This is an opinion column.

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Samford hoops hero Jermaine Marshall walked into the post-game news conference clutching the game ball with two hands.

He’ll keep that one forever no doubt, and the memories he made on Wednesday night in Samford’s buzzer-beating victory against rival Furman will cling to the walls of the Pete Hanna Center as long as they play basketball on Lakeshore Drive.

Like Samford coach Bucky McMillan said afterwards, it was the type of game that creates legacies and builds the foundation of a championship-level program. In McMillan’s fourth year on The Hill, Samford is certainly there. The Bulldogs (24-4, 13-2) tied a school record for wins in a season with its 74-72 victory against Furman. With its next win, Samford will claim its first outright SoCon title.

Anyone out there doubting Bucky Ball now?

With three games left in Samford’s regular season, the Bulldogs are tied with No.1 UConn of the Big East and Grand Canyon of the WAC for the most victories in Division I. For anyone keeping count, there are 351 basketball teams registered as full members of Division I for the 2023-24 season.

Now, I’m not saying Samford is better than all of them, but if there’s under a minute to play in a tie game and Samford’s Marshall is on the floor, then anything is possible. He proved that against Furman.

In a game that had blood pouring out of the heads of players from both teams, this one all came down to the final heartbeats.

And no one’s heart was bigger than Marshall’s in the end.

Samford was down 74-72 with less than a minute to play after Furman’s JP Pegues turned in the second half of his life. Pegues finished with 33 points and scored 22 in a row for Furman over the game’s final 10 minutes.

“We win the game for one reason and one reason only,” McMillan said. “It’s because of how competitive our players are. Most importantly, the most competitive player I’ve ever coached.”

McMillan was referring to Marshall and his effort in the clutch.

“He said not today,” McMillan said.

First, with 38 seconds left and Furman leading by two, Marshall stepped in front of an errant inbounds pass by Furman’s PJay Smith and forced a key turnover. Marshall’s two free throws tied the game at 72-all after a quick foul by Smith and that set the stage for the big finish.

With time running down, Marshall got the key stop on defense with eight seconds left and grabbed the rebound.

“Something told me to just go into attack mode,” Marshall said. “We work on this every day in practice.”

Instead of passing it off, Marshall raced down the court and scored the game-winner with two seconds on the clock.

Ball game. Time for selfies with the fans. Samford’s student section stood and cheered the entire game and that energy helped in the end. Samford plays ETSU at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Get to the Pete.

On switching defensively to Pegues at the end of the game, Marshall said he took the assignment “personally.”

“I wanted to put the team on my back,” Marshall said. “If you want to score this basket, then you got to go through me. And it’s hard to go through me.

“I knew we needed the big stop. The guys trusted me to guard their best player.”

Marshall’s free throws to tie the game put him over 1,000 points for his career. His game-winner then gave his team 24 victories on the season, which ties the program record.

“How amazing is that?” McMillan said. “What a story.”

McMillan was coaching at nearby Mountain Brook five years ago. Now he’s one of the best young coaches in college basketball. I’ve been covering his rise since his high school days. I’ve never seen him so animated after a game. He walked into the post-game news conference calling the game “hilarious” because Samford finally knocked off Furman despite foul trouble for Marshall and a couple untimely injuries to leading scorer Achor Achor (sprained foot) and second-leading scorer AJ Staton-McCray (sprained MCL).

“Our leading scorer in Achor can’t even walk. A.J. Stanton can’t play. You got [Marshall] in foul trouble. I look out there, we got all these JV players out there — I mean young guys — in that game and Pegues is bombing it from 40-something feet,” McMillan said. “Unbelievable.”

Samford had lost five in a row to Furman dating back three seasons. Last season, Furman came to Homewood and upset Samford in the final game of the regular season to claim a piece of the conference crown. With so much history between the two teams, this one was physical from the beginning.

McMillan noted afterwards that Achor and Staton-McCray should both be healthy by the conference tournament in two weeks. Samford will need to win the SoCon tournament in Asheville, N.C., to punch a ticket to the NCAA Tournament. It would be McMillan’s first trip to the Big Dance as a coach.

Whether that happens or not, this already feels like the best season in Samford basketball history.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the most controversial sports book ever written, “We Want Bama”.