As San Diego State cavorted around the KFC Yum! Center basketball court Sunday with sections of snipped netting dangling from championship hats and black and red confetti sticking to sneakers, every beaming face told a story.
Redemption. Reclamation. Rebirth. Re-whatever.
The Aztecs outlasted Creighton, 57-56, in a game drenched in drama with a controversial foul call, gut-wrenching free throws, a length-of-the-court pass, a premature celebration, a minutes-long review by officials — all in the final 1.2 seconds — to seal a spot in the Final Four.
When the din drained and euphoria gathered its wits, bigger pictures emerged.
Anywhere and everywhere someone looked, there was a player who found a jump shot just in time, another who nearly quit, another who rolled the dice on a last chance, another who surmounted a crisis of confidence, an assistant coach who picked up the pieces.
San Diego State is a special type of basketball team, as their upcoming trip to Houston for a shot to play in Monday's national championship game shows with pudding-stuffed proof.
They're also one giant mixing bowl of mismatched ingredients, baked into something that would make the Cake Boss cut. Many have struggled. Many have bounced back. Some left comfortable things behind to bear hug the uncomfortable.
Start at the top, with coach Brian Dutcher, the man who won and won and won, until the NCAA Tournament arrived.
"You'd hear people say, oh, he's a great regular-season coach, but can't win in the tournament," Aztecs Athletic Director J.D. Wicker said as players ascended a ladder to claim parts of the net behind him. "It's a learning process. It's hard. Why shouldn't he do this? He's been there before was an assistant coach (at Michigan).
"I'm not surprised."
Parked on the bench alone as the Aztecs celebrated around him, it became clear how emotionally meaningful the script-finishing had been to guard Darrion Trammell. He arrived as a gunner from Seattle University who lost his shot for much of the season.
What did he do? Nothing much.
Trammell just put the team on his back with 21 points against No. 1 Alabama — a mid-range assassin — then hit the free throw that locked down a Final Four trip against Creighton.
"We're going to talk about this for the rest of our lives," said Trammell, who was named MVP of the regional. "It's bigger than basketball."
Aguek Arop, the senior forward who played through surgeries, vertigo, the fight to become a U.S. citizen, was a whisker away from hanging up his jersey. His body had become so beat up that coaches kept him out of practice for stretches.
The pain of playing would feel minuscule in comparison to missing this magical freight train of a ride.
"It all just hit me, right when the buzzer went off," Arop said. "All the ups, all the downs, just everything. … This is why I came back. I wanted to go out the right way. By God's grace, we've been able to do that this year. And we're not done yet."
Measure it on the worth-it scale?
"Oh, my goodness," Arop said. "I can't even put it in words. It's surreal. 'Worth it' doesn't even explain it."
In a quiet courtside tunnel, San Diego State assistant coach Sam Scholl shook his head. He came from the Pacific Northwest to breathe life in the University of San Diego, but was fired and set adrift in the uncertain coaching world.
Dutcher opened the door to Scholl, who now has a shot to go from one extreme to the other in a relative blink.
"From the lowest of the lows to the highest in one year," Scholl said. "Amazing."
Back on the court, former Aztecs player Jordan Schakel filmed the celebration on his phone. He had been a part of the 30-2 team in 2020 that flirted with a No. 1 seed and had been pegged to do significant damage. Maybe, just maybe, NCAA title-level damage.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the tournament before it began. On a crushing disappointment scale, it ranked as an 11.
What was Schakel's first thought when the game ended?
"About damn time," he said. "I'm just so happy for these guys, all the hard work they put in. We went through a lot that COVID year. I knew it was only right that they were going to win. It just felt like there was no way they were going to lose this game.
"No chance."
Did Schakel feel like he owned a small part of this as a table and tone setter?
"Yeah," he said. "For sure. No doubt."
One second chance grew out of the game itself. Sixth-year senior Adam Seiko, a player depended upon to inbound the ball in key situations, lofted a ball toward teammate Micah Parrish in the final minute.
Creighton's Baylor Scheierman scooped up the ball that sailed over Parrish for layup that tied the game and stunned the crowd.
"I'm definitely going to buy him dinner," Seiko said. "Maybe a few dinners. (Afterward) I probably told him 'I love you' 1,000 times."
Trammell was not the only transfer to count blessings on a weekend the group charged into program history.
Matt Bradley left Cal for an opportunity like this. So did Jaedon LeDee, who began at Ohio State, continued on to TCU and found fit perfection at San Diego State. Much of the season, those following the program wondered where the lane bully they had been promised had been.
When the games mattered most, he showed them.
"It means everything," LeDee said. "We believed it from the start. Not everybody else did, but that doesn't mean anything. I'm happy we're here, but I'm not shocked. I know the work we put in."
Redemption. Reclamation. Rebirth. Re-whatever.
And now, the Aztecs can add one more: relief.
