10 best NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 moments of all time

6. Kenton Paulino’s buzzer beater vs. West Virginia – 2006

Texas isn’t exactly well known for its basketball program, but there have been times where they could successfully shift their fans away from football. 2006 was one of those years.

That year, the Longhorns went 30-7, had an NBA trio of LaMarcus Aldridge, P.J. Tucker, and Daniel Gibson, and came into the Tournament as a No. 2 seed. But even the favorites can have their stumbling blocks, and that’s what happened in the Sweet 16 when they came up against West Virginia.

In what proved to be a very tight contest, West Virginia tied the game with five seconds left. It seemed destined for overtime, but Kenton Paulino had other plans. He finished the game with just eight points, but three of them came at the buzzer to send the Longhorns through to the Elite Eight. But at that stage, they lost to LSU in overtime.

That deep Tournament run was great for the Longhorns basketball program. The year after, they got Kevin Durant. Then in 2008, they made it back to the Elite Eight. Although Rick Barnes could never get them over the hump, he did a great job during his time as head coach.

What makes this buzzer beater even better is that it came two months after Vince Young’s electrifying performance in the Rose Bowl. If that happened today, #LonghornsSZN would’ve been blowing up on Twitter.