30 March, 2026 zimalzaidofficial 0 Comments 1 category

Christian Laettner. Kris Jenkins. Lorenzo Charles. Mario Chalmers. And so on: The NCAA Tournament gives us moments summed up just by a player’s name, buzzer-beating shots that don’t just win games, but become iconic.

Braylon Mullins joined that list on Sunday.

His shot for UConn to beat Duke was so instantly classic that some will argue it was already the most iconic shot in NCAA Tournament history. One of our writers will make that case.

But there have been so many other shots. The NCAA Tournament sets up the possibility of one shining moment — then delivers, year after year.

Here, The Athletic’s college sports experts chime in with what they see as their favorite and most iconic shots in the history of the men’s tournament. Let us know your favorites — and what we missed — in the comments.

UConn’s Braylon Mullins vs. Duke (2026 Elite Eight)

As a rule, I roll my eyes at recency bias. I shake my fist at hyperbole. I’m going on 50 years old and remember where I was and how I reacted when Laettner’s shot went down.

But the instant Mullins’ shot went in, I knew the Laettner shot finally had its equal.

And where Sunday’s moment argues for surpassing it is the improbability of it all: The 19-point comeback. UConn still seemingly doomed, down 2 with Duke passing away the final seconds — until the deflection, and Mullins’ shot, from near half-court.

My 12-year-old son was watching with me. We yelled in unison. Then I pulled up the Laettner shot, showing him for the first time and giving me one last chance to say: Don’t get carried away, don’t commit recency bias. Instead, it reinforced the sentiment. For 34 years I’ve said that as many great moments as there have been in the NCAA Tournament, nothing will ever beat Laettner. But now one has a chance. — Seth Emerson

Duke’s Christian Laettner vs. Kentucky (1992 Elite Eight)

The litmus test for an iconic buzzer-beater: Do you remember, decades later, exactly where you were at the moment it happened? For me, the memory remains vivid, 34 years after Laettner took a 75-foot pass from Grant Hill with 2.1 seconds on the clock, dribbled once, turned and calmly sank a jumper from the free-throw line to sink Kentucky, 104-103. It had as much to do with characters involved as the shot itself — Laettner, Hill, Bobby Hurley, Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino and Thomas Hill in tears as the celebration began. It sent Duke to the Final Four and ultimately to a second consecutive national championship. But that shot stood above anything that happened a week later. — Mitch Sherman 

(I remember where I was and I wasn’t even watching the game! On that afternoon, I was at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, cheering on my high school in the state semifinals. There were a few televisions showing the Duke-Kentucky game throughout the stadium. When Laettner hit the shot, it was like the action at the RCA Dome stopped. Everyone gasped and pretty much spread the news. Kentucky just beat Duke! Five minutes later, the final score flashed on the scoreboard and no one had any idea what had happened. — Doug Haller)

Villanova’s Kris Jenkins vs. North Carolina (2016 national championship)

It wasn’t the most-contested clutch shot in March Madness history, mainly because North Carolina epically brain-farted and forgot to guard a guy wide open behind the 3-point line with a national title on the line. Nevertheless, Jenkins hit the biggest shot in modern Madness history — one of five buzzer-beaters in men’s tournament history to win the title — and provided Bill Raftery a chance to shout what he shouts best: “How ’bout those onions?!” Rewatching it, it’s still mind-boggling how casually Villanova is able to get Jenkins that shot attempt. — Christopher Kamrani 

Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew vs. Ole Miss (1998 first round)

“The Shot” is perhaps as unoriginal a name as it gets: aggressively plain attached to something unforgettable. And somehow, that’s exactly why it works. When the moment is that complete, anything more would only get in the way. There’s a reason Drew’s heroics are entrenched in our minds with two words stripped down to the simplest label.

