OT Thriller: An Epic Classic

Fargo, ND is a buzz lately about the NDSU Bison making the NCAA tournament and what a game they played on Tuesday evening beating the Golden Grizzles of Oakland University to secure their automatic bid to the NCAA tourney. Fargonians are kind of in a box right now - loving their Bison, but one game washed away all my thoughts of how entertaining the Bison game was the other night - and that came in the manner of a 6 OT thriller on Thursday night between my #4 UCONN Huskies going down to #20 Syracuse 127-117 in yes 6 OT's. The game ended at 12:30ish a.m. and 1:30 a.m. NYC time. This is when the Yankee playoff games seem to end - not games at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tourney.

UCONN showed heart down the stretch in regulation coming back to tie the game after being down 6 with 3 minutes to play. UCONN was in control of all the overtime periods except period number 6......the only period they didn't get the tip (since Hasheem Thabeet had fouled out) - and they surrendered a three right away on Syracuse's first possession that seeminly started the road to the end for the Huskies on this night. UCONN had many opportunities to slam the door on Syracuse during the first 5 OT's. What a disappointment not to get the job done.

AJ Price was great, Stanley Robinson was insane. Other than that - no one for UCONN showed up offensively, although both teams showed tons of heart and class (w/the exception of Erik Devendorf - who proved that he is one of the cockiest players in college basketball - taunting AJ Price after making threes a couple of different times- and standing on the scores table after hitting an improbable game winner that was reviewed and was eventually taken away from Syracuse).

I am somewhat glad UCONN lost this game and will get some rest the rest of the weekend. I seem to remember a past national champion - North Carolina - who lost early in the ACC tourney a couple of years ago - only to win their next 6 in a row and claim the National Championship.....Let's hope the Huskies can pull that feet off as well.

On a final note - I scrolled the TV lineup that this game was competing with at 12 midnight only to find TBS airing the movie Doom as well as various channels carrying different male enhancement ads - It's a pretty good bet ESPN ratings did just fine after midnight on this night. And last Jim Calhoun's press conference was classic, as usual, when he made a statment about the Big East and asked people to "Do The Math....Everyone is wondering why everyone in our league can't be 15-3 - well someone has to lose games....Do the math and you'll find that this is the best and deepest conference in America."