His team down two points with 4.4 seconds left in regulation, Penn's Mike Kach stepped to the foul line for one critical shot.
All eyes weren't on him.
A few were on coach Glen Miller, who had ventured on to the court waving his arms and yelling "MISS IT!"
Penn needed two points. A free throw wasn't going to cut it.
With no timeouts available, Miller had to think fast. He did not bring on bigger players or better rebounders (whether it was by choice, or because he didn't think to).
After weeks of careful preparation, the coach's involvement in the season opener was limited to two words.
"MISS IT!"
Kach did, and the gimmick worked. The ball hit the back of the rim and gently careened over the front: an offensive rebound ripe for the taking. Somehow, teammate Brian Grandieri came up with it, and freshman Jack Eggleston scored the game-tying putback with less than two seconds to play.
Just how they drew it up, right?
"I don't think half of our guys knew he was going to miss it," Grandieri said. "I told Aron [Cohen, who in 21 career games before this one had zero total rebounds] to go to the left. I was going to go to the right."
Drexel coach Bruiser Flint recognized the danger, and replaced the diminutive Gerald Colds with 6-foot-8 Evan Neisler in the moments before the shot went up.
But even Flint admitted the ideal strategy eluded him.
"It was my fault, because I should have called timeout and said 'We gotta get this rebound,'" he said.
"A couple of guys just watched."
Meanwhile, the 6-4 Grandieri swooped in for the improbable board (a "missed assignment," explained Drexel big man Frank Elegar). A hard-fought game had come down to three seconds of chaos that nobody could do much to plan for.
"You just push the guy in front of you in the back, and keep pushing him until you see the ball," said Eggleston, the ultimate beneficiary.
"It's just lucky that it came to me."
