The Eight Men’s College Hoops Players Who Made March Madness Unforgettable

A look back at the breakout heroes, clutch shots and unlikely stars who stole the spotlight in the NCAA tournament.

INDIANAPOLIS — As the clock ticked toward 2 a.m. and Monday night of the men’s college basketball national championship game faded completely into the chilly morning hours of Tuesday morning, Lucas Oil Stadium remained alive and bustling. 

The giant video board which flashed “National Champions” flanked by the Michigan logo in the aftermath of the Wolverines’ 69–63 win over UConn was turned off and packed up. The maize-and-blue confetti that still littered the elevated court at the heart of Final Four weekend was swept out of the way by those lowering the rims and unplugging equipment all around. Hundreds of other workers whisked away chairs or disassembled any of the untold number of temporary elements that turn a home for football into the largest basketball cathedral in a state full of them.  

Bjorn Franke/NCAA Photos/Getty Images (Avila); Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images (Darling); Alex Martin/Greenville News/USA TODAY NETWORK/Imagn Images (Hill Jr.), Craig Strobeck/Imagn Images (Johnston); Emilee Chinn/Getty Images (Mullins); Jeff Curry/Imagn Images (Oweh); Troy Taormina/Imagn Images (Pryce); James Gilbert/Getty Images (Rioux)

This hive of furious activity belies what it signifies: the end to this college basketball season and another March Madness in the books. The long pause that everyone in the building made so they could watch “One Shining Moment” in unison has faded. Coaches already turned their attention toward the transfer portal. Many fans celebrating around the Circle City have already begun discussing next season and if going back-to-back is a possibility. 

The thing about the NCAA tournament, however, is that it remains timeless. Legends are made one round but can be cemented forever. Shots that drop just before the buzzer get replayed over and over until millions know every beat of the play. One short run over a week’s worth of games can turn previously under the radar players into national phenoms. 

The 2026 Big Dance had no shortage of them. Here are a few who shined the brightest this March that we’ll say farewell to today but will never let them fade from memory.

UConn’s Braylon Mullins 

Mullins had an off night shooting in the national title game but will forever go down in Huskies history for helping them make it that far in the first place. 

“I wouldn’t change a thing. Representing this jersey in a community like Storrs, I think it’s been a blessing and I’m so grateful for it,” said a tearful Mullins after the title game. “Just being able to share the court with these guys, it’s a special group.”

The Greenville, Ind., kid who brought the program home for the Final Four became an overnight sensation across the country thanks largely to his heroics in the East Regional, with some clutch shotmaking helping stave off a comeback attempt by Michigan State in the Sweet 16 before unleashing the miraculous three on the edge of the March Madness logo that drove a stake through the heart of No. 1 overall seed Duke.

Recency bias might overstate things a tad, but given the timing, the history between the programs and that it sent UConn to a third Final Four in four years on the backs of a 19-point comeback, it might go down as one the greatest shots in modern tourney history.

St. John’s Dylan Darling 

His Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino bestowed the nickname “Bells” to Darling, owing to his fortitude to attempt things in the face of adversity. Did the world ever find that out against Kansas in the second round of their classic matchup in San Diego.

With just under four seconds left against the Jayhawks and staring at having to live with an unthinkable collapse, Darling calmly and cooly called his own number and scored the game-winning layup high off the backboard just before the horn sounded. It was a remarkable play in the clutch that was made all the more wilder by the fact that it scored his first points of the game.

Only in March does that tend to happen, which sent the Red Storm to their first Sweet 16 since 1999 in this case. Let the bells ring out for that.  

DYLAN DARLING GAME WINNER OMG 🚨

ST. JOHN'S ADVANCES TO THE SWEET 16 🤯 pic.twitter.com/cgtCSgKHe5

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 22, 2026

High Point’s Chase Johnston 

The tournament is often seen in the eye of the beholder. It can be the perfect encapsulation of a more mercenary approach to building a roster for some. For others, it can be all about how Cinderella has faded away from the Big Dance and how the domain of these magical three weeks has instead become the domain of those with the biggest checkbooks. 

None of that winds up mattering in the moment though, especially not to the star of the 12-seeded Panthers in leading one of the most surprising upsets of the tourney and busting more than a fair share of brackets in the process. Down one with the clock spiraling, Johnston picked an incredible time to swish his only two-point shot of the season (you read that right) by taking a long outlet pass in the waning moments and laying it in to help knock off No. 5 seed Wisconsin in Portland. 

