A driving floating flip guaranteed the cursed 12 over five upset and mutated a job I love into an hour that I loathed.
One point enabled one Bulldog team to have a victory celebration with its blue-clad fans. Moments later, while waiting on Butler’s coach and designated players to climb the interviewing pedestal, at least 25 reporters crowd a television. They roar. I hear the buzzer. Another team wins, but I don’t care.
I have seen enough basketball tonight.
The victors enter wearing smiles.
“When you have tremendous respect for a team, you are able to have really good focus,” second-year coach Todd Lickliter said. “When we got down four, I didn’t see a doubt in my team’s eyes.”
“It was a shot that I didn’t have until coach (Lickliter) taught me beginning my junior year,” senior guard Brandon Miller said of his game-winner.
“Brandon continued our season for at least tonight to give us a chance to make up for lost time. I can’t thank him enough,” senior center Joel Cornette said before joking with his coach about their offensive set.
The moderator announces that Mississippi State will conduct post-game interviews in the locker room.
With my footsteps to the locker room, I try to prepare for the worst part of my job: seeking for questions when I already know the answers. Sixty-two other campus reporters will grapple with their team not winning its final game of the year, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
A barrage of cameras and tape recorders accosts MSU head coach Rick Stansbury outside the locker room.
“They kept the score where they wanted to keep it by running the shot clock down, trying to beat us on ball screens and driving and pitching,” Stansbury said. “We defended it about as well as anyone could, but because they controlled the ball, we weren’t able to get out in transition.”
“There is shock and disappointment. If you don’t win the national championship, you are going to have this feeling. They got all the scramble plays. They knocked down 12 points on four scramble plays. Right now, I feel for our two seniors because they won’t ever put a Bulldog shirt on again.”
The locker room door opens. I cross the threshold not fully prepared. True, the media is supposed to be unfazed and unbiased, but it is tough to walk through the frustration and disappointment created when a season is cut short.
“I saw him make that circus shot and thought, ‘Man, the whole season is gonna end that quick and there is no tomorrow,'” Winsome Frazier (three treys) said.
“I told everyone that they were a great team. They didn’t win 25 games by just putting on a jersey,” Mario Austin (18 points, 10 rebounds) said. “It’s gonna be very tough to replace Z and Iggy. We had trouble replacing Michael Gholar and Marckell Patterson this year.”
“We were victims of the upset today,” Timmy Bowers said. “We just didn’t play the way we usually play. We tried to pressure the ball, but just didn’t get steals tonight.”
“We didn’t finish what we started,” Derrick Zimmerman said. “It’s been a long four years from a 14-16 team to an SEC Western Division champ team, and I don’t think too many people thought that would happen.”
“I really appreciate the coaches for giving me an opportunity to be a part at Mississippi State. It’s been fun to be around the guys–day in and day out.”
As the cameras clear out, heads disappear into hands, towels, and shooting jerseys. Eyes mist and shoulders slump as an eerie quiet sets in.
Two hundred twenty-one days until November.
News and Notes
* Mike Monserez’s trey with 1:54 remaining to give Butler a 45-44 lead was his only basket of the game.
* Zimmerman’s five assists notched him atop the all-time MSU assists list with 514. Z finishes his Maroon and White career second in steals (205), sixth in blocks (89), and one win shy of tying Jay Walton as winningest Bulldog ever.
* MSU missed six of 14 free throws and shot 36.4 percent from the field.
* Butler outscored State 10-4
on second effort points and 24-14 inside the paint.
* MSU’s 46 points were the lowest output since January 2000.