One missed free throw.

One free throw off the back iron by an obscure Austin Peay player named Bob Thomas in 1987 transformed Rick Pitino from a solid college basketball coach into the man stalking the sideline for the New York Knicks. That’s how it works in college basketball during March. One shot during this thrilling month can change your entire career.

One shot might determine the next coach at Georgia or Alabama.

Here’s the Pitino story: His team, sixth-seeded Providence, played 14 seed Austin Peay in the second round of the 1987 NCAA tournament in Birmingham. The game was tied 82-82 with two seconds left when Thomas was fouled and stepped to the line for a one-and-one. If he made the first shot, probably no one would have thought about Pitino for another six months.

But Thomas missed the free throw and Providence — with 25 points by future Florida coach Billy Donovan — won in overtime. The Friars made an improbable run to the Final Four and Pitino became the hot name in coaching. The Knicks hired him, triggering a long (and prosperous) career for Pitino.

All because Bob Thomas missed a free throw.

“One missed free throw,” former North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano said in the book “Wait Till Next Year.” “One missed free throw and Pitino became the greatest basketball mind of our time.”

It happens all the time. Funny how much the outcomes over the next two weeks will influence athletic directors, trumping the previous 100 or so games on a coach’s resume.

Just look at the recent head coaching hires in the SEC.

Darrin Horn was at Western Kentucky last year, a young head coach making his first appearance in the NCAA tournament. Trailing 99-98 to Drake in overtime, Western Kentucky’s Ty Rogers heaved a desperation shot from 26 feet away with three defenders in his face as the buzzer sounded. He nailed it and raised both arms in the air. WKU advanced to play San Diego — which shocked UConn — and won again to earn a spot in the Sweet 16.

South Carolina hired Horn 10 days later. If Rogers didn’t make that miracle shot, would South Carolina have hired Horn?

Trent Johnson was an unknown at Nevada before the 2003-04 season. In four seasons there, he never finished higher than third in the conference. But he did in 2004, and Nevada finally made the NCAA tournament as a 10 seed.

The Wolf Pack fell behind Michigan State by 16 points but made a wild comeback after Spartans leading scorer Paul Davis was called for his fourth foul with 7:11 left and fouled out with 2:40 remaining. Nevada won, then beat Gonzaga in the second round. Stanford almost immediately hired Johnson, who is now at LSU. Would that movement up the coaching ranks have started if Davis didn’t foul out?

A few more: Does Arkansas hire Stan Heath if Kent State doesn’t advance to the Elite Eight in 2002? (No way.) Does Tennessee hire Bruce Pearl if Alabama stops throwing the ball away and beats Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the first round? (Possibly.)

Does Vanderbilt hire Kevin Stallings if Illinois State’s Dan Muller misses a last-second shot against Tennessee in 1998? (Maybe.) Is Stallings still at Vanderbilt if the officials don’t miss an obvious traveling call against Georgetown two years ago in the Sweet 16?

And that’s what March does to people, from the guy sneaking away from work to see the games to athletic directors making a coaching hire. It mesmerizes us. It influences the way we think. These next two weeks, for us, will be exhilarating and memorable and exasperating. For the coaches in the tournament, it’s a way to make a fortune. It might be a way to get the job at Georgia or Alabama.

But that will depend on the players. They will miss foul shots, make desperation heaves or turn the ball over in the final seconds.

And those players might as well be athletic directors of SEC schools.