Wiedmer: May title game's losing coach mirror Bruce Pearl's graciousness in defeat

Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl gives a thumb's up to fans before the Tigers' national semifinal against Virginia at the Final Four on Saturday night in Minneapolis.
Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl gives a thumb's up to fans before the Tigers' national semifinal against Virginia at the Final Four on Saturday night in Minneapolis.

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.

photo Mark Wiedmer

On 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.

As TBS color commentator Kenny Smith said of the official regarding that blown call, "That's his job."

Pearl said nothing that was even the slightest bit ugly, however. Instead, he told the media when asked about the situation: "We didn't focus on that. We focused on how we were going to handle the defeat at Auburn: with class and dignity. There are lots of calls during the game. You're going to get some, and some you're not going to get."

Wow.

Just wow.

After what was almost certainly the most painful loss of his 24 seasons as a collegiate head coach, Pearl - who has long worn his emotions on his sleeve in good times and bad - pointed no fingers nor charged anyone in a striped shirt with a crime. He took a very high road too often less traveled. He said we should remember what a great game it was between two very good defensive teams. His only reference to officiating was to note officials need to call the game the same way the entire game, whatever that way is.

His players understandably chose a more disappointed, frustrated, honest path, according to ESPN.

Said forward Horace Spencer: "The refs took the game from us."

Added guard Bryce Brown, who had refused to trash the officials in the organized news conference but opened up once he returned to the locker room: "The NCAA needs to get some new refs."

It has certainly seemed that way at times in this tournament. Whether it was the missed calls against Duke in its win over Central Florida, the last-second foul calls - however correct - against Tennessee and Auburn that led to victories by Purdue and Virginia, a missed out-of-bounds call against Texas Tech in its Elite Eight win over Gonzaga or the double-dribble against Virginia's Jerome, the striped shirts have certainly had less stressful editions of March Madness.

But it is also equally clear that for all the consternation of the so-called one-and-done phenomenon, experience matters this time of year, especially in the backcourt. Among Final Four participants Auburn, Michigan State, Texas Tech and Virginia, the only freshman guard to start was the Cavaliers' Kihei Clark. And he's flanked by junior guards Guy and Jerome. Auburn and Michigan State both started a backcourt consisting of a junior and a senior. Texas Tech started a sophomore and a fifth-year senior.

Go back to the past three NCAA champs - Villanova in 2016 and last year, and North Carolina in 2017 - and not a single freshman crashed the starting lineup in the backcourt.

There are clearly problems with college hoops beyond the officiating and the needless hand-wringing over one-and-done players. At least a small portion of the attention the sport received at the Final Four was hijacked by celebrity slimeball attorney Michael Avenatti, he of adult film actress Stormy Daniels fame. After being arrested for allegedly attempting to blackmail Nike executives, Avenatti has now charged the shoe giant with funneling money to Duke freshman Zion Williamson's mother for bogus consulting work.

It's easy to dismiss the attorney as a desperate publicity seeker, but if he has the documents he says he does, the pain felt by a few Adidas schools during the FBI's initial sting operation two years ago could be ratcheted up to Three Mile Island-hot on the whole sport.

All that's somewhere in the future, though. Tonight we'll watch what is likely to be the lowest-scoring NCAA tourney final since Connecticut's all-but-unwatchable 53-41 victory over Butler in 2011. Given that Virginia led the nation in scoring defense at 55 points allowed per game this season and Texas Tech was third at 58, let's slightly reverse those numbers to make the Red Raiders 57-53 winners.

Then let's hope the losing coach can match the class and dignity of Pearl without having endured any officiating controversies on his way to defeat.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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