You’ll always remember where you were when Braylon Mullins shot UConn into Final Four, and other thoughts

UConn's Braylon Mullins (24) hit a 3-pointer to beat Duke and send UConn to the Final Four.Abbie Parr/Associated Press

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Red Sox to stagger into Fenway for their 126th home opener . . .

⋅ Where were you when UConn’s Braylon Mullins launched the shot heard ’round basketball America?

I was alone in my TV room/man cave, eyes glued to the giant flatscreen as the beautiful orange sphere flew 35 feet, then ripped through the netting with nary a trace of iron. I hollered, “Wow!” or some other profound remark that no one could hear. Not even the chair.

I starting thinking of friends and family across the land, wondering where they were watching, and how they were reacting.

Was former Globe columnist Leigh Montville watching? Montville’s a proud UConn alum who goes back to the days of Wes Bialosuknia and Toby Kimball. I knew he’d made a small purchase at Jordan’s Furniture during the “your furniture will be free if UConn’s men’s and women’s teams play for the championship” window. For sure, Leigh was watching.

What about Jim Calhoun? He’s a Braintree guy who first coached at Dedham High School, then had Reggie Lewis at Northeastern, and wound up at UConn, where he won the school’s first three men’s NCAA basketball championships. No doubt Calhoun was watching. Maybe he was there.

And what about my two grandsons — 9- and 8-year-old cousins who’d been raining threes at a 7-foot rim in my driveway all afternoon? They’d used red and blue chalk to outline a makeshift key/foul lane, then drew a semicircle 3-point arc for long-range target practice. It was “Little Rascals” stuff right outside my back door because they’d been bored with Michigan’s early-afternoon blowout of Tennessee. I knew they made it home for supper and was hoping they’d been allowed to stay up for Duke-UConn.

I checked with their folks Monday and learned that Nico had watched the final five minutes in real time, while Danny had gone upstairs to read before bed, shielded from the game’s outcome, then summoned for a replay of the final 45 seconds.

Perfect. Those young guys may never be varsity basketball players, but they’ll be hoop fans for life. A finish like that burns a memory in 9- and 8-year-old brains. Sometime around 2090, they’ll be telling their grandsons about the day they launched threes at a 7-foot rim in Papa’s driveway, then watched 10 seconds of frenzied fury when a fresh-faced kid from Indiana splashed a 35-foot game-winner in the final second of play.

My cynical eyes long ago lost interest in big-time college sports. Money, greed, and court orders made a farce of the once-noble notion of legitimate student-athletes competing for a letter sweater and the glory of State U. A century of compelling rivalries, regional conference identities, and Cinderella tales have dissolved into today’s cesspool of NIL, transfer portals, and Stanford playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Boola-boola has been replaced by moola moola. No thanks to all of it.

But in that moment early Sunday night, it was all about passion, late-game cool, and Jimmy Chitwood coming to life at Capital One Arena in Washington.

“I think it’s the greatest shot in NCAA Tournament history,” said CBS’s Lesley Visser, who’s attending her 42nd Final Four in Indianapolis this weekend.

“It’s singularly the most incredible moment I’ve had following college basketball,” said Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Hurley Sr., father of UConn coach Dan Hurley.

Those of us with no horse in this race — folks who didn’t buy any furniture from Jordan’s — can live with any of the Final Four teams winning this weekend. We’ve already seen the moment that reminds us why we love sports in the first place.

A moment that made two little guys fans for life.

⋅ Quiz: 1. Name the Red Sox’ career leader in games at every position on the diamond (three outfielders, not specific to LF, CF, RF); 2. Name four female athletes included among Time magazine’s 100 Women of the Year, a historical project highlighting 100 influential women between 1920-2019.

⋅ Anagram of the week: Red Sox lineup = No deluxe rips.

⋅ Last month Celtics boss Brad Stevens came to a fund-raiser screening of “Hoosiers,” then participated in a panel along with Newton North varsity basketball coach John McNamara. Stevens’s son was an outstanding player at Wellesley High School (currently on the Notre Dame squad, Brady Stevens hopes to coach someday) and his daughter plays varsity soccer. Here’s Stevens’s response when asked what it’s like for someone with his résumé to watch his children perform at the scholastic level:

“I like my daughter’s soccer games because I don’t know as much. I try to sit there and bite my lip. It is different. I have a ton of respect for coaches and I have a ton of respect for officials and everybody who’s putting those events on. And I think it’s really important that, as parents, we are really supportive of those people. My own personal thing is, if somebody is taking the time to coach my kid — and they’re doing it positively, they’re making a positive impact on them — there is no reason for me to do anything but say, ‘Thank you.’ That’s kind of the way I feel. I know that’s not the way that it always works. I’ve talked to the young Wellesley hoops groups at different levels. If your kid is good enough, you’ll separate yourself and show that. Right? And that happens. I just hope that we all can enjoy, as parents, our kids’ journeys from afar and support everybody involved.”

