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| | Friday, October 13 The shot heard around Midnight Madness | |||||
| By Darren Rovell ESPN.com As Friday the 13th turned into Saturday morning on the University of Cincinnati campus in October of 1994, Cory Clouse had an out of body experience. There were no lack of witnesses, either. Simply ask any of the thousands of screaming fans who were at the Shoemaker Center that fateful night, or review the video tape that shows Clouse gracefully swishing his half-court shot in front of a national TV audience on ESPN to earn a free year of college tuition. It was a Midnight Madness like no other before, or since. While thousands of fans packed the place that night, ready to get their first look at LaZelle Durden and Danny Fortson, by the time the players arrived on the court, they didn't seem to matter anymore. Clouse had stolen the show, turning the night when a college team ceremoniously welcomes the start of its season into something much more. Throughout its 30-year history, this "madness" had never seen anything like the shot Clouse hit with the basketball world watching. Until Clouse, the madness of midnight usually was much calmer than its March counterpart. After all, nothing truly "mad" happens on the court other than a glorified team scrimmage. That was until a 21-year old from Cleveland, Ohio had his moment. But the moment almost never happened. Clouse wasn't even supposed to be in the building that night. He had plans to drive up to Kent State after his afternoon class to visit his fiancée, who he eventually married in 1996. But after he qualified for both the slam dunk and the three-point contests, he called and told her he'd be a little late. Clouse didn't end up leaving for a while. After handily winning the slam dunk and the three-point contests, which turned out to be warm-up acts, Clouse realized that he had forgotten to enter the night's most important challenge. He recalled at that moment how earlier that week, in the school paper, there was an advertisement describing the opportunity to hit a half-court shot on ESPN for a free year of room, board and tuition. "I thought I had to submit something, and as I sat in my seat I said to myself, 'Man, I forgot to get qualified for this,' " Clouse said a few days before the six-year anniversary of his historic accomplishment. "I didn't know that they were just drawing a seat number. So I figured I would just hang around and check out the team and leave pretty soon after that." Thanks to the college basketball gods who chose Cory as their messenger, the winner of the previous two contests would get a chance to make it a clean sweep. And when his seat was called, it gave him yet another opportunity to show the crowd what "being in the zone" was all about. His task was simple: Sink a half-court shot and save the parents a couple thousand dollars. "I've obviously done these shots, but no one really practices them," said Clouse, who was confident that he could hit the shot a ridiculous 20 percent of the time. "Just by fooling around before, I knew I could make it. I knew how to shoot it." Exactly what happened after the ball left his hands is a blur to Clouse. But over the course of the next two minutes, he did something worth more than 15 minutes of fame. He remembers being handed an ESPN T-shirt, and shaking hands with Dick Vitale, who quickly asked for the pronunciation of his name. A friend, who happened to be holding the wires for the camera, was humming the SportsCenter theme song. Cameras were rolling on live television. Vitale tossed the ball to him, as he set up the situation to a national audience, and then added that he'd throw in the cost of the books if the shot went in. Vitale's final words of encouragement; "Let if fly, Cory," were followed by the countdown ... 3, 2, 1. "When I let the ball go off my fingers, it kind of rolled off my fingertips," said Clouse, who took three big steps before he jumped in the air and heaved the 47-foot try. "I knew by the feel of it that it was an air ball. But then the ball carried a little higher and a little longer than I thought it would. And then there's this moment, you can see it on the video tape, where I realize that this shot has got a chance to go in. I can see the change in me." Swish. "When it came down, it had hit the floor before I realized that it went in," he said. "It was just this feeling of great disbelief. I didn't know what to do, the mascot was hugging me and Dicky V jumped into my arms -- he was weightless." Vitale was so excited that he forgot that he had a job to do. "It was such a dream that I even forgot I was on TV," Vitale said. "I was absolutely blown away and I let all my enthusiasm out. "That night I was just like a 10-year old kid, having a blast." Clouse left the Shoemaker Center exhausted, but he somehow managed to make the four-hour drive to see his fiancée at Kent State. That weekend, Clouse's phone rang off the hook with media, friends and family. And over that one weekend, no one on campus even seemed to care about Bob Huggins' team. Clouse would win an ESPY in 1995 for his unlikely performance, and the shot is aired over and over again this time of year. But Clouse said the shot hasn't exactly made him famous. But that doesn't mean he doesn't get the occasional glance, even six years later. "I was at Home Depot, not two months ago, and somebody looked at me and said, 'Did you go to UC? Did you go to Midnight Madness? Did you hit that shot and is your name Cory?' " Clouse said he never goes out of his way to tell the story, despite the compelling story line. "What am I going to do, use it to make friends?" asks Clouse, who still has a few more credits to complete his electrical engineering degree. "But every couple months or so, one of my buddies will say to someone, 'Do you know who this guy is?' " Vitale still fields questions about Clouse. "I still have people reacting and asking me about the shot," Vitale said. "It was such a moment of spontaneity that you couldn't have possibly scripted that for TV." | ALSO SEE Lefty's midnight run started all the Madness Vitale: It's time, baby! Midnight Madness: Hoosier fans flock to Assembly Hall Clock strikes midnight at Michigan State AUDIO/VIDEO   Cory Clouse hits the most memorable shot in Midnight Madness history.avi: 2512 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||