Hoffarber Nails Game Winner - Again!

By Tim St.Sauver
Love of Sports Correspondent

If you love basketball, then you’ve been there.

You’re in your driveway, falling back from the hoop your Dad put up for you, counting down: 3...2...1…

Then you miss the shot.

Luckily, as driveway stars, we’re able to recreate the moment over and over until we hit it.

How great would it be if we actually had the chance to hit that shot in a real game? Better yet, how great would it be if we hit that last second shot in a game where everything was on the line? It would be great. It would be really, really great.

Blake Hoffarber has done just that. He’s hit a last second, game-winning shot in a game where the loser goes home with nothing.

Actually, he’s done it twice. And we’re not counting driveway heroics. That lucky bastard.

In 2005, while playing in the Minnesota state high school championship game, Hoffarber saw his team, Hopkins High School, down by two in the final seconds of the first overtime. Hopkins attempted a long inbounds pass with just a few seconds on the clock. Hoffarber attempted to grab the ball, but was knocked to his back. The ball eventually bounced right to him, though, and while he was laid out on the floor … 3...2...1… Blake Hoffarber managed to corral the ball and launch it towards the hoop.

What happened? Nothing but net. Hoffarber hit the shot to tie the game and force a second overtime. His team dominated play that period and that last-second shot is the reason they were able to win the championship.

See that shot here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJoxGpEswOI

Man, I’d love to hit a last-second shot in a real game. Hoffarber did it, from his back, to win the state championship! It’s the moment we all dream of.

Hoffarber went on to win the ESPY for Best Play of the Year for that. Damn you Hoffarber! Not only do you get to hit that last second, championship winning shot, but you get and ESPY to boot? That has to be as good as it gets!

Only it isn’t. Fast forward to Friday night.

Hoffarber’s college team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers, found themselves down by one with just 1.5 ticks left on the clock in this year’s Big Ten Tournament. The Indiana Hoosiers, who were favored to win the game, seemed to have secured the victory.

A loss would have sealed Minnesota’s fate as a NIT hopeful, but Hoffarber wouldn’t have any of that. He received a length of the court pass, while being triple teamed, and made a turnaround jumper, LEFT HANDED, that gave the Gophers a one-point victory. A victory that gave Tubby Smith and the Gophers their 20th victory of the season, and kept their season alive.

We’ve got that one for you too! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u51znupszPw

Nobody would have blamed Hoffarber if he had missed that shot from his back in high school. And nobody would have blamed him for missing his left handed shot yesterday.

He didn’t miss, though. Hoffarber’s now made two shots this writer has always dreamed of sinking. And as much as I want to, I can’t be jealous. If I’d been in his shoes, his team would have lost the state championship. And the Golden Gophers have lost the Big Ten quarterfinal this year.

Blake Hoffarber deserves some love because he’s made ‘the shot’ when it’s counted the most.

Twice.

I want to see Hoffarber’s Gophers make a run at the Big Ten championship, just to see what he does with the ball. I hope he’s somehow able to pull off some more driveway heroics.