Boston Celtics veteran forward Gordon Hayward may be missing March Madness like the rest of us, but we all can look back to his and his teammates’ NCAA Tournament performances while we wait for the NBA to resume operations.
And in today’s installment of the Missing March Madness series, we turn to Hayward’s 2010 win over the Kansas State Wildcats on this date that would set up his Bulldogs with a Final Four showdown with the Michigan State Spartans.
In a storybook ending, the Indiana native scored 22 points and 9 rebounds to help secure a 63-56 victory the Wildcats nearly stole late in the second half.
A late corralling by Hayward of an errant pass from teammate Ronald Nored and an improbable bucket afterward broke a 54-up tie in the game’s final moments, and the future All-Star wing made history with his mid-major school as a result.
“I’ve said it already lots of times,” Hayward said of then-Butler and now-Boston head coach Brad Stevens via the Associated Press. “Coach and my teammates put me in that position and sometimes you’ve just got to make a play, and I was lucky enough to hit it.”
