College basketball absolutely went off the rails on Wednesday night and reminded us precisely why we love this sport so dang much.
It started relatively innocently, as Wofford found a way to pick off Georgia Tech at home, 63-60, thanks to this 25-foot three from Fletcher Magee with 1.9 seconds left in the game:
SAY HELLO TO FLETCHER MAGEE, @MARCHMADNESS!!!! 💯💯💯#SCTop10 #ConquerandPrevail pic.twitter.com/5cvGrQ2fvG
— Wofford Terriers (@WoffordTerriers) December 7, 2017
Pretty typical finish.
Not unlike the finish in Detroit, where Toledo’s length-of-the-court pass to Tre’Shaun Fletcher resulted in this buzzer-beating three-ball:
.@ToledoMBB’s Tre'Shaun Fletcher just called game.#MACtion #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/V5oRE0Nbty
— #MACtion (@MACSports) December 7, 2017
This, however, wasn’t typical: Marist held a two-point lead on Colgate with the ball and just 0.6 seconds left. With no timeouts left and no one to throw the ball to, Marist heaved a pass to the other end of the court. It was picked off by Colgate’s Jack Ferguson, who proceeded to bury a game-winning, buzzer-beating half-court bomb!:
Raiders had the potential game-winning shot in this unbelievable play from O'Brien, but after a lengthy review the refs rule that the clock had expired. Marist holds on to win 78-76. pic.twitter.com/hRQFmYSgER
— Colgate Men's Basketball (@ColgateMBB) December 7, 2017
Only ... upon further review, he didn’t get the shot off until after the horn had sounded.
Womp womp.
But that was nothing compared to the finish between Hofstra and Monmouth. The Hawks were up 84-79 with 16 seconds left. Hofstra scored, and after a Monmouth player missed the front end of a one-and-one, Justin Wright-Foreman was fouled on what looked to be a half court shot with eight seconds left. The officials opted to only give him two free throws. He hit the first. Then this happened:
Should I mention that North Texas got a buzzer-beating three from A.J. Lawson to force overtime and I can’t find video for it?
Or that all of this happened on a night where No. 5 Florida lost at home to Loyola-Chicago? And No. 2 Kansas got smoked in Kansas City by a Washington team that lost Markelle Fultz from a roster that won nine games a year ago? And Cal got blown out by Central Arkansas, Washington State got blown out by Idaho, Vanderbilt lost at home to Middle Tennessee State and Wisconsin fell to 4-6 on the season with a loss to Temple?
Go home, college hoops.
You’re drunk.
