Seven Minutes and Fourteen Seconds
BEVERLY HILLS (MI) It seems like it has been an eternity, but at the same time not that long ago since your University of Dayton Flyers mounted a comeback for the ages against the University of Nevada in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
The record book says it was tied for the 5th largest deficit overcome in Big Dance history:
1. 2012 first round: BYU 78, Iona 72 (25 points)
T-2. 2001 Final Four: Duke 95, Maryland 84 (22 points)
T-2. 2018 second round: Nevada 75, Cincinnati 73 (22 points)
4. 2018 Elite Eight: Louisville 93, West Virginia 85 (20 points)
T-5. 2024 first round: Dayton 63, Nevada 50 (17 points)
T-5. 2015 First Four: Ole Miss 94, BYU 90 (17 points)
T-5. 2006 Sweet 16: UCLA 73, Gonzaga 71 (17 points)
But the Flyer Faithful know better. While those four teams may have trailed by a larger margin at some point, none of them stormed back in as short a period of time as the Red and Chapel Blue did.
-- BYU only trailed by 15 points at the half
-- Duke was behind by 11 at the break
-- There were still 11 minutes remaining when Nevada mounted their rally
-- WVU was down by 13 after 20 minutes
The reality is that it didnt take the Sons of Anthony Grant 7:14 to come from behindthey tied it up on a Koby Brea three with 2:44 to go, meaning it only took the good guys 4:30 to erase a 17-point deficit!
So how exactly did the Flyers pull this off? Well, lets go to the tape and figure it out, shall we?
This is the ESPN play-by-play game tracker:
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401638584
Here is the full game video replay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJBqJ_JPJ7g
Fast forward to 46:48 on the video or 7:14 on the game clock. Deuce has just been fouled and heads to the line to shoot two. At this point in the proceedings, here is UDs win probability:
1.5%...not exactly a punchers chance is it? DaRon splits the pair and its 56-40. And of course, the ball gets stuck in the net as it did all weekend it seems.
Next is one of my favorite foreshadowing moments of commentary from the game. Nevada big dude Tylan Pope launches a three and Brad Nessler says Probably not the shot they wanted, but they have the luxury of a 16-point lead. As they used to say in the cartoon Scooby Doo, Ruh-roh.
After some great ball movement, Brea nails a three with 6:28 on the game clock and Nessler prophetically states Thats what they need. 56-43.
UD presses and forces a Nevada turnover, resulting in a Deuce bank hook shot to cut the lead to 11. With 5:40 remaining that man Pope sets a moving screen on Elvis and flattens him. After the zebras go to the monitors, its Flyer ball. (And if you watch closely, Coleman from Nevada traveled before the entry pass that resulted in the illegal pick.}
With 5:13 remaining Deuce is fouled going to the hoop and makes em both, so the delta is down to 9. UD presses again and forces a Wolf Pack TO. Foster for Nevada misses a corner three with the shot clock winding down. Brea buries a deep three with 4:22 to go and the lead is down to a half dozen. After a massive scrum, Nevada is somehow granted a TO. Blackshear dribbles the ball off his leg and its our apple.
Nate drills a corner three off of a great pass by Elvis to cut the margin to only three. Jarod Lucas for the Wolf Pack misses a long triple but they get the carom. Blackshear is forced to launch a three with the shot clock about to expire and it rims out. Koby completes the comeback with yet another trey and we are tied at 56!
With 2:15 to go, Lucas buries a two for Nevada. DaRon drives for a dunk but gets hammered and somehow the ball still goes in, much to the delight of Tom Eggemeier and his son. Deuce completes the three point play and the Flyers lead. The Flyers have not led since the 1st half they do now says Nessler. AG TO.
Nick Davidson misses a jumper and in one of the few bad possessions in the last 10 minutes, Elvis loses the rock on his way to the hoop and Brendan Heywood correctly assesses that Coming down the stretch, for Dayton its gotta be Holmes or Brea.
Blackshear banks in a short J and Nevada is back up by a single point with a minute to goit would be their last basket. Nate makes a big boy bucket to regain the lead. Davidson dribbles it off his leg, Cheeks grabs it and shovels it to Nate who is immediately hammered. After Lucas says something to Nate, he calmly converts both FTs. Nice try, dude. AG takes a TO.
Davidson launches a three that misses, but Coleman snares the rebound. (Later, Charles Barkley will say that Davidson was fouled by Deuce but if you watch the replay, Davidson just gets up and keeps playing with no complaints). Blackshear airballs a three as Nessler exclaims Thats not his game and he is correct, its notits UDs game!
