The Pit and the Pendulum (of Momentum)

An amazing night at the Pit last night, as BYU picked up a win unlike any of the other 66 victories Dave Rose has earned as head coach.

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The only game that compares to the Cougars' comeback from down 8 with 5 minutes to play is the 2006 Marriott Center matchup with TCU, when BYU rallied from down 9 with a minute to play to win by 9 in overtime. But that was a home game against a team that would finish 2-14 in league and 6-25 overall--clearly a case of "escaping" against an inferior team that might have been overlooked.

Last night was no escape. Last night was the Cougars emerging from the fiery furnace clutching their likely regular season conference crown and an NCAA invite. If it is not the most important win of the Dave Rose era, the 70-69 overtime win at the Pit is the most remarkable and inspiring win, for the following reasons, among many:

1) the game was played in The Pit "of the old days." A standing-room only, airport runway-approximating, venom-spewing crowd of 18,018 fans was on hand for what they were calling the "biggest home game in 20 years." The atmosphere was electric and potentially intimidating, and the Cougars withstood the atmosphere to remain focused and unaffected down the stretch. Young players grew up, and veterans earned even more stripes.

2) The Lobos are good--very good. They were a 22-win team with an RPI in the 40s, and a team on a 6-game win streak, with a likely NBA player and MWC "player of the year" candidate in J.R. Giddens scoring 30 points on this night. The Lobos came into the game as the best offensive team in the MWC, and the best 3-point shooting team in the country. New Mexico was a team getting top 25 votes and was popping up in bracket projections. Best road win of the season, bar none, for BYU.

3) BYU won despite personnel problems. Starting point guard Ben Murdock played only 17 minutes after spraining an ankle early in the second half, and Lee Cummard "fouled out" with a minute to play in regulation. Jimmer Fredette spelled Murdock and played admirably, while Jonathan Tavernari took over for Cummard guarding Giddens and did a nice job.

4) BYU was on the wrong end of some important statistical categories. The Cougars were out-rebounded, had twice as many turnovers, were outscored in the paint, outscored in points off of turnovers, outscored on second-chance points and fast break points. But...they outshot the Lobos from the field, the arc and the line. And they outscored them by one. And that, my friends, is the only stat that really matters, right?

5) The stakes on the line were huge. With a loss, BYU would have dropped into a 1st place tie with UNLV atop the MWC, and while an NCAA bid would not have disappeared, BYU's "March Madness" momentum would have been halted, and seeding might have been affected. Instead, the Cougars get the win that might ultimately win them another outright conference crown, and keep pushing toward the NCAA Tournament with the kind of late-season mojo the Selection Committee rewards with higher seeds.

6) The game represented a chance for redemption. Trent Plaisted struggled last week, following up a conference "player of the week" award with two of his least effective games of the season. And after a so-so first half (6 pts, 3 reb, 0/1 ft), Trent bounced back to score 17 of his 23 points in the second half and overtime, and made the game winning free throws with 5.7 seconds to play. When he stepped to the line with the game on the line, he was 3 of 7 from the stripe. Then he swished two free throws like he was Reggie Miller. Personal vindication for a player who faced his fair share of verbal abuse last night, and private validation of his skills and importance to his team. Those kind of moments are always inspiring to witness.

7) The mini-controversies involving Lee Cummard's 5th foul and the clock re-set at the end of the game simply added to the drama of the night. The tension created by these events kept the coaches, players, fans and broadcasters on egde, so much so that when the game ended, even the guys on the headset were exhausted.

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My list has to end somewhere, and I'm sure my readers have their own reasons for listing last night's game in their imaginary list of "Greatest BYU Games Ever." If you would like to contribute your thoughts on last night's game and its unique place in BYU's sporting pantheon, I would like to read them.

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By the way, the BYU staff is still trying to figure out the Cummard foul situation. There's no doubt that the scorebook reflects a 5th foul, meaning one of two things happened:

a) the official signalled Cummard's number when BYU's bench (and we on the radio) assumed he was signalling Plaisted, since he was the player we thought committed the foul on the play (shooting foul against Giddens on a made basket w/ 2:30 remaining in regulation), or

b) the official signalled Plaisted's number, and the scorer entered Cummard's.

Not sure that we'll hear any more on this play, but the Cougars have to be glad they survived losing their best player for the final 6 minutes of a game they felt they simply had to win.

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Last time the Lobos lost a home game by one point was 11 years and 199 games ago, v. Louisville (stat from ESPN.com's "Around the Rim").

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Classy reaction from UNM head coach Steve Alford last night:

"I take my hats off to BYU," said Alford, skirting questions about the controversial finish. "I thought we played hard. ... This is gonna hurt for a while. "It was a great college basketball game; we just came up a point shy."

also...

"They got the job done better one more possession than we did,"... "We missed a lot of shots that we normally make. That's the worst 3-point shooting we've had all year, and we still only lose by one point to the best team in our league."

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