North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: The Cruel Irony of the NCAA Tournament
3/22/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 22, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Sitting on the NC State bench, Julius Hodge buried his face in his hands, unwilling to believe what he had just witnessed. How could he or anyone else believe what had just happened in the Wolfpack's second round NCAA Tournament loss to Vanderbilt Sunday in Orlando? Up by 11 points with 3:45 remaining, the Pack's season came to a screeching and stunning end thanks to a sequence of events too bizarre to even be included in a Rod Serling TV script. Such is the cruel irony of the NCAA Tournament: without pain and agony, the event would not be one of the greatest sporting events on earth.
Up 67-56 following a Marcus Melvin 3-pointer with inside of four minutes to play, NC State eventually sustained a chilling 75-73 loss that will no doubt go down as one of the most devastating defeats in school history.
No wonder Hodge and the entire Wolfpack Nation are walking around like zombies today. Over their last seven possessions on Sunday, the Commodores scored 21 - yes, that's 21 - points. It doesn't take an NC State math major to figure out that's three points per possession.
To be sure, the Wolfpack contributed mightily to its own demise. While trying to protect the lead, the Pack fouled a 3-point shooter, not once, but twice. The first came when Melvin barreled into Vanderbilt scoring star Matt Freije with 3:28 to play.
Seconds later, after he had scored to put the Pack back up by 10, Hodge got a fingernail on Freije on another missed 3-pointer. Freije, who came out of a recent shooting slump to score a game-high 31 points, made all six free throws in the aftermath of those ill-advised fouls. Perhaps even more devastating, however, was the fact that Hodge's foul was also his fifth.
Without its key ball handler, best playmaker and one of its best free throw shooters on the floor for the final three minutes, NC State suddenly turned into a team that might very well have a difficult time hanging onto the seemingly safe lead it had constructed.
Until those final, frantic moments, the Wolfpack had put together what was nearly a perfect half of basketball on the offensive end of the court. Shooting right around 60 percent for the entire half, the Pack had gone the first 18 minutes of the second half without a turnover. Ilian Evtimov, playing the best game of his career, scored 17 of his career-high 28 points after intermission. As he had done so many times this year, freshman guard Engin Atsur drilled big shot after big shot. Scoring inside and out, NC State could not be stopped for most of the second half.
But with Hodge exiled to the bench, others were suddenly asked to change their roles on the court, a fact that led to the Wolfpack's first and only turnover of the second half. To borrow a famous presidential phrase, it was a turnover "that will live in infamy."
With State still up by six, Vanderbilt's Scott Hundley came up with a steal and passed ahead to teammate Corey Smith, who sprinted to the basket. Trying to catch Smith from behind, Melvin stumbled and reached for the Vandy forward, creating contact that prevented a sure basket. A foul was called. No, make that an intentional foul. Trailing 71-65, Vanderbilt would get two free throws and possession of the ball.
The NC State bench erupted in dismay, as did all of the red-clad partisan fans sitting behind it. CBS color analyst Len Elmore also reacted, screaming "bad call, bad call." As much as anything else, it was bad judgment used by veteran official David Libbey. With players and coaches on both sides emptying their guts out on the court in the biggest game of their lives, a guy wearing a striped shirt was again imposing his will on the outcome of the game.
Naturally, Smith made both free throws before Vandy guard Mario Moore made an impossible 25-foot 3-point shot over 6-10 center Jordan Collins. Amazingly, a Vanderbilt team that had struggled from the free throw line in recent weeks, made all 13 of its tries in the second half. NC State, the nation's best free throw shooting team, got to the line only eight times for the game, hitting six of those eight attempts.
The rest is almost a blur. Smith scored again on an old-fashioned 3-point play after Evtimov had given NC State a brief one-point lead with 35 seconds remaining. And when Atsur's desperation attempt for a 3-pointer was blocked, the Commodores were on their way to the "Sweet 16" in Phoenix. As Vandy's players celebrated at midcourt, an inconsolable Hodge could not find a way to leave the bench, his agony felt by thousands of Wolfpack fans who, moments earlier, were bracing themselves for a celebration.
Such is the cruel irony of the NCAA Tournament.
