This one’s inspired by the Dunn dunk against Texas Southern.
What’s the craziest reaction…good or bad…you’ve ever had to a single play?
I’ve got two…one that involved personal injury, the other some property damage.
The Farrakhan dunk against NC State. I was watching at a buddies house and his man cave had much lower ceilings than I was used to. When MF dunked, I jumped off the couch with both fists in the air…and bloodied/bruised 8 knuckles. Fortunately no damage to the ceiling.
When we lost in football in 2002 to Colorado State, we fumbled inside the 5 with seconds left, that should have won the game. I had been pacing around my living room most of the 4th quarter with my son’s nerf football in my hand. When we fumbled I launched it across the room…into our glass fireplace cover, which busted glass everywhere. Wife wasn’t happy about that one.
I remember being heartbroken by some games but not sure there was a specific play tied to them. On the joyous side, I think Adam Hall vs Duke in 2001 and Thomas Rogers vs Syracuse in 2014 were probably my two biggest in-person pops.
Also, Darvin Ham breaking the backboard against UNC at the Richmond Coliseum in '96.
The end of the Auburn game. I was at a bar for a UVA watch party and it was so loud that you couldn’t hear any of the game audio. When Guy’s shot rimmed out, I assumed the game was over and slumped down against a wall with my back to the TVs. It took a while for me to realize that everyone was yelling that a foul had been called (and not that there should have been a foul…bc honestly who ever expects to get that call in that situation). After Auburn’s last second heave missed by about an inch (I have no idea how close it actually was, but in my head it JUST missed and I’m still expecting to wake up one day to find it actually went in and I dreamt everything else) I totally lost it and started sobbing. It took way too long for me to regain any semblance of self control.
Honorable mention to the Devin Hester punt return that sealed the Miami game during my last home football game as a 4th year. I hadn’t yet settled on UVA for grad school so I thought it was my last game ever and did not take it well. The pregame fifth of Jim also may have influenced my reaction somewhat…
Yeah, this. We were in the Bahamas for the kids spring break during that weekend and a few minutes after Diakite made his shot we got a knock on the door asking if everything was ok. It would have been inaccurate to say we were ok. We were much, much better than ok.
That was a really fun trip, tons of folks wearing shirts and hats for various teams. We got to be friends with some Kentucky fans and watched their last game and commiserated with them after their loss. Iirc, we got an email from them later, thanking us for wiping out Auburn in such painful fashion.
Edit - Oh, wait, no. My personal best was Darius Thompson hitting that 3 against Wake. I broke a flower vase and… something else, but I forget what, jumping around after it.
Somehow for me it was Reece!!'s 3 to win it at Duke. Was watching with the LRA crew and I was maybe 3 seconds ahead and just started yelling Yes Reece!! Over and over ha
Reece 3 in Cameron is up there for sure. Jerome 3 in Cameron is in that convo as well. Brogdon 3 to beat Pitt May have exceeded all of those because it kind of solidified to me that we were the real deal. A road game like that was not a win we normally got and it felt so good:
Honestly I never really reacted too much during the NCAA tournament run because I was honestly just so nervous I couldn’t muster the strength to get too emotional. I’m a little guarded when the games REALLY matter so I don’t get too hurt haha. I did end up shirtless after the Key dunk to ice the TT game because I finally could exhale and then I just went completely apeshit running all around the house screaming.
Biggest swing of emotions I’ve ever had is going from “oh no…to oh yes…to oh no” again on that fumble we couldn’t recover in the VT game in Perkins’ first year here. That wrecked me.
Hoops: Sean Singletary hitting the fall-away shot in '07 against Duke. I was in like 8th grade, and it felt like we’d just won the natty. I was watching the game with my dad- we both jumped up out of our seats, and I took off running and yelling around the house. My mom thought something horrible happened.
Football: Va Tech in 2019 when Alonso, Hanback, and Mack strip-sacked Hendon Hooker in the endzone and recovered for a TD to ice the game. I yelled “F*CK TECH” (x14) at the top of my lungs; it was so cathartic and primal. Just years and years of pain, living in the middle of hokie country, all relieved in one moment. Only game (besides the basketball national championship) that brought me to tears.
Thompson’s 3 against Wake Forest. I instinctually took off my shirt and started running around my apartment. Didn’t stop for 2 minutes. Cat hid in the laundry basket.
That’s one I’m still mad at myself about. I was out of state for work, and watched most of the 2nd half at the hotel before dinner. Thought for sure we had lost, so went to dinner and didn’t check my phone at all because I was mad we had lost. Get back to the hotel and start going over my presentation for the next day, and put Sportscenter on for some background noise. I had no idea we had come back until I heard it on SC.
I put my son on my head and started running around the neighborhood yelling. Unfortunately there was a low-hanging tree branch that caught him pretty good across the forehead. Had some ‘splaining to do to the wife.
I was in the nosebleeds at US Bank and it felt like Dre was almost below me when he launched that shot (I mean, he was). I had a birds eye view of the shot and it’s one of the few times when watching basketball that I knew the shot was going in the whole time. Hell of a moment.
As far as games I watched at home, I think the strip sack touchdown against VT in 2019 may have been my biggest football reaction since Warrick Dunn was stopped at the goal line in 1995.
Interestingly enough, for the Purdue and TT games, as excited as I was, my wife and toddler were both asleep so I somehow kept my voice down and my outward reaction somewhat muted, though inside my brain the fireworks were going off.
for some other plays (as i mostly could say the same answers):
carsen edwards’ banked 3 - reaction in the negative way. but i swore more in front of my mother than i ever had when that went in. hit a pillow, was just out of control anger
to give baseball some love, when Chris Taylor hit a walk-off single in a super regional to send us to Omaha in 2011
lax when we had the save against UMD in the '21 natty title game (which would have tied it up and completed their 5 goal comeback and pushed to OT)
