March Madness and Blake Hoffarber

Did you see the play last night?

The University of Minnesota, a heavy underdog against the University of Indiana, was done. I was listening to the game on my radio as I drove back from a church event. The last 30 seconds of the game must have taken up a good six minutes of my ride home. As I sat in the car I listened as announcers talked about how Minnesota had squandered a lead. The announcers couldn't believe the foolish errors that the Gophers had made. With 1.5 seconds left on the clock the announcers were talking about what could have been. And then said something like, "We'll see what Tubby (Smith, the coach of the Gophers) can draw up."

The coach drew a play up, but I'm sure that Tubby couldn't have imagined what would happen next.

Blake "The Minnesota Miracle" Hoffarber did it again. In 2005, while playing for Hopkins High School, Hoffarber helped his team win the State Championship game, by making a shot from the seat of his pants in the closing seconds of the first overtime. Maybe Tubby said something like, "Blake, you did it before. You can do it again. Son, you wanna make ESPN? You had the highlight of the year in 2005! You beat out all of those pro atheletes to get that award. Now, let's do it again! Make the shot! Get the ball to Blake, boys!"

It probably didn't go quite like that, but in case you missed it, here's what happened: