One Frame At A Time: Houston and Texas A&M
I think I've waited long enough that I can post this now.
It's taken me a while to get around to tournament GIFs for a number of reasons, some NCAA-related and some not, but I finally made it through the Houston and Texas A&M games. (As per blog policy, there was no Montana game. It's just a figment of your imagination.) It'll take me a bit longer to get around to Florida State and Loyola Chicago, but I'll get to those too.
One thing I apparently won't get to: a supercut of three-pointers against Texas A&M, as this is what happened when I attempted to put that together with my normally unfailing GIF software:
In the words of the Texas twitter account: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[Hit THE JUMP for every conceivable angle of the Poole Party, CJ Baird Tha Gawd, and much more.]
The full album for the Houston game is available here; the full Texas A&M album is here. Those are all honorable mentions in my heart; my top 15(-ish) from both games follows.
15. Temporary Depair
We can appreciate this pitch-perfect Charles Matthews reaction GIF co-starring Isaiah Livers now that we know the outcome.
14. Bag of Tricks
When it's going well, it's going well.
13. Jordan Poole's And-One Dance
We're gonna really have to savor the five minutes a game this dude is on the bench next year.
12. Moe's Relationship With Refs, Summarized
What's German for "the f*** did I do?"
11. Exclamation Point
This game was so fun I completely forgot this happened.
10. Z-Fense
Bulldog defeates manbun.
9. Basketball Nirvana/Game Summary
You, me, and everyone else during the A&M game.
8. Masterful Camerawork
Almost zoomed too close to the sun, but instead the cameraperson absolutely nailed this.
7. Get The Flop Out
In slow motion:
The original angle critically includes Zavier Simpson's spot-on reaction:
6. NOT THE PLAN
This looks pretty ordinary until you see the Houston assistant coach who clearly gameplanned for this exact situation to no avail. Then you can't stop watching him.
5. Showtime x2
Running back on defense before the ball goes in is some extreme Golden State shit and I'm 100% here for it:
This play was in that vein as well:
That whole game, really.
4. BIG COUNTRY PANDEMONIUM
The replay angle is fun:
The broadcast is better because you can see Moe Wagner leap off the stationary bike and leave the bench area altogether:
Somehow this was only the second-best garbage time moment from this game.
3. Sports.
MAAR's arm going up is the deflating raptor tail of this new version of the SPORTS gif.
2. CJ BAIRD THA GAWD
Broadcast:
Replay with twitter avatar for life:
The bench losing its collective mind:
Somehow this was not the best moment of Michigan's NCAA Tournament.
FRAMES OF THE GAMES: POOLE PARTY
ALL THE ANGLES, PLEASE.
THANK YOU, JORDAN POOLE.
A NOTE ON DOWNLOADING GFYCATS
I've noticed a few comments about the low quality of some gifs when you download from the gfycat page. I found a workaround.
1. If you click any of the honorable mention links, you'll go right to the page you need. If you click on the gfycat embeds, they take you to a slightly different page, so you'll need to change the URL from gfycat.com/gifs/detail/[gif name] to gfycat.com/[gif name].
2. Click on the settings button in the lower right corner to bring up a number of options. This lets you set the quality of the gfycat, toy with the playback speed (highly recommended), play it in reverse, and download GIF versions. You'll want to hit "open large GIF format" because the small ones are of essentially unusable quality.
3. I haven't figured out a rhyme or reason to this, but sometimes that's all you need to do and sometimes that link just takes you back to the original gfycat. If the "open large GIF format" URL is thumbs.gfycat.com/[gif name]-max-14mb.gif, you're good to go.
4. The URL may just be gfycat.com/[gif name], however. If that's the case, simply copy and paste the gif name (the random three-word combination in the URL) and use the correct URL (thumbs.gfycat.com/[gif name]-max-14mb.gif) instead. Now you should be able to load the GIF, right-click, and save.
Go Blue. Hope next year is as fun.
Boy was that fun. I'm sure I will watch these again tonight, and force the wife to watch too many of them.
Aw man, this brought back some feels and I needed to go rewatch all the Poole Party replays again. I think this site should have regularly scheduled "Remember that time Jordan Poole hit that shot" posts just so we have excuses to go re-live it again.
"AND IT GOOOOEEESS, FOR THE WIN!!!"
All the goosebumps!!! Thanks for this, Ace.
Again!
After the bitter taste of the Villanova game, this is the perfect cleanser. What a run it was.
You can see the camera shake from the eruption in the stadium. Good times...
That camera is the one on top of the backboard, so the shaking is actually the ball going in. I think that makes it cooler...
Those gifs brought tears to my eyes. Everything good about college basketball summed up by his, and even more his teammates', reaction. Loved this team.
Beilein keeps it together, but I hadn't noticed Luke Yaklich completely losing his cool on the sidelines before. So much fun.
seeing Jordan Poole's game winning buzzer beater shot. What a fantastic run to the NC game. What an enjoyable month of March beginning with the domination of B1G Tourney.
Looks like the workday is wrapping up early today.....
Ace, thanks for putting this together.
I needed it.
Don't care that it's late. So glad you posted it. The distance of time means that watching these felt new again.
Thanks!
Ace, thank you for always making these gifs. I don't know anything about how to make them, but it's gotta be pretty tedious.
Every time I see the Poole gif, the first thing I think about is that unfathomable laser that Livers throws to Rahk. Like how is that even possible.
That first angle really shows how much he put on that throw. I didn't realize that until Ace's gif. I've heard Beilein's comments on his arm, and now I understand.
Michigan won 2 games directly from his inbounds ability, plus 3 more in the tourney (games after Houston). His rotator cuff is a legitimate weapon.
That .gif perfectly encapsulates ABC's Wild World of Sports catchprase all in one shot:
The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.
Thank for these, Ace! I hated how things ended but enjoyed the whole ride with this team.
thenkew thenkew thenkew
Great job. Love them all. This team was a blast.
#6-Would love to know what he is thinking. That is fantastic.
Ibi when Poole hits that shot: 'dammit, i wanted to go home and transfer.' At least that's the only thing I've got to explain his reacting like the Houston players.
so much pure, unbridled joy in these moments.
what a fun bunch, and great run.
It never gets old. The shot and the instantaneous eruption of pure joy is just so awesome.
the aTm game was the most fun I've had since being at the first ND nite football game.
What a joy that was at staples.
#11 is a near-perfect replica of the THJ/Stu dunk against Tennessee in (appropriately enough) 2011.
The A&M bench reaction to GIF #5 is hilarious!! Can't wait for next years squad!
Go Blue!!
That was beautiful. All of it.
Careful Ace; Poole may ask you: Do I amuse you?
...The dejection after the missed driving layup on the previous possession. I almost turned off the TV; but Beilein was so matter-of-fact about the situation. We hope for one missed free throw and execute our play to tie. You could literally see a bounce in our step after two missed free throws, like "ok, let's do what we practice all the time for this situation". But you had to love the lack of panick or self-pity by Beilein...he still had a job to do!
reaction when baird's 3 goes in is awesome. just how happy he is the instant it goes from 'hey this might go in' to 'yeaaahhh baby' is great to see. love the genuine euphoria and support for the teammate
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