Northern Iowa Just Had The Biggest Meltdown In NCAA Tournament History
It’s going to be a very long offseason for the Northern Iowa Panthers and head coach Ben Jacobson after what can only be described as the biggest meltdown in NCAA Tournament history.
In case you haven’t heard, the Panthers were up 12 on Texas A&M with just 44 seconds remaining in their second round battle. Somehow, Texas A&M fought back with a 14-2 run, forced overtime and wound up sending the game to a second overtime, where the Aggies pulled off a stunning 92-88 victory.
How did it happen? I have absolutely no idea. Let’s go through it, because the Panthers were stunning in their futility to end regulation.
Here’s the late-game play-by-play:
-Jeremy Morgan makes two free throws for Northern Iowa. (69-57 UNI, 44.3 seconds left)
-Texas A&M brings ball down the floor and Alex Caruso misses a 3-pointer, but Admon Gilder rebounds the ball and puts it back in. (69-59, 34.0 seconds left)
-Northern Iowa inbounds the ball and calls timeout. (69-59, 31.1 seconds left)
-Jeremy Morgan turns the ball over, as Gilder steals it, then finds Danuel House who lays it in. Texas A&M calls timeout. (69-61, 25.8 seconds left)
-UNI’s Paul Jesperson turns the ball over when he tries to throw it off two Aggies while falling out of bounds. Jalen Jones steals the ball and slams it home. (69-63, 22.0 seconds left)
-UNI’s Wyatt Lohaus turns the ball over by throwing it out of bounds. No time comes off the clock. (69-63, 22.0 seconds left)
-House nails a 3-pointer off an assist from Caruso. (69-66, 19.6 seconds left)
-UNI’s Klint Carlson gets free deep after poor court-coverage by Texas A&M. He slams the ball home after a long assist from Jesperson. (71-66, 17.9 seconds left)
-Caruso slashes through the lane and makes a layup while being fouled by Jesperson. He makes the ensuing free throw. (71-69, 11.8 seconds left).
-Wes Washpun gets the ball on the inbounds play and gets pinned in the corner. He tries to throw the ball off Gilder’s body back out of bounds, but Gilder steals it and lays the ball in. (71-71, 1.9 seconds left).
-Washpun misses a full-court heave. (71-71, end of regulation)
It was brutal and thrilling to watch at the same time.
Both overtimes were back-and-forth affairs, but A&M was too much for the Panthers and wore them down eventually in the second extra frame.
Jacobson and his staff have a huge task ahead of them this offseason. He’ll lose Washpun, Matt Bohannon and Jesperson but the rest of his roster is going to have this game on its mind for a long time. It was an absolutely epic collapse and it won’t wash off any time soon.
I have never seen anything like that final 44 seconds of regulation. UNI just fell apart, couldn’t handle the ball, couldn’t inbound the ball and couldn’t even defend simple basket cuts. One of the nation’s smartest teams completely failed what should have been an easy test.
This is a game, and a meltdown no one will forget any time soon.