Every once in a while, something happens during a live sporting event that makes you remember why you watch sports and why you watch them live.

Saturday night’s college basketball slate had two of those moments.

The first you know about. Duke led North Carolina for more than 39 minutes and 59 seconds, but men’s college basketball games are famously 40 minutes long. Carolina’s Seth Trimble got an open look in the final seconds, splashing home a three to give the Tar Heels the lead for the first time all night. The Carolina faithful stormed onto the court, causing chaos as the referees (correctly) put 0.4 seconds on the clock. Duke’s final heave never came close and the court was re-stormed.

That moment exemplifies why we spend winter Saturdays watching college basketball.

The other moment was not as obvious as a near buzzer-beater in the sport’s biggest rivalry, with both teams ranked.

It came later, in a Big Ten matchup without the same level of history, but equally important to the arc of this season. Illinois visited Michigan State, both teams among the contenders in the Big Ten and ranked in the top ten of the AP poll.

Illinois led by one point as the clock ticked down. Michigan State sophomore Kur Teng shoots an open three for the lead with 16 seconds left and misses. Sparty owned the offensive glass all night, grabbing 15 offensive rebounds, nearly 40 percent of their misses. Michigan State gets the rebound, kicks the ball back out to Teng, who again takes the shot and this time, he hits. The Breslin Center goes wild.

This could have been another great moment. It’s remarkable that Saturday’s two biggest games both came down to made threes in the final minute.

But this game was not done.

Illinois got the ball with 8 seconds on the clock and a chance to tie or win the game. Brad Underwood draws up a high screen action for his offense. Freshman David Mirkovic sets the screen, having an excellent game and eventually finishing with 18 points, 6 assists, and 6 rebounds.

Fellow freshman Keaton Wagler has the ball. That makes perfect sense. Wagler is one of the best freshmen in the country. He leads Illinois in scoring.

Mirkovic quickly slips the screen, essentially sliding past Michigan State defender Jordan Scott in what modern coaches call a ghost screen.

Scott chases Mirkovic (pictured below), a wild choice. Yes, Mirkovic has played well in this game, yet Wagler is by far the person Illinois wants with the ball and the shot to win this game. He shoots 43 percent from deep and easily has the range to hit from here. Scott’s choice to switch to Mirkovic leaves his big, Carson Cooper, a step out of place and allows Wagler an open game-winning three.

This, however, was not Wagler’s night. He finished the game 2-16 from the field. This shot was one of those 14 misses, yet his choice to pull up now proves wise. Illinois also hit the offensive glass hard in this game and did so here.

Mirkovic flies past Scott and gets his hand on the ball, with this tip in to tie the game:

He misses, but the ball bounces off the backboard and into the hands of Illinois guard Jake Davis. He tries for a game-tying putback, but is mauled by multiple Spartans.

Watching live, it was hard to believe they’d call a foul on a rebound with one second to play. It’s a bit like pass interference on a Hail Mary attempt at the end of a football game. Don’t kill anyone and you’re probably OK. But as Davis tries to get the ball back to the rim, Jeremy Fears clearly whacks his arm.

The refs make the call and Davis gets two shots at the line to tie the game.

He gets two shots, on the road, in one of college basketball’s most intense environments, with one second left on the clock. Make both or the game is over.

Of the possible guys to shoot these free throws, I’m not sure where Underwood or Illini fans would rank Davis among the options. He is a junior, having played his freshman year at Mercer before transferring to Illinois. He’s a good foul shooter, making over 80 percent of his attempts in his career.

But he is an inexperienced foul shooter. Before this moment, Davis had only taken 11 free throws all season. In the 24 games he’s played this season, Davis has failed to visit the charity stripe 19 times. Last season, Davis played 302 minutes and only took six free throws. Even as a freshman at Mercer, he played a lot more (943 minutes) but only attempted 46 freebies.

This was not his first trip to the line on the evening. He was fouled while making a 3-point shot with about 11 minutes left in the game. He completed the four-point play with a make. That is much more his game. In two years with the Illini, he’s played almost 750 minutes, taken 152 threes to just 32 twos and 19 free throws. That’s why he’s on the floor — to take and make threes.

And actually, he really shouldn’t even be on the floor. Illinois starting guard Kylan Boswell is sidelined with an injury, increasing Davis’ playing time. In 18 games with Boswell available, Davis averaged 15.6 minutes per game (with his highest playing time outings coming against Jackson State, FGCU, and Colgate). With Boswell out, Davis is in for 27.8 minutes per game, all Big Ten games.

It’s also crazy that we’re talking about a critical Jake Davis rebound. He averages just 2.0 rebounds per game, essentially one on each side of the ball. He picked quite the time to nab one here.

We should also mention, this is what Jake Davis looks like.

Now, I’m not one to judge a book by its cover, yet in that very moment, I think I had the same thought as every screaming fan in the Breslin Center.

“This guy? This guy who looks like he plays sousaphone with the Muppets? He is the one with two shots to send the game to overtime?”

With all of that context weighing on these shots, Davis steps up to the line. Tom Izzo, as any experienced coach would, takes his time sending a few subs to the desk. His way of saying “Think about these for another few seconds, Kenny G.”

Davis buries the first. No doubter. All cotton.

The cameras catch him right after, showing some unknown mix of stone-cold killer and “my eyes are about to start bleeding for some reason.”

At this point, Izzo calls timeout. Of course he does. If he had more than one timeout, he’d have called them all. He’s icing Davis like you ice down beers before heading to a tailgate. He wants this man cold.

The cameras linger on Davis throughout the timeout. Credit to Fox Sports play-by-play man Jason Benetti, always a joy on the mic, for selling and building this moment.

Davis steps back up and drains the second. Again, not even a whisper of rim. Direct to net.

Illinois ties the game. Michigan State actually gets a really good look for the win at the buzzer, but it clanks off the rim and we head to overtime.

Now, here’s the thing: Illinois lost.

Michigan State rode some hot shooting, kept Wagler from finding his groove, and owes a tip of the cap to the officials for some interesting whistles, collecting a huge conference win.

By Monday, you could argue those two shots didn’t matter. They lost anyway, so who cares?

But that completely erases the entire reason we all love sports. We love sports because I was on the edge of my couch, a thousand miles away, watching two teams that I am not connected to and my blood was pumping a mile per minute. My heart was racing, seeing this on TV.

I think I can imagine what it felt like in the building. I simply can’t imagine what it felt like inside Jake Davis’ brain at that very moment.

That moment and that feeling on a random Saturday in February, watching a surfer dude role player answer the bell? That’s the magic of sports. You might forget that moment, that game, or that player, but I’ve been thinking about it all weekend. That perfect pattern of synapses and tingles in my brain will stay there forever.

Ten years from now, I’ll be taking out the trash or something on a cold morning and stop to think, “Damn, Jake Davis made those two free throws.”

The best news: if we can find that feeling from two shots that “didn’t matter” in February, we have so much further to go in March and early April.

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Shane McNichol is the founder, editor, and senior writer at PalestraBack.com. He has also contributed to ESPN.com, The Action Network, Betway Insider, Rush The Court, Larry Brown Sports, RotoBaller, and USA Today Sports Weekly. Follow him on Bluesky @OnTheShaneTrain.

Featured image: Illinois forward Jake Davis (15) hits the deck during the Illini’s 85-82 loss to Michigan State on Saturday in East Lansing, Michigan. | University of Illinois