A random and unnecessary UC Riverside buzzer-beater handed bettors one of the worst beats of the season

For those of you transitioning from college football to college basketball, welcome. You’ve crossed over just in time to witness one of the worst beats you’ll ever see.

On Wednesday night in California, UC San Diego (+3.5) trailed UC Riverside by 3 points with under 2.0 seconds remaining. With one last hope of launching the ball the length of the court for a desperation heave that would tie the game, UCR intercepted the pass near halfcourt and (randomly) hoisted up (and converted) their own buzzer-beater to win by 6.

But that’s not even the worst part of the beat. The worst is that UCSD took an 18-point lead in this game with 11:27 remaining! The banked in three as time expired was just salt in the wounds — deserved salt, given the huge blown lead.

Nominee for bad beat of the CBB season

UC San Diego +3.5 pic.twitter.com/V2m0LWnRSK

— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) January 12, 2023

I promise you will never, ever, ever find a worse beat than UC San Diego +3.5

-Up 18 with 11 minutes left
Then…
-Down 1 with 2 seconds left
-Foul, Riverside makes 2 FTs, 3-point game
-Inbound pass w/ 1.8 left, Riverside catches it, bafflingly launches a 3, banks it in. What?

— Jim Root (@2ndChancePoints) January 12, 2023

Anyways, we might not see another bad beat of this magnitude for a while. What an absurd way for bettors to lose money.