In a typical season, more than 5,000 games are played between Division I men's college basketball teams. Most are forgotten. But on Nov. 25, 2017, a seemingly normal matchup between the No. 14 Minnesota Golden Gophers and No. 25 Alabama Crimson Tide at Barclays Center in Brooklyn fell off the rails and into the history books.
In what is now known as the 3-on-5 game, Alabama had only three players on the court because of a perfect storm of ejections, disqualifications and injuries.
Freshman guard and future No. 8 NBA Draft pick Collin Sexton, freshman big man reserve Galin Smith and veteran bench sharpshooter Riley Norris took on an entire Minnesota team for the last 10 minutes and 41 seconds of the game, rallying from a double-digit deficit to deliver one of the most outrageous college basketball games ever played.
This is the story of what happened that day from the people who were there to witness it.
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Barclays Center was far from full that day, but the crowd was loud. Minnesota guard Isaiah Washington brought a large contingent out to support the hometown kid, and most of the stadium was rooting for the Golden Gophers.
Galin Smith, Alabama forward: There was a lot of emotion. For a lot of us, it was our first time in Barclays. For me, it was my first time in New York in general. Me and a lot of my teammates were in our freshman year. And with the crowd being into it, and Minnesota having a crowd, it ramped us up even more to try and get to it.
Collin Sexton, Alabama guard: I was just trying to win, whether you can shut the crowd up or the [Minnesota] team up a little bit.
Aaron Jordan, Alabama director of basketball communications: It was an intense game. Two big-time programs, both came into the game undefeated. The refs were letting us play a little bit.
The first half played out much like a normal game with Alabama trailing 41-29 at the half.
With 14:40 left in the second half, Sexton tripped while guarding Minnesota's Nate Mason. Mason paused to turn and look at Sexton fall to the ground before drilling a 3-pointer, extending his team's lead to 14.
Thirty-four seconds later, Mason and Sexton began jawing at each other, receiving double-technical fouls. Mason received a second technical and was ejected.
Referees then added to the chaos by hitting Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino with a technical foul.
Chris Hassel, Stadium play-by-play announcer: There was this group of fans behind us that were so loud, encouraging players to do things, and kind of trash talking. The players could hear. When Mason hit that shot and looked [Sexton] in the eye, the fans behind us just erupted. And I think that not only did it get to Mason, but I think that really fired up Collin Sexton as well.
Sexton: Anything still fires me up. Everything someone says, I still have that fire in me. That was the start of it. We both got a technical foul. After that, things started getting a little rough, out of hand in a way.
Smith: I feel like the game just started to get all over the place and out of control. And I guess the refs didn't really know what to do because it was going back and forth so much. And then it just ended up getting to where it got to.
They just started slamming technicals left and right. It was a lot of confusion.
Twenty-seven seconds later, the game had to be stopped again.
Alabama's Dazon Ingram and Minnesota's Dupree McBrayer got tangled up underneath the basket. Players rushed in to break up the fight. Both Ingram and McBrayer were issued technical fouls, the fifth and sixth of the half.
Upon video review, officials determined that Alabama's entire bench had stepped onto the floor. All seven players who were not checked in at the time of the fight were ejected from the game.
Alabama would have only five players available for the rest of the game. No one from Minnesota was thrown out.
Alabama's bench pic.twitter.com/ymgc7AN94d
— Rob Dauster (@RobDauster) November 25, 2017
Jordan: You know what's funny about this? This game was on a Saturday. It was a big game, but there was no major network wanting to pick it up because it was right in the middle of the day, during Saturday football games. So, it was on this first of its kind brand new network called Stadium, streaming on Facebook at the time.
Without Stadium, there would have been no video. It kind of gave Stadium a name for itself a little bit, you know, because they were the only people that had this footage.
When our guys stepped onto the court, they didn't rush on there. I mean, they were on the court, so by rule, they should have been ejected. But because Stadium was a new thing, they only had one camera angle, so they couldn't even look at Minnesota's bench.
Hassel: I thought I saw [Minnesota] players on the court. But not that far, only a few steps on the court.
Avery Johnson, Alabama head coach: They had a few players come off, but the story wouldn't have been as good. I'm glad that the story unfolded the way it did. Every year around this time in college basketball, from a historical standpoint, the highlights are gonna be talked about.
Play finally restarted after an eight-minute delay. Alabama would have five players and zero subs.
Jordan: When we first went 5-on-5, I mean, they were just dominating us. [Minnesota's lead] went from seven to 13 in a heartbeat.
