The 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is underway on Thursday afternoon, March 19.
There will be 16 first round games on Thursday, across CBS and Turner Sports, followed by 16 more first round games on Friday. We'll get eight second round games on Saturday followed by eight more on Sunday. It's the best sports weekend of the year in the minds of many.
There are a lot of things that make March Madness as great as it is, but at the top of the list: buzzer beaters. We've had a bunch over the years, from Christian Laettner's game-winner against Kentucky, to Villanova's game-winner in the national title game against UNC, to Jalen Suggs' epic halfcourt shot in the Final Four.
But where does Richard Hamilton's rank?
On this day in 1998, Richard "Rip" Hamilton sunk a game-winning midrange jumpshot at the buzzer against Washington.
Hamilton's game-winning shot - which was UConn's third shot in the final eight seconds - gave the No. 2 seed Huskies a 75-74 victory over Washington in the East Regional semifinals, advancing to the Elite Eight.
The UConn star went into that game thinking about buzzer-beaters, too.
"I was talking to Kev (teammate Kevin Freeman) today as we watched West Virginia hit the buzzer shot, that I had never made one of those in my life," Hamilton said postgame in 1998. "Right after I hit it he came running at me and said, `We were just talking about that."'
Legendary UConn head coach Jim Calhoun called it a season of buzzer-beaters in college basketball.
"It has been a season of buzzer-beaters and you can add our name to the list," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. "I guess we wanted to be included in everything."
Hamilton's shot is one of the best in NCAA history
"The ball just came to me and I said, `Make sure I gather myself before I let his one go,"' Hamilton said. "I gathered myself, let the ball go and it went in."
College basketball fans still think about it.
"Being a UConn fan rules because every year in March you log on and someone has posted a time your team did something awesome and it happens over and over again for a month," one fan wrote.
"Incredible shot by Rip Hamilton but if there was one guy I needed to make a fallaway midrange jumper, he might be it. So clutch," one fan added.
"McDonough is the best. What a game. Some people said I looked like Voskuhl....stayed in my house for 3 weeks to bounceback," one fan added.
"Most vivid memory: it was late, I was supposed to be asleep, I was listening to the game broadcast in bed in my room on my Walkman, I ran into the living room to turn the TV on and see the replay and the madness that followed. Unforgettable moment," one fan added.
Hopefully, we'll get some more iconic NCAA Tournament buzzer beaters this month.
