East Carolina’s stunning halfcourt buzzer-beater reminds you college basketball is back

There are a lot of sports going on in Nov. NFL playoff races are just heating up, college football is readying for conference championship games, there are an overwhelming amount of awesome NBA highlights to watch every night, and the MLB hot stove is just starting to get going.

College basketball has joined the party, too, and the early part of the season is always highly entertaining as teams figure out their identity in real time. It feels like women’s college hoops has all the superstars and all the drama these days, but the boys can play a little bit, too, and they remind us of it every night.

The Maui Invitational is stealing the national spotlight right now, but games are going on all over the country. On Tuesday night, the place to be was East Carolina vs. Kennesaw State, an American vs. Atlantic Sun Conference battle that only a sicko could love. It just so happened to produce the best ending the week.

Bobby Pettiford Jr., who transferred from Kansas to East Carolina over the offseason, hit the first miraculous buzzer-beater of the men’s season, draining a shot from beyond halfcourt to give the Pirates a one-point win. Watch the shot here:

East Carolina finished third from the bottom in the conference last year, but adding a high-major talent like Pettiford will be big for their chances this year. He finished with 18 points and three assists in the win over the Owls, with no bucket bigger than the last one.

College hoops never disappoints. There’s no reason to wait until March to hop on the bandwagon.