When Kemba Walker stepped back and made his shot in March 2011, I put my hands to my cheeks and froze.
When Braylon Mullins lunged forward and made his shot in March 2026, I slumped to my right and nearly fell out of my chair.
Like a few other lucky members of the Connecticut media, I was courtside for both iconic moments. The era was different for each. The venue was different. The opponent was different. The tournament was different. And the players, of course, were different.
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They felt exactly the same, though, at least for a spellbinding moment, when time manages to both freeze and accelerate before you’re drawn into an exploration — a lifelong one, if need be — for how to process, appreciate and contextualize what took place.
UConn guard Braylon Mullins (24) scores the winning basket during the second half against Duke in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Abbie Parr/Associated Press
Our David Borges, UConn men’s basketball beat writer for CTInsider.com, has compiled a terrific list of what he considers the best shots in Huskies’ history. He, too, was in New York’s Madison Square Garden for Cardiac Kemba and in Washington’s Capital One Arena for the Mullins Miracle. He, in fact, was in the building for half the shots on his list, a top-20 fastbreak of buzzer-beaters that starts as follows.
No. 1: Mullins’ 35-footer that ripped through the net with four-tenths of a second remaining in the Huskies’ Elite Eight game this past season against Duke, sending UConn running and dancing to the Final Four.
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No. 2: Tate George’s turnaround corner jumper in East Rutherford, N.J., after taking a length of the court inbounds pass from Scott Burrell, to beat the buzzer against Clemson and push the 1989-90 Dream Season into the Elite Eight.
No. 3. Walker’s surgical game-winner against favored Pittsburgh in a 2011 Big East quarterfinal, the signature moment of a magical 11-game postseason winning streak and national championship run.
Thirty-six years ago, I watched George’s shot from the couch in my home and it quickly became, and remained, the most memorable sports moment of my childhood. The other two left me wondering what to do with the space following the datelines on my computer.
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You stare at the screen, knowing however you go on to describe the moment and its impact might fail to properly honor it.
I watched Walker’s shot from about three rows up at MSG, in line with where he took possession of the ball on the perimeter as the final seconds wound down. He darted this way and that, stepping back and moving left to create space, ultimately crossing up Gary McGhee and swishing a shot from just inside the 3-point line.
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 10: Shabazz Napier #13 and Kemba Walker #15 of the Connecticut Huskies celebrate after defeating the Pittsburgh Panthers during the quarterfinals of the 2011 Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament presented by American Eagle Outfitters at Madison Square Garden on March 10, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Shabazz Napier;Kemba Walker
Chris Trotman/ST
I was the Hartford Courant’s beat writer at the time, with part of the responsibility being to send in a story about the game as soon as it ended. That is, typically, a rather easy fill-in-the-score-at-the-buzzer process. But when Walker hits a shot like that — the type of shot that changes not only the outcome of a game but the outlook for the rest of the season — it’s difficult to have what’s coming out of your shaking fingertips make much sense.
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So it took a few seconds or a few minutes that felt like a lifetime. I put my hands to my face. It was 15 years ago but I remember it vividly, even with the fizz and fuzz I had to clear from my mind that day. I got the story in and walked toward the media center at the Garden talking about how, no doubt, UConn would go on to win the national championship and joking that Walker could probably win the upcoming Master’s golf tournament, too, if he wanted.
That was the unparalleled highlight of my career to that point and for the 15 years that followed.
Until Mullins sent that ball into the air in D.C., that sword into Duke’s heart. I was positioned similarly to where I witnessed the Kemba shot. From that seat, I watched UConn, overmatched early, fall down by 19 points. The Huskies chipped away but, still, the situation seemed lost with Duke set to inbound the ball from its own baseline with a two-point lead and 10 seconds remaining.
