FanNation - The Republic of Sport

When I was younger, I always loved the Big East tournament.  It was like a mini March Madness -- you were guaranteed a few jump-out-of-your-seat exciting games.  Even when my favorite team (BC) had been knocked out in the earlier rounds, I still couldn't get enough.  More than any other major conference tournament, the excitement seemed to always be there.

When BC jumped ship to the ACC, I suddenly found myself watching less Big East tourney and more ACC tourney.  It makes sense -- I wanted to see who BC could be playing -- but still, I missed the Big East tourney.  When BC has been eliminated earlier in the ACC tournament, it no longer became that important to watch for me.  I would return to the Big East and watch those games instead.  Without a rooting interest in the games, I just felt there was more excitement there.

But the scheduling gods killed me on Thursday night.  In the Big East tournament, Syracuse was playing Connecticut.  The two hall of fame, national championship winning coaches, Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun, were going head to head for what seemed like the one-millionth time.  Two ranked teams were playing each other in the Big East quarterfinals.  Normally, this would be must see TV for me, but at the same time, BC was playing Virginia in the ACC tournament.

With BC leading 72-63 and headed to the free throw line in what turned out to be (not surprisingly) a pretty ugly game, they flashed a score update on the bottom of the screen: UConn 64, Syracuse 64, 2:18 remaining.  Figuring BC's lead was safe, I changed the channel.  It was 11:31 PM, and I thought I would see a couple of great minutes of basketball.  Little did I know what I was in for.

Of course, what happened was a historic, six overtime thriller.  There were so many crazy, memorable moments and figures for me; I feel the need to run through some of them:

• Before it even got to overtime, Syracuse's Arinze Onuaru hitting two clutch free throws with two minutes remaining in regulation, despite the fact that he had hit only one of his previous nineteen attempts from the line
• Kemba Walker with the rebound and putback after Hasheem Thabeet kept it alive to tie the game up with 1.1 seconds remaining
• The almost winning shot by Eric Devendorf at the buzzer, where Syracuse tried the oft-tried, rarely called, charge-drawing inbounds play.  It wasn't called, of course, the in-bounds pass was almost stolen, and then the apparent game winning three pointer was still touching Devendorf's fingertips by the narrowest of margins with zeroes on the clock.  I should have known at this point we were in for a long night.
• Sean McDonough's mention that the players looked winded -- in the first overtime
• Walker's near miss from half court at the buzzer for the second overtime that was much closer to ending the game than a lot of people realized
• Jeff Adrien committing a foul in the third OT and falling to the floor, getting ready to scream something, with the camera close enough to pick up whatever it is.  With the censors ready to bleep, he just said "Oh my goodness!"  I don't know why, but I thought this was funny.  Let's move on.
• My brother Sean, who had to be up at 8 this (Friday) morning, saying for three straight overtimes that he was going to bed after this one.
• My dad, who normally would have been in bed before this game even started but had stayed up to watch the BC game, lasting through this entire game, despite the fact that he was planning on getting up at 5 am, less than 4 hours after the game ended.
• Sean's joking to my dad that he should jump in the shower to get ready for work, followed by my dad walking to the bathroom, the shower running, and both me and Sean wondering if he understood it was a joke.  As it turns out, he figured he could sleep later than normal if he had showered then and thought, with a six point lead (their largest of the night) and two minutes left in the third overtime, UConn had finally wrapped the game up.  He was wrong.
• ESPN showing the clip of the other 3 OT Big East tournament game, Villanova versus Syracuse from 1981, where Leo Rautin got the winning tip-in at the end of the third OT. 
  
• My realizing that McDonough was probably a student at Syracuse during that game (I think he was a freshman) and was possibly in attendance that day.  Even if he wasn't in attendance, he surely would remember it, meaning that he was the perfect announcer to have out there talking about it.
• Two huge offensive rebounds by UConn with a two point lead and under a minute left, followed by Boeheim yelling "don't foul him!" about AJ Price, his team fouling Price anyway, and Price only hitting one of two from the line.
• Andy Rautin (Leo's son) hitting a three to tie the game at 98 with fourteen seconds left.
• Jay Bilas saying "gotta get to the rim" on UConn's ensuing possession, followed by Price immediately launching, and missing, a three pointer.
• Sean running to the bathroom door and yelling in to Dad that we're headed to another overtime.  Needless to say, he was flabbergasted.
• A great shot by ESPN, showing Bob Huggins petting a cat and laughing maniacally while watching the game.  What, that didn't happen? Are you sure?
• Paul Harris being unable to finish at the rim twice in the last few seconds of the fourth overtime.  He was money from the line, but he had some struggles in close throughout the game.
• Walk-on Justin Thomas entering the game with two minutes left in the fifth OT and being the only guy on Syracuse who had energy on defense.  The contrast of the fresh guy and the tired guys was telling and a little bit funny.
• The fact that Thomas had only played 21 minutes all year, but ended up playing one-third of that, in what were surely much more important minutes, in this game
• Similarly, Scottie Haralson, who had played only two minutes in the game prior to the fifth OT, coming in for UConn and hitting a huge shot to take the lead with 36 seconds remaining.
• Syracuse, remarkably, taking their first lead of overtime at the start of the sixth OT, 25 minutes and 10 seconds of game time after the first OT tipped off.  They never looked back from there.
• Thomas getting his first rebound of the season with three minutes left in the final OT.
• Harris looking like me trying to dunk, hitting the front rim with a couple of minutes left.  It was clear, at that point, he had nothing left in his legs.
• With 1:16 left in the sixth overtime, Price, who had been playing with four fouls since the fourth quarter, finally fouled out.
• Jim Boeheim's facial expressions throughout the overtimes, which ranged from anxious, exhausted, relieved, proud, and I-want-to-eat-that-giant-orange-mascot crazy.
• Syracuse's clutch free throw shooting was remarkable.  They hit 31 of their final 35 free throws, including 25 of 28 in overtime.  Remember kids, free throw shooting is important.  Just ask John Calipari.
• Jonny Flynn played 67 minutes for Syracuse.  Forget a basketball game, that would be a record for a Royal Rumble.  Sorry Rey Mysterio, you've been outdone.  I'm running out of adjectives for how incredible, amazing, fantastic, and remarkable this game was, so I'm making up a new one.  Flynn's performance in this game was crazetastable.  Harris's was too for that matter.
• The final buzzer sounded at 1:22 AM.  That is 3 hours 53 minutes after the opening tip-off and 1 hour 51 minutes after I turned the game on to watch the last few minutes.

Okay, I'm done.  I'm tired from writing all that, I can't imagine what it was like to play through it.  If Syracuse has anything left, they now have to play West Virginia tonight at nine o'clock, less than twenty hours after their last game ended.  I hope it's another classic, but even if it is, I probably won't see it.  BC is playing Duke tonight, also at nine o'clock.  We might need another overtime game for me to be able to see some of it, although I doubt Syracuse could go through that again.  Even if they can't, or if they come out flat and tired from the start tonight, it doesn't matter.  It was worth it for the greatest "last few minutes" I've ever seen.