College basketball was quite different in 1988. The Age of Duke was just a few years old and no one understood that it was an historical epoch. Duke hadn’t even won a national championship at that point.
And the old Big East was a monster. Georgetown and Villanova had won national championships. St. John’s was excellent. UConn was rising. And Pitt was erratic but indisputably talented.
In 1988, the Panthers started Charles Smith and Jerome Lane, both of whom went on to build NBA careers. Smith went on to a solid
10-year NBA career.
Lane’s NBA career was less successful, but he made his biggest mark at Pitt with a single play.
Thirty-eight years ago on Sunday, Lane was running the court on a fast break for Pitt in a game against Providence when he got the ball and headed to the basket.
Lane took off and hit the rim just right so that the backboard exploded when he hit the rim.
The announcers marveled as the backboard shattered and Bill Raftery gleefully and famously yelled “send it in, Jerome!”
It became part of the lexicon of college basketball, never to be forgotten.
Incidentally, the point guard who passed the ball to Lane was on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson when he was 14 to show off his impressive ball handling skills. He parlayed his basketball skills into a coaching career and now, Sean Miller is the head coach of the Texas Longhorns.
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