The Best Moments of the 2016 NCAA Tournament So Far

Much of the appeal of the NCAA tournament is its habit of producing memorable moments. The single-elimination format, the high stakes and the emotion of players and fans create an indelible mental image in an instant.

A moment is defined as a short period, but it has no specified length. A moment can last a split second or several minutes, or it can be the sudden realization that something special has taken place.

We offer the 12 best moments—some brief, some considerably longer—that the 2016 NCAA tournament has produced so far. The Final Four is certain to give us more.

12. The Perfect Air Ball

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Air balls typically become targets of derision and sources of embarrassment. But when Iowa's Mike Gesell badly overshot his fadeaway 12-foot jumper with two seconds left in a tie game with Temple, that air ball turned out beautifully for the Hawkeyes.

The ball went right into the waiting hands of 7'1" Iowa center Adam Woodbury, who laid in the follow shot as time ran out in Iowa's 72-70 overtime victory. 

Woodbury appeared to push Temple's 6'9" Obi Enechionvia out of the way to get position for the rebound, but don't let that controversial non-call get in the way of a classic moment.

On a side note, Iowa committed just three turnovers in the 45-minute game, a remarkable stat that was lost amid the game-winning moment.

11. Syracuse's Surge

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Syracuse's dramatic second-half surge against top-seeded Virginia in the Elite 8 lasted a little more than six minutes, but in retrospect, it seems like a single moment. It probably seemed like six seconds to Virginia's players, who were minding their own business, going about a routine victory over the Orange, when a whirlwind struck.

Virginia guard London Perrantes hit his sixth three-pointer of the game to give the Cavaliers a 15-point lead at 54-39 with 9:33 remaining. There was no hint that the Orange could make significant headway against a Virginia defense that is among the best in the country.

However, Syracuse, which relies on its half-court zone defense to befuddle opponents, threw caution to the wind and went to a full-court press. Things began to change so rapidly and so dramatically that it was hard to keep track. In a matter of six minutes and six seconds, Syracuse scored 25 points while Virginia tallied just four. With 3:27 left, the Orange had a 64-58 lead. The Cavaliers lost 68-62 and reacted like they didn't know what hit them.

“Walking off the floor, there was just confusion, sadness, anger,” Virginia's Anthony Gill said, according to Paul Woody of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"It was in our grasp," Virginia coach Tony Bennett said, per Mike Barber of the Times-Dispatch.

And in a moment, it was gone, as 10th-seeded Syracuse became just the fourth double-digit seed to reach the Final Four in tournament history.

10. The Pflueger Follow

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For the first 39 minutes and 58 seconds of Notre Dame's second-round game against 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin, Rex Pflueger had not scored a point. In fact, Notre Dame's 6'6" freshman reserve forward had not made a single field goal since March 5, a span of nearly four full games.

He was not the player anyone expected to get the ball as the Irish grabbed a defensive rebound with 17.8 seconds left, trailing by a point. Star Notre Dame point guard Demetrius Jackson missed a shot, but Irish center Zach Auguste was able to get inside for a tip-in attempt. That went awry as well. But waiting by himself on the far side of the basket was Pflueger, who tipped the ball in with 1.5 seconds left to give the Irish a 76-75 victory.

It ended Stephen F. Austin's 21-game winning streak and the Lumberjacks' Cinderella run, and it made Pflueger an instant hero.

"Are you kidding me? Are you freakin' kidding me? That was unbelievable," Irish coach Mike Brey said afterward, according to Ralph D. Russo of the Associated Press.

9. Bullock's Bucket

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It was a simple inbounds play. It made Providence coach Ed Cooley look like a genius, and it made USC coach Andy Enfield and the Trojans look like...well, less than geniuses.

With Providence trailing by a point, the Friars' Drew Edwards inbounded the ball from under his own basket with 3.0 seconds left. As the play developed amid a clump of screens, USC defenders flocked toward Providence's two stars, Ben Bentil and Kris Dunn, the latter being the play's intended target. The Trojans ignored Rodney Bullock, who took a bounce pass under the basket and made an easy layup with 1.5 seconds left to give Providence a 70-69 victory.

"It was one of those things where they made a great play and we made a mistake," Enfield said, according to Kevin McNamara the Providence Journal.

In watching Bullock's game-winning shot, look closely at Edwards' inbounds pass. He throws a bounce pass that comes close to hitting the baseline before it reaches Bullock. If the ball hit the baseline, it would have been a turnover. The referee who gave Edwards the ball has his view of the pass blocked by USC defender Jordan McLaughlin, and the referee on the other side is too far away to make a call.  

If you stop the video at the ball's point of contact with the floor, the ball appears to be inbounds—barely—but it is far from conclusive. If any part of the ball had touched the baseline before it got to Bullock, it would have been a violation. You decide.

8. Walkup's Emergence

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Thomas Walkup provided a revelation rather than a single memorable moment, but his emergence into the public's consciousness is a noteworthy NCAA tournament moment.

Not a lot of people outside Nacogdoches, Texas, site of the Stephen F. Austin campus, knew much about Walkup entering the NCAA tournament. Those who followed the Southland Conference were aware he was a two-time conference player of the year, and those who knew the Lumberjacks' NCAA tournament history recalled that Walkup was a starter on the 2014 Stephen F. Austin team that upset fifth-seeded Virginia Commonwealth in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

But knowledge of Walkup's many and varied talents was based primarily on hearsay when the 14th-seeded Lumberjacks opened the 2016 NCAA tournament against No. 3-seeded West Virginia.

Walkup became an NCAA tournament sensation, much like Stephen Curry was in 2007, when, as a Davidson freshman, he scored 30 points in an opening-round loss to Maryland, and 2008, when he scored 30 points or more in each of Davidson's three NCAA tournament wins.

The 6'4" Walkup, who is sort of a power forward and sort of a point guard, collected 33 points, nine rebounds, four assists, four steals and one block while leading the Lumberjacks to a decisive 70-56 upset of West Virginia.

His fame was about to increase exponentially, as he had 21 points and the Lumberjacks had the lead in the closing seconds of their second-round game against Notre Dame. But Notre Dame's Rex Pflueger ended the story with a tip-in with 1.5 seconds left.

7. Buddy Scores 37 to Top His 36

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The moment to remember in the Oklahoma-Oregon game actually occurred several minutes after the Sooners completed their 80-68 Elite 8 victory. It arrived in the form of a one-word answer by Oregon coach Dana Altman. When asked what Oklahoma had that the Ducks' previous 37 opponents did not, Altman smiled and said, "Buddy," per Chuck Culpepper of the Washington Post (h/t the Chicago Tribune).

That single word crystallized the moment and, to some degree, the 2016 NCAA tournament in general.

Buddy Hield had just finished scoring 37 points on 13-of-20 shooting, including 8-of-13 from three-point range. Despite all their speed, length and versatility, the Ducks simply could not handle Hield. Virginia Commonwealth could share the frustration because Hield had scored 36 points six days earlier in the victory over VCU.

Hield has hit 19 three-pointers while averaging 29.3 points in Oklahoma's four tournament games.

He has captured the moment.

6. A&M's Amazing Last-Minute Rally

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You can argue that it was a historic comeback or a colossal collapse, but the simple fact is that there had never been such a last-minute reversal in the NCAA tournament as there was in the second-round game between Texas A&M and Northern Iowa.

The game seemed to be over when Northern Iowa's Jeremy Morgan hit two free throws with 44 seconds left to give the Panthers a 12-point lead over Texas A&M at 69-57.

Somehow, Texas A&M scored 14 points in a 32-second span with the aid of just one three-pointer. 

Somehow, Northern Iowa committed four turnovers in the final 30 seconds.

Somehow, Texas A&M tied the game and sent it into overtime despite trailing by 10 points with 34 seconds left and by five with 17 seconds remaining.

Somehow, with Northern Iowa leading by two points with four seconds remaining, Panthers guard Wes Washpun got trapped in the backcourt and tried to knock the ball out of bounds off Admon Gilder’s leg. But Gilder was able to grab the ball and make a layup with 1.9 seconds left, finishing off the 14-2 run that tied the game.

"Still don't really know what happened," Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said afterward, according to Kate Hairopoulos the Dallas Morning News.

What was later lost amid the talk of the miracle minute was that it took a bucket by Texas A&M guard Alex Caruso with 5.9 seconds left in the first overtime to send the game to a second overtime. The Aggies eventually survived 92-88 in double overtime.

"Unfortunately we were on the wrong side of a crazy 30 seconds, 30 seconds that we aren't going to be able to answer for," said Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson, per Hairopoulos. 

It was such an unlikely comeback that even the play-by-play announcer said the game was over as Texas A&M brought the ball up the court trailing by 12 with less than 40 seconds left.

5. The Agonizing 2 Minutes, 22 Seconds

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Sometimes, one of the so-called "best" moments is not a happy moment; rather, it's a memorable, powerful moment.

In the final seconds of the Cincinnati-St. Joseph's game, the agonizingly long period between the final shot and the officials' ruling made the game special. However, the image etched in your brain is Octavius Ellis' reaction to the ruling while TV commentator Doug Gottlieb told Ellis' personal comeback story. It is, in a word, heartbreaking.

Two minutes and 22 seconds elapsed between the dunk by Cincinnati's Ellis that would have tied the game and the officials' ruling that the shot was not released before regulation time ended. The low-decibel buzz of the crowd during that 2:22 revealed the suspense involved.

It later needed to be explained to viewers that what mattered in this situation was whether the ball had left Ellis' hands in time, not whether all or part of the ball had cleared the rim. In fact, nearly half of the ball had descended into the basket when the red light went on, ending the game. But Ellis' fingers were still touching the ball.

If Ellis had simply laid the ball in rather than dunking it, he probably would have beaten the buzzer, and the game would have gone into overtime. Ellis will no doubt remind himself of that fact for years, knowing it will not change the outcome of the Hawks' 78-76 victory.

4. Koenig Crushes Xavier

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Wisconsin guard Bronson Koenig was in a shooting slump heading into the second-round game against No. 2-seeded Xavier. Over the previous three games, he was 7-of-32 from the field, including 3-of-17 from beyond the three-point line. In Wisconsin's first-round win over Pittsburgh, Bronson missed both his three-point attempts and finished with a season-low two points.

There was no evidence to suggest he would make a season-high six three-pointers against the Musketeers and even less reason to believe he would make two critical three-pointers in the final 12 seconds to provide the upset.

The Badgers trailed by nine points with just under six minutes remaining, but they clawed their way back into the game before Koenig hit a long three-pointer with 11.7 seconds left that tied the score 63-63. It was the biggest shot of Koenig's life...for about 10 seconds.

Wisconsin got the ball one more time following a Musketeers turnover, inbounding the ball in its frontcourt with 2.0 seconds left. Koenig took the inbounds pass, dribbled to the right corner and lofted a high three-pointer under heavy defensive pressure as he fell out of bounds.

"I let it fly and I knew it was going in," Koenig said later, according to Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The ball arced over the corner of the backboard and swished through at the buzzer, giving the Badgers a 66-63 victory.

3. Hagins' Bad...Uh, Great Shot

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No. 5-seeded Purdue led 12th-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock by 14 points with less than five minutes left, and Josh Hagins, who had scored just two points in the first half, was leading a late charge that got the Trojans back in the game.

After Purdue's Vince Edwards made two free throws with 17.8 seconds remaining to give the Boilermakers a three-point lead, TV commentator Steve Lappas said the Trojans should go for a quick two-point shot and extend the game.

Instead, Hagins took the inbounds pass, leisurely brought the ball up the court and seemed to be pointlessly dribbling the ball about 30 feet from the basket, doing nothing to create a shot for anyone. Finally, with the clock winding under nine seconds, Hagins made a move to his right, stepped back and launched a difficult, fadeaway 30-foot shot with Purdue's P.J. Thompson in his face.

Remarkably, the ball fell through for a game-tying three-pointer with 5.1 seconds left. If Hagins had missed that shot, many would have criticized the way he handled the possession. Instead, after Little Rock won in double overtime, he was the hero.

Not only had he scored 29 points after halftime to finish with 31 points, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals, but he also hit the big shot in a major come-from-behind upset by a Sun Belt team over a Big Ten squad.

