Hope you had a weekend more like UConn and less like Duke. — Dan

For the past few weeks, college basketball fans have been glued to their TV screens, watching the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments unfold. The annual tradition, dubbed March Madness because crazy things often happen, can be intoxicating, especially for those fans fortunate enough to be in the area when something unexpected strikes.

And maybe even life-saving.

On the evening of March 14, 2008, thousands of college basketball fans packed into the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for an SEC tournament quarterfinal matchup between Mississippi State and Alabama. It was a Friday night, the NCAA tournament was just a week away, and the atmosphere was electric. The game itself was tight throughout, with neither team able to pull away. As the final seconds of regulation ticked down, Alabama trailed by three points, and fans on both sides were already mentally preparing for the exits.

Then Mykal Riley, an Alabama senior guard, hit a three-pointer with two seconds left.

The shot tied the game and sent it to overtime. Fans settled back into their seats, their departures delayed by what would turn out to be a few extra minutes of basketball. At the time, it seemed like just another dramatic moment in a sport full of them. But outside the Georgia Dome, something far more dangerous was approaching — a tornado. And it was headed toward the basketball game.

At 9:40 PM, with just over two minutes remaining in overtime, the tornado passed within roughly 200 yards of the Georgia Dome itself. The twister ripped panels from the exterior of the building and tore two holes in the roof. Inside, insulation began falling from the ceiling, and the scoreboard and catwalks suspended above the court started to sway. The public address announcer told fans that severe weather was in the area. Per CNN, the television broadcasters even remarked on hearing a sound like a locomotive or a freight train — the classic description of a tornado passing nearby. But — despite the falling insulation and the swaying rafters — the Dome itself was a safe place to be. The area immediately outside it, though, was not.

Had Riley missed that shot, the game would have ended in regulation, and thousands of fans would have been streaming out of the Georgia Dome and into the parking lot at precisely the moment the tornado tore through. As WISH-TV later reported, Riley's three-pointer "was considered to have saved many lives by keeping people in the Georgia Dome and not being outside in major danger from the tornado."

The tornado outbreak that night caused significant damage across downtown Atlanta. Twenty-seven people were injured, and one person was killed. But the Georgia Dome, despite the damage to its roof, remained a shelter for the fans inside.

As for the game itself, Riley’s shot only extended Alabama’s season for a few minutes. Mississippi State won the game, 69-67, and Alabama failed to make the NCAA tournament. But the legacy of that moment has little to do with the final score. Sometimes, the most important thing a basketball player can do is keep everyone in their seats for a few extra minutes.

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Today’s Bonus fact: Marvin Barnes played basketball for the Spirits of St. Louis of the now-defunct ABA from 1974 to 1976. At one point during his tenure there, he was supposed to take a flight from Louisville, Kentucky, back home to St. Louis. But he refused to board the plane. The issue wasn’t a fear of flying, but a misunderstanding of time zones. St. Louis is in the Central Time Zone, Louisville is in the Eastern Time Zone, and the flight took less than an hour. Therefore, the flight was scheduled to land “before” its scheduled departure time. As the Providence Journal reported (via the Washington Post), “After one look at his ticket, Barnes exclaimed ‘I ain’t getting on no time machine,’ and promptly rented a car for the trip home.”

From the Archives: The Maddening Reason Why Your Male Coworker May Have Taken Off Last Week: I updated the title here to make the point clear. (You’ll see.)

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And thanks! — Dan