The Virginia Cavaliers needed some magic to save their season in their Elite 8 matchup against Purdue, and Mamadi Diakite provided it.
The Virginia Cavaliers and Purdue Boilermakers gave college basketball fans the best show of the 2019 NCAA Tournament in the Elite 8. Purdue’s Carsen Edwards put forth a historic offensive performance and Virginia had an answer for them seemingly every time down.
However, Virginia found themselves down three points and at the charity stripe with just under six second left on the clock. Ty Jerome sank the first, but then intentionally missed the second, hoping to get the rebound and make some magic. And that’s exactly what the Cavaliers did.
The rebound was tipped out and rolled across midcourt when freshman Kihei Clark ran it down. He then threw a long pass to the block where Mamadi Diakite was waiting. The UVA big man then lofted a floater right as time was expiring, and it was silky in the biggest moment of the night:
MARCH MADNESS IS THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD pic.twitter.com/TUQchKqswO
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 31, 2019
It’s only fitting that, in a game that was absolutely bonkers with the shot-making and swings in momentum that fans would get the first true buzzer-beater of March Madness.
Maybe, just maybe, after losing to a 16-seed in the First Round last year, luck is now in favor of Virginia. And Diakite’s overtime-forcing buzzer-beater stands as proof of that.