Indiana's Collin Hartman (30), Thomas Bryant (31) and Chattanooga's Eric Robertson, right, scramble for the ball during a first-round men's college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, Thursday, March 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)DES MOINES, Iowa - Sometimes the other guy's just better. Sometimes in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, the other guy's much better. Way, way better.
So much better, in fact, that when the game ends and your team is on the short end of a 99-74 score, your coach astutely says, as University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Matt McCall did Thursday night after being blown out by Indiana:
"We just ran into, hands down, the best team we played all year. There is no question they're going to make a really deep run in this thing."
It certainly looked that way against UTC. Having rattled opponents all season with gluestick defense and relentless offensive penetration, McCall's Mocs gave up 65 percent shooting from the field, including 62.5 percent from the 3-point line.
So as hopeful as life looked to those wearing UTC blue and gold at halftime, when the score was 46-37, it got noticeably and swiftly worse from there. The Hoosiers led by as much as 28 in the final half, their length and strength and talent way too much for the Mocs to handle.
"Great offense beats good defense every day," said UTC junior Tre McLean. "They did a pretty good job with their scouting report, I guess."
Added McCall: "We really had no answers."
It always hurts when it ends this way. Especially when No. 12 seeds such as the Mocs upset No. 5 seeds twice earlier in the day, what with Yale shocking Baylor and Arkansas-Little Rock bouncing Purdue. But at the risk of bashing the selection committee by giving a No. 5 seed to an Indiana team that won the Big Ten regular-season title and won 20 of its last 24 games by an average of 12.3 points, Purdue and Baylor are no Indiana.
The Mocs were beaten in every offensive and defensive category except free throws, which they won by percentage (83 percent to 79 percent). But they were whipped on the boards (30-24), in assists (23-9), in turnovers (15-12), in steals (10-7) and blocks (5-2).
Said UTC junior point guard Greg Pryor: "We gave them a lot of easy baskets. They are a great basketball team and have a lot of great players and a great coaching staff, but we gave them a lot of easy baskets and layups, especially early in the game."
Or maybe Indiana just took what it wanted, especially senior point guard Yogi Ferrell, who scored 20 points, handed out 10 assists and acted at times as if he could have totaled twice that.
At some point in the second half, a Twitter post showed a picture of Ferrell's two sisters wearing T-shirts that proclaimed (sister 1) "Who is Yogi?" and (sister 2) "Yogi isn't famous. He's just my annoying brother."
He certainly annoyed the Mocs and playing as he did against UTC he could annoy the rest of the field, especially if he's hitting triples (4 of 7) as he did against the Mocs.
But there also were moments when UTC had to wonder if the basketball gods were against it far beyond the seed line. Such as with 18:25 to play and the ball slipped out of IU center Thomas Bryant's hands and right into the basket, putting the Hoosiers up 53-41.
And it pretty much kept going that way from that point forward, the better team playing better ball at the best time possible, much to the delight of a somewhat partisan Indiana crowd.
Finally, with 2:05 to play, McCall had seen enough. In one of those classy moves he's often made this season, he sent in reserves for seniors Dee Oldham, Eric Robertson and Duke Ethridge, giving each young man a long, strong hug for his contributions to a final 29-6 season that emphatically signaled the return of UTC hoops. From across the way, the Mocs cheering section gave its heroes a standing ovation, then watched fellow senior Alex Bran bury a late 3-pointer from the corner, the final bittersweet points of an incredibly sweet season.
Said Oldham afterward: "It's been one to enjoy. I wouldn't trade it for the world. March Madness is everything they say it is. All the work you put in to get to this point, it's definitely worth doing."
Definitely. No matter how unsatisfactory the finish.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com