Friday, March 13, 2009

Syracuse's 6 OT Win over UConn

It was a quarterfinals match-up; the winner would face West Virginia the next night in the Semi-Finals of the 2009 Big East Championship tournament.

Not an extremely prestigious situation, when you take in to account that beyond this game, and beyond the Big East Championship title... only then does March Madness begin. The Big Dance.

#20 ranked Syracuse University versus #4 ranked University of Connecticut.

"Remember where you were when Syracuse and UConn played the longest game in Big East History?" - was just heard form my stereo, set on 1050 AM ESPN Radio.

The game was supposed to go to UConn, though it was supposed to be a good one. A 3 point game at half-time, it was a close score and going back-and-forth essentially from wire-to-wire. After being up 2 points in the last minute, Syracuse surrendered the tying bucket with less than 2 seconds left.

A Doug Flutie-esque Hail Mary pass found it's way into UConn hands, only to roll off right in front of Eric Devendorf. He tosses up a prayer just as time runs out... AND SINKS IT!!! I Don't believe it! Syracuse just won on a buzzer-beater three pointer , a shot that never should have even gotten off. But thank GOD it DID!

And of course, upon further review, the buzzer sounded just before the ball left Devendorf's fingertips. Basket no good. We go in to Overtime.

I'm not about to do a play-by-play of Overtimes 1-6 because, hell, that's what ESPN's for. I just needed tow rite down where I was as I watched this miraculous display of basketball unravel before my very eyes.

I was meeting up with a couple of friends at a bar, keeping my eye on the TV the whole game. The two girls I was with couldn't care less about the game. Two other friends who I hadn't seen since New Year's Eve came in during the second half. As the game was heading for OT, they left for home. I was gonna give 'em a call and meet up with them after the next 5 minutes of play was over.

Now, earlier in the day Villanova beat Marquette on a last-second all-alone under-the-basket lay-up to salvage a win they should have secured before blowing a 16-point lead. That had to have been the sickest ending of the day, right?

Not even close.

OVERTIME - Syracuse loses the tip-off, playing catch-up the whole damn extra session... Flynn feeds Jackson under the basket, he slams it down with 4.7 seconds left to tied it. And We're going to Overtime number 2.

OT 2 - Flynn with the sweet lay-up, and-one! would be the tying points. on to #3.

OT 3 - Down 4 points, Harris with the slam! Then down 3, Rautins NAILS THE THREE with 11 seconds left! UConn can't put it in, and we're on to the fouth Overtime.

OT 4 - tied at 104 with 16 seconds left, UConn loses possesion, Rautins driving the over way, dishes to Harris in the paint... and he misses the lay-up. GETS HIS OWN REBOUND! and misses the putback. On to the 5th.

OT 5 - Nope... not this time either

Oh, by the way... at this point, The Orange have been playing a significant amount of time without Kristoff Ongeneat, Arinze Onuaku, Rick Jackson and Eric Devendorf, as they all fouled out (in that order). Their tallest regular player - Paul Harris standing in at 6'4".

OT 6 - finally, SU wins the tip off. with Flynn, Harris, Rautins, Justin Thomas and Kris Joseph the 5 Orange[men] on the floor starting overtime numero seis. At this point, my other two friends with me at the bar left me alone. There were about 12 people in the bar cheering for Syracuse, none of them caring so much other than watching "some cool college basketball game." Man, how I wished everyone was at Syracuse for this game... or at least if I were with SOMEONE that gave half a rats ass about this. I was left alone with my thoughts, (prayers) and my cell phone, frantically texting 12 other people - trying to create some semblance of the feeling of watching this game with friends/people who actually gave a crap about Syracuse winning this one... Syracuse dominated Overtime 6 from the get-go and won pretty decidedly.

6 OTs - that's 1.75 games. 244 total points... 142 in regulation, 102 overtime points.

Johnny Flynn played 67 of the game's 70 total minutes. 16-16 from the Free Throw line --34 points.

Harris, 13-14 from the line, 29 PTS, 22 Rebounds (10 on the Offensive board).

Devendord threw in 22, and Rautins sunk 20.

They shot 78.4% (40/51) from the Free Throw line... this coming from a team whose season mark coming in to the game sat at 63.3%, 14/16 in the Big East.

127-121 after 70 minutes of play. The second-longest NCAA Division I game EVER...

...and it was at the Garden.

...and it was my school.

It was MY school. This wasn't just some cool college ball game between two good programs that I happened to be watching... this was my team, senior year, that i was rooting for.

Is it weird to me that I'm older than any of the Orange on the court as time FINALLY expired? Yeah, you betcha that's weird.

Over 4 hours long, and MY school won the game.

I was at the Garden the night before, to see Syracuse handedly defeat Seton Hall by 15 points. It was a good game, and a whole lot of fun. Before that game was even underway, talk of tomorrow's ticket being $70 the cheapest put an end to discussions of actually going to Thursday night's game... which would turn out to be simply epic.

Epic game, no doubt. This will surely run on ESPN Classic for decades to come. When people tal about greatest games, though it might not top te list, it'll definitely be in the discussion (I wonder how many sports sites and newspapers are setting up a poll for greatest college basketball game ever?).

Yet at the end of the day, this was a quarterfinals match-up. Syracuse will play West Virginia later in the same day that the game ended in, the winner of which will face the winner of the Louisville/Villanova matchup.

The winner of that will be crowned 2009 Big East Champs.

And then, the very next day - it won't mean shit. Sure, more wins would help a team's seeding in the big tournament, but in the end, Syracuse will be tied with 63 other teams with a 0-0 record, all with the same goal: To be NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Champions.

Personally, I think the aura surrounding the Madison Square Garden is a bit over-blown... but I just can't help but think this wouldn't have happened anywhere else. It couldn't have happened anywhere else. The World's Most Famous Arena in the World's Most Famous City, set the stage for a 6 overtime clash of college basketball juggernauts (you know the papers and columns love writing that sort of shit).

I'm not making any sense anymore. What I intended to write when I sat down at my laptop sometime after 2:30AM after the game was over, only a part of what I felt ended up actually translating to this post. I see my bed an arm's length away from me, and all I want to do is crawl in it and pass out immediately.

Funny though, as tired as I am - I'm nowhere near the combination of being both physically and mentally drained as Johnny Flynn must be feeling tonight.

I just keep thinking that I'm experiencing this in the present. I was watching the game, I was still a student at the University i was rooting for... it's not a memory, it's not a historic refernce (yet).

Congrats Boeheim. No, not on Juli (though DAMN man, how the hell did you pull that one off with that hair), but on being the winning coach in this game.

"
"I'm more proud of this team than any team I've ever coached," said Syracuse's Jim Boeheim. "I've never been more proud of a team."

Jimmy, I agreegree.

No comments: