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An oral history of Brandon Clarke’s block that happened a few minutes ago

How?

NCAA Basketball: Texas A&M at Gonzaga James Snook-USA TODAY Sports

It was a Sunday afternoon in Phoenix and No. 1 Gonzaga was facing No. 7 Tennessee in a neutral-court game televised nationally on ESPN. After the Volunteers got off to a hot start, Gonzaga stormed back and held a slim lead early in the second half. Yves Pons caught a pass on the left wing, took one dribble and went up for what should have been a game-tying dunk. Instead, we got the greatest block you’ve seen in your life:

Mid-Major Madness conducted hours of interviews over the course of several weeks* and have put together an oral history of the immediate aftermath:

*no we didn’t, these are Twitter reactions and what guys said on-air


Sean Farnham (ESPN broadcast): ARE YOU KIDDING ME ROXY?

Farnham: Yes, thank you! Foul! SHOW ME THE REPLAY!

Roxy Bernstein (ESPN broadcast): We gotta see this again.

Bernstein: Over a tremendous athlete in Yves Pons!


It’s not a surprise that as soon as the replay was shown on-air, it ended up on Twitter. That’s when the reactions started pouring in.

Slipper Still Fits (SB Nation Gonzaga blog): Holy shit.

Mid-Major Madness: We’re going to have to talk about Brandon Clarke. That’s the greatest block I’ve seen in my life and it’s not close.

Sam Vecenie (The Athletic): Yves Pons is a grown man, elite athlete. And Brandon Clarke just totally said no.

Matt Norlander (CBS Sports): Brandon Clarke helps defeat Thanos in AVENGERS: ENDGAME

Mike Schmitz (ESPN): Awesome 2nd half minutes from Brandon Clarke. Maybe the block of the year on an Yves Pons dunk attempt. So bouncy in verticality situations. Active in the passing lanes. Even knocked down an inside pivot mid post jumper. His energy is infectious.

Chris Schutte (Mid-Major Madness editor): It was a good block.

Molly Geary (SI): Just an absurd block by Brandon Clarke here

Przemek Karnowski: Can someone hook me up with a stream to the Zags game? Pretty please