Mesmerizing for both its execution and result — an all-time Cinderella upset by Valparaiso in toppling fourth-seeded Ole Miss — coach Homer Drew ran “Pacer” with 2.5 seconds on the clock. A full-court play that had been sitting there all year. The ball traveled the length of the floor, was quickly redirected to none other than Homer’s son Bryce, who stepped into a long 3 like it was the next rep in practice. — Ira Gorawara

Kansas’ Mario Chalmers vs. Memphis (2008 national championship)

Bill Self. John Calipari. Derrick Rose and Memphis, 38-1 and one of the most dominant teams of its era. Top-seeded Kansas, trying to win its first national championship since Danny Manning and the Miracles in 1988. The 2008 national championship game had the ingredients of an all-time classic, including one of the most iconic shots in NCAA Tournament history, a 3-pointer from Chalmers with 2.1 seconds left in regulation to cap a furious comeback by the Jayhawks.

We probably wouldn’t remember this shot if Memphis made its free throws. The Tigers led by 9 with two minutes remaining but went cold from the foul line, opening the door for a Kansas comeback. After Rose went 1-for-2 at the line with 10.8 seconds remaining, Kansas ran a play called “chop” that gave Chalmers an open 3-pointer. Chalmers buried the shot to force overtime, and the Jayhawks pulled away to win 75-68 and give Self his first national title. — Austin Meek

Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs vs. UCLA (2021 Final Four)

There may have been more consequential shots in college basketball history, but in terms of pure difficulty, it doesn’t get much better than Suggs sending UCLA home with a shot from nearly half-court in another classic between two basketball powers.

If it’s legal to call UCLA a Cinderella, the 11th-seeded Bruins reached the Final Four and guard Johnny Juzang tied the game at 90 with 3.3 seconds left in overtime with a putback in the lane. Suggs took the inbounds pass, used three dribbles to get the ball to half-court and pulled up for a contested shot from just over the line. It clanged off the backboard, hit the inside of the front of the rim and went down, sending Gonzaga to its first national title game. Coach Mark Few could only laugh as Suggs raced to press row in a mostly empty Lucas Oil Stadium amid COVID-19 restrictions and jumped on top of it, flexing and unleashing a primal scream.

Baylor upset the Bulldogs in the national title game two days later, but the Suggs shot also kept Gonzaga’s perfect 31-0 season alive. After the tournament was canceled in 2020, Suggs provided a legendary, signature moment for the tournament in its return. — David Ubben 

NC State’s Lorenzo Charles vs. Houston (1983 national championship)

Am I old enough to have seen it live? No. But I’ve watched the game and seen the highlight a million times, Charles grabbing Dereck Whittenburg’s short 3-pointer and slamming it home at the buzzer to beat Houston and win the national championship. Jim Valvano running around looking for someone to hug became as iconic a moment as there is in college basketball. — Chris Vannini

UCLA’s Tyus Edney vs. Missouri (1995 second round)

I decided I wanted to be a sportswriter when I was 7 years old in 1995. Edney’s legendary full-court drive and buzzer-beater happens to be my first March Madness memory. Coincidence? Maybe not! It lacks the distance of other game-winners, but it has all the drama: A 5-foot-10 guard getting the ball with under 5 seconds left, going coast to coast and banking in the winner in traffic — on a blue and orange accented Boise State court that’s been seared into my brain for 30 years. Oh, UCLA went on to win the national championship too. — Matt Brown

Northern Iowa’s Ali Farokhmanesh vs. Kansas (2010 second round)

Farokhmanesh grew up the son of volleyball coaches with a semi-nondescript college career for plucky underdog Northern Iowa. Then he landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated. How? Well, when you essentially knock out the No. 1 overall seed with a 3-pointer, you tend to get noticed. With UNI leading No. 1 Kansas by 1 point, Farokhmanesh caught the ball outside the 3-point line right of the key. He stopped, watched a Kansas defender retreat toward the basket, sized up the shot, then unleashed the ultimate dagger with 36 seconds left. The shot runs counter to every smart basketball situation. If Farokhmanesh missed, Kansas would have had the ball down 1 with enough time to make its own game-winning shot. But brains sometimes don’t collect massive upsets in March; sometimes it’s about who has the biggest … shot selection. — Scott Dochterman

