As Friday night bled into Saturday morning at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the final Sweet 16 game of what’s been a largely predictable 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament had one final thrill left for those who stayed awake to watch it.
No. 1 seed Houston and No. 4 seed Purdue were tied at 60 with 2.8 seconds remaining following a missed Cougars jumper that bounced off the hands of a Boilermakers player before going out of bounds. As officials gathered around the monitor — an agonizingly familiar sight for anyone who has watched enough college basketball this season — Houston coach Kelvin Sampson had a little extra time to draw something up that could deliver his team a dramatic victory.
What came out of the Cougars’ huddle didn’t disappoint.
Houston guard Milos Uzan inbounded the ball to teammate Joseph Tugler, who immediately dished it back to Uzan for a game-winning layup with 0.9 seconds remaining in one of the savviest baseline out of bounds plays in NCAA Tournament history.
While defenders in such situations are often warned to keep an eye on the inbounder, the brilliance of Houston’s play was that it got All-American guard L.J. Cryer coming off a screen to get open for a jumper on the other side of the basket from Uzan. That maneuver put Purdue All-American guard Braden Smith, who was guarding the inbounder along the baseline, in a tricky spot — he could either remain on Uzan and risk Cryer getting an open look to win the game or he could switch over on to Cryer and leave Uzan unattended.
He opted for the latter, with the Cougars picking up on it and getting a last-second victory that earned it an Elite Eight matchup Sunday with No. 2 seed Tennessee. With his late layup capping things off, Uzan finished the night with a game-high 22 points, which included a 6-of-9 performance from 3-point range.
The victory was Houston’s 29th in its past 30 games.
Here’s what Sampson had to say of the play in a post-game interview:
‘Obviously, when you’re calling stuff at the end of the game, it’s gotta be something you’ve worked on countless times. We’ve actually worked on that play yesterday,’ Sampson said. ‘We called it 51, and there are three different reads. They did a good job taking the first one, but we got to the second one and Joe made the right read with the step in. So great execution.’
Added Uzan in a postgame interview on TBS:
‘The play was for (L.J. Cryer). They guarded JoJo wrong, he slipped to the ball. JoJo with his high IQ, gave it right back to me, was able to make a play.’
And with that play, his team’s dreams of a national championship remain alive.