Dunk
College BasketballBy Kevin Harrish on

While trick plays are pretty common in sports like football, it’s a little harder to pull off that same sort of trickery in a fast-paced game like basketball. But the Kansas State Wildcats appeared to do it Thursday night on the biggest stage in college basketball.

At a crucial moment in Thursday night’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game against the Michigan State Spartans, Kansas State pulled off an incredible alley-oop with the help of what appeared to be a staged argument.

The back-and-forth game ultimately went to overtime, and that’s where Kansas State pulled out the trick play. As point guard Markquis Nowell took the ball across the half-court line, he looked over at head coach Jerome Tang on the sideline. The two appeared to have some sort of debate, exchanging some words and hand gestures.

But midway through their “argument” about the play call, Nowell suddenly picked the ball up and threw it toward the basketball where teammate Keyontae Johnson had snuck behind the defense for an alley-oop slam.

The play went absolutely viral on social media as college basketball fans noticed the shocking bit of trickery from the Wildcats.

It worked perfectly, but after the game, Tang claimed that it was not a fake, after all, according to Richard Johnson.

“Spoke to Jerome Tang about this after the game: this wasn’t a dummy call or a fake out. Tang was calling one thing and Nowell was calling something else. Nowell noticed Johnson out of the corner of his eye and threw the alley oop because of their connection,” Johnson said in a tweet.

However, not many believed this explanation.

Either way, it was an incredible play at a crucial moment and helped Nowell make history.

[NCAA March Madness]

About Kevin Harrish

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