I’ll admit that it’s been hard for me to care that much about the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this year. I’m not that much of a college hoops fan in the first place, but the annual rite of spring known as “March Madness” has always had a special place in my heart. Making your bracket, the raucous crowds, mascots, upsets, a previously unknown “Cinderella” school that captures America’s collective admiration: There really is nothing like it. That all changed in 2020. Just as America (and the world) was realizing just how bad the novel coronavirus outbreak was going to be, one by one, colleges dropped out of the tournament, until the NCAA pulled the plug on the whole thing, making it one of the first major American sporting events to be canceled because of the pandemic. It would not be the last.

When college basketball came back in the fall, they announced that the entire 2021 tournament would be held in Indianapolis. The season commenced fairly normally. But one team stood about above the rest: The Gonzaga Bulldogs. The team from a private Jesuit school in Spokane, Washington became one of only a handful in college basketball history to go undefeated in the regular season. This made them the odds-on favorite to win it all in the men’s tournament. And they encountered little resistance for the early part of the tournament. Until they reached the Final Four.

The University of California, Los Angeles used to be a perennial championship contender under legendary coach John Wooden, winning an NCAA-record 11 championships. But in recent years, UCLA has fallen on some hard times. They had not won a championship since 1995. They hadn’t even made a Final Four since 2008, before most people had HDTV. But in 2021, they made a most improbable run to the Final Four, after beating a number of teams to get there, including BYU, Abilene Christian, two-seeded Alabama, and one-seeded Michigan. That earned the Bruins a date with the Bulldogs in the national semis.

In a classic game where the scrappy Bruins gave the mighty Bulldogs all they could handle, it looked like UCLA might actually pull it out. Most prognosticators only gave them a chance if they were able to slow down the Zags’ formidable offense. But UCLA met the moment and then some, trading blows throughout the contest. UCLA stars Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Johnny Juzang were excellent, combining for over 50 points. In an incredible turn of events, with only two minutes left in regulation, Gonzaga star Jalen Suggs blocked a shot by UCLA big man Cody Riley, and then sent a perfect pass the length of the court to his teammate Drew Timme, who put the easy bucket home. That gave Gonzaga a two-point lead. It wouldn’t last.

Juzang hit a shot to tie the game with 87 seconds left in regulation. The game became one of a handful in tournament history to go to overtime. Timme took over in the extra session, scoring Gonzaga’s first six points and giving the Bulldogs an 87–83 lead. With 3.3 seconds left, Juzang hit a shot that tied the game, again, at 3.3 seconds left in OT. With the game tied, Gonzaga put the ball in the hands of star Corey Kispert, who then passed it to Suggs, who pulled from just beyond half-court, put up the shot, and then…bang. It went in. Gonzaga won and advanced to the national championship, on a shot you are certain to see replayed many, many, many times for the rest of your life. The socially distant crowd of 8,000 or so exploded. Suggs stood on the railing in triumph, much like Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade after hitting the big shot to win it.

Gonzaga would lose the following Monday night to Baylor in the national championship. But that game felt like an afterthought to the previous one. Although UCLA lost, nobody would call them losers. UCLA gave the country a classic game that will live on forever in the annals of sport history.