Just two minutes after going down to only five players, Ingram fouled out of the game with 11:37 remaining. Alabama would have to go the rest of the way with only four players.
Smith: Once Dazon fouled out, I was like, "Well, I guess the game's over now." But then they said, "No, you can keep playing." Then we were even more in disbelief because we were like, "We gotta play with four people?" At that point, we had nothing to lose.
Forty-seven seconds later, Alabama guard John Petty landed on a Minnesota defender's foot while attempting a 3-pointer, badly spraining his ankle. He would need to be helped off the floor.
Alabama would play the rest of the way with only three players and a 13-point deficit to erase.
John Petty’s out. It’s 3-on-5 now. pic.twitter.com/Ngv3EuwRSk
— Chris Stone (@cstonehoops) November 25, 2017
Hassel: I kept hitting talkback like, "Wait, what happens now?" I don't know. We didn't know if there was a rule because it had never happened as far as I'm concerned. It turns out that they just ask the coach, "Do you want to keep playing?" And Avery Johnson just kept saying, "Yeah, we'll just keep going."
Johnson: I didn't know that the game was going to be able to continue. I was unaware of what the rules were at that time. But when they said, "Hey, as long as you got three, you can keep playing," I turned to different emotions. One of the main emotions was excitement, because this could go down as the greatest win in college basketball history.
Antoine Pettway, Alabama assistant coach: Never thought of forfeiting. That wasn't an option. Those three guys wouldn't let us.
Smith: [Forfeiting] wasn't even on the table. We're going to go finish it out.
At the start of the 3-on-5 portion of the game, Minnesota built their lead up to 14. Johnson called a timeout with 7:44 left to regroup. He gathered Sexton, Norris and Smith around his clipboard.
Pettway: I have no idea what he was drawing up. Draw up give it to Collin Sexton.
Johnson: I was trying to draw up flares and picks and double screens, everything known to man.
Smith: Wasn't really too much to say because it's just pickup at that point. We gotta make it happen.
Johnson: I had to calm them down a bit. My thought, especially with Collin, was, "Hey, you're good enough to play 1-on-3, let alone 1-on-2. If you play 1-on-3, let our other guys play 2-on-2, then we got a chance to win."
They thought it was funny, but it was the truth! They came out totally relaxed, and Collin basically started beating three people.
Pettway: It was 3-on-5. [Sexton] made it 5-on-5 because he was like three people himself. He was balling. He's different.
Riley Norris, Alabama forward: I remember Collin laughing at one point. Coach Avery was telling us, "Let's just get in a triangle on defense."
Johnson: We fell back into a triangle defense, forced Minnesota to take outside shots and then gang rebound the ball and get out and run. Tried to get Collin the ball in the open floor before they got their defense set.
The players returned to the court, and Alabama slowly started to chip away at the lead.
Jordan: There was a feeling in the whole arena, like, "We're going to lose by 30, and it's not even fair." But one of the first things I noticed was that Minnesota had no idea what to do. Richard Pitino didn't have any idea what to do. It was confusing to them. I think they kind of backed off. They wanted to show a little mercy, I guess. But Collin was not the type — he was not going to stop. And it opened the door for him.
Sexton: As you can see, they definitely got nervous.
Johnson, on if Minnesota froze up: Absolutely. And it's through no fault of the kids. They had never been in that situation, nor had their coaches. It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
Smith: [Minnesota's] trash talk was at a really high level. But once that pressure kicked in, they started seeing us creep back, it quieted down. All the way.
Sexton: All of it. All of the trash talk stopped because they started realizing it was a game again. We were a team that once you started talking, we played that much harder and that much more aggressive.
Norris: I remember one possession, we're playing defense. Coach Pitino was getting angry, telling them, "Just run the offense!" They started doing a dribble-drive, behind the 3-point line, but we weren't moving. We were staying in the paint just watching them.
D EM UP, BAMA pic.twitter.com/21dur2vGLe
— beng (@kicknyrgios) November 25, 2017
Sexton hit a deep 3-pointer to cut Minnesota's lead down to 12. He ripped the ball away on a rebound and fed Norris for a basket to get it to 10. After a Minnesota basket, he spun through a double-team into another double-team and hit a fading 3-pointer to get it to nine.
He dove to the floor to keep a possession alive, getting Norris to the line, who split the pair of free throws. Then, after a Minnesota jumper finally fell, he hit another triple to get it to seven.
Pettway: It turned into basically a pickup game. Collin, go score on three dudes. If they triple team, throw it to Riley for a three.
