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When he woke up Thursday morning, Robert Smith, the basketball coach at Chicago's Simeon Career Academy, knew it was a big day for his former pupils. Two of them were playing in the NCAA Tournament. And a third former pupil, one of Simeon's finest ever, was celebrating his 23rd birthday.

"Happy birthday!" he texted Jabari Parker.

By the time Parker, the star forward for the Milwaukee Bucks, texted his old coach back, the two Simeon graduates in the 2018 NCAA Tournament had each done something incredible.

In Boise, Idaho, No. 4 seed Gonzaga was tied with No. 13 seed UNC-Greensboro with a shade over 20 seconds left. That's when Bulldogs redshirt freshman Zach Norvell Jr., (Simeon Class of 2016) fired a 3-pointer from the wing: Bang. It rattled in, and Gonzaga avoided what would have been one of the biggest upsets in this NCAA Tournament with a 68-64 victory.

Smith was watching the game on a television in his office. "I couldn't stop smiling," he said. "I was just so proud."

In Dallas, 11th-seeded Loyola-Chicago Ramblers were trailing No. 6 seed Miami. With 9.2 seconds left in Dallas and Loyola trailing by one, Miami's Lonnie Walker missed the front end of a one-and-one. Loyola rebounded the ball, drove it past half court, and there was Donte Ingram (Simeon Class of 2014) standing outside the top of the key, near the logo. He hoisted a 28-footer, and the ball swished to give the Ramblers a 64-62 victory.

At Simeon, Smith didn't see the second Simeon game-winner of the day, at least not live. He was working out his 12-year-old daughter, Yahri, before her basketball tryout on Friday. But an assistant coach had recorded the winning shot at home, and he texted the play to Smith.

"You look at the shot, it was no hesitation: 'I'm shooting this ball and it's going in,'" Smith said. "It made me proud, not just only for him but for Loyola, for the city of Chicago, for the state of Illinois. It's been a long time."

Not long afterward, he got a return text from Parker. Parker had played with both Ingram, who was a junior on the state championship-winning team from Parker's senior year, and Norvell, who was a freshman on that same team. He watched both of his former teammates hit shots that will be remembered for a long time.

"Jabari was just like, 'That's what Simeon players do,'" Smith laughed.

Simeon has long been one of the biggest -- if not the biggest -- power in the Chicago basketball scene. Before Parker, Smith had coached Derrick Rose there. The one year that Parker, Ingram and Norvell all played together the school tied an Illinois record for winning the Class 4A Illinois state championship four years in a row.

"The year we won the state championship his junior year, Donte was so happy in the locker room," Smith said. "I still can see his face down in the locker room, how happy he was."

Norvell's dad hadn't made the trip to Boise. He'd traveled to Las Vegas for Gonzaga's conference tournament, and he plans to travel to Los Angeles if the team makes the Sweet Sixteen. He was at his job as a security job at an elementary school Thursday afternoon when Gonzaga was in a tight first-round game. He was watching the game on his phone.

"My stomach was turning," Norvell's dad, Zach Norvell Sr., told CBSSports.com. "It was scary. But once they gave my son the ball, I knew he was shooting it. And I screamed so loud that everybody came out of their classrooms and said, 'What happened?' 'My son just hit the game winner!' The people I work with, we were going crazy. I didn't want anyone else on the team to take that shot but him."

Donte Ingram's mother, Doretha Ingram, had made the trip to Dallas. She knew this might be her only chance to see her son play in an NCAA tournament game. Her son had chosen Loyola over other larger schools for a couple reasons: His older brother had attended the school. And it just felt like the right fit. After four years, the recruiting class he was the first to commit to became the class to lead Loyola to its first NCAA tournament since 1985.

Inside the arena, with 9.2 seconds left, Doretha Ingram was nervous. As Loyola brought the ball up the court, her husband turned to her: "Donte's going to take that last shot, and it's going in," he said. She couldn't watch. She turned her face away from the court. Then her son's shot went in.

"I was just overjoyed," she told CBSSports.com. "The first thing that came out of my mouth was, 'Thank you, Jesus!' "

Back in Chicago, Smith was finished working out his daughter, and he texted his two former players who had just made the two biggest shots of the first day of the NCAA tournament. He told Norvell he'd seen him make that same shot so many times before.

"All these kids are the same people," Smith said. "They're just trying to make their dreams come true."