YouTube Gold: Kihei Clark’s Greatest Play

One of the greatest clutch plays in recent NCAA tournament history.

When former Virginia coach Tony Bennett saw Kihei Clark play in high school, he turned to an assistant coach who made the trip to California with him and declared “that kid’s a winner.”

As it turned out, he ws entirely correct, and Virginia would not have won the 2019 national championship without him.

Virginia started Travis Guy and Ty Jerome in the backcourt, bringing freshman Clark off the bench.

And when Virginia played Purdue in the Elite Eight and Carsen Edwards was on an immortal heater (42 points including 10 threes) and Purdue had Virginia on the ropes, Clark came through.

Jerome was at the line and missed. Mamadi Diakate tipped out into the backcourt where Clark raced to pick it up. He then made a beautiful pass back to Diakite who hit a shot to put the game into overtime.

He hit the shot and got a certain amount of glory for that, but the simple truth is that Bennett was right about Clark. He is a winner. And no Clark, no Final Four, no national championship.

It was simply a brilliant pass.