Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Inches from history
At approximately 1am this morning I was up out of the sofa and watched like 70,930 others in the stadium and millions in living rooms around America as Butler's Gordon Hayward threw the ball from halfway down the court with the final buzzer gone. The trajectory was true. The arc was good. The ball took for ages to hit the backboard, then rammed off the front of the rim and bounced harmlessly to the floor.
At approximately 1am this morning I was up out of the sofa and watched like 70,930 others in the stadium and millions in living rooms around America as Butler's Gordon Hayward threw the ball from halfway down the court with the final buzzer gone. The trajectory was true. The arc was good. The ball took for ages to hit the backboard, then rammed off the front of the rim and bounced harmlessly to the floor.Duke 61, Butler 59. That shot would have been played for ever more if it had dropped through the net.
The game was close throughout but for me Duke, the clear favourites and the gold standard in college basketball were always in control, but Butler's stingy defence and undeniable courage kept them hanging in there. The smallest college to reach the NCAA Championship final for 25-years were down by 5 points with just 2 minutes to go but came back to within one with 30 seconds left but missed a tight baseline shot. Giant Duke centre Brian Zoobek collected the rebound and scored one of his two free throws after being fouled and then came the last gasp miracle effort from Hayward.
My mates down in Indy are a bit quiet today but Butler will be back.
¶ 14:21
