Nimari Burnett wasn’t supposed to have the ball in his hands on the final play.
When Michigan coach Dusty May called a timeout with 3.6 seconds left, not liking what he saw on the court, he knew he’d have to draw up multiple different plays to contend with the different defenses Rutgers might throw at the Wolverines out of the timeout. In May’s ideal play, though, junior forward Danny Wolf would get the ball in the middle of the court, where graduate center Vlad Goldin would set a screen before rolling down to the basket.
Wolf got the ball on the inbound, but the Scarlet Knights disrupted Goldin’s attempted screen, surrounding Wolf in the process. Wolf had no choice but to look behind him to the left wing, where Burnett waited well beyond the 3-point line.
Burnett might have been far away from the basket, but he was also far away from every Rutgers defender. And as time expired, he launched an arcing heave high into the air and all the way back down through the net.
It wasn’t the only game-winning buzzer beater of Burnett’s career —though the last one came during his senior season in high school — but it was undoubtedly the biggest. As he sealed Michigan’s 12-point comeback win over the Scarlet Knights and sent Crisler Center into a frenzy, he also kept the Wolverines in lockstep with rival Michigan State, regaining their position in a tie for first place in the Big Ten with three games remaining.
“The play was completely botched,” Burnett said postgame. “That was not the play. The play was for Danny to lift up, get the catch and drive and make a play, or skip to me in the wing-corner area. He drove and I lifted up, able to make a big time shot.”
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