Double Dancing

The past 72 hours have felt like basketball bliss for me. First on Thursday night, UW exercised some demons in a 89-88 win over the Cougs. In a game where Klay Thompson put up 42, the Dawgs overcame a sluggish start and held on to win. Combined with an Oregon win over UCLA, the road to the Pac-10 Final was made a little easier.

Then on Friday afternoon, my Bison led wire to wire to make it back to the NCAA Tournament. It was a glorious game. By my side were both my beautiful wife and my beautiful daughter both in there orange and blue BU sweats. When they won we danced and sang and it was glorious beyond belief.

The game itself was a little closer than I would have liked. It was a five point game at halftime and even though we were still up by 5 with about 10 minutes left I started to get real nervous - I mean, Lafayette was pressuring us and we weren't handling it well. In fact we had just gone scoreless for six and a half minutes and crazy thoughts started going through me head. Could we actually blow this? Could our amazing season be all for naught? Could we actually lose? Then in an instance, GW Boon drove the lane and hit Mike Muscala with a bounce pass right as the defense was closed down on him. It was the tension cutting bucket we needed. We went on a 10-4 run and never looked back. In the end, we won 72-57 and the orange clad fans rushed the court. I may be 3000 miles away but damn it kind of felt like I was there with them.

Then tonight I watched my Huskies take down the 13th ranked Arizona Wildcats in OT. Zona led for most of the first half and I just had this feeling that while we were hanging around, we wouldn't be able to finish the job. And then it happened: the Huskies found the heart that I was asking for. It was in the form of Isaiah Thomas (28 points, 7 assists, 5 boards) who would not let the team lose. UW was down 4 with 32 seconds left when Thomas hit a three. Then down 4 with 19 seconds left, he drove the lane and found a wide open Terrence Ross in the corner for a three. With 10 seconds left, he repeated the feet when he drove and found CJ Wilcox in the other corner for the game tying three. The Huskies were going to OT. Thomas, Bryan-Amaning and N'Diaye all had 4 fouls so it would definitely be a tough 5 minutes.

In OT, Arizona hit a three to tie with 20 seconds and the ball was put in Thomas' hands for the final shot. I normally hate it when UW holds the ball til late in the shot-clock - they never get a good shot off and are always better when they shoot early. However, with 20 seconds left, you knew the best option was for IT to win it. With the ball at the top of the key he took a step in, step back and drained the fadeaway as time expired. There is no reason to wait around to see if we get in as an at-large - we are going dancing.

I called this team out as recently as two weeks ago. After losing to the Cougs I called them soft. I said they had no heart. But I also said I expected them to win the Pac-10 Tournament. It seemed like something this team could do. I mean, they have the weapons to score a lot of points. With that firepower winning 3 games in 3 days is more than possible. And with how up and down this team has been, it's not surprising.

So now we get to sit back and wait to see what the fates hold for both teams. For Bucknell, probably a 12-14 seed and a date with a top 15-program. For UW probably a 8-10 seed and a winnable first round game followed by a real test against a top 5 team in the second round. But that is in the future - for now, I am going to enjoy having both my teams in the Big Dance.