Sometime around 11:30 tonight, either Virginia’s Tony Bennett or Texas Tech’s Chris Beard is going to become the losing coach of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament’s title game.
And when that happens, we all can hope that the man who suffers that painful defeat is able to handle it as graciously as Auburn’s Bruce Pearl handled the Tigers’ controversial loss to Bennett’s Cavaliers in Saturday night’s semifinal showdown.
Mark WiedmerOn the scant chance you missed it, Auburn lost to Virginia by a single point, 63-62, after being whistled for what was literally a last-second foul on Cavaliers guard Kyle Guy’s desperation 3-pointer.
Replays showed Guy was clearly fouled by the Tigers’ Samir Doughty on the play, and when the 82 percent free-throw shooter coolly swished all three foul shots, Auburn had exactly six-tenths of a second to respond. Alas, Bryce Brown’s heave missed and the the Tigers’ remarkable season came to a bitter end.
Yet however upset Pearl may have been over that foul call, it was a noncall of a double-dribble by Virginia guard Ty Jerome less than two seconds earlier that could have easily, and somewhat justifiably, led the emotional Pearl to blow a gasket.