It’s hard to think of them as a Cinderella team now (they’ve made every tournament since, often in the top half of the seeding), but the Gonzaga men’s basketball team had never won a game in the NCAA tournament until 1999 when they reached the Elite Eight. The Bulldogs defeated No. 10 seed Minnesota and No. 2 seed Stanford without much problem in the first and second rounds, but a play that made their run particularly memorable came in the closing seconds of their Sweet 16 game against No. 6 seed Florida.
After a travelling call on Florida’s Brent Wright, Gonzaga guard Quentin Hall bounced a 10-foot runner (now known as “The Runner”) off the back of the rim, only to have it tipped in by Casey Calvary with 4.4 seconds remaining. Eddie Shannon’s clean look at a 3-pointer didn’t make it at the other end, and Gonzaga’s ticket was punched for the Elite Eight, where their roll was halted by eventual champion UConn.
