Commentary from the Cheap Seats: Big Ten Quarterfinals

I’ll be honest.  I WASN’T THERE.  I went back to the hotel at halftime after basically ten straight hours of basketball to play cards with my wife, mom, and dad and watched the ending on TV.  (Thank you, Big Ten Network!)  Of course, as the drama was unfolding, I had second thoughts about leaving early, but hindsight is 20/20, right?  I’ll admit I was cheering for Minnesota throughout (I mean, come on – Purdue fans can’t cheer for the Hoosiers!), but I was especially glad to see the Gophers win after the officials tried to hand IU the game in the last five seconds.  If all you saw was the final shot on ESPN, let me summarize:

Eric Gordon gets to the line with 3.4 seconds to go and Indiana down two.  He had hit eight of his first nine charity tosses, but can’t get the first one here to go down.  Now it’s panic time...which means missing the second on purpose so a teammate can rebound and score the two points.  And amazingly enough, it works!  Gordon gets about nineteen bounces on the rim with his attempt, and DJ White battles inside for the rebound and puts it back up.  Tie game.  But wait, there’s a foul!  Two seconds to play and Indiana has stolen victory from the jaws of defeat.  All White has to do is make the free throw and IU will take the lead.  And he missed it!  There’s a mad scramble for the rebound...White gets his hands on it...and what?  ANOTHER FOUL?  Are you kidding me?  DJ’s got two more chances now to give Indiana the lead.  If you’re counting, that’s five free throw attempts the refs awarded in a three-second span.  White actually missed the first attempt, but hit the second to put Indiana up front by one.  Cue “Mr. ESPY”.  Blake Hoffarber, who helped his high school team win a Minnesota state title with an amazing shot from the seat of his pants, pulls off his best Christian Laettner impersonation...and Minnesota’s season lives on.

WISCONSIN...MICHIGAN STATE...ILLINOIS...MINNESOTA...so what happened in the semifinals? 

I’m glad you asked!  Check back soon for “Commentary from the Cheap Seats: Big Ten Semifinals”.

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