Bryce Drew

Drew made a 23-foot 3-point shot, giving him his 22nd point of the night, and clinching the Crusaders' 70–69 upset and advancing them in the tournament.

Drew proceeded to lead the defeat of 12-seeded Florida State 83–77 in overtime, with a 22-point game.

Drew and the Crusaders fell to 8-seeded Rhode Island by a score of 74–68, with Drew scoring 18 points.

Bryce Homer Drew (born September 21, 1974) is an American college basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Grand Canyon Antelopes.

Previously he served as the head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores and in the same capacity at his alma mater, Valparaiso, having succeeded his father, Homer Drew.

Drew has led his teams to the NCAA tournament on four occasions, including at least once at each of the three schools he has been the head coach of.

Bryce's brother, Scott, also coached at Valpo before becoming the head coach of the Baylor Bears.

Despite this difficulty, he led his team to the state final game, and was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball of 1994.

He was also named the Gatorade Indiana Player of the Year his senior season in high school after guiding his team to a 28–1 season with the only loss coming in the state finals in overtime to the South Bend Clay High School Colonials.

Though recruited by dozens of schools, Drew eventually decided to attend Valparaiso University, then a member of the Mid-Continent Conference, for men's basketball.

In his four years playing, Drew collected dozens of honors and records, including being ranked in the top 15 nationally in 3-point field goal and free throw percentage and leading the team to three consecutive conference regular season and tournament championships.

He collected three conference tournament MVP awards, two conference MVP awards, and is Valparaiso's all-time 3-point field goal, and assist leader.

As a player, Bryce Drew was known for his buzzer-beating shot in the first round of Valparaiso's run in the 1998 NCAA tournament.

He went on to play six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a backup point guard for the Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Hornets.

After having been exposed to basketball for years through his father's head coaching position, Bryce played basketball as the point guard for Valparaiso High School in Valparaiso, Indiana.

As he progressed through high school though, Drew developed a rapid heartbeat, which required three surgeries to repair.

During the 1998 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, 13-seed Valparaiso was facing 4-seed Ole Miss in the first round.

Valparaiso was down 69–67 with 4.1 seconds remaining in the game and Mississippi's Ansu Sesay at the free throw line.

After Sesay missed both shots, the Crusaders came up with possession 94 ft from their basket, and 2.5 seconds remaining in the game.

On the inbound, the Crusaders used a play known as "Pacer".

Jamie Sykes inbounded to Bill Jenkins, who passed the ball to Bryce Drew.

Sports Illustrated would rank it the No. 5 sports moment of 1998.

Following his rise to fame in the tournament, Drew was selected as Valpo's first-ever first-round pick as the 16th selection of the 1998 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets.

After playing with the Rockets for two years, Drew spent one season with the Chicago Bulls, and signed as a free agent for three seasons with the New Orleans Hornets (Charlotte Hornets during his first season with the team).

Drew was then waived by the Hornets, and played professionally for the Valencia BC for a year.

At some point during his NBA career, Drew was in contention for a spot on the Orlando Magic's roster.

A one-on-one competition was held between him and Jason Williams.

Of the competition, Williams said Drew "had a better chance of pissing in a hot sauce bottle than beating me."

In the summer of 2005, Drew was selected as the new assistant coach of the Valparaiso University men's basketball team.

In 2006, Bryce was elevated to the position of associate coach, a promotion that Scott had also received in 2001 before taking over as head coach in 2002.

When Homer Drew retired in May 2011, Bryce Drew was hired as the head coach.

Drew was also honored as one of Valparaiso University's 150 Most Influential Persons in the university's history.

On April 6, 2016, after five seasons as Valparaiso's coach, Drew was hired by Vanderbilt to be their head coach.

In his introductory press conference, he stated, "No Vanderbilt team has ever made it to the Final Four, and we would like to be that first Vanderbilt team."

The Commodores qualified for the NCAA tournament in his first year coaching at Vanderbilt in 2016–2017, narrowly losing to Northwestern in the first round.

He ranks second in points for Valparaiso, being passed by Alec Peters in 2017.

The team struggled the 2017–18 season, however, posting the first 20-loss season in school history.

Recruiting for the 2018–19 season showed promise as Drew signed 5-star recruits Darius Garland and Simisola Shittu, along with 4-star recruit Aaron Nesmith.

Garland and Nesmith would later become NBA lottery picks, in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

However, success in recruiting did not translate to success on the court.