San Diego State’s Lamont Butler vs. FAU (2023 Final Four)

In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, Cinderella runs from non-power-conference programs are becoming endangered. It felt like quite a random Final Four with those two facing off in the national semifinals, but it produced an incredibly dramatic ending with the ball in Butler’s hands. He was so close to stepping out of bounds near the baseline, and a few moments later he raised up an all-time jumper that hit nothing but net and propelled SDSU to the national championship game. If it was the last time we see those sort of Cinderella runs, it was a great sendoff — one this San Diego State alum will always remember. — Antonio Morales

Arkansas’ U.S. Reed vs. Louisville (1981 Midwest quarterfinals)

Back in 1981, March Madness wasn’t the event it is now. It didn’t have four TV networks broadcasting every second. There were only 48 teams and bracket pools weren’t the way of the American office yet.

But trailing by two in the final seconds, Reed dribbled to half-court and launched a ball high into the air at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. It splashed through the net off the back of the rim to give fifth-seeded Arkansas a 1-point win over Denny Crum’s defending champion Louisville, a No. 4 seed. Fans stormed the court — something that never happens in tournament games anymore — and mobbed the hero Reed.

Arkansas advanced but lost its next game to eventual regional champion LSU. — Ubben 

Furman’s JP Pegues vs. Virginia (2023 first round)

UConn’s last-second steal and 3-pointer evoked Furman’s steal on a desperation pass from Virginia’s Kihei Clark. In both cases, the team that was ahead just needed to hold the ball. Clark was trapped in the corner and hucked the ball. It fell into the hands of Garrett Hien, who passed the ball to Pegues a few steps behind the arc. He sank it. Kevin Harlan’s call of this upset has also gained notoriety along with a stunned and speechless Stan Van Gundy. “Did we just see what we think we just saw? Wow!” — Matthew Ho

Northwestern State’s Jermaine Wallace vs. Iowa (2006 first round)

Mullins’ dagger is just the latest iconic March Madness shot set up not by some brilliant play call but by uncut, head-splitting chaos. My preferred vintage of the genre? That would be Wallace’s stepback prayer uncorked off a frantic rebound from so deep in the corner that our hero ended up on his back behind the baseline as ball hit nylon, capping a 17-point comeback by the plucky 14-seed against poor Steve Alford’s Big Ten tournament champs. From the moment 14 seconds earlier when Iowa forward Greg Brunner short-armed a free throw that would have at least staved off instant elimination (and kept the author’s bracket alive for at least five more minutes), it could have only ended this way. — Eric Single

Indiana’s Keith Smart vs. Syracuse (1987 national championship)

Smart didn’t grow up an Indiana icon like teammate Steve Alford, but the Baton Rouge native became a Hoosiers legend all the same. With Indiana trailing Syracuse by a point and the Hoosiers unable to penetrate the Orange’s 2-3 zone, Smart dribbled wide to the left of the basket, took a pass out of the post and rose up with five seconds left. Smart’s 16-foot baseline jumper found nothing but nylon and delivered Bob Knight his third and final NCAA title. It’s the basket that every Hoosier (and Boilermaker) dreams about making, and Smart delivered the shot of a lifetime. — Dochterman

Northern Iowa’s Paul Jesperson vs. Texas (2016 first round)

Bonus points for distance? Unlike most of the shots on this list, Jesperson has the distinction of taking his from beyond the half-court line. Texas had just taken a 72-70 lead with 2.7 seconds left on an Isaiah Taylor floater, and UNI elected not to use its final timeout. Jesperson caught the inbound pass, dribbled between three Texas defenders — who all defended from arm’s length, as if not wanting to foul — pushed off his left leg and gave a half-court heave that banked in for the win. He ran over to celebrate with a strong contingent of UNI fans who came down from Cedar Falls to Oklahoma City. (This journalist was in a state of shock on press row, between Jesperson and the adoring fans.) The thumping sound of the ball hitting the backboard is still so epic. — Mark Cooper

