The more you watch the video the more the 20-year-old Ukrainian looks a little like a bird. Svi Mykhailiuk was chasing down Xavier Sneed, who might be Kansas State’s best athlete, with no humans between him and the basket.
This was a breakaway, at home, this building as loud and angry and hopeful and alive as it gets in any 365-day period. Fans packed three sections of bleachers 90 minutes before tipoff, the first instant they were allowed in, simply to heckle Kansas star Udoka Azubuike’s practice free throws.
So, yes, you can imagine what would happen were Sneed allowed to do what most in this building expected, which was a one-handed tomahawk, perhaps a stare into the camera underneath the basket, and then arms pumping in the air, primal screams toward the crowd in the kind of pure moment of joy that college games like this provide so well.