Monday, March 9, 2009

Yes we lost, but did we have to lose like that?

In what seems to be an annual tradition, a friend of mine attended the MVC tournament again this year. Allow me to paraphrase her comments:

"This weekend was painful for a lot of fans. First, Wichita State came back from a 20 point deficit only to lose on a crushing shot at the end of regulation.

Then, Creighton got stomped by Illinois State and looked awful. It is never good to get crushed in your final game before selection Sunday. Also, several Creighton fans were kicked out of the stadium for raging against the reality that Creighton can actually lose.

Finally, Illinois St. lost in overtime in the Championship game, coming up just short of an NCAA tournament bid. The loss was all the more painful when you remember that Northern Iowa won a double overtime game against Illinois St. two weeks ago on a last second tip-in. (Also, what a crazy ending to regulation. First you had an airball that doesn’t go in and should have resulted in a shot-clock violation, but Eldrige got it back and puts up another shot. If that shot goes in, can they go back and correct for the shot-clock violation? Well, it didn’t matter as Eldrige ultimately air-balled the second shot too, but it could have been very controversial.)"