January in college basketball. The trailers for the early season games are over, and now the movies have begun. Conference match. Weird, unique, moments where fate can change as suddenly as if it had slipped on the ice of an outdoor parking lot.
Night time like Tuesday.
That night…
Kansas trailed TCU by 15 points with 4 1/2 minutes left and nine with 61 seconds left to win in overtime. Darrin Peterson, who had only entered the game once, stayed calm in the lane and made three free throws with 1.7 seconds left in overtime to give Kansas a 104-100 win. Peterson’s 32 points included 13 free throws. The entire TCU team had 15 hits. It was just the 13th time in Division I history that a team trailed by 15 points in five minutes to win.
The rally saved the Jayhawks from some ignominy. They could go 0-2 in the Big 12. They haven’t gone 0-2 in league play in 43 years. “The best thing about tonight is that we became a team,” coach Bill Self said. “It’s the best thing that could happen, but we’ll just have to see.”
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Poor TCU. The 11-4 Frogs lost by four points, four points, two points and four points in overtime, all of which they had the lead to take in the final 30 seconds. What reward do they get for such a frustrating night? No. 1 Arizona on Saturday. “It can’t kill us, it should make us better,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “Learn from our mistakes where we aim.”
That night…
Penn State, which lost 41 points to Indiana and 34 points to Pittsburgh, lost four of five without injury to freshman guard Kaiden Mingo, who led the team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals. The Nittany Lions faced undefeated Michigan, scoring 97 points per game and winning by an average of 30. What bad things could happen?
Not bad at all. The Wolverines escaped 74-72 and Penn State finally had a chance to win. That inspired some personal talk from Nittany Lions coach Mike Rhoades after the game.
“I’m angry. I’m not upset. I’m not here to do this bulls—. I want to win, I don’t care if it’s a one-point game or a 30-point game. I’ve coached long enough, we’ve all been through it, but I want to win, I want these guys to win.
“I didn’t sign up for this. I don’t want to do it. But I’m here and we’re going to work it out… I’m not down. I’m not down. I hate losing. I hate it. We don’t ever want to be like, ‘It’s okay to be close.’ let’s create.”
That night…
Georgetown led DePaul 35-32 at halftime. The Hoyas then took 23 shots and missed 22 in the second half. DePaul’s 56-50 win was the fewest by the Blue Devils in 16 years, tying an NCAA record with one field goal at halftime.
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“It was a rock battle,” DePaul coach Chris Holtmann said. “I’ve coached a long time. Never half like this.”
That night…
After starting the season ranked No. 3 and then going 9-5 in the Associated Press rankings, defending national champion Florida is starting to hear questions about what could go wrong.
Not much wrong with the Gators. Not on a Tuesday night anyway. Georgia arrived in Gainesville with a 13-1 record and the nation’s top-scoring offense with 99 points per game. Florida outshot the Bulldogs 56-35, went on a 35-10 run and held them 22 points shy of their average. The game ended with a score of 92-77 at halftime. And who was there to talk to the Gators in the locker room next, but Urban Meyer, who was responsible for several state championships for Florida using a different shaped ball.
“It was a game we needed tonight,” coach Todd Golden said. It’s time for us to fight a good team in a big moment and find a way to finish.”
Unfortunately, Florida still cannot reach the ocean from the coast along the perimeter. The Gators are 6-for-25 from 3-point range and are 357th nationally at 27.7 percent this season. It will not be easy to repeat.
That night…
St. John’s had to find out if this was a crisis or not. The Red Storm’s No. 5 ranking in the AP preseason poll was their highest in school history. They were picked to win the Big East. The new move was nationally popular. What can go wrong?
But by Tuesday night, St. John’s was 9-5 and unranked in the AP poll, and Rick Pitino sounded the alarm after last weekend’s home loss to Providence.
“Now our backs are against the wall early in the season.”
And then…
“I said we have high hopes, but what I see right now is a team with a lot of weaknesses.”
And then…
“There is no team in this league that cannot beat us.”
But not Butler on Tuesday night. The Red Storm improved their pressure defense and finished with a 21-5 turnover margin, outscoring the St. John’s Bulldogs 27-5. The final score was 84-70, and Pitino thought maybe all those passes were finally starting to mix properly. There are a lot of challenges these days.
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“I’ve been telling them all week, look, I don’t care about outside noise. You’ve got to be like me, you’ve got to block it out,” he said. “I said to all the guys on this basketball team, I have all the hope in the world…Do you wish we could win more? I do. But it’s tough. You never know what to expect every year. It’s tough. There’s no continuity. This team is sticking together and growing as a basketball team.”
That night…
In the first half against Louisville, Duke trailed by 12 points and the Cardinals shot 10 of 21 from the 3-point line.
They then went 2-for-17 in the second half. The Blue Devils were 11-of-12.
And perhaps the wildest of all, that night…
Auburn trailed by 16 points with 13:30 left. Within five minutes, the Aggies were ahead. Five minutes later they were up by 12. The lead was cut to two three minutes later when KeShon Murphy hit a 3-pointer from half court to seal the game-winner for Auburn.
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The officials took a long look at the replay and decided not to speak.
Check out the Aggies’ celebration!
So Texas A&M won 90-88 in a game in which the home team led by 16 points and the visiting team by almost 12. It all happened in the last 14 minutes.
Auburn coach Stephen Pearl later contacted the SEC office, saying later, “I don’t have a clear idea.” “I’m not an official and I’ll never be an official because those guys have an impossible job,” he talked a little about the last few seconds, but not for long. “I have to go to Arkansas,” he finally decided.
Conference match. You must love it.
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