Thank you, Murray State

Because it’s worth another look (or ten), here again is the greatest shot on “one of the greatest days in the history of the NCAA Tournament.”

What makes that shot so great? First of all, as I mentioned yesterday, it was a true buzzer-beater, leaving the player’s hands before 0:00 and swishing through the hoop after 0:00. No time left on the clock, no interminable official review to be sure it counted, no final anticlimactic desperation heave by the other team, nothing like that. Just a classic, unadulterated buzzer-beater. The purest of One Shining Moments.

Second, it was a do-or-die situation. Unlike, say, the awesome-but-not-as-awesome game-winners by Northern Iowa and Washington, this wasn’t “hit the shot or go to overtime.” Nor was it, like a number of recent years’ buzzer-beaters, “hit the shot to send the game to overtime.” It was a one-point game, creating the greatest of all last-second dramas: hit the shot and win, or miss the shot and lose.

Third, the trailing team hit the shot. So often in the last few years, we’ve seen down-to-the-wire finishes that end with one dream dramatically failing to score. Unless you’ve got a strong vested interest in the game, such endings are intrinsically huge letdowns. Yesterday, on the other hand, was filled to the brim with teams making plays to win, not just barely and heartbreakingly failing to do so. Robert Morris was the exception; Murray State and its ilk were the rule. And this shot was the best example all day.

Fourth, it was a real upset. Not an underachieving power-conference team knocking off another power-conference team, not a mid-major cannibalization battle like Drake and Western Kentucky a couple of years ago, not a small-conference powerhouse like Butler or Gonzaga winning dramatically but roughly as expected. Instead, it was a real David vs. Goliath, #13-over-#4, one-bid-league champ over SEC-it’s-a-war rep victory. Perhaps not a stunner, but a Red Line Upset, as Kyle Whelliston would say, and an absolutely fantastic one.

Here it is, as seen from the crowd:

Can today possibly live up to yesterday? I can’t imagine how it could. But if it’s even half as good, it’ll be awesome.