One Frame At A Time: Houston and Texas A&M Comment Count

Ace

I think I've waited long enough that I can post this now.

It's taken me a while to get around to tournament GIFs for a number of reasons, some NCAA-related and some not, but I finally made it through the Houston and Texas A&M games. (As per blog policy, there was no Montana game. It's just a figment of your imagination.) It'll take me a bit longer to get around to Florida State and Loyola Chicago, but I'll get to those too.

One thing I apparently won't get to: a supercut of three-pointers against Texas A&M, as this is what happened when I attempted to put that together with my normally unfailing GIF software:

In the words of the Texas twitter account: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[Hit THE JUMP for every conceivable angle of the Poole Party, CJ Baird Tha Gawd, and much more.]

The full album for the Houston game is available here; the full Texas A&M album is here. Those are all honorable mentions in my heart; my top 15(-ish) from both games follows.

15. Temporary Depair

We can appreciate this pitch-perfect Charles Matthews reaction GIF co-starring Isaiah Livers now that we know the outcome.

14. Bag of Tricks

When it's going well, it's going well.

13. Jordan Poole's And-One Dance

We're gonna really have to savor the five minutes a game this dude is on the bench next year.

12. Moe's Relationship With Refs, Summarized

What's German for "the f*** did I do?"

11. Exclamation Point

This game was so fun I completely forgot this happened.

10. Z-Fense

Bulldog defeates manbun.

9. Basketball Nirvana/Game Summary

You, me, and everyone else during the A&M game.

8. Masterful Camerawork

Almost zoomed too close to the sun, but instead the cameraperson absolutely nailed this.

7. Get The Flop Out

In slow motion:

The original angle critically includes Zavier Simpson's spot-on reaction:

6. NOT THE PLAN

This looks pretty ordinary until you see the Houston assistant coach who clearly gameplanned for this exact situation to no avail. Then you can't stop watching him.

5. Showtime x2

Running back on defense before the ball goes in is some extreme Golden State shit and I'm 100% here for it:

This play was in that vein as well:

That whole game, really.

4. BIG COUNTRY PANDEMONIUM

The replay angle is fun:

The broadcast is better because you can see Moe Wagner leap off the stationary bike and leave the bench area altogether:

Somehow this was only the second-best garbage time moment from this game.

3. Sports.

MAAR's arm going up is the deflating raptor tail of this new version of the SPORTS gif.

2. CJ BAIRD THA GAWD

Broadcast:

Replay with twitter avatar for life:

The bench losing its collective mind:

Somehow this was not the best moment of Michigan's NCAA Tournament.

FRAMES OF THE GAMES: POOLE PARTY

ALL THE ANGLES, PLEASE.

THANK YOU, JORDAN POOLE.

A NOTE ON DOWNLOADING GFYCATS

I've noticed a few comments about the low quality of some gifs when you download from the gfycat page. I found a workaround.

1. If you click any of the honorable mention links, you'll go right to the page you need. If you click on the gfycat embeds, they take you to a slightly different page, so you'll need to change the URL from gfycat.com/gifs/detail/[gif name] to gfycat.com/[gif name].

2. Click on the settings button in the lower right corner to bring up a number of options. This lets you set the quality of the gfycat, toy with the playback speed (highly recommended), play it in reverse, and download GIF versions. You'll want to hit "open large GIF format" because the small ones are of essentially unusable quality.

3. I haven't figured out a rhyme or reason to this, but sometimes that's all you need to do and sometimes that link just takes you back to the original gfycat. If the "open large GIF format" URL is thumbs.gfycat.com/[gif name]-max-14mb.gif, you're good to go.

4. The URL may just be gfycat.com/[gif name], however. If that's the case, simply copy and paste the gif name (the random three-word combination in the URL) and use the correct URL (thumbs.gfycat.com/[gif name]-max-14mb.gif) instead. Now you should be able to load the GIF, right-click, and save.

Comments

wile_e8

May 1st, 2018 at 4:34 PM ^

Aw man, this brought back some feels and I needed to go rewatch all the Poole Party replays again. I think this site should have regularly scheduled "Remember that time Jordan Poole hit that shot" posts just so we have excuses to go re-live it again. 

lippesq

May 1st, 2018 at 5:06 PM ^

Those gifs brought tears to my eyes. Everything good about college basketball summed up by his, and even more his teammates', reaction. Loved this team.

Michigan4Life

May 1st, 2018 at 5:29 PM ^

seeing Jordan Poole's game winning buzzer beater shot. What a fantastic run to the NC game. What an enjoyable month of March beginning with the domination of B1G Tourney.

Mr. Elbel

May 1st, 2018 at 6:01 PM ^

I love in the 3rd to last Poole gif of the bench you can see the hoop shake a bit from the ball going in the basket before everyone erupts.

XiX

May 1st, 2018 at 7:42 PM ^

That .gif perfectly encapsulates ABC's Wild World of Sports catchprase all in one shot:

The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.

Thank for these, Ace! I hated how things ended but enjoyed the whole ride with this team.

Jonesy

May 1st, 2018 at 8:23 PM ^

Ibi when Poole hits that shot: 'dammit, i wanted to go home and transfer.' At least that's the only thing I've got to explain his reacting like the Houston players.

Zeke21

May 1st, 2018 at 11:34 PM ^

the aTm game was the most fun I've had since being at the first ND nite football game.

What a joy that was at staples.

oldhackman

May 2nd, 2018 at 1:37 PM ^

...The dejection after the missed driving layup on the previous possession.  I almost turned off the TV; but Beilein was so matter-of-fact about the situation.  We hope for one missed free throw and execute our play to tie.  You could literally see a bounce in our step after two missed free throws, like "ok, let's do what we practice all the time for this situation".  But you had to love the lack of panick or self-pity by Beilein...he still had a job to do!

 

 

Cosmic Blue

May 2nd, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^

reaction when baird's 3 goes in is awesome. just how happy he is the instant it goes from 'hey this might go in' to 'yeaaahhh baby' is great to see. love the genuine euphoria and support for the teammate