The San Diego State University men’s basketball team never had the chance for its “One Shining Moment” in the NCAA tournament when the coronavirus outbreak forced the tournament’s cancellation. But SDSU had a whole regular season of shining moments and Aztec guard Caleb Giordano is doing his best to keep those moments alive.
Giordano and his younger brothers, Kristian, 12, and Gianni, 10, are recreating great plays from the Aztecs season in their driveway and posting videos of the plays to social media.
The first play Giordano posted to his twitter account was Malachi Flynn’s game winning 3-point shot at the buzzer against San Jose State. The post quickly received over 8,000 and Giordano knew he and his brothers were onto something cool.
“People were like, ‘Wow! This is amazing; it brings back the flashbacks,” the college basketball player told NBC 7 Sportswrap. “People were like, ‘Do this next, do this one next, do this play next: Jordan Shackle at BYU, K.J. Feagin’s shot at BYU and Matt Mitchell’s dunk.’”
Oh yeah, that Matt Mitchell dunk – you know, the play that brought down the house at Viejas Arena against New Mexico – was definitely a shining moment.
From a safe social distance, NBC 7 joined Giordano in the driveway of his family’s San Diego home as they re-created the dunk.
Just like the Flynn game-winning 3-pointer, every detail in the play is executed in the driveway, even Mitchell’s cocking of the dunk and his signature shimmy.
Local
For this play, Kristian played the role of Mitchell, and when asked about it, the young hooper flashed a huge smile.
“The shimmy was awesome. I could do that over and over,” beamed Kristian.
Giordano said if they’re going to do the recreations, every tiny detail matters.
“If we’re going to do it, let’s do it right,” he said.
To that end, Giordano even dubs in the broadcast audio for the plays, so they sound and look legit.
As for what plays will be recreated next? The SDSU player said they may go old school.
“Thinking some throwback plays, like Kwahi Leonard plays, see what we can get going,” he explained.
Re-enacting the plays has been good for the Aztec guard, especially with how the coronavirus outbreak impacted his season and continues to impact the world around him.
“Some people are like, ‘Don’t you get sad going back through these things?’ Really, no. It’s a happy time; a great time,” Giordano said. “I’m lucky to be alive and with my family, and thank God we are here. At the end of the day, as long as we are healthy and we’re here, we can run back as many plays as we can.”
Keep them coming, because on the Giordano court it’s not “Who’s got next?” It’s “What’s next?”
