MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Saturday evening’s frantic finish between the Auburn Tigers and Virginia Cavaliers brought to mind a classic would-you-rather for fans and athletes.
Would you rather lose convincingly or lose a heartbreaker?
Would you rather be thoroughly beaten, outcoached and outplayed, or is there accomplishment in playing competitively and losing narrowly, as emotionally draining as that can be?
These are the questions that Auburn Tigers’ faithful will have to grapple with in the coming weeks.
The underdog Tigers went from a 10-point deficit late in the second half and a 96 percent chance of defeat, to a four-point lead with 17 seconds left and a 92 percent chance of victory.
Then the unthinkable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8P7xc1Mop8
Virginia’s Kyle Guy scored six points in seconds (nearly pulling a Reggie Miller). His final three points came at the free throw line after a foul by Samir Doughty on a corner 3-point attempt, squashing the enthusiasm of an already-celebrating Auburn team and fan section.
The moment when Auburn thought they had won… pic.twitter.com/dCuR7cwPoI
— Sam Ekstrom (@SamEkstrom) April 7, 2019
“We thought we won it, we thought we had it won,” said senior forward Horace Spencer. “I didn’t see the ref call the foul. I didn’t understand what was happening. So they walked over to the bench and they said something to us. We were about to storm the court.”
Some players couldn’t hear the whistle. The U.S. Bank Stadium public address announcer went as far as announcing the final score in Auburn’s favor (move over, Steve Harvey). Elated Tigers fans were pouring beer on themselves. Back in Alabama, fans sprinted to the streets after Guy’s miss to celebrate, not realizing the foul call.
All for naught.
Tigers coach Bruce Pearl was shown livid on the CBS broadcast after the call was made. He softened his stance postgame, but was still smarting over the whistle that took away his team’s chance at a first championship.
CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore explained in detail why the foul was correctly called, and the NCAA released a statement after the game defending the whistle. But having seen only nine fouls called in each half (aside from end-game intentional fouls), Pearl didn’t believe the call was merited relative to the way the game was officiated.
“My advice, as an administrator of the game, is if that’s a foul, call it. Call it at the beginning of the game, call it in the middle of the game, call it at the end of the game,” Pearl said. “Don’t call it any more or less at any other time during the game.”
Tigers guard Bryce Brown courageously keyed Auburn’s late rally with three 3-pointers, including a go-ahead shot with 1:56 left that sent fans into a frenzy. He was the most vocal about the ruling.
“It definitely wasn’t a foul in my opinion,” said Brown. “I didn’t agree with the call. … Guy had contested shots the whole entire game. There were a few calls they probably could have called that were worse than that.”
The play that deserves as much discussion was an uncalled double-dribble by Virginia’s Ty Jerome just seconds before he was fouled near mid-court. Steratore told the CBS audience it should have been whistled, giving the ball back to Auburn, up two, with just seconds remaining. Instead, the Tigers fouled intentionally to set up the deciding in-bounds play with 1.5 seconds left.
The rollercoaster ending mirrored the ups and downs of a game that featured 10 lead changes. The Tigers controlled the tempo for several chunks of the first half to take a 31-28 advantage into halftime. Virginia then scored the first eight points of the second half and seized control, but they were unable to salt the game away as they’d done so many times before.
Auburn fought back, took the lead, had it won — until it didn’t.
“I think we fought that whole game,” said junior guard Jared Harper, “to be down 10 and get back into it and get to a point where we’re up by two with one second left. We just needed to get one stop.”
Tigers players were fighting tears in the locker room. Spencer, the senior, said he felt like they’d let the community down — Auburn had been dedicating their efforts to the hurting communities affected by March’s devastating wave of tornadoes.
Assistant coach Steven Pearl, Bruce Pearl’s son, said it was the toughest loss he’d ever experience — a notion repeated by the majority of Auburn’s players.
“It’s very disappointing, very unfortunate,” said senior Austin Wiley. “I hate it for the team and the coaches. We worked very hard to get to this point, and for it to end like that is very
unfortunate.”
And for every broken Auburn heart, there was an equally elated reaction on the Virginia side. They’ll play for the national championship against Texas Tech on Monday. Saturday night, though, they get to enjoy being on the right side of one of the most scrutinized finishes in Final Four history.
“Terrific,” said Cavaliers head coach Tony Bennett. “Sorry, that wasn’t a strong enough word. Amazing, spectacular. I don’t have many more.”
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