Sean Miller called game. Camden Heide was his vessel.
After the Texas Longhorns junior forward committed two fouls within the first 2:18 of the second half, the struggling sharpshooter checked out and didn’t return until 32 seconds remained with the score 69-68 in favor of the No. 11 seed seeking an upset of the No. 3 Gonzaga Bulldogs at the Moda Center in Portland with a Sweet 16 berth on the line.
Miller had a simple message for Heide — “I’m going to put you in to shoot it.”
After the timeout, Longhorns
graduate guard Tramon Mark dribble left from the left wing towards the baseline, was cut off, but as he pivoted and dribbled towards the middle, one Bulldogs defender stepped up to stop Mark as Texas sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis sealed Gonzaga forward Graham Ike and another defender marked Longhorns junior wing Dailyn Swan in the paint, leaving Heide open as he spaced from the wing to the corner.
Mark saw Heide, who had to catch the pass over his right shoulder, but was able to square up to the basket and drain the most important three for Texas in the NCAA Tournament since Kenton Paulino hit the game-winner against West Virginia to send the Longhorns into the Elite Eight in 2006.
“I was able to catch the ball, shoot it, and make it,” Heide said.
A month ago, Heide was the most efficient player in the country, a key spacing component in a Texas offense that represented a Sean Miller miracle in its program-historic efficiency over the last 20 years despite lacking the qualities typically associated with an aesthetically-pleasing offensive attack.
Hitting at 50 percent from three, Heide fell into a late-season shooting slump that noticeably impacted his confidence. After a 15-of-24 stretch from late January to early February, Heide went 4-of-19 (21.1 percent) over the final eight games heading into the NCAA Tournament, where he didn’t exactly heat up, but did go 2-of-4 in the first two wins.
“I think it goes to show the confidence that he has in me,” Heide said of his head coach. “Obviously, when you have a coach that kind of puts that confidence in you and teammates who trust you to make the right play, to make the big shot, I was able to go in and do that.”
Now Heide is a Longhorn legend with the loudest three-point scoring game in school history.
