When Georgia State won the Sun Belt Conference tournament last Sunday to earn a March Madness berth, coach Ron Hunter was understandably pumped up. He ran onto the court to celebrate with his players -- but that's when things took a turn for the worse.
Hunter, it seems, got a little too excited, suffering a torn achilles tendon in the post-game celebratory scrum. But Ron Hunter will not be denied because, dadgummit, this is March Madness.
And it paid off, with Georgia State pulling off a massive round-of-64 upset of Baylor on Thursday behind some last-second heroics from none other than Ron's son, RJ.
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Here's how Coach Hunter entered the arena for 14-seed Georgia State's opening game against three-seed Baylor:
Then he coached the game from a wheelie stool on the sideline, while wearing a boot cast with his toes poking out:
Hunter's temporary disability hadn't stopped him from putting up a few shots at Georgia State's practice on Wednesday, either:
On Thursday, Hunter rooted hard for his team there from his wheelie stool on the sideline:
After a back and forth game, Ron's son, RJ, hit a game-winning three-pointer from deeeeep with 2.8 seconds left. The bucket sent his pops falling off his stool and gave Georgia State a one-point upset win over heavily favored Baylor:
Here's a closer look at that reaction from dad/coach:
Nice shot, RJ. But Ron Hunter, you the real MVP.