A Game For The Ages

With all that happened on Thursday regarding bubble teams (which I will thoroughly comment on later), I thought that the Syracuse vs Connecticut game was worth making a special mention of. This game is what college hoops is all about...two teams who will make the NCAA tournament no matter what (one of which has a #1 seed all but locked up) battling it out for six overtimes. It stands as one of the most remarkable games I've ever seen.

How historic was this game? In the 30 year history of the Big East Conference, there had only been one Triple OT game in the conference tournament until this. So when it reached Overtime #4, it was the longest game in Big East tournament history. When it reached Overtime #5 it was the longest game in Big East history - regular season or postseason. When it reached Overtime #7, it became the longest game in the history of NCAA Division 1 Basketball (along with Cincinnati vs in Bradley 1981).

It looked like the game was over in regulation when Eric Devendorf hit a 3-pointer to seemingly win the game for Syracuse before it was ultimately overturned by the referees. Clearly the clock started early AND was at zero by the time the ball left his hand. Syracuse did not lead in any of the 5 overtimes, but managed to end each one tied until the game got to its sixth OT.

With the exception of the Devendorf shot that was overturned, the refereeing was questionable to say the least and to the players credit, they didn't complain and kept competing even harder. Players were fouling out left and right, but those remaining kept stepping up. When Hasheem Thabeeet fouled out in the fourth OT, UConn still managed to block four shots without him to send the game into a fifth OT. Syracuse even had to play a guy who has played 21 minutes and scored only FOUR points all season.

Syracuse finally got its first lead since regulation in the sixth OT, and held on to it for a 127-117 victory. As the game finally drew to a close, after 70 minutes of basketball, the players were still battling their hearts out. As the day Big East quarterfinals finally drew to a close, at 1:25AM EST, the fans still stood exhilarated by what they'd seen. And a certain basketball fan couldn't help but feel inspired to post a blog about it.