INDIANAPOLIS - The shot by Jalen Suggs. Perfect!
The Gonzaga freshman banked in a shot at the buzzer from near the half-court logo Saturday night to lift the top-seeded Bulldogs to a 93-90 overtime win over UCLA and move them one win away from an undefeated season and a national title.
This Final Four thriller was the best game yet of this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament, and, considering the stakes, it served up possibly the best finish in the history of March Madness - a banker from almost midcourt to keep a perfect season alive.
What should come as no surprise from a team this good: It's a shot Gonzaga practices all the time.
"Every day in shootaround before the game, we shoot half-courters," Suggs said. "I haven't been making my half-courters, but I got it with confidence, put it up. It's crazy. I can't come to words right now."
After the shot went in, Suggs ran to the mostly empty press row, jumped up on the table, pumped his fists and let out a huge yell to the crowd of 8,000 or so socially distanced fans at Lucas Oil Stadium. Officials checked to make sure he got the shot off before the buzzer sounded. He did, and the Bulldogs (31-0) - No. 1 overall and in the West Region - moved into Monday night's final, where they'll play Baylor for the title.
They are the first team to bring an undefeated record into the championship game since Larry Bird and Indiana State in 1979.
Even without Suggs' shot, it would've been hard to beat this game for pure excitement. With it, was it the greatest game ever?
"I'd say no because we didn't win," said UCLA coach Mick Cronin, whose Bruins were the No. 11 seed in the East Region but had to win a First Four game in overtime back in mid-March just to get into the first round.
Still, the national semifinal featured 15 ties and 19 lead changes and a bunch of Bruins who simply wouldn't give in. Even though they lost, they snapped a streak of 27 games in which Mark Few's juggernaut not only won but did so by double digits.
UCLA (22-10) was the first team to lead Gonzaga in the second half in five games of tournament play. The Bruins even had a chance to win at the end of regulation.
With the game tied at 81, Johnny Juzang was taking it hard to the hoop in the final seconds when forward Drew Timme, playing with four fouls, stepped into the paint, planted his feet and took a charge.
Gonzaga called a timeout and tried a full-court pass with 1.1 seconds left to try to win in regulation, a la Grant Hill to Christian Laettner in Duke's 1992 NCAA tourney win against Kentucky. It didn't connect. Five minutes later, Suggs may have very possibly knocked Laettner's shot down a spot on the list of all time bests.
"We made a lucky one at the end, but I'm just telling you he makes those ones all the time in practice," Few said. "He's just got this magical aura about him. I knew when he shot it it was going in."
Before that, Suggs' best play might have been his rejection of Cody Riley (14 points, 10 rebounds), who looked to be going in unhindered for a dunk that would have put UCLA up by a basket at the two-minute mark. Suggs got the block, then fed Timme for a dunk that instead gave the Bulldogs the slight advantage.
It seemed UCLA deserved a better ending than this.
The Bruins went toe to toe all night with the top-ranked team in the country. This was their third overtime out of six games in the tournament, and they never trailed by more than seven. They got everything they could have dreamed of on a magical night of college hoops. Well, everything but the win.
The Bruins stay "stuck" on their nation-leading 11 titles, most of them won back in the 1960s and 1970s, when John Wooden was their coach.
"I just told them, 'We've got to let that shot go,'" Cronin said. "We won. I sit in Coach Wooden's seat. When you sit in his seat, you have to channel the things that he taught. True greatness is giving your best effort."
Who would dare say they didn't?
Juzang had 29 points for the Bruins, including a 15-footer with 1:27 left in regulation that helped them claw back from seven down to tie it at 79.
Jamie Jaquez Jr. was also unintimidated by Gonzaga. He handled Timme's inside pressure all night, scoring 19 points. Jaquez's two free throws tied it at 81 with 43 seconds left.
It looked like it would be Timme's overtime. He dipped and ducked for Gonzaga's first six points of the extra session and an 87-83 lead that felt like breathing room in this one.
Cronin called a timeout, though, and UCLA chipped away again.
Juzang's putback with 3.3 seconds left tied it at 90. Few didn't call a timeout, and Suggs took the inbound pass and had clear sailing to the half-court line - and into the all-time highlight package.