Norris: Collin, as he always is, was like, "I just want the ball. Give me the ball." And we were like, "All right, let's give him the ball!"
Sexton: I remember telling them, "Give me the ball and space out." I'd rather space out than bunch up. It's basically like playing tag. When you play tag, you never want to bunch up.
Collin Sexton just moved to #1 on my draft board lol pic.twitter.com/Itu1zf8ZQ6
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) November 26, 2017
With 1:45 remaining, Minnesota missed another wide open jump shot. An exhausted Sexton grabbed the rebound between two Minnesota players and outran everyone else on the court to make a layup, bringing the score to 83-80.
Smith: I was trying to keep up with him, but he took off, and he was going. Didn't surprise me because he's one of the fastest players I've seen with the ball.
Norris: It's not like we could run a play 3-on-5. Looking back, how could he get to the rim? Just the way it worked out, it was so surreal.
Sexton: I was pretty much thinking, "Man, you can be tired after the game. Let's finish the game strong." During that play, I was like, "Let's race it down the court and see what we can do."
Smith: We were [gassed]. But in that moment, the adrenaline rush was helping a lot, being in the moment and realizing what was going on. We're really playing 3-on-5, this is crazy and we are in New York. This is really going on right now. That was fueling us, especially when we went on the run and felt like we really might be able to get this thing.
When I was gassed at the very very end, I looked at the bench, and it was a reminder. There's nobody helping you out.
Johnson: I don't know if [Collin] needed an IV, but he sure did look like it.
Sexton did have one secret weapon to give him that last boost of energy.
Amanda Branson, team dietitian: Collin was obsessed with Skittles during the games.
Clarke Holter, athletic trainer: We have energy chews. He would opt for a handful of Skittles. Most media timeouts, he'd have four or five of those.
Sexton: That was my energy boost, absolutely.
Through a Herculean effort, Alabama had shaved the deficit from 13 at the start of the 3-on-5 portion of the game to only three points with 1:20 left. That's when the momentum finally ran out.
Sexton stepped back into a long jumper that missed short, and Minnesota converted an and-one layup on the other end to put the game out of reach.
When the final buzzer sounded, Alabama had lost, 89-84. But the trio had made a game of it, outscoring Minnesota's five-man units by eight points. Pitino, looking shell-shocked, told the broadcast, "Collin Sexton, he could beat a single team just by himself. He's that good."
Sexton, Norris and Smith headed back to the locker room to reunite with their teammates.
Pettway: That 3-on-5 game helped build character, camaraderie with the team. All our guys were in the locker room watching on the television. You could hear them cheering, going crazy back there. It was pretty cool.
After the game ended, they were right at the door. Some of them had tears in their eyes. Dapping each other up, telling them they loved each other.
Johnson: My son Avery Jr. was leading the way. They were really passionate, hugging the guys, right there in the hallway waiting. It was a pretty emotional scene, like a picture out of a movie. Pretty endearing, and an emotional moment for our team.
Norris: They all had enough energy for a whole day's practice. They were fired up. And we were like, "All right, we just want to get back to the hotel room," because we were so tired.
That day, it was impossible not to root for Alabama and its refusal to quit against insurmountable odds.
Sexton: In a way, it definitely did feel like we was fighting against the refs, everybody, the crowd that they had there. Once we started to come back, we could feel the energy swap in the building. They started cheering for us, which was pretty cool.
Norris: It felt like the whole gym was cheering for us. It was unlike anything I have ever been a part of, and I've been playing since I was three years old. To this day, if I say I played basketball at Alabama, the first thing people say is, "Were you in that 3-on-5 game?"
Sexton: During that time, people knew me. I was in the draft rankings, but that game really put my name out there even more than before.
It definitely worked in my favor, and it worked in our team's favor a lot more because people were watching our team a lot more. Scouts were watching our team, and it gave my teammates opportunities as well. ... The game didn't just help me. It helped teammates to realize their skill levels, whether they're overseas or in the NBA.
Johnson: I sure think that game helped his draft position. My dream for him was for him to be a lottery pick. I'm sure some of the games where maybe we didn't play as well, or he didn't play as well, [general managers] could go back to that game and say, "Man, he's a warrior. He's a Young Bull." He was every bit of the "Young Bull" in that game — threes, attacking the basket, explosiveness. I'm sure it cemented him as a lottery pick.
I told the team how proud I was of them. I still am proud of them.
Sexton: I definitely appreciate all of the Alabama staff people that were there, everybody that pushed me when I was in school.
Smith: They're going to be my friends, my family, forever. We're forever close.
