Corner of Hot Takes and Ontario: Episode 3
March 16, 2018The Francisco Lindor Freight Train
March 19, 2018I can’t tell you the number of times throughout my youth where I would shoot fake buzzer beaters. It started out around five years old, shooting for hours on our back deck on my Little Tikes hoop. Every day I would come home from school, drop my book bag, grab my basketball and hit the back deck. The setting changed over the years, but my favorite part of shooting hoops was always the imaginary countdown in my head. Dribbling from left to right, shaking my invisible defender–who could never cover me–and burying a shot as I yelled, “3…..2…..1……errrrrrrr!” It never failed for me. It was the most enthralling part of the game for me, the buzzer beater.
Now, as I have grown older, appreciating the game more, I have come to understand not only the rarity that is a situation that allows for a buzzer beater but the difficulty in that shot as well. When the stars align and the situation allows for the big shot to happen, few moments are cooler in sports. Which brings me to one of my favorite topics, Bill Raferty. That might seem a tad bizarre in nature, a random color analyst and the buzzer beater situation, but few call that moment better than Bill Raferty.
You might know Raferty from his infamous call of the backboard-shattering dunk in 1988 by Pitt’s Jerome Lane, with his famous tagline: “Send it in, Jerome!” Or, you might not know Raferty at all. His most popular tagline is about as esoteric as it gets, but it is by far one of my favorite hidden gems in the sports world. Whenever a big shot is hit, whether a buzzer beater, or just late in the game, Raferty is known to make his call of onions. I can’t tell you where it came from exactly, but it is one of the parts of March Madness I love the most. You can find Raferty onions examples all over YouTube. Give it a listen here.
Raferty is more than just onions, but his tagline has been something I will always cherish for its randomness and just raw excited emotion in the game’s biggest moments.
Luckily, this weekend provided plenty of big moments – onions worthy moments. I’m not sure we will ever see an NCAA Tournament quite like this one again. In case you missed it, let’s take a look at the five biggest upsets.
5. Texas A&M dominates North Carolina
A relatively average season out the SEC for Texas A&M left many brackets selections with Providence upending the seventh-seeded Aggies in the first round, but the opposite has happened. A&M has shown a new found level of toughness inside behind Robert Williamson III and wrecked many brackets with their upset of the Tar Heels on Sunday. Outside of the first five minutes of the game, this one was never close.
TEXAS A&M IS DOMINATING pic.twitter.com/dlqXmRos1w
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 18, 2018
4. Loyola Chicago pulls a pair of stunners
The Loyola Chicago story is fantastic. This rugged group out the Missouri Valley Conference has shown they belong with two massive wins in dramatic fashion. First over Miami.
HE GOT IT!
Donte Ingram nails the game-winning 3 with .3 seconds remaining to give 11 seed Loyola-Chicago the 64-62 win over 6 seed Miami.
Donte Ingram: 13 PTS, 7 REB, 2 ASTpic.twitter.com/Bzwc6ZsPb1
— CollegeBB News (@CollegeBBNCAA) March 15, 2018
Then they finished the weekend with a favorable bounce from the Basketballs Gods to beat Tennessee in dramatic fashion.
https://twitter.com/SLAMonline/status/975164628782256128
3. Syracuse stuns Michigan State
The Orangemen had to beat Arizona State in the play-in game just to earn the 11 seed. The odds were against them, but all Syracuse has done is hold three of college basketball’s best offenses to under 60 points in route to three straight wins and an upset of the third-seeded Michigan State Spartans. Few brackets saw this outcome happening just a week ago.
Syracuse doesn't care about your bracket. pic.twitter.com/PjdCn74Gg2
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 18, 2018
2. Nevada crawls back from a huge deficit for upset
Seven seed Nevada felt like they were out of the game all night. Falling behind by as many as 22 points last night to second-seeded Cincinnati, but they chipped away at the lead late in the second half and we saw Cincinnati utterly collapse. Everything is better with Titanic music.
https://twitter.com/TitanicHoops/status/975528309139365888
1. UMBC pulls off the upset of the century
Before Friday night, a select few in this country could have told you what UMBC stood for. Now it is a household name as the boys from the University of Maryland Baltimore County pulled off the miracle of all miracles becoming the first 16 seed to upset a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. Not only was Virginia a one seed, they were the tournament’s top overall seed – a team that won the ACC regular season with east at 17-1, and won the ACC tournament. On top of that, this game was never close in the second half. UMBC ended up beating the Cavaliers by a staggering 20 points, 74-54.
That really happened… No. 16 UMBC really beat No. 1 Virginia#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/r51KHra4fU
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 17, 2018
The best Onions! of opening weekend
The winner here is without a doubt Michigan’s stunner over Houston. The Cougars outplayed Michigan for most of the night, but all that matters are the final few seconds, and Michigan owned them. Freshman Jordan Poole, who had shot 11% from distance over the previous five games, sunk the shot of the tournament so far as his 30 footer sent Michigan to the Sweet Sixteen. Major Onions here.
THERE'S NO WAY THAT JUST HAPPENED.
Michigan beats Houston with a walk-off triple!!!pic.twitter.com/LR3ZmxPNW6
— Sporting News (@sportingnews) March 18, 2018