Buzzer-beaters are possibly the most exciting part of basketball, especially college basketball and March Madness. But not all buzzer-beaters are created equal. First, it has to actually beat the buzzer (if there is still time left on the clock, it is not a buzzer-beater!). After that, there are a number of things one must take into account when judging the greatness of a buzzer-beater. So I have attempted to create a sort of grading rubric for buzzer-beaters.
Degree Of Difficulty
The first thing to consider when determining the amazement of a buzzer-beater is how difficult it was. How bleak did the team's chances look in the final minutes/seconds? An epic comeback culminating in a buzzer-beater is better than losing the lead and winning on a buzzer-beater. How much of an underdog was the winning team (or how highly ranked was the losing team)? The shock factor is an important part of grading a buzzer-beater. Winning on the road also gets extra points, although they might lose points in the "Celebration" category (more on that later). The team also gets bonus points if they are playing shorthanded. Last, but not least, is the difficulty of the actual buzzer-beating shot. Full-court or half-court shots are obviously more amazing than layups. Buzzer-beating dunks and tip-ins may not be as difficult, but are still exciting and impressive (extra credit if a team can somehow win on a tip-in by the opponent). Likewise, having to take the ball the length of the court, especially without taking a timeout, is more impressive than setting up a play to win it. And obviously, game-winning buzzer-beaters beat game-tying buzzer-beaters.
Celebration
No buzzer-beater is complete without a jubilant celebration. There are various ways to go about this. Some common ones are the "jump around" celebration, the "dogpile" celebration, the "run away" celebration, and the "cold as ice" celebration (I didn't put much thought into these names, so feel free to come up with different names for them). The crowd celebration and commentator celebration are factors as well. The crazier the commentators' celebration, the better. And a court storming is always a plus.
Stakes
Last, but certainly not least, on my buzzer-beater grading rubric, is the measure of how high the stakes are. A buzzer-beater in the NCAA Tournament has a bit higher stakes than, say, one in the Maui Invitational. One in a conference championship game or the National Championship Game is even better.
Example:
Degree of Difficulty: 8/10
Things looked bleak when Butler traveled, giving Gonzaga the ball with 3.5 seconds remaining. It was pretty amazing when Roosevelt Jones stole the ball, brought it down the court, and lofted up a one-handed shot at the buzzer. A couple points are taken off because it wasn't a huge upset, they had home-court advantage, and the shot was close to the basket.
Celebration: 10/10
Jones and Butler did a combination of the "run away" celebration and the "dogpile" celebration, Dickie V went crazy, and the court storming was exemplary.
Stakes: 5/10
It was just a regular season game, although it was one around the halfway point of the season and it was a game between ranked teams.
Overall Shock Factor: 7.7/10
The "Overall Shock Factor" is just the overall grade for the buzzer-beater. I just average the scores for the other three areas to get it. Overall, this was a pretty amazing buzzer-beater, and it's hard to disagree.
This is a completely subjective grading scale, so it's okay if you disagree with my grades and factors. After all, this is my buzzer-beater grading scale, and even I am not 100% about my own grades. This is just a fun little way to judge the amazement of a buzzer-beater. But really, any buzzer-beater is pretty amazing.
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