SI

Intense Scott Van Pelt Shown on TV Moments Before Michigan State Ripped His Heart Out

And now he's got to go to work to do the highlights.

Stephen Douglas

Scott Van reacts to Maryland tying the game against Michigan State.
Scott Van reacts to Maryland tying the game against Michigan State. / @cjzer
In this story:

The Michigan State Spartans stunned the Maryland Terrapins on Wednesday night on a Tre Holloman buzzer-beater from beyond half-court.

The score was tied at 55 a piece when Holloman let it fly. As he took the shot, the home crowd was full of optimism that they could beat the No. 8 Spartans in overtime. As it dropped through the net, their dreams were crushed.

No one could have possibly taken it harder than ESPN's Scott Van Pelt, who graduated from Maryland in 1988. The SportsCenter host received a warm welcome from the crowd, and was shown on the Big Ten Network intensely reacting to Ja'Kobi Gillespie hitting two free throws to tie the game with less than a minute remaining.

This would end up being one of those images that precedes an unfortunate event.

SVP did not post through it, but he did send a message on X saying, "What a shot. I have to go to work now. Hahaha. Cool."

Most people would welcome the distraction after seeing this in person, but Van Pelt is headed to the SportsCenter set in Washington D.C. where he will inevitably have to narrate the highlights from this game.

Heaven help him if it was also a bad beat.

More of the Latest Around College Basketball

feed

Published
Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

Home/College Basketball