The best late-game set of the 2025 NCAA Tournament scored zero points

On Texas Tech, Grant McCasland, and process over results

The title here could be a misnomer. Originally, this was the best set of the Elite Eight, but I wanted to avoid making super-online Duke fans mad or somehow making Florida faithful angrier than I already have. It’s also probably not the best late-game set of the NCAA Tournament, mostly because it scored zero points. The best late-game set in the eye of the populace is Houston’s game-winner over Purdue.

But, hey, calling something the best without it being everyone’s personal best has never gone wrong before. Last I checked, no one ever gets mad at Pitchfork’s year-end lists or whenever Rolling Stone updates The 500 Best Albums of All Time to include fewer dudes. (Okay, people do actually get mad for whatever reason at the last one. No one should ever be mad at something as silly as a Pitchfork list. It’s 2025 and you’re in your 30s. Calm down.) So if people POLITELY disagree here, I get it - I may have to stand alone on my take here.

But with the clock winding down on the first of two semifinals on Saturday night, I began to think less of my personal feelings on the result and more about the process that got us there. For most of the Duke/Alabama game that followed, it occupied my brain space. I even began to dwell less on the fact I skipped a Waxahatchee concert on Saturday night to watch a 20-point Duke blowout in a game that never felt terribly close.

Instead, I kept thinking over this image in my mind.

While knowing the result of the shot by Darrion Williams here, a missed three that would be his second open miss in the span of about 15 game-time seconds, I couldn’t get over just how well-executed the entire thing was. These types of things never make it on highlight reels or get newsletters written about them because of the result, which was a missed three-pointer that resulted in zero Texas Tech points when they needed at least a couple to keep in touch with a powerhouse Florida team.

Honestly, it might not even be the true ‘best’ set of the final two minutes of this game from Texas Tech’s staff. You could shake your first and demand I write about this clearout for Williams instead against Thomas Haugh, a defender he’d torched for the entire second half.

Now, an enterprising young(er) blogger could and should write about that one. But frankly, that’s not the one that keeps ringing around in my head. It is this one, exactly one minute later, that resulted in two fewer points yet 200% more brain space for me in the days after the best Elite Eight game of 2025.

That, for me personally, is the Play of the Tournament. A play that scored zero points, and at best, will be remembered by anyone who watched it as a what-if. Why? Well, I’ve tried to explain exactly what’s going on here, the mix of simple and complex ideas, and how it put a top-10 defense in America in a spin cycle. All of that for zero points. And you think a Pitchfork list can be cruel?