JACKSONVILLE — Sometimes, March absolutely sucks.
I watched Harvard poke, and prod and hang. They’re not a conventional Cinderella, with three straight NCAA tournament berths coached by former Duke assistant Tommy Amaker. They’re rated No. 73 in Kenpom, but they aren’t North Carolina, with all its basketball history and depth of talent, coached by future Hall of Famer Roy Williams.
Harvard missed shots, had cold streaks and was at one point down 16 points. They never, ever led, until point guard Siyani Chambers heaved a three pointer, it went in and he got fouled.
This was the culmination of the comeback. With 10:30 to go the deficit was nine, with 6:00 to go it was five. With 1:14 left, Chambers hit the shot.
Comeback complete.
All they had to do was hold on.
It looked like No. 4 North Carolina would suffer the same fate as No. 3 seed Baylor did on this same floor earlier in the day, falling victim to a big shot in an even bigger moment by the plucky double-digit seed that got big britches on the right day.
But it would hit a jump shot to tie the game and with 29 seconds to go. Chambers raised up for a three pointer as the shot clock expired, but it wouldn’t go.
The Tar Heels corralled the rebound and ran out for an easy two-on-one dunk. Eleven seconds later, Chambers got another chance, and again the three pointer didn’t go. Harvard fouled, and as Chambers took the long walk back to the free throw line, visibly upset. Wesley Saunders missed a final three and Goliath survived 67-65 and March showed how it can suck.
“Let’s go Harvard, settle in.”
There’s 14 minutes left and that gets yelled from a fan behind me. He isn’t a Harvard fan, I doubt he has more of a Crimson connection beyond perhaps seeing “The Social Network” in theatres.
That’s a not a shot at his intelligence, that’s an observation that he was wearing Wofford black and gold head to toe and screaming “Let’s go Harvard!” Maybe there’s a disdain for UNC built from decades of Carolinian frustration — Wofford is located in Spartanburg, South Carolina — who knows?
The point is it’s an interesting phenomenon the yearning for an upset, the desire to root for David against Goliath. The arena was obviously more full of North Carolina fans, given the size of the fanbase nationwide, but it certainly wasn’t when Georgia State took down Baylor earlier.
In that supposedly neutral environment, the crowd did everything short of chant “go Panthers” as GSU roared to life to come back from 12 points down to pull off a miracle comeback after a second half of offensive ineptitude in less than three minutes.
This is why we love March even when it sucks, because as much as we complain about our brackets being busted watching the little beat the big is fun. But what seemed like a storybook ending finished with Chambers’ jersey pulled over his face in sorrow and a lot Crimson tears on the bench.
R.J. Hunter will live in infamy forever for Baylor fans and will forever be linked to the massive shot he made to beat the Bears. Siyani Chambers will be forgotten by most because of the ones he missed. That’s the margin of immortality in March, and that sucks.
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
