La Salle guard Tyrone Garland's Southwest Philly Floater goes viral

A day after introducing Southwest Philly Floater into the basketball lexicon, La Salle guard Tyrone Garland was as stunned by the attention as sports fans have been by La Salle's NCAA tournament success.

The Explorers earned a trip to the Sweet 16 Sunday with a 76-74 victory over Mississippi in a third-round game at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

Garland scored the winning basket with three seconds left on a shot he has performed endlessly over the years on a variety of courts.

The play has gone viral, becoming a social media sensation: Everyone knew the ending, but they still wanted to see what Garland called the Southwest Philly Floater.

Since Sunday, the interviews and attention have not stopped.

"The phone has been going crazy," Garland said Monday in Kansas City before La Salle headed for a flight to Los Angeles, the site of Thursday's game against Wichita State. "I have gotten so many text messages, been interviewed by the media, gotten phone calls from family members and people I don't even know."

Garland laughed, which he has been doing a lot lately. "It's been crazy," he said.

When La Salle (24-9) meets Wichita State (28-8) at the Staples Center, no doubt fans will want to see the dude who hit the floater.

Garland's game-winner was actually a driving layup, but really, doesn't Southwest Philly Floater sound so much better?

With the score tied at 74, he took a pass from point guard Tyreek Duren near the top of the key and after two dribbles he was at the basket, where he was challenged by 6-foot-9 forward Reginald Buckner, who is known to smother opponents' shots.

The 6-1 Garland knew he needed a heightened trajectory to get it over Buckner, who blocked 98 shots this season and was clearly looking for No. 99.

Just as Garland intended, the floater sailed over Buckner's hands, off the backboard, and into the basket.

And all of a sudden Garland was no longer just a standout guard for La Salle with a penchant for providing instant offense. He was the cool guard from Philly with the even cooler name for his shot.

"I am very surprised that the Southwest Philly Floater is trending on Twitter," he said. "I didn't know it would blow up like this."

Garland has been making plays like this all season. He has averaged 12.8 points as a reserve who plays starter's minutes. He scored 17 points against Ole Miss. The 15 other points he scored besides the floater were just as important but not as interesting.

Garland gives the appearance of having a loose, carefree attitude and has a smile that can light up an arena, but he's an extremely heady player, which is why he chose to use the floater in the first place.

Before the game, he said, he didn't know much about Buckner, Ole Miss's master swatter of shots, but that soon changed.

"He blocked my shot a couple of times and I kind of found out during the game who he was," Garland said.

Had Garland missed the shot, the game likely would have gone into overtime, so there was a little less pressure on him - a miss wouldn't have meant elimination. But that isn't the mind-set of Garland, whose attacking mentality on the court is overlooked because of his outgoing personality.

"I didn't really want the game to go into overtime," he said. "I knew we had five guards and one of us would get a good shot, one that could win the game."

That one person was Garland, who is competing in his first season at La Salle after beginning his college career at Virginia Tech.

Garland, a scoring machine in his high school days at Bartram High, estimates that the floater has bailed him out countless times over the years.

"I made a lot in the playground, in AAU, and high school, but this is the best shot I ever made," he said.

And the most popular, both for its result, the magnitude of the event, and the catchy name that only a few from Southwest Philly even knew.