While I’m not sure you can call a go-ahead shot hit with over one minute left on the clock a game-winner, when St Mary’s upset Villanova earlier today, Mickey McConnell’s bank-shot 3-pointer with 1:16 left in the game was indeed a dagger. Or a back-breaker. Or one of the bigger display of “ONIONS” you’ll see today.

McConnell’s unlikely shot was aided by a slick, little crossover that left his defender flat-footed. It’s things like McConnell’s deadly three that makes March such an awesome time of the year.

In other news, how good is St Mary’s? After smoking Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference tournament final, the Gaels have to be one of the hottest teams in college basketball. While Villanova got close down the stretch, it was clear which team earned the “better” designation. While St Mary’s will now be embraced as the 2010 Tournament’s Cinderella, that has as much to do with the fact the Gaels are an unknown commodity.

For those of you who at least watched the WCC final, their success shouldn’t be so surprising.

Oh, ain’t March Madness grand? Well, not if you are on Vanderbilt’s side of the fence, but still, even Kevin Stallings has to tip his hat to Danero Thomas’ big-time shot. It was a fantastic ending to a great game, which featured a great deal of back-and-forth. Murray State pretty much controlled the game; although, a late Vanderbilt run put them in the position of needing Thomas’ heroics.

And Danero, well, delivered with an “ONIONS” shot that would’ve made Bill Raftery proud.

While the shot was indeed impressive, another thing that caught my attention was how quick YouTube had videos of it up. If the elapsed time was over 5 minutes, I’ll be pretty surprised. While I have some incredibly fond memories of early/mid 90s March Madness, enjoying it with the modern technological amenities available to us is pretty damn awesome — much like Thomas’ shot.

Ah yes, it’s tournament time, which means it’s time for college kids you wouldn’t otherwise know to become household names for a few weeks. You know? Something like the Stephen Curry wave of popularity, something he derived from being able to shoot a basketball better than most. One player poised to fill Curry’s shoes is Ohio State Buckeyes stud, Evan Turner.

Yes, even though Turner’s probably college basketball’s Player of the Year — thanks in large part to this exclamation point — outside of the hardcore basketball heads and Ohio State fans, your average Joe would, in all likelihood, respond with a quizzical “Who?” if you started talking about how awesome a player he is. Thanks to the Big Dance, and provided the Buckeyes can survive the opening weekend, any ignorance concerning Turner should be cleared up by the time the first weekend of the tournament is over.

Of course, if folks like President Obama continue to namedrop Turner, it might not take that long before he becomes a trendy topic outside of the normal college basketball circles.

I’m all about some Evan Turner today. Granted, the rest of the college basketball world shares the same sentiment — save Michigan fans — but even they have to acknowledge undefended greatness. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, there are so many different versions, it borders on recursion. After the jump, I’ll share some of them.

As for Turner, today’s shot is really close to the explanation point he needs to wrestle the Player of the Year award away from Kentucky’s John Wall. Interestingly enough, Turner was only 3-12 from inside the 3-point arc against Michigan; however, he was 3-3 when he shot from behind it.

Obviously, none of the three were bigger than that last one.