Wow. Post it on every school gym in America.

⋅ These are not car “accidents” involving Tiger Woods. These are “crashes,” caused by Woods, who can’t seem to hire a driver even though he’s worth $1.5 billion. Woods’s high-speed crash in Los Angeles in 2021 almost cost him his leg but was shamelessly broomed by LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. The sheriff failed to drug test Woods and issued no citation (not even a speeding ticket) even though pre-crash data from Woods’s SUV revealed that Woods drove 84-87 miles per hour in a 45-m.p.h. zone, crossed over into the opposite lane, jumped the curb, and crashed into a tree while the foot pedal was at 99 percent acceleration. Woods was badly injured and told authorities he had no memory of the crash. The fanboy sheriff insisted Woods got no special treatment. Villanueva was voted out of office in 2022, but he is running again this year.

⋅ Joe Mazzulla, considered a strong candidate for the NBA’s Coach of the Year award, had a field day dumping on the honor while speaking to reporters in Atlanta this past week. “I don’t need it,” Mazzulla said. “I think it’s a stupid award. They shouldn’t have it. I don’t ever want to be asked or talk about it again. It’s just that dumb.” Swell, Coach. Red Auerbach, Tom Heinsohn, and Bill Fitch all won the award while coaching the Celtics. Recipients of the award receive a trophy depicting Auerbach on the Celtics’ bench, cigar in hand.

⋅ Saw something I’ve never seen before last Saturday in Cincinnati. In the 11th inning of the Red Sox’ 6-5 loss to the Reds, the Sox came to the plate and made three outs with only two batters coming to the plate. Ceddanne Rafaela was the automatic runner to start the inning. Roman Anthony stuck out swinging, then Trevor Story lined out to second and Rafaela was doubled off. In an inning in which no runners scored, only two batters came to the plate. A first for these eyes.

⋅ The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner came up with some whopper stats in a couple of pieces that explain why it’s so hard to hit today. Ted Williams faced 74 different pitchers when he hit .406 in 1941. A typical 2026 everyday player will face upward of 300 different pitchers this year. And they all throw 95 miles per hour with three different fastballs — hardly ever for more than four or five innings per appearance. Only three big leaguers threw more than 200 innings in 2025. In four seasons in the mid-1970s, Hall of Famer Jim Palmer averaged 313 innings. Overall, he topped 274 innings eight times.

⋅ The Bruins fired Bruce Cassidy because he was too tough on players. Cassidy went off and won the Stanley Cup in his first season with the Vegas Golden Knights. Last weekend, the Knights fired Cassidy even though they are a good bet to make the playoffs. Cassidy’s replacement is combustible John Tortorella, which means the new boss is going to make the old boss look like Caspar Milquetoast.

The Golden Knights fired coach Bruce Cassidy even though they're likely to make the playoffs.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

⋅ The 76ers scored 153 points on Wednesday without Joel Embiid playing.Paul George scored 39. Are they going to be first-round trouble for somebody in the East?

⋅ Anybody notice that Larry Bird is wearing Nikes on the cover of Keith O’Brien’s best-selling “Heartland”? Indiana State didn’t have any shoe contract in the late 1970s and Bird alternated with Nike, Adidas, and Converse. There are tales of a frenzy at the Sycamores’ hotel in Utah for the Final Four. Bird ended up wearing Cons against DePaul and Michigan State, and he has been a Converse man ever since.

Larry Bird, best known for wearing Converse sneakers, is wearing Nikes as the cover of "Heartland."

⋅ Author Gary Myers is at work on a new book, tracking John Harbaugh’s first year with the New York Football Giants.

⋅ Curt Schilling in CarShield ads? Somebody didn’t do their homework.

⋅ Quiz answers: 1. C Jason Varitek, 1B George Scott, 2B Bobby Doerr, SS Xander Bogaerts, 3B Wade Boggs, OF Ted Williams, Dwight Evans, Carl Yastrzemski, P Bob Stanley; 2. Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1932), Billie Jean King (1975), Florence Griffith Joyner (1988), Serena Williams (2003).