He stopped as his defender kept going. And before Michigan's Jordan Poole finished pulling the ball back across his body to veer in the opposite direction, the crowd was already gasping.
Once he stopped again, gathered his footing, and rose up to drain a 3-pointer, the Crisler Center erupted.
In the vernacular of post-modern basketball, few things elicit a did-you-see-that like a deep step-back jumper. It's not just the move's audacity, but its violent stop-start motion that bends physics.
And in a game – especially U-M coach John Beilien's game – reliant on movement and connectedness, the step-back is a singular, almost defiant gesture.