Fantastic. Amazing. Breathtaking. Spectacular. Spellbinding.
And those are just a few of the words that described the Syracuse-Connecticut college basketball game I witnessed on Thursday night. In a 6-overtime thriller, the No. 20 Syracuse Orange took down the mighty No. 4 Connecticut Huskies, 127-117 , to advance to the seminfinals of the Big East tournament, where they will take on Dr. Hanson's cinderella team, the West Virginia Mountaineers. Please, watch the highlights, either below or on the ESPN article to get a full feeling of what this game had to offer as you watched it live.
I started watching this game while finishing my dinner at Applebee's, catching it with just over 2 minutes left and the score tied at 64. The next two minutes of the game transpired and left me on the edge of my bar stool, teetering at the play that could happen next. What the game came down to was a three point shot by forward Kevin Devendorf off of an inbounds pass with 1.8 seconds remaining. The ball caromed off the hands of a Huskie and into the hands of Devendorf who released a 28-foot prayer. Swish. Nothing but net. He tickled the twine. But not so fast, replay revealed that as the clock hit double zero and the red light lit up, the ball was still on the outstretched fingers of Devendorf's miracle shot.
Only if he had trimmed his fingernails that morning..
So the teams began their marathon game exchanging punches and countering everything the other had to throw at them. Syracuse would never take a lead in the first 5 overtimes, before outscoring the Huskies 17-7 in the final frame to end the second longest game in Division 1 college basketball history (the longest game went 7 overtimes). Each extra period featured it's own final barrage of shots in the final minutes, resulting in fans displaying their excitement via Facebook, text messages and word of mouth. Before you knew it, everyone was watching one of the great games in college basketball history take place.
Now, one would take this for one of the March Madness NCAA Tournament games, but on the contrary. This game was merely a quarterfinal match-up in the Big East tournament, a quarterfinal match-up. The game became the only Big East contest to ever go past four overtimes in the 30-year history of the league. It featured the most combined points in Big East history and became a battle cry for what kind of March college basketball had in store for the fans.
The game between Syracuse and Connecticut wasn't about winning and losing - it was about surviving. And Syracuse was able to dig just that little extra from their fuel tanks to grind out a victory over one of the possible number one seeds in the nation.
For those that didn't watch it, please, watch the highlights to appreciate what these players gave for themselves and for the game of basketball. What you will have missed though, is watching players dive for loose balls in the 6th overtime, showing they were there to win, despite being down ten. This game got me pumped for what is to come in a couple of days when the bracket is announced for the 2009 NCAA College Basketball Tournament and the excitement that each tournament game will bring.
But until then, this will go down as one of the greatest games I have ever watched between college kids playing for integrity and pride, rather than a paycheck. What do you have to counter to that NBA?
And in other news, the West Virginia Mountaineers upset the No. 2 Pittsburgh Panthers, 74-60, to move onto the semifinals of the Big East Tournament. I report this score because after class this morning, Dr. Hanson and myself had a discussion about this very game and what it would take for the Mountaineers to win. Dr. Hanson said it would take Da'Sean Butler and Alex Ruoff staying out of foul trouble to get the job done and with 4 fouls for Butler and 2 for Ruoff, I would say they kept their foul trouble fairly controlled. Although I don't think West Virginia expected a season-high 20 points from forward Devin Ebanks.
Perhaps the Mountaineers have an easier task against the Orange..considering they just played a 4 hour game that got over just a little over three hours ago. Congratulations Syracuse, your prize for winning the second longest game in college basketball history? A game at 9 p.m. the following night against a streaking West Virginia team.
Good luck.
The Syracuse -UConn game truly was one for the ages. My 13-year-old and I watched it to the end. At the beginning, Andrew was rooting for UConn because he figured that if WVU lost in the semis, he would rather lose to UConn. But as the game went on and on and on, he decided that he wanted Syracuse to win because WVU could possibly beat the Orange.
ReplyDeleteI have to discount the exhaustion factor. Both WVU and Syracuse are coming off the biggest victories of their seasons. Can't wait to see how the game on the air right now comes out.