to lie. Even though I had a great first half, I had to play real timid because I was in foul trouble pretty much the whole game. … But we felt like we were in striking distance at halftime. We just needed to get some stops and make some baskets.

Thanks to some second-half adjustments, most notably shutting down Johnson with their 2–3 zone defense and getting into their offense by giving more ballhandling responsibilities to the 6-foot-6, 260-pound Daniels, the Aggies tightened the score up. But while the crowd at the Greensboro Coliseum was buzzing over a potential upset, things still looked bleak for Utah State after falling behind 60–56 with 63 seconds left to go. A pair of free throws by Brown cut the deficit to two points, then Ohio State’s Slobodan Savovic missed a wide-open 3-pointer with 18 seconds left. Rock snagged the rebound and brought the ball up the court, apparently set to run some action. But Morrill, who usually preferred to attack before a defense could get set in last-second situations, suddenly used his final timeout with 8.8 seconds remaining and the ball in Brown’s hands.

MORRILL: I don’t remember why I did that. I must not have liked what I saw and didn’t think we were going to get the shot we wanted.

BROWN: I’m thinking that [Morrill] probably saw that we didn’t have a play called. Not to throw any of the assistants under the bus, but he saw that we didn’t have anything called yet as the ball reversed around the perimeter. So, he was like, ‘We’ve got to call timeout and set something up.’

Out of the timeout, Daniels inbounded the ball from the sideline opposite the USU bench. It ended up in the hands of Brown, who had curled around along the baseline to get open. After initially looking to drive to the basket to his right, he went left into the paint and picked up his dribble from about 10 feet away. Johnson came out to greet him, but Brown gave him one small fake, followed by a larger one that threw Johnson’s timing off as he tried to block a shot that never came. That left OSU’s big man back down on the ground as Brown nestled in a fall-away jumper with 1.8 seconds left.

BROWN: It’s funny, because in the moment, you’re not really thinking anything. You’re just playing, and you’re trying to make the best play for your team. And as I get into the lane, and I see Johnson step out, I was like, ‘Oh no, if I shoot this, he’s going to block it.’ And I think I faked twice, and then he finally jumped in the air. I kind of shot a little bit of a fadeaway as he’s coming down, and it just happens to go in.

ROCK: I was supposed to get the ball, but they covered it. And the next option was to pop out to the wing, like Tony did, and then make a play after that. … Tony pump faked [Johnson] once, then ball faked him again, and I was like, ‘He ain’t going nowhere.’ But he caught him and then when his shot went in, oh my gosh, I jumped for joy, obviously.

As the crowd went wild and the Buckeyes scrambled to call a timeout, Brown paid the price for the biggest bucket of his career. An overzealous Rock flew in to shove his backcourt mate in the chest, which was quickly followed by the much larger Curtis Bobb also shoving Brown in his upper back from behind.

BROWN: After it went in, then all heck breaks loose. I think I about got my neck snapped with Curtis smashing me in the back and not even knowing he was there, like whiplashing me. It was a pretty exciting moment right there.

ROCK: I don’t know because I shoved him pretty hard, I’m not going to lie. But that was kind of me. Even when I gave you a high-five, it kind of hurt you and me.

Twenty-five years later, there’s still some dispute over whether or not Morrill, a Provo native, credited Brown getting open for his game-tying jumper to some “church ball fakes” or “city league fakes.”

BROWN: Stew likes to say that I was using my ‘church ball’ moves to get that pump fake there at the end. And I don’t know if that was church ball, because there wasn’t really any fighting going on. But I did have to use some old-school moves to get him off the ground to be able to get that shot off to tie it. But the media sure laughed about that when he mentioned that to them.

MORRILL: I said after the game that ‘he gave a couple of city league fakes,’ and over the years, that turned into, ‘he gave several church ball fakes.’ I’m positive I did say ‘city league.’ But it was kind of funny how that turned out. Either way, it was an old man’s fake. He got him. Tony lifted about three times before the guy finally went in the air. [Johnson] was really athletic and had great timing, so to get him in the air like that was a tremendous accomplishment. … It might not have been the best look ever, but he delivered. If Tony was anything, he was savvy.

Despite the celebration, there were still 1.8 seconds left on the clock in the 60–60 game. And the Buckeyes managed to complete their inbounds pass beyond half court when Dion Bailey gambled on getting an interception, leading to a wide-open 3-point attempt from 25 feet by OSU’s Brian Brown that would have trumped the other Brown’s previous shot.

ROCK: I was holding my breath, thinking, No! But it hit the back of the rim.

After that, it was pretty much all Aggies in overtime. Bobb hit a short jumper to put Utah State up 62–61, then added a 3-point play after an offensive rebound. A steal by Daniels turned into a pass to Bobb for a dunk, and the Aggies cruised to a 77–68 victory to secure the first major upset of that year’s tournament. Rock led all scorers with 18 points, Brown finished with 17 and Bobb 14, while Jorssen (11 points, nine rebounds) came up just short of a double-double. As a team, Utah State committed just five turnovers, while Ohio State totaled 21 giveaways — most of them coming via 12 USU steals.

MORRILL: The funny thing is, I still remember Shawn Daniels banking in a free throw earlier in the game. Now, Shawn was a great player, but not a good free-throw shooter. And I asked him after the game about that bank, and he said, ‘Coach, I wasn’t going to shoot an airball on national TV.’ But the point is, we had to have that point to tie the game and go to overtime.

The immediate aftermath of the upset over Ohio State was lots of attention from the national media. A photograph of Bobb celebrating with Brown just moments after his game-tying shot was featured on the front page of the USA Today sports section (although his jumper was inexplicably referred to as a “layup” in the cutline), while Morrill was interviewed on Jim Rome’s national radio program.

BROWN: I don’t think in a million years, anybody really expects to be on the front of USA Today, you know? And I do still have a copy of that. I thought that was pretty awesome.

Strangely enough, Ohio State ended up vacating the results of its entire 2000–01 season after Jim O’Brien was fired in 2004 following a recruiting scandal. Regardless, USU’s upset of the Buckeyes set the standard for success in Aggie basketball for 23 years, and it will certainly never be forgotten by the players and coaches involved. Especially Brown, whose eldest daughter, Macie, currently plays for the Utah State women’s basketball team.

MORRILL: What a great lifetime memory for all those kids. And Tony making that shot being a Cache Valley guy, I mean, that’s about as good as it gets.

ROCK: ‘Downtown’ Tony Brown! I have to say it. … Those were awesome times I will never forget. Those were the best two years of my life.

BROWN: Every year around the time of the NCAA Tournament, people start sending me the video on YouTube and stuff like that. And my wife (Dana) always comes across it somehow and she likes to show it to our kids, who think I’m just old, slow, and fat and never could play. She likes to make sure they know I used to be able to play. … But what’s kind of funny is while I was a player that was known for shooting 3-pointers, probably the biggest shot of my career was a 10-footer in the key.