What followed was mind-boggling. Silas Demary Jr. deflected a Cayden Boozer pass near midcourt and the ball came to Mullins, who quickly passed to Alex Karaban on the right. Karaban saw a defender closing so he passed back to Mullins, who without a dribble let fly with 2.2 seconds left. Gravity pulled the ball through the net with such force and what followed … I hadn’t seen or felt anything like it. At least since the Walker shot in 2011.
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UConn guard Braylon Mullins celebrates his game-winning basket against Duke during the second half in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Stephanie Scarbrough/Associated Press
The Downtown D.C. building felt like it was imploding or exploding, like it was bubbling or breathing. Everything blurred. Beside me, Borges worked on trying to get a few sentences written for display on our website. UConn coach Dan Hurley put his forehead to that of referee Roger Ayers, his animated version of I-can’t believe-what-just-happened. No one could. UConn fans went nuts. Duke fans were stunned into silence.
When my mind cleared and I gathered my belongings on press row, UConn was setting up for a postgame celebration on the court. It would be a long, long time before any of us could talk to Mullins and Hurley and other UConn players about the shot, the game.
My only thought was, “I need to see the damage.” I needed to see and feel and hear what Mullins had just done to Duke. The Blue Devils’ locker room was basketball depression, awkward silence. Some players sat slumped in their locker stalls, expressionless or faces covered. Others were at the center of media scrums, unable to explain much of anything. Some players fought back tears. Others openly bawled. Staff members stuffed equipment into large bags and zipped them. There was blood all over Boozer’s jersey.
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I’ve watched the video countless times and, each time, it’s as if the ending is still difficult to predict. Bill Raftery, in the moment on the CBS telecast, called the play “Utterly impossible,” which it was, even after it was reality. It was all so gloriously confusing.
Just like the Kemba shot. Everything stopped even while the building felt like the inside of a popcorn maker. Everything was quiet despite the jet-engine-like noise. Nothing made sense even if the endings were so perfect that they couldn’t have even been scripted.
“Sports,” Dan Hurley said in the locker room after the Duke game.
Yeah, sports. Thank goodness we get to watch them, always. Occasionally, you can actually feel what you saw.
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Connecticut’s Kemba Walker (15) celebrates scoring the winning goal with teammate Shabazz Napier, in the final seconds of the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Pittsburgh at the Big East Championship, Thursday, March 10, 2011 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Connecticut defeated Pittsburgh 76-74. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Mary Altaffer/AP
After the Walker shot, coach Jim Calhoun jumped three times, arms out, a 68-year-old man made to feel like a little kid. That 2011 UConn team beat Syracuse the next night and Louisville in the Big East championship game a night later, completing the never-done-before-or-since five victories in five days. The Huskies went on to win the national championship.
The 2026 team headed to Indianapolis, Mullins’ home city, for the Final Four. There, he was celebrated, appropriately so, with all sorts of interviews and press conferences and conversations focusing on the shot … the shot … the shot … the freakin’ shot!
Totally surreal. UConn went on to defeat Illinois in a national semifinal but lost to Michigan in the championship game, doing nothing to take away from the impact of the Mullins Miracle. Sports are about the end result, sure. But just as much, they are about the moments throughout the journey, what they look like, sound like, feel like. If you’ve followed UConn basketball long enough, you’ve been left breathless and thoughtless so many times.
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Rip Hamilton putting back his own miss the push the Huskies into the Final Four for the first time in 1999. Jalen Adams — from 75 feet! — sending the UConn-Cincinnati AAC quarterfinal in 2016 to a fourth overtime. Ray Allen, while contorted in the air, getting that jumper to go down against Georgetown in the 1996 Big East championship game. Taliek Brown connecting from about 40 feet against Pittsburgh in the 2002 Big East title game.
Tate in 1990. Kemba in 2011. Braylon in 2026. Buzzer-beaters. Moments. Noise. Emotion. Disbelief. Joy on one side, heartbreak the other. Sometimes sports funnel so much into a little sliver of time that manages to live forever in our hearts and minds.