Indiana's unlikely championship hero — his corner jumper won the 1987 national title for Bob Knight.
Keith Smart was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1964. He attended Garden City Community College before transferring to Indiana University under coach Bob Knight. He won the national championship in 1987 as a junior college transfer in his first season as a Hoosier. His career-defining moment came with five seconds remaining in the 1987 championship game against Syracuse — with Indiana trailing by one, he received the ball in the left corner, shot a baseline jumper over Howard Triche and the ball swished through to give Indiana a 74-73 victory. The shot is one of the most celebrated in championship game history. He averaged 11.8 points per game across two Indiana seasons. He was drafted in the second round of the 1987 NBA Draft. His professional career was modest. His significance in basketball history rests entirely on those championship game seconds at the Superdome in New Orleans — a transfer student from a junior college hitting the winning shot in the national championship. He later became an NBA head coach.
National Championship (1987)
Career Honours
- National Championship (1987)
- Championship game hero
- Big Ten champion
- Indiana legend