FanNation - The Republic of Sport

There was madness in Physco T's eyes as he zoomed up behind Virginia Tech's ballhandler on a fast break to bat the ball out of bounds. Tyler came out of nowhere, it looked like an easy lay- up, but out of nowhere Sporting News' Player of the year came, showing the mos speed that I've seen from a guy who is 6-9. Then, less than two minutes later, with 20.1 seconds left, Roy Williams called a time-out. Everyone in the gym knew who the ball was going to- or at least thought they did- Pyhsco T. When the Tar Heels came out of the huddle, all the Hokies scrambled to get to their man. Then, instead of Tyler lining up in the post, where he's most comfortable at, he lined up to the left of Ty Lawson, at the three point line. Ty had the ball in the middle of the court, and started going left as if to give the ball to Tyler, but then made a jagged dribble between his legs, and started going towards the basket to the right. When he got down there, Physco T was at the free throw line, and as Ty put up a crazy shot nowhere close, Tyler again showed off his speed- again- as he ran to grab the elusive lose ball and, eighteen feet from the goal along the sideline, put up what proved to be the game winning shot. Swish! Music to my ears. Then, Physco T really looked like a physco as he high stepped/ ran, screaming back to the other side of the court. He looked loopy. He also looked like he was going to cry from joy. "I did go a bit overkill on the celebration." He said afterward.

But, Physco T's madness wasn't the only madness at the buzzer that took place this weekend so far. Let's have a flash back to Hopkins High School's State Basketball Tournament game in 2005. Hopkins was down by two in overtime, and they had the ball. The guy who had the ball was trapped, and he just simply gave the ball up, and it managed to stray to a man on the seat of his pants, his name was Blake Hoffarber. He was eighteen feet from the goal, so he just heaved the ball over his head towards the goal, and by some twist of fate, it went in. That sent it into double overtime, where Hopkins eventually prevailed. Now, back to two days ago, where the Minnesota Golden Gophers were playing number 20 Indiana Hoosiers, and the seconds were waning. Minnesota had the ball under Indiana's goal, and they needed desperately to get the ball down the court, because they were down 57-58, and really needed to win. So they bombed the ball down court where(guess who!) Blake Hoffarber grabbed the ball, spun from the Hoosier guarding him, and took a left- handed fourteen- foot jumper for the win. Then, by some twist of fate...it fell! Move over David Ortiz, there's a new Mr. Clutch!

That shot reminded me of a grim time as a Kentucky fan. Remember, the 1992 NCAA Tournament? Duke vs. Kentucky, yeah, that's the one, where Kentucky was up by one and Grant Hill was throwing the ball in- bounds under our goal, and he bombed the ball to Christian Laetnner, who slipped away and made a Jordan-esque shot to win.

Speaking of Kentucky, the next madness that occured was about them. The game was tied in overtime, and as I was watching I was typing up a blog, and Ramel Bradley brought the ball down the court. He dished it off to Joe Crawford, who put up a pocket three. No good. Perry Stevenson got the board, threw it back out to Ramel Bradley, who pump faked, and dribbled to about the free-throw line, where he then put up what seemed to be a magic shot. It bounced once, twice, rolled around the rim, then went in! With 8.8 seconds left, Kentucky went up by two! "We won." My mom said. "There's still 8 seconds left." I said. "Anything can happen. Don't get too cocky." My dad said. My dad and I were right. Zac Swansey dribbled the ball up court, where he spun off Bradley, and, even though he was just a 25% three point shooter, put up a three. Swish! Except that time, it was anything but music to my ears. Kentucky lost. We ended up fouling them, and on one of their free throws, Billy Gillespie had Perry Stevenson goaltend the free throw! We ended up losing by four.

Man, Kentucky has the worst luck in tournaments!