Gone In 165 Seconds

24 hours after it happened, and I still can't believe this. I am really beginning to not like Mike Rice at all. If you remember, he was the coach of the Robert Morris team that took Villanova to OT in the 1st round of last year's NCAA Tournament. Now he is the man behind this. It is one thing if you are Maryland blowing a 10-point lead to Duke in the last minute of the game. It is a whole different thing if you are Villanova blowing a 10-point lead to lowly Rutgers in the final 2:45 seconds of the game. This video saves some of the pain and starts at a 9-point game with 2 minutes left. I don't know why.



3 things of note here. First of all, I have not counted the exact amount of time that should have elapsed, but when Rutgers inbounded with 6.3 seconds left, the clock took a very long time to start. Michigan State approves of Rutgers's timekeeper.

Secondly, how was that a foul on Fisher on Mitchell's game-tying 3-pointer? I am begging someone to show me where contact was made at all, let alone enough contact to draw a foul on the last play of the game. There was no contact. There was no foul. Terrible, terrible call by the Big East refs. And to think that it was 3 days before the 3-year anniversary of this atrocity.

Thirdly, there is no excuse for blowing a 10-point lead with 2:45 left in the game to Rutgers. Absolutely none. And it was all Rutgers capitalizing on stupid Villanova mistakes. That is probably the worst part about it. If Villanova advances past the 1st weekend of the NCAA tournament this year, I'll be shocked. They can beat Syracuse and will probably play real well against Pittsburgh, but there just seems to be something about facing weaker competition away from home that this team can't handle. Providence stormed the court on them earlier a few weeks ago, and now Rutgers. Unacceptable.