Markquis Nowell broke the NCAA Tournament record for assists in a game with 19 on Thursday, and Kansas State beat Michigan State 98-93 in overtime in a Sweet 16 thriller at Madison Square Garden.

Despite the record performance, all the talk was about Nowell’s most spectacular assist.

He walked the ball up the floor with the score tied in the final minute of overtime and appeared to waving off his coach Jerome Tang’s instructions.

Instead of doing what Tang wanted, he threw a pass from the March Madness logo toward the basket and Keyontae Johnson slipped behind the Michigan State defense and elevated for the alley-oop.

“I mean, it was just a basketball play between me and Keyontae,” Nowell said after the game, per The Associated Press. “We knew how Michigan State plays defense. They play high up, and Keyontae just told me, we got eye contact, and he was like, lob, lob. I just threw it up, and he made a great play.”

Tang, however, Tang told “Sports Illustrated’s” Richard Johnson that it “wasn’t a dummy call or a fake out. I was calling one thing and Nowell was calling something else. Nowell noticed Johnson out of the corner of his eye and threw the alley oop because of their connection.”

Nowell finished with 20 points and five steals in a performance, which drew praise from Patrick Mahomes and Kevin Durant.

“That was a legendary display of controlling a basketball game Markquis,” Durant tweeted.

UNLV’s Mark Wade had the previous NCAA tourney assists record with 18 during the Runnin’ Rebels 1987 Final Four win over Indiana.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.