Before the 2020 NCAA men’s basketball tournament was canceled, there was plenty of talk around the idea that the BYU Cougars could make some serious noise. Then after the event was called off, one ESPN simulation showed the Cougars making it all the way to the national championship game, where they “lost” to the Wisconsin Badgers.
On Monday night, when that game would have been held, the BYU Basketball Twitter account posted a video created by Idaho Lego stop-motion animator Jared Jacobs that shows guard TJ Haws making a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to top the Kansas Jayhawks to win the title.
The “play-by-play” of the video is performed by the voice of the Cougars, Greg Wrubell.
As designed by Jacobs, the play comes with 10 seconds left, the Jayhawks leading 79-78 and BYU needing to go the length of the floor for a basket. Haws inbounds the ball to Jake Toolson, who gives it right back to Haws. The ball then swings along the perimeter from Haws to Alex Barcello to Toolson, who passes it inside the paint to Yoeli Childs.
He is double-teamed, but has a clear pass to an open Haws behind the 3-point line. Haws rises up for the shot, and it bounces around the rim as the buzzer sounds before dropping in the net.
“He got it! He got it! TJ Haws with the shot of his career, and it’s a Cougar Nation celebration. BYU 81, Kansas 79. The BYU Cougars are college basketball’s national champions,” Wrubell exclaims.
Jacobs had some fun interactions with fans on Twitter after the video was released.
Jacobs also tweeted a short video showing a behind-the-scenes look at how he produced the scene.
This is far from the first time Jacobs has done something like this. He has also re-created moments such as John Beck’s pass to Jonny Harline to beat Utah in 2006 and Tanner Mangum’s Hail Mary against Nebraska in 2015, among more nationally known moments, such as Kawhi Leonard’s Game 7 game-winner for the Toronto Raptors against the Philadelphia 76ers last year.