3...
They have to take a shot!
2...
Wait, are they gonna take THAT shot?!
1...
They made that shot! They won! They live! My bracket lives! We're all going to live! Everything is OK with the world after all!
If March Madness is the feel-good force that drags us out of the long, cold winter and into the springtime, one bracket line at a time, then buzzer-beaters are light itself. Rays of basketball sunshine that suddenly cut through the clouds, bringing with them energy, endorphins and euphoria, and all in literal fractions of a second.