By the way, the game was on Hagins' 22nd birthday.

"I've waited 22 years, to be honest, to get to this point, this one game," Hagins said afterward, per Eddie Pells of the Associated Press. 

2. Middle Tennessee's Monumental Upset

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The moment of note arrived with 0:00 showing on the clock. The Middle Tennessee State players' celebrations and the looks of disbelief on the faces of Michigan State players, coaches and fans illustrated the situation.

MTSU did not build arguably the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history on a wild, banked-in shot at the buzzer or a controversial call that went the underdog's way. Middle Tennessee was simply better than Michigan State on this particular day.

Middle Tennessee scored the game's first basket 22 seconds into the game, and after Michigan State tied it, Giddy Potts made a three-pointer with 18:55 left that gave the Blue Raiders a lead they would never relinquish.

Middle Tennessee built an early 15-2 lead, and though Michigan State closed the gap to one point with 8:05 left in the game and again with 3:34 remaining, the Blue Raiders fought off every challenge. Middle Tennessee ultimately won the first-round game 70-61.

It was the eighth time a No. 15 seed had defeated a No. 2 seed, but a strong case could be made that this was a bigger upset than the previous seven.

Some oddsmakers made Michigan State the favorite to win the entire tournament, according to Brian Manzullo the Detroit Free Press. The Spartans were ranked No. 2 in the final Associated Press poll, and Joe Rexrode of the Detroit Free Press noted that many analysts were stunned that Michigan State was not a No. 1 seed.

The Spartans had knocked off Purdue, Indiana, Wisconsin and Maryland during the nine-game winning streak they brought into the NCAA tournament, while Middle Tennessee had merely finished three games out of first place in Conference USA.

However, the moment the clock showed 0:00, Michigan State was eliminated, and Middle Tennessee was still alive. It was a classic NCAA tournament moment.

"We're not surprised at all," Middle Tennessee guard Jaqawn Raymond said, according to Brian Bennett of ESPN.com. "We knew, if we just played our game, what the outcome would be."

1. Jesperson's Answered Prayer

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There have been countless last-second, game-winning shots in the NCAA tournament, but nobody can recall a shot from beyond halfcourt at the buzzer that provided the winning points. The fact that it gave 11th-seeded Northern Iowa from the Missouri Valley Conference an upset victory over No. 6-seeded Texas of the powerful Big 12 served to magnify the achievement.

Northern Iowa had produced game-winning shots in the NCAA tournament before. Ali Farokhmanesh made three-pointers to provide the Panthers with victories against both UNLV and Kansas in 2010, and Maurice Newby hit a perimeter shot that gave Northern Iowa its 1990 upset over Missouri.

Those were what you might call regular shots, however.

The shot Paul Jesperson hit was the kind you might practice as a kid in your backyard, taking shots from behind the bushes or across the street, providing your own play-by-play as the shot is taken, explaining to the non-existent listeners that the shot barely beat the buzzer and would win an NCAA tournament game. After 25 or 30 attempts that did not come close, you would settle for a 20-foot shot to be the game-winner.

The play materialized after Texas' Isaiah Taylor hit a layup to tie the score with 2.7 seconds left. With no timeouts left, the Panthers could not stop play to set up something like the 1998 shot by Valparaiso's Bryce Drew that beat Mississippi or the Christian Laettner shot that beat Kentucky in 1992.

Matt Bohannon collected the ball and inbounded it with a short pass to Jesperson. At that point, Texas aided the miracle by applying no pressure to the inbounds pass and only token pressure on Jesperson after he got the ball. He weaved around two defenders without trouble before launching a shot from just behind the half-court line.

The 6'6" Jesperson is a good outside shooter, having made three of his six three-point shots in the game before taking that final shot.

“When it left my hand, I felt like it had a chance,” Jesperson said, according to Andrew Logue of the Des Moines Register. “But obviously, you never know.”

The ball was on line but a little long—perfectly long as it turned out, as the ball banked in.

Jesperson is more likely than many players to make such a shot, but coach Ben Jacobson did not claim some sort of rational explanation.

"I mean, that’s lucky,” he said, according to Logue.