Michigan State’s Korie Lucious vs. Maryland (2010 second round)

The most impressive part of this play was what Spartans fans remember as Delvon’s Duck — Delvon Roe lowering his head so Draymond Green’s pass to Lucious didn’t hit Roe in the noggin. Lucious took one dribble to his left, elevated and drilled a triple to win it 85-83 and keep alive a run that would end in the Final Four with a heartbreaking loss to Butler. The shot happened after Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez put his team up on a driving bank shot with six seconds left, after the Spartans blew a 16-point lead in the second half, and after MSU star Kalin Lucas tore his Achilles tendon in the first half. — Joe Rexrode

Maryland’s Derik Queen vs. Colorado State (2025 second round)

Did he travel? Does it matter? Queen had one season to leave his mark on college basketball and did that with an epic last shot to send Maryland to its first Sweet 16 since 2016. Trailing 71-70, the Terps called timeout with 3.7 seconds left, and then-coach Kevin Willard drew up a play he’d used before. Queen drove left and rose up to hit a fallaway jumper at the buzzer. The moment became more iconic after the fact, when Willard shared that Queen demanded to take the last shot, telling his coach, “I want the motherf—ing ball.” — Lindsay Schnell

Georgia Tech’s James Forrest vs. USC (1992 second round)

The old coach was begging for someone, anyone on Georgia Tech to make a move toward the hoop.

Down 78-76 with 0.8 seconds to go against USC, Yellow Jackets center Matt Geiger was trying to inbound the ball and watched his teammates scramble. Almost everyone was behind the 3-point line and no one was open. The referee was closing in on a five-second count.

“They just gotta throw it under the basket,” CBS analyst and former Marquette coach Al McGuire bellowed. “Under the basket!”

As McGuire hit the last syllable in “basket,” Forrest popped into frame as Geiger whistled a two-handed overhead pass to him. In one fluid motion, Forrest, from a foot behind the NBA 3-point line, caught, spun and fired. The horn sounded. Swish!

Georgia Tech 79, USC 78.

McGuire, known for his guile and passion, unleashed an astonished “Ohhhhhh!” for about five seconds, then said “Holy mackerel!” at the top of his lungs three times as Forrest and his teammates, celebrating, went crashing into a CBS camera.

There have been better game winners in tourney history and there may have been better calls where an announcer captured the excitement, but with this one, McGuire’s mix of joy and awe were perfect for the moment. — Rob Peterson

UNC’s Luke Maye vs. Kentucky (2017 Elite Eight)

There’s a subgenre of buzzer-beater that is an absolute thrill — the game-winning shot that comes as a counterpunch to a stunning shot just seconds before. Jenkins and Villanova’s winner in 2016, moments after UNC’s Marcus Paige tied the game, is probably the best of that bunch. But one year later, UNC got to be on the other end when Maye took a handoff from a driving Theo Pinson and hit the jumper that sent the Tar Heels to the Final Four over Kentucky, 75-73. Just seven seconds earlier, UK’s Malik Monk drained a 3-pointer over two defenders — an incredibly difficult shot — to tie it. Monk’s shot went the way of Paige’s, a footnote to something even greater, and UNC won the national championship a week later. — Cooper

Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras vs. Florida (2026 NCAA second round)

The NCAA Tournament sometimes turns semi-disappointments into heroes, and that was the case with Iowa’s 6-10 forward Folgueiras. As a prized portal pickup for first-year coach Ben McCollum, Folgueiras wasn’t a starter and his season was mired with inconsistency until he delivered on one of the top three baskets in Iowa history. With the Hawkeyes trailing defending national champion Florida by 2 points, Folgueiras raced down the court and spotted up in the right corner. Bennett Stirtz found him open. Folgueiras took one step back to ensure he was behind the 3-point line and popped the game-winner with 4.5 seconds left to send Iowa to its first Sweet 16 in 27 years. — Dochterman

Where does Mullins’ shot rank? What’s your favorite? Let us know below!

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