It was something that doesn’t begin to make sense, someone who camps out beyond the three-point line and who hits the biggest shot in his life where nobody expected him to be. Such is the law of survive and advance though. 

Kentucky’s Otega Oweh 

The bank was still open late in St. Louis this year for Oweh, who was sensational in carrying Kentucky against Santa Clara with every one of his career-high 35 points.

Keep in mind that social media already spent much of the 40 minutes of game action discussing how disappointing the expensive Kentucky roster was this season and had all but written off Mark Pope’s team when they trailed by three with 2.4 seconds to go. But that’s all the time Oweh needed to get off an incredible running half-court buzzer beater that forced overtime, where he later sank some key free throws down the stretch to prevent an abject disaster in Lexington, Ky., this season.

“It’s March,” Oweh said. “I feel like that’s just what happens. You know, it’s crazy.”

Indeed. One just has to get off the shot and let the calendar do its magic to ensure that it all works out according to plan.

Florida’s Olivier Rioux 

It is not often that a benchwarmer on the reigning national champion can overshadow the rest of his team but that is both literally and figuratively the case for the mammoth 7' 9" center who turned into a sensation during the Gators’ trip to Tampa on the first weekend.

The crowd chanted his name. He went viral and then did so again when he met another Florida fan sitting behind him who became a social sensation for the size of his arms. If you think the curiosity over someone of Rioux’s size was limited to the average fan, you would be wrong—even 6' 8" Prairie View A&M forward Hassane Diallo was caught by cameras staring up at his Canadian opponent and saying he was tall as hell.

The final box score will say Rioux recorded only two points, two rebounds and an assist in his NCAA tournament career at Florida but everyone who caught a glimpse of him in action knows the fan favorite introduced himself to the rest of the country in a much bigger way during the opening round.

OLIVIER RIOUX HAMMER 🔨 pic.twitter.com/nXm1DqbcX8

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 21, 2026

VCU’s Terrence Hill Jr. 

The Atlantic 10 Sixth Man of the Year flew under the radar outside the most passionate of Rams supporters this season but became a March sensation by scoring bucket after bucket on his way to a career-high 34 points in the first round. That would be notable in its own right—especially with the dagger of a three in overtime to seal a first-round win—had it not been for who it was against in perennial blueblood North Carolina and why it was so memorable given it fueled an epic 19-point comeback. Hill truly did it all against the Tar Heels, too, driving the lane constantly, hitting threes in transition and pushing the tempo to get his team back in the game from off the bench.

It was all so ridiculous that years from now, we may have to look back at what a sensational outing it was through the context of the butterfly effect it created. Without Hill’s heroics, Hubert Davis is unlikely to be fired and who knows where new North Carolina coach Michael Malone lands at either the pro or college level. There’s a rich tourney tradition at VCU, but the latest entry in 2026 courtesy of their stellar guard will be pretty hard to top outside of another run to the Final Four. 

Saint Louis’s Robbie Avila 

You don’t have to wait until November to give thanks for the fact that the NCAA tournament finally got Avila to grace it with his presence.

First start with the type of player the Billikens star is, a big man who effortlessly keeps knocking down shots from behind the arc like he’s an NBA All-Star. He can fly up the court for someone his size and might be one of the best passers in the country with the way he can zip the ball around as soon as the inevitable double team comes.

Mostly though, it’s the entire glasses-toting look he brings to the table as a large pale white center that has since bequeathed him some of the greatest nicknames in the history of college hoops. Steph Blurry, Cream Abdul-Jabbar, Milk Chamberlain, College Jokić and Larry Nerd are a few of the regulars, but there are dozens more.

Regardless of which is your preferred pick, it’s hard to miss the guy who fueled a historic beat down of Georgia before giving eventual national champion Michigan plenty of problems, too. Salute. 

Nebraska’s Pryce Sandfort

Many players try to imitate Reggie Miller and Steph Curry during the tournament, but precious few actually shoot in a game like they’re on fire. Sandfort can claim to be one of them after fueling the Cornhuskers to their first-ever tourney victory and then making it to the second weekend in the South Regional.

The junior hit seven three-pointers in the first-round game against Troy that finally got Nebraska off the March losing skid and followed that up with some clutch plays to escape Vanderbilt late as part of one of the best back-and-forth games of the season. Then, against his former team Iowa, he added six more from behind the arc before the team fell just short of the Elite Eight.

Oh, and he did it all with a sports hernia that needed surgery.

Gutsy, fun and historic for Sandfort and all the Huskers following along with a never-before experienced run in roundball. 

That’s March though, where the last dance is often the most memorable of them all.

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