College Basketball Championship Week Saturday Rewind: UConn, Oklahoma launching satellites

Apparently, the NCAA legalized the use of ballistic missiles in college basketball yesterday morning. That's the only way to explain Friday's two greatest plays. Of course, one of the two didn't actually count, but if you were watching the second Big 12 semifinal, answer this question honestly: Do you care?

Buddy Hield deserves the Wooden if for no other reason than his comportment and good spirits following the parachute-drop that was the 100 seconds following the buzzer in the Oklahoma-West Virginia game. Trailing by two with just 1.8 seconds left, Oklahoma in-bounded to Hield at one-third court.

As he raced across the midline, Hield heaved a prayer which plinked right in the middle of the square on the backboard and dropped silently into the net. Sprint Center went insane. Hield raced to the Oklahoma section of the stands.

Bob Huggins raced to John Higgins.

What is not in dispute: the ball did, in fact, leave Hield's hand about a tenth of a second after the clock hit zero. In that respect, there's really no complaint. The question, as it always is in these cases, was whether the clock was started properly on the inbound. Usually, that's a problem because it started too late, granting the team with possession more time than they deserved. But a good look at when that clock started on this play might be in order, if for no other reason than to simply be sure.

Regardless, Hield -- as always with him, it seems -- took the overturned call in stride. He immediately took his infectious smile straight toward the Mountaineer players, giving every last one of them a more-than-perfunctory hug. We're just going to say it: if you don't like Buddy Hield, you're probably a horrible human being not worth knowing.

This all happened, of course, at the end of Hield's worst game of the season. West Virginia had solved the Wooden candidate for 40 minutes, which is largely why the game was in the balance with a second to go in the first place. The irony is that this is going to be used by those who are arguing for other Wooden candidates, but we'll just cycle back to the start of this commentary: maybe, just maybe, Hield's behavior counters his Big 12 tournament exit.

(Not taking anything away from his primary rival for the honor; Denzel Valentine is also an exceptional young man with a lot of positive charisma.)

The craziest part of the night? That wasn't even the first miracle heave from half-court on the night. This calls for background, however. Let's get in the wayback machine and rewind almost exactly seven years, to March 12, 2009. Big East quarterfinals. For you young whippersnappers, this was a time long, long ago when the Big East was a really big conference. Did you know Syracuse used to be a member? Connecticut, too. I know, crazy talk.

On that night, Syracuse and UConn played the craziest conference tournament game in history. No, seriously: history. Tied at 71 after forty minutes, Syracuse then spent a total of 25 minutes without ever once having the lead until finally blowing the exhausted Huskies off the floor in the sixth overtime. The Orange finally won 127-117.

Connecticut finally got karmic vindication last night. At the end of the third overtime against Cincinnati, Jalen Adams launched a desperation three from a good ten feet behind the half-court line. It went in, sending the game to a fourth overtime. As had happened to them seven years earlier, UConn buried an exhausted Bearcat squad in the final OT to win by seven.

And of course, time is a flat circle. Because guess what?

The clock didn't start on time when the ball was inbounded to Adams. See, we were going somewhere with that all along.