Jahmai Mashack ends every Tennessee basketball shoot around the same way. Felix Okpara comes and stands in front of him as he attempts a deep three-pointer of the Volunteer big man.
Hours after the Vols’ Saturday shoot around and with the game’s final seconds waning away, Okpara set a screen and Alabama’s Clifford Omoruyi was a half-step slow to contest. Mashack drilled a 35-foot three-pointer over another 6-foot-11 big man, delivering the Vols a 79-76 win over rival Alabama and sending an over capacity crowd of 22,392 into jubilation.
“I just imagined that Felix was in front of me and I hit the shot,” Mashack said of the shot.
Mere moments before, all Tennessee wanted was to get the game into overtime. Alabama took the game’s final timeout with 3.8 seconds to play, set to inbound the ball under Tennessee’s basket. The Vols went to their big lineup and played stellar defense, forcing a five-second violation.
Tennessee ran the same play that Jordan Gainey delivered a game-winning layup on over two months ago at Illinois. The play was for Zakai Zeigler to inbound the basketball to the four-man, Mashack, and for him to whip the pass back to Zeigler who with a full-head of steam could get downhill in 3.6 seconds.
Only Alabama knew what was coming. Labaron Philon jumped in the passing line forcing Mashack to take it himself.
Tennessee had discussed a contingency plan for that scenario, only there was a miscommunication about what they wanted to do.
“I usually look over at coach to see what he wants so we get into our little ladder drill and ladder play,” Mashack said. “And he’s like mouthing something to me. I didn’t know what it was and so in my head, I said, he wants me to shoot the ball. So I’m going to shoot the ball. But he was really trying to say if I catch it and I pass it up or dribble up, call a timeout.”
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes’ story was a little bit different. If Mashack couldn’t get the ball back to Zeigler, he did want to take a timeout. But he didn’t want Mashack to take it. He wanted the senior guard to push the ball up the court and planned on taking the timeout himself.
“If we could just get it across half court and have one second on the clock, we got a play where I thought we could get a high-percentage shot instead of the shot from half court,” Barnes said.
Barnes tried to take a timeout like he planned, but he made a mistake in the lead up.
“I made one good coaching move today,” Barnes said. “I didn’t tell the referee I was going to call timeout. I normally tell them and they would probably have given it to me.”
Tennessee’s 10th-year head coach “screamed” for a timeout. Zakai Zeigler turned towards the official and jumped in the air trying to call a timeout. But it was too late. Mashack’s shot was already spiraling to the basket.
“Right when I got the ball and saw Z was denied I was like I’m shooting it,” Mashack said. “I was just feeling good and felt like I was going to hit the shot. That’s what happened.”
Mashack slowly and cooly walked to the other end of the court. Chaz Lanier, Felix Okpara and Jordan Gainey chased after him. Zeigler stood still in disbelief while staring in the direction of the official. Associate head coach Justin Gainey threw his arms in the air. Barnes calmly walked to shake Nate Oats’ hand.
It was the most memorable moment of the career of a player who makes a lot of important but not memorable plays. Mashack said it’s a game and shot he hopes Tennessee fans will remember for a long time. Jordan Gainey said it’s a moment that every player dreams of.
“Rivalry game Saturday, got big lights out, Dick Vitale commentating the game and you hit a game winner,” Gainey said.
The win sets Tennessee up well for seeding in both the SEC and NCAA Tournament and was one high level game on the first day of the month.
“I told the guys, I guess, welcome to March,” Barnes said.
