The Daily Cinderella: WE ACTUALLY GOT ONE

I'm supposed to do March Madness Minutiae in here. But sometimes two players hit back-to-back go-ahead shots in an NCAA Tournament game and change two programs forever.

Hey, sorry, late and short edition of The Daily Cinderella—I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a newsletter credentialed for the NCAA Tournament. I’m gonna run some extra entries tomorrow to make up for it.

Also, we’re once again bumping the weekly SPORTS YOU MISSED post to Wednesday to accommodate Daily Cinderella entries today and tomorrow. As a result, I have decided to upgrade from THREE sports you missed to FOUR sports you missed.

Anyway, onto the basketball:

Buzzer-Beater of the Day:Queen’s Coronation

It happened! It finally happened! We actually had a game-winning shot in the NCAA Tournament!

On one end of the court, Colorado State’s Jalen Lake drilled a three to give Colorado State a one-point lead. The Rams were the last mid-major and lowest-seed remaining in the tournament, and it looked like they were headed to the Sweet 16. They just needed to hold off the Terps for a few more seconds.

Maryland gave the ball to freshman superstar Derik Queen, the 5-star Baltimore big who had stayed home for his (likely) lone season of college hoops. Queen got his massive frame rumbling to the left, took roughly the legal amount of steps, give or take a few, and gracefully dropped the ball off the glass and through. Terps win.

My favorite part of the clip is the Oregon band going nuts in the background. They didn’t even have a duck in the fight, but they knew they’d just seen a moment.

Queen’s college career could’ve been a mere footnote. A likely top-10 pick, Queen is surely a one-and-done guy, and they don’t change programs anymore. They show up, play a couple of obligatory NCAA Tournament games, often as second fiddle to their upperclassman teammates, and move on, their brief stint in college having little effect on their school or their draft stock. When the PA announcer for YOURRRRRRRRRR TORONTO RAPTORS said “FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND…” you would’ve thought, oh yeah. I forgot he played there.

Instead, it’s iconic. They’re gonna sell thousands of Crab 5 t-shirts. Maybe they’ll even sell some with Queen’s postgame interview. “Where did that confidence come from?” “I’m from Baltimore, that’s why!”

On the other hand, Colorado State’s moment in the sun was over. Rams head coach Niko Medved had turned Colorado State into a consistent tournament team, with three appearances in four years. They’d only been three times in the last thirty years. Now that’s over: Medved has already been announced as the next coach at Minnesota.

These history-making, gut-punching moments are what’s so great and brutal about this tournament. It’s impossible to overreact when a shot can change everything about someone’s career or an entire program.

Bummer-Beater of The Day: No more Amoore

The ending of Kentucky-Kansas State was also filled with maniacal back-and-forth shotmaking. Regulation ended with two lead changes in the final minute before a game-tying post bucket by K-State’s Serena Sundell forced overtime. In OT, Kansas State’s Temira Poindexter drilled her seventh and eighth threes to give the purple Wildcats a one-point lead on the blue ones.

Needing a basket to win the game, Kentucky knew exactly what they were going to do: Give the ball to Georgia Amoore, the fifth-year senior point guard who had carried them all year. She got an open look from the top of the key, and clanged it. But Kentucky got the offensive rebound, and head coach Kenny Brooks had the perfect play: a give-and-go between Amoore and center Clara Strack, who had both followed Brooks from Virginia Tech. It gave Amoore a wide-open look from about 5-feet… and she missed it.

Amoore shouldered an impossible load for the Wildcats this year as Brooks tried to bring back women’s hoops pride at a basketball-crazy school. The indefatigable Aussie had led Virginia Tech to the Final Four in 2023 and came to Kentucky for one last ride, giving it her all, playing virtually every minute while triggering the offense on every possession.

In the postseason, the burden was even heavier. She took a season-high 27 shots in the SEC Tournament against Oklahoma. She never sat in Kentucky’s first-round matchup with Liberty, taking 24 shots (the second-most shots this season), scoring 34 points and eight assists to squeak out a one-point win. And she played all 45 minutes, putting up another 23 shots (the third-most this season.) The last two shots of her college career could’ve bought her another game, but she just didn’t have it.

Oh Yeah, There’s Other Basketball Too: 1-on-1 at the NIT

The NIT matchup between Loyola-Chicago and San Francisco ended with a cinematic clear-out, let-these-two-settle-this one-on-one showdown between each team’s best player. Loyola’s Jayden Dawson, the team’s top scorer this year, posted a career-high 35, while USF’s Malik Thomas, the leading scorer in the entire WCC this year, scored a career-high 36. (Thomas’ previous career high was… 35 points against Loyola-Chicago in December. This was PERSONAL. That man hates the Ramblers.)

Dawson and Thomas were the only two players to score in the last three minutes, combining to score the game’s last 12 points. Dawson hit a three over Thomas to give Loyola a 75-73 lead, Thomas hit a three to give San Fran a 76-75 lead, Dawson came right back down the court and hit a layup to give Loyola a 77-76 lead.

Dawson missed an attempt to basically end the game with a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left, and the Dons got the ball to Thomas. He drove, got right to the rim, put up a high-arcing layup… and it hit back iron. His teammate, Jason Rivera-Torres, tapped the ball back into the hoop, but the clock had expired.

It doesn’t matter what name is on the tournament. Give me this. Any time I see a game of basketball where 10 players are on the court and only two matter, I want to watch it forever. Unfortunately, it had to end, as did the Dons’ season.