When a Basketball teamâs best player happens to have leadership qualities, victories often follow.
From time to time, however, an on-court disappointment leads to that playerâs most memorable moment.
At a post-game press conference following his teamâs 71-68 opening-round NCAA Tournament loss to the Wagner Seahawks on Tuesday â a loss that ended his teamâs âMarch Madnessâ experience almost as quickly as it began â junior guard Bryce Harris of the Howard Bison delivered thoughtful remarks that one broadcaster called âamazing.â
âPlaying on a basketball team is one of the more beautiful things in life, because it gives you a group of brothers who have a common goal,â Harris said in a video posted to the social media platform X.
âAnd it allows you to have a deeper connection past just being a teammate,â he added.
Harris spoke of âbeautiful thingsâ and a âdeeper connectionâ shortly after his Bison suffered a crushing, season-ending loss.
In the second half, the Seahawks built a 17-point lead. But Howard rallied late. Harris scored with 18 seconds remaining to trim the Wagner lead to 69-68.
Following a pair of Seahawks free throws, however, the Bison missed three consecutive three-point attempts that would have tied the game and likely sent it into overtime.
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Readers may view the gameâs frantic final seconds below.
Note that Harris â who led the 2023-24 Bison in points, rebounds, steals and blocks â did not attempt any of the three missed shots. But he did not sulk over it, as some top players would have done if denied the gameâs last shot. Instead, he talked about metaphorical family.
âWhat we speak a lot about is having brothers. You want to have brothers. Youâre gonna go through things with your brothers, youâre gonna have good moments, youâre gonna have bad moments, youâre gonna have moments where youâre mad at your brother, your brotherâs mad at you,â Harris said at the press conference.
âBut you guys have to go through the rocky mountain and get over it,â he added.
Readers may view the full 73-second clip of Harrisâs admirable remarks below.
Praise came swiftly on social media. And it came from veteran voices affiliated with the game.
For instance, Fox Sports college basketball broadcaster John Fanta called it an âamazing answer.â
âThis is an amazing answer from @HUMensBBâs Bryce Harris on Basketball. Really good,â Fanta tweeted.
Basketball analyst, former NBA player and 1974 University of Maryland All-American center Len Elmore agreed.
âAmong the real and true gifts of playing college Sports admirably articulated by a bright young man who gets it,â Elmore tweeted.
Another social media user called âHoop Fiendsâ credited Harris for putting something intangible into compelling words.
âThis gave me the chills. Bryce Harris from Brentwood, Long Island speaks about something we all can relate to but canât all describe this well,â Hoop Fiends tweeted.
Howard and Wagner faced off in the NCAA Tournamentâs opening round, commonly known as the âFirst Four.â
With their victory, the Seahawks advanced as a 16-seed in the tournamentâs West Region. They were scheduled to play the top-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels on Thursday at 2:45 EST in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, the season ended for the gritty Bison, who recovered from a 9-14 start by winning nine of their final 11 games entering the tournament.
For most of America, March Madness was set to begin on Thursday. Sixty-four of the tournamentâs original 68 teams remained in contention for a national championship.
Four of those 68 already have experienced crushing disappointment. Another 63 will experience it before the tournament ends.
Perhaps many players will handle it well. But probably none will handle it better than Harris did.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.