Michigan freshman Jordan Poole is enjoying life as the star.
After hitting the game-winning three-pointer as time expired against Houston on Saturday, Poole ran around the court in Wichita, Kan. celebrating — and hoping to avoid be tackled.
“I just didn’t want to get tackled,” Poole said. “I’ve heard being at the bottom of the pile is definitely one of the worst things ever. I was just running around and gave up and everyone tackled me, it was a cool moment.”
His phone blew up, getting more than 700 text messages from friends, family, former teammates and others. His social media channels have exploded as well, gaining over 14,000 followers on Instagram and 9,000 on Twitter.
“It’s been cool,” Poole said. “Everybody on campus has been pretty chill about it. I get a lot of congratulations and high fives and stuff, but it’s nothing too crazy. It’s a little wild on social media, but on campus it’s pretty chill.”
He’s even gotten some celebrity shout-outs. Director (Get Out) and comedy star (Key and Peele) Jordan Peele received a number of tweets users meant to send to Poole, prompting Peele and Poole to exchange tweets with each other.
Poole said the shot was the biggest one of his career — and it almost didn’t happen.
Earlier in the second half, Poole was poked in the right eye, causing severe pain.
“When I came to the bench, I was talking to [sophomore guard] Ibi [Watson] about it,” Poole said. “I was like ‘it kind of feels like my eye has a filter on it’ but I had to suck it up.”
He said it was still causing him trouble when he made the shot at the end of the game, and that still today it feels terrible. He’s wearing protective glasses in practice that he hopes he won’t need for Thursday’s Sweet 16 game against Texas A&M, but will wear if he needs to. His eye was still visibly red when he spoke with the media on Tuesday afternoon.
Many fans noticed that he took a solid hit on the play, but that Houston was not called for a foul. Poole won’t complain about the outcome, but he did feel like he was fouled.
“I feel like if it wasn’t that situation, they probably would’ve called a foul,” Poole said. “In a situation like that, it’s a super-duper controversial call if the ref calls a foul on that. After looking at the replay a couple times I was definitely fouled.”
He was looking for the foul, noting that it would’ve been easy to make free throws than make the shot he did. He knew it was unlikely he got the call, but had to go for it.
His shot was similar to the one five years ago by former Michigan standout Trey Burke, who hit a deep three in the final seconds to send U-M to overtime with No. 1 seed Kansas. Burke tagged Poole in an Instagram post comparing the two shots and they exchanged direct messages afterwards. While not a Michigan fan at the time, Poole recalls watching that game on TV.
“I remember exactly what I was doing,” Poole said. “I was watching on the couch closest to the TV at home, just watching the game late at night. I didn’t really care who won the game at that time, but it definitely was huge. I was jumping up.”
Poole has seen the video over and over and over again — literally. He said he’s seen it about 500 times and watches it every chance he gets.
“Every time I watch it, I keep getting goosebumps and butterflies,” Poole said. “It’s just amazing that I hit that shot. I can’t not smile every time I see it.”
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