Vanderbilt's Hail Mary shot misses by narrowest of margins as Nebraska advances to Sweet 16 in epic fashion

No. 5 Vanderbilt was a specified inch distant from possibly the astir historical changeable successful programme past until the shot did everything but drop.

Tyler Tanner's beyond-half-court heave to nonstop the Commodores to the Sweet 16 went in-and-out to springiness No. 4 Nebraska a 74-72 triumph and beforehand to the Sweet 16.

Nebraska entered the fractional with a 39-32 pb and led by arsenic galore arsenic 10 astatine 1 point, but Vanderbilt rallied backmost to pb by 5 with 5:34 to go.

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Tyler Tanner of the Vanderbilt Commodores shoots the shot against Sam Hoiberg of the Nebraska Cornhuskers during the last seconds of the 2nd circular of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament astatine Paycom Center connected March 21, 2026, successful Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

The Cornhuskers past answered backmost with a 6-0 tally to retake the lead, but Vanderbilt led 72-70 with little than a infinitesimal to spell aft a Tanner layup, which gave him 27 points connected the night.

Those, however, were Tanner's and Vanderbilt's last points of the game. Rienk Mast tied the crippled with a putback with 37 seconds left, and Vanderbilt's Chandler Bing missed a changeable to instrumentality a precocious lead.

Nebraska past ran down the court, and Pryce Sandfort recovered Braden Frager, who made a contested layup to instrumentality the pb with 2.2 seconds left.

Nebraska Cornhuskers defender Sam Hoiberg (1) celebrates with fans aft defeating the Vanderbilt Commodores successful a 2nd circular crippled of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament astatine Paycom Center.  (Alonzo Adams/Imagn Images)

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Vanderbilt called a timeout, and the inbound went to the red-hot Tanner, who intelligibly had the groove of his shot. He pulled up from half-court, but the changeable was a striking representation of Gordon Hayward's from the 2010 nationalist rubric crippled against Duke – disconnected the backboard, past the rim, past out.

Quite virtually everybody, adjacent the heavy-Nebraska assemblage successful Oklahoma City, was successful disbelief, but the enactment was connected for the reddish aft daze and alleviation rapidly turned into celebration.

It's Nebraska's archetypal clip ever making the Sweet 16 aft 8 anterior appearances without getting there.

Braden Frager of the Nebraska Cornhuskers celebrates aft the triumph against the Vanderbilt Commodores successful the 2nd circular of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament astatine Paycom Center connected March 21, 2026, successful Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

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Four Cornhuskers finished successful double-digits, with Sandfort and Frager each putting up 15. Nebraska volition look the victor of No. 1 Florida and No. 9 Iowa.

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