Cliff Alexander is a high school senior from Chicago. Despite his age, he stands at an extremely powerful 6 feet, 8 inches and 240 pounds -- and is one of the nation's top basketball recruits. On Friday, he announced his college destination live on ESPN.
The decision-making process took on a disproportionate and somewhat bizarre level of importance for fans. When the time arrived to announce his final choice on ESPN, Alexander cruelly fake-grabbed an Illinois hat before donning a Kansas cap to announce his intention to go to school out of state. The result is the priceless reaction video above.
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The clip, featuring 17 Illinois students instantly morphing en masse from ecstasy to agony over Alexander's bait-and-switch, has accrued nearly 800,000 views on YouTube since Friday at the time of writing. Much like this amazing baseball photo, each individual reaction tells a story and gives a candid glimpse inside the extreme passion of college sports fans.
Special shout-out goes to the guy in the back row who yells through the TV at Alexander: "What's your problem?!"
Now for the other side of that reaction video, here's Alexander's Illinois fake-out:
And a bunch of Illinois frat bros briefly built up with joy, only to be let down so, so hard:
BONUS: 25 of YouTube's Funniest Sports Fails
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