Caption – Jermaine Wallace takes the game-winning 3-pointer that lifted Northwestern State over 15th-ranked Iowa 64-63 in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. NSU will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the game Thursday. Photo by Doug Daniels. NATCHITOCHES -- The 10-year anniversary of the greatest event in Northwestern State athletic history, the dramatic last-second March 17, 2006 NCAA Tournament men's basketball victory over nationally-ranked Iowa, will be commemorated locally and globally Thursday.
Jermaine Wallace's game-winning 3-pointer with half a second remaining capped a comeback from a 17-point deficit with 8:29 remaining that beat Iowa 64-63. NSU will celebrate the anniversary locally on NSU TV and globally on Twitter.
On Twitter, follow the @NSUDemonsMBB account starting at 11:30 Thursday morning to see the game's progress tracked all the way down to the final buzzer.
At 10:30 a.m Thursday, NSU TV will replay the 2006 Demons of Destiny video yearbook followed at 11:10 a.m. by a newly produced roundtable review of the greatest season in Demon basketball history. Looking back a decade later will be Coach
Mike McConathy, "Coach Mom" Connie McConathy, along with
Luke Rogers, a starting guard on the 2006 team and now a Demon assistant coach, and NSU athletic director
Greg Burke.
At 11:35 AM, the actual tip time 10 years ago, NSU TV will replay the CBS telecast of the game with fabled announcers Vern Lundquist and Bill Raftery calling the game. That will replay at 6:30 Thursday evening, with the video yearbook and roundtable review replays following the game.
NSU TV is available to cable subscribers in and around Natchitoches on SuddenLink Channel 22, CP-Tel Channel 55 and Lobby Channel 8 for residents of University Place Apartments 1 and 2.
The roundtable review show was produced by Davey Antilley, manger/executive director of NSU TV. The 2006 Demons of Destiny video yearbook was a joint effort of D.B. Cooper Productions, headed by Tommy Hazlewood, and NSU Athletics.
The "Demons of Destiny" ignited a storm of national media attention for the program and the university that's become historic. The NSU-Iowa game telecast has been replayed on ESPN Classic, and the game was ranked No. 22 among the "25 Best Tourney Moments" in the past 25 years by SI.com editors. ESPN.com editors listed Wallace's shot among the "Top 16 Game Ending Plays" in the last 30 years of NCAA tournament history. The winning play also won the 2006 Pontiac Game Changing Performance award for that year's tournament. Fan voting resulted in a $105,000 general scholarship donation by General Motors/Pontiac to Northwestern State.
It was voted as the greatest basketball event in 50 years of Southland Conference history, and was selected by fan vote as the best game in tournament history in a bracket-like tournament on NCAA.com.
The game's ending was featured on a 2014 Buffalo Wild Wings commercial, and it was discussed by characters on a CBS soap opera. The Wall Street Journal in 2015 listed it among the 32 best first-round games in NCAA Tournament history.
