In common vernacular, a teabag refers to the item you insert in hot water to make tea, commonly used during winter or to soothe a cold.

That’s not the way it was used Wednesday night.

Georgia Tech’s Marcus Georges-Hunt (shoutout to another hyphenated brotha) experienced the full effects of that, receiving a face full of embarrassment from Illinois’ Joseph Bertrand during the final five minutes of the Illini’s 75-62 win over the Yellow Jackets. By now, you’ve probably seen the play, but let’s break it down to fully appreciate just how absurd it really was.

4:57 — Illinois is up 62-58, on defense, in a 2-3 zone. Bertrand is playing the back-left position of the zone, when Brandon Paul, manning the position directly in front of Bertrand, taps the ball away from Georges-Hunt near the Georgia Tech bench. The ball skitters toward the middle of the floor, while Bertrand, somehow anticipating the play, is already on the move, nearing full speed before any other player has changed direction.

4:55 — Bertrand reaches the ball just before a diving D.J. Richardson, first tapping, then controlling it as his long strides devour the court and allow him to easily skirt Tech’s Mfon Udofia, angling toward the right side of the court.

4:54 — Ball controlled, Bertrand takes the swiftest of glances at his surroundings as he passes midcourt and runs over the ACC-Big Ten Challenge logo. Udofia is to his immediate left, Yellow Jackets center Daniel Miller (my brotha from another motha) is speeding (if you can call Miller’s lumbering strides that) down the middle of the court slightly behind Udofia. And there, awaiting his doom like Wile E. Coyote standing naively under the Acme Inc. hammer, stands Georges-Hunt, 3 feet in front of Bertrand and with a perfect angle between the charging Illini and the basket.

4:53 — Bertrand, unlike most humans, decides one-on-three odds are reasonable numbers for a fast break. He takes three more monstrous strides, angling toward the hoop from the right side of the lane. Georges-Hunt reaches the site of his demise merely moments before Bertrand, turning his body into position to receive the full brunt of humiliation.

Bertrand, again defying most human logic and with total disregard for Georges-Hunt, plants his left foot and takes off toward the basket from outside the lane and parallel to the third hash mark. If you’ve never been on a basketball court and have no idea how far that is, know this: Most players take off from that same spot and shoot jump shots or runners.

4:52 — Bertrand explodes toward the rim, taking the ball up with his right hand, then swinging it from right to left over his head with both hands. Somehow sensing Miller (or more likely, hearing his lumbering ogre strides) flying at him from over his left shoulder, Bertrand swings the ball back under his chin to his right hand (if you’re keeping track at home, that’s a full 360 degrees of swing). It is at this moment that the collision happens and Georges-Hunt’s fate as the butt of ridicule is cemented, as his face is unkindly introduced to Bertrand’s junk.

4:51 — Having avoided Miller’s futile attempts and thoroughly succeeding in ruining Georges-Hunt’s confidence, Bertrand, remembering he still has a job to do and not much time to do it, spins the ball up toward the backboard nanoseconds before his feet reach the ground. The ball kisses the glass, stopping only to say a brief hello before continuing on with its coy flirtation with the rim. Physics be damned, the ball bounces once, twice, three times on the rim before dropping through the net as the referee’s whistle blows to signal a foul — the final denigration of Georges-Hunt.

4:50 — Bertrand turns back to the court — his awestruck teammates triumphant, his foe vanquished.

In its entirety, that play took only seven seconds from start to finish. Replays and descriptions can’t quite capture the shock, the insanity, the “what the hell did he just do?” feeling that reverberated around Assembly Hall in the moments after the play. It came on the heels of two straight threes and another layup by Bertrand, punctuating a remarkable one-man 10-0 run that flipped a late four-point deficit into a six-point lead. But it was the junior’s “loop-dee-loop” layup, as described by Paul, that was a microcosm of what Bertrand brings this Illinois team.

On a roster made up of mostly jump shooters, Bertrand is somewhat of an anomaly. Yes, his long-range shooting is vastly improved, as evidenced by his 3-for-4 performance from behind the arc last night. But Bertrand’s game, and his value to the Illini, is still grounded in his ability to slash and attack the rim. His stop and gos, herky-jerky moves, floaters, runners and explosive athleticism — these are what make Bertrand so hard to guard and such an invaluable weapon off the bench as Illinois’ sixth man.

Georgia Tech, a team that is improving but projected to finish in the bottom half of the Atlantic Coast Conference, exposed many of Illinois’ flaws: the lack of a post presence on offense and defense and a slight lack of depth overall. The Illini survived in large part because they connected on 14 threes, just two away from the school record. That won’t happen every game, not in the Big Ten and not on the road.

And that is when Illinois will need Bertrand, a player who can create his own shot and score as well as any player on the roster, whom Georgia Tech head coach Brian Gregory described as “just streaky enough to be dangerous,” to bring that steady scoring hand every single game.

Daniel is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @danielmillermc.