If all your watches, phones, computers and e-calendars are misaligned, just turn on the TV. You’ll know it’s March.
A roller-coaster two-day stretch of the NCAA tournament’s first-round came to a bittersweet close last night with a fascinatingly close set of games, including Cinderella-hopeful University of Northern Iowa’s challenging test against the University of Texas. UNI, ranked 11th in their region, qualified for the tournament thanks to this buzzer-beater to beat Evansville in the MVC Conference Championship, which made last night’s dramatics even sweeter. Here’s the lucky bounce that sent them to the big dance.
Then, last night, with the game tied at 72 and just 2.7 seconds left in regulation, Northern Iowa’s coach opted not to take a timeout, meaning Paul Jesperson would have less than 3 seconds to go the full length of the court and get a shot off. He only made it halfway, but it didn’t matter.
Northern Iowa’s improbable run continues against 3rd-ranked Texas A&M tomorrow night. Can they pull off another upset?
