It was the perfect NCAA story at the perfect moment.

That’s one way to describe the lasting impact of Bryce Drew’s buzzer-beating shot for Valparaiso that stunned Mississippi in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 1998.

It was a family affair, with Bryce playing, his father Homer coaching and his brother Scott as an assistant.

The team had an international flair with three foreign players, and they were underdogs.

The shot also overshadowed another unique Valparaiso story.

That 1998 team — with Drew, a future first-round NBA draft pick; Jamie Sykes, who was drafted by baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks in the 11th round; and an athletic pair of twins in Bill and Bob Jenkins — was really good. Throw in 7-footers Zoran Viskovic and Tony Vilcinskas, both of whom played in Europe, and this was perhaps the greatest collection of players in VU’s history.

Vilcinskas was a ruthless pile of elbows and Sykes was a bulldog defender. Viskovic was a skilled big man who could step out and shoot. The Crusaders pounded teams with their physical play. More than any team in VU history, they were poised to win an NCAA Tournament game. The shot has shrouded that fact.

“We were really physical,” Sykes said.

The Crusaders cemented their lasting legacy with an 83-77 overtime victory over Florida State two days later.

Had that not happened, it’s possible that the shot would’ve carried less weight.

Homer Drew isn’t sure why the shot, which is played often as a promo for the tournament, is so enduring.

But he’ll take it.

Homer Drew thinks everything that happened after the shot helped keep it alive.

“We were just the Cinderella,” he said. “We had a great student body. Then we won in overtime against Florida State. That allowed us to get to the Sweet 16.”

Said Bryce Drew: “I think it was the Cinderella story, the small school beating the bigger school. It didn’t happen as much then. Our team was likable. You had the twins, a pro baseball player and the father-son combination and a couple of 7-footers. We were different.”

Bryce Drew got most of the credit because he made the shot.

But when he looks back on it, he believes he was the least important part of the play.

The pass by Sykes, flat-footed and over his head, was perfect and the subsequent tip by Bill Jenkins was just as good. It all happened in one fluid motion, like they were doing it with a string.

“The more I look back on it, I definitely had the easiest part,” Bryce Drew said. “The timing for Bill to catch it in the air and throw it with the first perfect pass (from Jamie) was amazing. The odds of all those things working together was really low.”

The Pacer play, as VU called it, has been put in the attic.

Bryce Drew, now the Vanderbilt coach, figured too many coaches knew what it was about.

Besides, it takes the right personnel to implement the play. He said he might consider bringing it back in the right circumstances. Otherwise, he doesn’t think about it much unless asked.

VU has never followed up to the shot or its two-win NCAA showing. The Crusaders’ run that season ended with a six-point loss to Rhode Island in the Sweet 16.

The Crusaders haven’t won in the NCAA Tournament since March 15, 1998. That’s 20 years and counting.

mhutton@post-trib.com

Twitter @MikeHuttonPT