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INDIANAPOLIS – There are certain games every March that instantly earn a spot in a time capsule. They levitate there via lightning swings, shots that elicit visceral reactions and no-no-no-yes shots.
Sunday night’s overtime thriller between No.2 Alabama and No.11 UCLA should be shipped to this location immediately, stored for future generations to enjoy the sport as dramatic art. He captured all the quintessential March essences with eight header changes, 11 draws and a ringing batsman at the end of regulation that will be in heavy rotation on CBS for much of the next decade.
But what will make UCLA’s 83-72 overtime upheaval in Alabama so lasting is that it featured the rare emotional March backlash of a team overcoming an iconic shot and finding a way to still win. .
Imagine Missouri coming back to beat Tyus Edney in 1995 or Ole Miss against Bryce Drew’s play in 1998. March’s immortality leans heavily towards the moment, not the response to the moment.
So after Alabama’s Alex Reese provided that wonderfully familiar last-second moment – a 26-foot 3-point pointer to force overtime – UCLA pulled off the rarest of March feats. The Bruins looked down on potential infamy – wasting a double-digit lead and Mick Cronin’s inability to clearly articulate a three-way fouling strategy – and continued after absorbing the most violent of March haeders.
“They saved me,” said Cronin, who avoids being the eternal face of fault in the dying seconds, leading by three points. “Shoot, they played as well in overtime as you could possibly play.”
UCLA pulled it off by scoring the first seven points in overtime, and forward Jaime Jaquez’s retreat to 3 points with 97 seconds to go froze the game for the Bruins. “These are definitely clichés that I practiced at the park,” Jaquez said. “Just imagine being in March Madness.”
Jaquez and young goaltender Jules Bernard finished with 17 points, two of six Bruins in double digits. The Bruins have emerged in this tournament with a potent mix of Cronin’s signature defensive intensity and a more skillful formation to play a less squeaky attacking style than his teams in Cincinnati.
This collective offense – including a Tyger Campbell pick-6 steal and layup – led to relatively less dramatic overtime. “I don’t have an answer as to why this didn’t go well in overtime,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “I don’t know if I’m even going to watch this game, to be honest with you.”
Cronin is such a defensive coach that he joked about his players “dealing with a little Irishman telling you to take a defensive stance”. That infamous defensive intensity has helped limit Alabama’s provocative strength as their entire offense revolves around the 3-point shot. The Tide finished 7 for 28 on a 3-point range that day, with UCLA never letting them dictate the tempo.
For Alabama fans, the Reese 3 pointer – his only points in the game – was necessary because the Tide couldn’t make free throws. This game will long be deplored along University Boulevard in Tuscaloosa as the Alabama game has perhaps the best Final Four shot in school history. The Tide only hit 11 of 25, 44% for a team that shot 72% on the season.
The worst moment for Alabama came when SEC Player of the Year Herb Jones missed three of his four free throw attempts in the final 36 seconds, including a pair with 6.8 seconds left. . He finished day 2 of 7.
“It happens,” Oats said. “It’s sport.”
This victory created a unique story for a UCLA program that has won 11 national titles and seen just about everything in the NCAA tournament. The Bruins are just the second team to start the NCAA tournament in the top four and advance to the top eight, joining VCU. They are also only the third No.11 seed to beat a No.2, joining LSU in 1986 and Xavier in 2017.
UCLA faces seeded Michigan on Tuesday night and the game offers a chance for the program’s first Final Four since Ben Howland made three in a row from 2006-08. This all comes only from Cronin’s second season, which ended with four straight losses before the NCAA tournament and featured the loss of the program’s top rookie in the G League (Daishen Nix) and top scorer. back (Chris Smith) to an ACL tear.
UCLA entered Sunday tested year round through close games, adversity and, over time, built enough collective scar tissue not to flinch when it had every reason to.
“We knew we had nothing to fear about it,” Jaquez said of Alabama firing to force overtime. “We are in March. It happens all the time. “
Well, in fact, that doesn’t really happen all the time. While UCLA’s answer cannot be distilled into one immortal climax, the victory will be long remembered.
“I’ve been on the other side of that,” Cronin said, sympathizing with the loss of Alabama. “It’s like stepping off a cliff. It is atrocious.
This victory will not levitate until the annals of Edney’s buzzer drummer or any of the UCLA titles. But the Bruins’ ability to see-see momentum after the buzzer provided the program’s most memorable victory in more than a decade. And there’s just enough moxie, skill, and cunning in this UCLA squad to hint at more frozen times to come.
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