NCAA Tournament Recap: Oklahoma City

History made

March may almost be over, but it’s delivered its fair share of madness.

This past week, we saw dreams being pursued via live television. For some, the quest continued, and for others hopes were dashed.

Such was the case in Oklahoma City where I watched Virginia Commonwealth (VCU), Oregon State, CSU Bakersfield, Green Bay, Northern Iowa (UNI), Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas A&M battle it out in hopes of cutting down the nets in Houston come April.

Additionally, there were story lines that preceded this drama. Former VCU Coach Shaka Smart was there coaching the Texas Longhorns and would have to play his old team if both VCU and Texas advanced to the Sweet 16. Oklahoma, led by star player Buddy Hield, hoped to cap off a spectacular regular season with a deep tournament run after failing to win the Big XII Conference. Oregon State looked to keep alive its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1990. CSU Bakersfield and Green Bay hoped to teach us how to fear Cinderella.

Meanwhile, VCU looked to return to glory after deep tournament runs in their recent history.

The real stories, however, are the UNI Panthers and the Texas A&M Aggies.

UNI had an overall rocky season with redeeming upsets over UNC and Iowa State. The Panthers managed to reach their conference championship game after a buzzer beater against Wichita State in the semifinals, moving on to beat Evansville to claim the Missouri Valley Conference tournament crown.

They reached the Sweet 16 last year and the aimed to do that again, and then some. In their game against Texas, they dominated the first half, but found themselves in a back and forth battle of ties in the second. The game would’ve been decided in overtime if fate hadn’t intervened. All of a sudden, March Madness looked to be going the way of the conference tournament.

Texas A&M came off a spectacular year where they shared the SEC regular season title with co-champion Kentucky, who they lost to in the conference tournament championship. After they pulled away in the second half against Green Bay, the Aggies began to put in the guys who don’t get much playing time. Among them was a senior walk-on named Kyle Dobbins. At a university considered to be a football school, making the NCAA Tournament isn’t a guarantee – and with his backup status, Dobbins would probably never score in the Tournament unless the game was a blowout. As A&M led by 30 points, Aggie fans began chanting “DOBB-INS! DOBB-INS!” and as luck would have it, Coach Billy Kennedy put him in the game. Dobbins ended up shooting a long 2 pointer, and the crowd erupted with cheers.

The Regional’s second round action ended with Texas A&M and UNI playing for a spot in the Sweet 16. Texas A&M came out flat and missed shots left and right. This opened the door for the UNI Panthers, who took advantage and dominated the game during regulation, often keeping the Aggies away by double digits.  Then, with 44 seconds left in the game, it got historical. Texas A&M, with less than a .01% chance to win,  kicked up the pressure on defense, forcing several turnovers, to overcome a 12 point deficit—the most unlikely comeback in NCAA history. For the Aggies, the story became a legend as they pulled out the victory in 2 OTs. As for UNI, they were left with heartbreak and a long drive back to Cedar Falls.

UNI will lose three of its best players to graduation, which hurts its tournament chances for next year as mid major teams lack the depth in their roster that Power 5 teams do. Then again? You never really know what can happen.

As for Texas A&M, they’ll fly out to Anaheim, California to take on the Oklahoma Sooners in the Sweet 16 with a chance to play the winner of Duke vs. Oregon.

You can catch the Sweet 16 action starting Thursday at 6:10pm CST with Miami (3) vs. Villanova (2) on CBS.

More
University of Iowa