The dream was so close that Texas Tech didn’t need a replay.
The Red Raiders could feel it. There were still baskets to be made and a shot or two to be stopped, but with one minute left in overtime Tech was still within reach of the prize.
But this is what happens in the concluding seconds of these Final Four dramas. A veteran player inexplicably throws a pass to the other team. An air ball turns into a championship-winning basket. Someone calls a timeout that his team doesn’t have.
And in last night’s conclusion, the officials decide that at that very moment they wanted to micro-review an out-of-bounds call on ultra-slo-mo 5G TV.
Thus launched the fateful, final minute of Texas Tech’s NCAA Final Four dream. This is what left her Cinderella season waiting for its overturned carriage.
And suddenly a lot of us were confronted with the sad reality that we had grown to really care about this Texas Tech team and its engaging coach Chris Beard. It hurt to watch them lose. It saddened to see Beard have to swallow back tears at the post-game interview.
“You know, our relationship is just getting started,” Beard said, with difficulty. “I’ll be at those guys’ weddings one day, and hopefully when their kids get born and do everything I can to talk them out of getting into coaching so they don’t ever feel like this.
“You know, I just love those guys.”
The psychology of pulling for a rival has inspired researchers and academicians alike. It’s not normal for blood rivals to chant things like “S-E-C-S-E-C!” upon their adversaries’ success.
The research team of Brian Pike, Gavin Kilduff, and Adam Galinsky published, The long shadow of rivalry: How rivalry motivates performance today and tomorrow.
The theory is that teams are often inspired in succeeding seasons by a rival’s success. Pike, Kilduff and Galinsky looked at 34 seasons of data from NCAA tournaments and NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL playoffs.
Take heart, in other words, Aggies and Longhorns. Texas Tech’s unexpected run to the ultimate tournament game could well aid your teams’ focus the next time they convene.
Or it may not.
What did happen was that for a few days, if nothing else, a lot of us became Red Raiders fans. Like the local TV anchors who dressed in red and black. Like WFAA-TV, which staged a mini-pep rally – at 4:30 a.m., so it could highlight the station’s morning show.
Students throwing tortillas. Drunken students misbehaving in downtown Lubbock.
Beer and student mischief began long before Animal House.
Beard’s team was fun to watch. Embraceable, even, considering this was the university that once was so desperate to U-turn its basketball fortunes it hired the eternal scoundrel, Bob Knight.
Regrettably, De’Andre Hunter’s sparkling performance for Virginia, highlighted by his 3-pointer from the corner at the end of regulation, will dim in future years because of the misguided out-of-bounds call on Davide Moretti.
Here’s my problem with it:
Replay is supposed to correct improper calls, not invent them. Somebody with the NCAA should have at least tried to intervene – heaven knows, there are enough conference commissioners and NCAA committee members sitting right there in prime seats at the scorer’s table that somebody should have asked, “What are we doing here, fellas?”
The overturned call didn’t directly cost Texas Tech the game. But it sure made the final 66 seconds of overtime more difficult.
That icon of Lubbock himself, Buddy Holly, sang, “There comes a time for ev’rybody. That’s what they say.”
Tech’s time proved to be about 66 seconds too short.
Thanks for the ride, though, Red Raiders. Keep listening to your great coach.