The NCAA tournament's Shiny Insta-Memories that you won't forget
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March 17, 2016, 10:23 PM ET
• 1 min read
— -- Who will be in the greatest video montage in sports? Well, here's our ever expanding list of NCAA tournament shining moments that are likely to fill our season-ending musical montage.
Saturday
Miami heaves Wichita State out of the tournament : In desperate need of a basket and a way to push the pendulum back in its favor, Miami found the resounding answer to Wichita State's furious rally from 21 points down. Twenty seconds after the Shockers came all the way back to retake the lead, Angel Rodriguez heaved a nearly length-of-the-court pass. Sheldon McClellan caught it in mid air, throwing down the authoritative statement of an alley-oop dunk. The Hurricanes never trailed again.Friday
Northern Iowa heaves from half court to win : Paul Jesperson banked in a shot from half court as time expired to give Northern Iowa a stunning 75-72 victory over Texas in the first round of the Oklahoma City Regional. The Longhorns' Isaiah Taylor had tied the game with a driving floater with 2.7 seconds remaining and presumably sent the thriller into overtime. Instead, Jesperson ended it with perhaps the biggest basket in Northern Iowa history. St. Joe's survives game-tying dunk that wasn't : DeAndre Bembry whipped the ball cross-court to Isaiah Miles, who had hit 2-of-4 3-pointers in a back-and-forth game against Cincinnati. With his team down two with nine seconds to play, Miles let it fly and put Saint Joseph's up one over Cincinnati. After referees decided a Cincinnati dunk was no good, Miles' shot proved to be the difference between advancing to the second round and overtime against a dangerous team. Notre Dame hunkers down when it needs to : It wasn't star point guard Demetrius Jackson. It wasn't veteran big man Zach Auguste or shooter Stevie Vasturia. When Notre Dame needed a bucket against Michigan, it was V.J. Beachem who provided the punch. He hit a 3-pointer with 3:43 left to put the Fighting Irish up by three, then hit a pull-up jumper on the next possession to push the lead to five. Notre Dame didn't relinquish the lead in advancing to the second round. Stephen F. Austin enjoys knocking out West Virginia : Thomas Walkup held the ball near the midcourt line with Stephen F. Austin leading West Virginia by 13 in the final two minutes. He turned, faced up against Devin Williams and crossed him over twice before burying a pull-up 3-pointer to ice the game for the Lumberjacks. For good measure, Walkup walked back downcourt with his tongue out -- putting an exclamation point on his 33-point effort. Middle Tennessee destroys many brackets : In the final minute of Middle Tennessee's shocking upset of Michigan State, Reggie Upshaw dunked and drew a foul to seal the outcome. Then he flexed his muscles to the crowd after his play gave the Blue Raiders a seven-point lead and assured a knockout of the No. 2 seed Spartans. It was a moment typical of the game, as Middle Tennessee continually went on the attack, made huge play after huge play and showed no fear, despite being a prohibitive underdog. Xavier shows its strength in beating Weber State : In the second half of a 71-53 win over Weber State, Xavier's Jalen Reynolds owned his defender ... and a Scottrade Center rim. Reynolds posted up, turned into the lane and threw down a one-handed jam so fierce that he fell upon its completion. The judges wouldn't award it many degree-of-difficulty points, but for pure power, it was hard to top. Iowa tips Temple in overtime : Iowa's stars -- Jarrod Uthoff and Peter Jok -- couldn't get open, so with the score 70-70 and the clock winding down, Mike Gesell put up a baseline fadeaway that fell into the arms of teammate Adam Woodbury. Woodbury calmly put the ball in as time expired, and that pushed Iowa into the second round and sent Temple home. Hawaii slams Cal in upset : Coming out of a media timeout with his team up by nine, Hawaii coach Eran Ganot decided to go the sneaky route. From the right side of the hoop, senior guard Roderick Bobbitt lobbed the ball toward the middle and into the hands of Aaron Valdes, who was in flight. The junior slammed it down, surrounded by a group of flat-footed Cal players, to extend Hawaii's second-half lead to 11.Thursday
Yale upsets Baylor: Grabbing an inbounds pass on the baseline, senior Justin Sears took two steps before skying for a rim-rattling jam at the 15:38 mark of the second half. The basket was an emphatic statement about Yale's NCAA tournament intentions: The Bulldogs were not happy just to be there. Sears' dunk over a seemingly more athletic Baylor team showcased the poise, skill and toughness Yale used to score the upset. Kansas rolls past Austin Peay : Leading by 10 midway through the first half, Kansas got loose on the break against overmatched Austin Peay. The Governors could have had 10 defenders on the court, and it wouldn't have mattered, as Devonte' Graham found Wayne Selden Jr. floating near the baseline. Selden took Graham's pass and slammed it in one fluid motion. Arkansas-Little Rock stuns Purdue in 2OT : With nearly 5:01 to play in regulation in Little Rock's 85-83 double-overtime win over Purdue, the Boilermakers held a 63-49 lead over the Trojans. But Josh Hagins, a Little Rock senior, helped his team launch a 21-7 run. He scored 11 of his 31 points in the final 4:02 of regulation, a stretch that ended with his deep, game-tying 3-pointer with four seconds on the game clock. That shot sent the game into overtime. Indiana hammers Chattanooga : Indiana turned the tables on the pressure defense of Chattanooga in the opening minutes, as freshman OG Anunoby found himself clear of half court with no defender in close pursuit. What did Anunoby opt to do in his first NCAA tournament game? He went with the 360-degree spin and throw-down dunk, which prompted an immediate timeout from coach Matt McCall on the Mocs' bench. Providence sneaks past USC at the buzzer : Providence forward Rodney Bullock lifted the Friars into the second round with a game-winning layup against USC. Bullock scored on an out-of-bounds pass, despite the Friars' not having any timeouts to set up a play, with 1.5 seconds left.