Imagine this scenario: Three seconds left, down by one, 15 feet from the basket, Donald Little has the ball wide open.

Is it a nightmare or a dream come true.

Well, both — sort of.

Little has not exactly been the most stellar athlete the last week or two, yet Friday night he was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field.

But from 15 feet? With three seconds remaining?

Pass me the Pepto Bismol. I’m going to chug the entire bottle.

But with three seconds to go, Little calmly took a pass from Immanuel McElroy, turned toward the basket, jump, shoot, held his arms in the air and exhaled.

UC 63, MU 62 — game over.

One reporter pondered what was going through Little’s mind before he took the winning shot.

"When I caught the ball, I was thinking about (Kenny) Satterfield. I don’t know why," little chuckled. "I don’t know why it did, but it happened."

Kenny Satterfield, huh?

Does Little need a drug test? A 6-11 center thinks of a 6-2 point guard just before taking a 15-foot jumper. Interesting.

Heck, I didn’t care if he was thinking about Homer Simpson or Santa Claus, if he makes that shot when it counts he can think about wearing women’s clothing for all I care.

So were did that shot come from anyway? Steve Logan offered his take.

"Actually, he has a nice touch in practice, when nobody’s looking," Logan joked. "He’s been talking about how he knocks jump shots in, and he did with one to win it. I think that’s the high-light moment of his career, his life."

So Little must have been practicing shots from that distance for a long time right?

"Not a lot of times, maybe five or 10 minutes each practice, warming up," said Little.

Oh, I see.

"First time for everything, right?" Little joked.

Actually, Little confessed that he was designed to be the last player to get the ball that play, albeit a rebound put-back with tenths of a second remaining.

"Yeah, I was the fifth option," Little said. "I was the last option."

Regardless, his temmates didn’t care if he was the 15^th option. They stormed the court after Cordell Henry’s failed last-effort heave for the Golden Eagles.

Little said he was numb during the entire experience (drug test coming?).

"To tell you the truth, I wasn’t really feeling anything," said Little. "When (the team) charged me, I really didn’t know what was going on. I was just celebrating."

So were 13,176 people, jumping up and down, yelling and screaming like UC had just won the national championship.

Heck, why not? How often do the fans actually get to see a good game at the Shoe. Blowouts are fine — just another notch in the win column for all I care — but once in a while it’s great to see a truly magnificent game.

And why didn’t the UC players hoist their hero onto their shoulders and carry him from the gym like a champion deserves? Logan said he would have, but a medical condition prevented him.

"I was going to, but I have a bad back," laughed Logan.

Still, a truly great game between two great teams. Who could ask for more?

"That was the best college basketball game I have ever seen," an excited Nick Brineman — a Toledo resident — said after the game.

Maybe he’s right.