The Best Basketball Game I've Ever Watched

As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to go to a basketball game at Notre Dame this year.  Tonight's game was one of two games that I was considering going to.  I never would have made it out there today, so I'm not at all upset about not going, but if I had been there, it probably would have been my best blog post ever.

Here's how I spent my day today:  shoveling my driveway, watching The Office on DVD, watching the Notre Dame basketball game, and drinking.  It turned out to be a pretty awesome day.

This game definitely calls for a blog post after enjoying several Boston Beer Company products.  The first 39 minutes of the game weren't pretty.  We led by three at halftime, but we were pretty bad for the first 19 minutes of the second half.  Jack Cooley fouled out on a horrendous call.  I'm not complaining about the referees.  I didn't have any beef with them other than that call.  Cooley had four fouls.  He probably would have fouled out at some point.  And if that foul hadn't been called on him, the game might have turned out differently.  But that call was as bad as it gets.

Anyway, I had my first beer (the new Sam Adams White Lantern, which is very good) about halfway through the second half.  I finished that with about two minutes left in the half. As you might know, I drink by mood, so I decided to have a leftover Old Fezziwig Ale instead of an Irish Red because the Fighting Irish had lost the game.  Only they hadn't.  Late in the second half, Dick Vitale had talked about looking for Cam Biedscheid to score.  I remember thinking, no, I want Jerian Grant with the ball if we need a big shot.  Even if I had realized that he hadn't made a field goal at that point, I still wanted Grant with the ball.  It turns out that I was right and Grant went nuts and scored 12 points in the last minute and got the game to overtime.

Grant fouled out in the first overtime.  Cooley and Knight had fouled out, so it was up to Eric Atkins, Pat Connaughton, Cam Biedscheid, Zach Auguste, and Garrick Sherman (who hadn't played in regulation) to find a way to win.  Pat Connaugton was great (16 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists), Cam Biedscheid hit a huge three at the end of the second overtime (I think it was the second overtime), Eric Atkins played 60 minutes and only turned the ball over three times, Zach Auguste provided some great hustle, and Garrick Sherman turned out to be a very unlikely hero (17 points and 6 rebounds in 22 minutes).  Sherman had a huge tip in at the end of the fourth overtime (I think it was the fourth overtime, I'm losing track), to tie the game.

In the end, we just outlasted Louisville.  We won in five overtimes.  It was definitely the longest game I ever watched.  The UConn-Syracuse Big East Tournament game a few years ago went six overtimes.  I either turned it off at some point or fell asleep watching it.  This game had a very very improbable comeback and my team won.  I enjoyed every Celtics NBA Finals win over the Lakers more than this (because of how much higher the stakes were), but if I were an objective basketball fan, this was the most entertaining basketball game I've ever watched.  And we beat Rick Pitino.  Now that Jim Calhoun is gone, the three most despicable coaches in college basketball are John Calipari, Jim Boeheim, and Pitino (even though his son went to Notre Dame).  We've beaten Calipari and Pitino this year.  Maybe we'll get another shot at Boeheim in the Big East Tournament next month.

If this was hockey and I was naming the three stars of the game, Garrick Sherman would be the third star, Pat Connaughton would the second star, and Jerian Grant would be the first star.  The fact that Grant didn't play the last 22ish minutes of the game and Sherman didn't play the first 43ish minutes of the game and they were two of our three most important players in the game tells you a lot about how amazing this game was.

Go Irish!