INDIANAPOLIS — One question, Eddie Lampkin Jr.: Can you play tight end? Even a little?
“I can,” the Buffs’ cult hero of a center told me as he settled into his locker stall and put down a phone buzzing like a hornet’s nest after the lunacy that was CU 102, Florida 100.
“I used to play tight end. That’s the crazy thing, yeah. (But) they don’t want to let me, man.”
Who needs the portal when you could have Eddie for six? Come on, Deion. Make it so. I mean, can you imagine the fear in some poor Nebraska safety’s eyes when they see a 6-foot-11, 265-pound dude lining up across from them? Can you picture the jump balls in the end zone?
“I think so,” said teammate KJ Simpson, who sank the Gators on one of the greatest shots in CU hoops history, a game-winner from the baseline with two seconds left on the clock. “Sometimes I mix him (up) with some of the football players.”
A few blocks from the home of the NFL scouting combine, Lampkin conducted his own personal shuttle run. As the nation gasped and the Buffs danced, the CU big man zipped from the middle of the floor, around a security barrier, up some steps and into a phalanx of fans, friends and family members. He slapped a few of them five, pointed to the grill in his mouth, then beamed like a Cheshire cat.
“He’s brought unbelievable toughness, a spirit, a competitive spirit, energy — he’s brought so much to this team,” offered CU coach Tad Boyle, whose 26-10 squad will face Marquette in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. “He’s brought so much to this team … our guys believe in him. He believes in them.”
The rest of the country believes, too, after the magic trick Simpson just pulled off on college hoops’ center stage.
Keep in mind: The Gators had just wiped out a 10-point deficit in about three minutes and change. In a see-saw, bonkers tilt tied at 100-100 with four seconds left, Simpson, the Buffs’ gallant point guard, curled just right of the lane, parallel with the baseline, took a pass from Cody Williams and got ready to fire.
Now that’s a tough shot when nobody’s guarding you. Zyon Pullin put up a right hand in his mug, rocketing the degree of difficulty to the moon. Simpson never blinked, using his left forearm as a shield, extending with his right, and letting the rock fly.
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The next half-second passed like an eternity. The ball looked slightly long at first, only to land on the inside edge of cylinder, then tease it, left to right, taking six bounces, each more gentle than the last, before kissing the twine. Bedlam.
“I’m never scared,” said Simpson, who finished with 23 points, five dimes and five boards, “of taking a shot like that.”
As Simpson and the Buffs were etching themselves onto every “One Shining Moment” montage from now ’til The Rapture, Walter Clayton Jr. took the inbounds with 1.7 seconds left and almost did CU one Hail Mary better. Only the magic had come and gone — the Gator’s heave landed well right of the rim, bouncing hard off the backboard as time expired. Thank goodness Tad Boyle didn’t have any more hair left to lose.
“(I thought), ‘I’m about to get that offensive rebound,’” Lampkin said of Simpson’s game-winner. “That’s all I thought about, is getting the offensive rebound.”
Colorado center Eddie Lampkin Jr. celebrates at the end of a first-round college basketball game against Florida in the NCAA Tournament, Friday, March 22, 2024, in Indianapolis. Colorado won 102-100. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Williams gives the Buffs a lottery pick. Simpson gives them an assassin. Tristan da Silva gives them shine. Luke O’Brien gives them backbone. J’Vonne Hadley (16 points, 9 for 11 on free throws) given them a weapon at the charity stripe.
But Lampkin, a senior transfer from TCU who dropped 21 points on the Gators, gives them an engine, gears that drive opposing centers — and opposing fans — positively nuts. Big 44 has the soft touch of a watchmaker and the stage presence of a pro wrestling heel. Once Eddie crawls under your skin, then your soul, he’s there for the night.
The apex of Lampkin’s mental chess game came with 7:44 to go, when the CU center pretzeled his way into a reverse layup, drawing a foul on Alex Condon in the process. Tiny hitch, though: The refs waited about two minutes to decide there was a foul attached, and so Florida coach Todd Golden, justifiably, flipped his lid. Out came the whistle for the tech. Hadley drained both foul shots. Four points.
“Yeah, I didn’t even know it was an and-1,” Lampkin recalled. “I just walked off. I was about to go back (on D) and they (started) talking about an and-1 and I was like, ‘Oh, gotta make my free throw.’”
Which, naturally, he did. Lampkin’s make capped a five-point CU possession, the rarest of dragons in Westeros.
“ED-DIE!” the Buffs fans packed near the floor chanted in unison.
“ED-DIE!”
“ED-DIE!”
After the make, he looked over at them and nodded. I’d swear the man winked.
“He’s awesome,” said O’Brien, who put up a heady line of 12 points and five rebounds, shaking his head. “I’ve never seen someone with that much energy and that much charisma.
“What you see is what you get on the court.”
And off the court?
A laugh.
“There’s a lot that we won’t speak out,” O’Brien countered. “I’m just kidding. It’s funny. He makes a layup and it’s there’s always a different celebration. I find that awesome. I can’t do that.”
Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. shoots over Colorado guard Luke O’Brien (0) in the second half of a first-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament, Friday, March 22, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
The Buffs are a calm, cool-headed bunch, by and large. Lampkin’s the straw that stirs the drink. The match that lights a campfire and gets everybody hot.
“(The Gators) were big. But (these games), that’s what I’m built for,” he shrugged. “That’s the type of games I like. I like battling. So I told my teammates, ‘Just get it in inside. I’m gonna go to work.’ That’s what they did.”
Oh, and Coach Prime already knows about the tight end thing. How could he not? Lampkin’s a Texas dude. Pride of Houston.
“He always talks to me about it,” Lampkin said of the man who’s replaced Ralphie as CU’s athletic icon. “I talk to him all the time. That’s my guy.
“You could tell he wanted me to come out there (for football). One time, (Sanders) said, ‘I love your size, big fella.’ Me and (Prime) have been cool since Day 1. One of my cousins used to stay with him, so he already knew me.”
So who’s got more swag rolling right now: You or Shedeur?
“Him, I hope,” Lampkin chuckled. “I’m broke.”
On the court, though? He’s straight money.
When a reporter asked big No. 44 how it felt to become immortal, the wheels started turning again. Lampkin’s eyes lit up.
Not for what he just did.
But what was coming next.
“I feel like we need to get to that Sweet 16,” the big man said. “I feel like we’re going. I’m really going to be famous when we get there. So that’s all that matters. Get another win.”
He flashed the grill one more time. A smile as gold as the moment, shining to the last.
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