A lot has been written about the comeback. Arch had a couple of good ones in The DDN:
This was about Dayton grit
https://www.daytondailynews.com/spor...CEBFLRDKTUBXQ/
Comeback becomes part of UDs storied lore People will be talking about this in 40 years
https://www.daytondailynews.com/spor...IPD3RUJENYFP4/
My favorite is this one:
March Madness Pain Index: Ranking every 2024 tournament loss
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ournament-loss
1. Nevada Wolf Pack (No. 10 seed, West)
How they lost: 63-60 to No. 7 seed Dayton in the first round
Peak win probability: 99.5% while up 56-39 with 7:30 left. The Wolf Pack went on a 22-4 run spanning halftime and looked to have the game sealed, but Dayton went a perfect 7-7 FG and 5-5 FT to end the game and complete the miraculous comeback.
How much the loss hurt: We didn't see a lot of Undertaker coffin GIFs in the 2024 tournament, with very few turnarounds of this magnitude. Nevada's collapse has to take the cake in these rankings, even as only 1.5-point favorites that lost by three. As the lead dwindled, it still didn't feel like the Flyers could actually pull it off, and the Wolf Pack had multiple chances late to win or send the game to OT. If an alien ever visits Earth and asks me to describe March Madness, this is the game film I'm pulling.
And then there is this:
Rigged Dayton Flyers COMEBACK VS Nevada | they literally went brain-dead for last 7 minutes SMH !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN5lCXtDpTk
A lot has changed since The Comeback. Koby will be taking his talents to UK; Zimi will be a Jacksonville Dolphin; Elvis is venturing west to Oklahoma; Petras is headed to Mercer and DaRon will most likely be selected in the NBA Draft.
But we will always have Nevada!
Thats it From the Swamp.
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com
The record book says it was tied for the 5th largest deficit overcome in Big Dance history:
1. 2012 first round: BYU 78, Iona 72 (25 points)
T-2. 2001 Final Four: Duke 95, Maryland 84 (22 points)
T-2. 2018 second round: Nevada 75, Cincinnati 73 (22 points)
4. 2018 Elite Eight: Louisville 93, West Virginia 85 (20 points)
T-5. 2024 first round: Dayton 63, Nevada 50 (17 points)
T-5. 2015 First Four: Ole Miss 94, BYU 90 (17 points)
T-5. 2006 Sweet 16: UCLA 73, Gonzaga 71 (17 points)
But the Flyer Faithful know better. While those four teams may have trailed by a larger margin at some point, none of them stormed back in as short a period of time as the Red and Chapel Blue did.
-- BYU only trailed by 15 points at the half
-- Duke was behind by 11 at the break
-- There were still 11 minutes remaining when Nevada mounted their rally
-- WVU was down by 13 after 20 minutes
The reality is that it didnt take the Sons of Anthony Grant 7:14 to come from behindthey tied it up on a Koby Brea three with 2:44 to go, meaning it only took the good guys 4:30 to erase a 17-point deficit!
So how exactly did the Flyers pull this off? Well, lets go to the tape and figure it out, shall we?
This is the ESPN play-by-play game tracker:
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401638584
Here is the full game video replay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJBqJ_JPJ7g
Fast forward to 46:48 on the video or 7:14 on the game clock. Deuce has just been fouled and heads to the line to shoot two. At this point in the proceedings, here is UDs win probability:
1.5%...not exactly a punchers chance is it? DaRon splits the pair and its 56-40. And of course, the ball gets stuck in the net as it did all weekend it seems.
Next is one of my favorite foreshadowing moments of commentary from the game. Nevada big dude Tylan Pope launches a three and Brad Nessler says Probably not the shot they wanted, but they have the luxury of a 16-point lead. As they used to say in the cartoon Scooby Doo, Ruh-roh.
After some great ball movement, Brea nails a three with 6:28 on the game clock and Nessler prophetically states Thats what they need. 56-43.
UD presses and forces a Nevada turnover, resulting in a Deuce bank hook shot to cut the lead to 11. With 5:40 remaining that man Pope sets a moving screen on Elvis and flattens him. After the zebras go to the monitors, its Flyer ball. (And if you watch closely, Coleman from Nevada traveled before the entry pass that resulted in the illegal pick.}
With 5:13 remaining Deuce is fouled going to the hoop and makes em both, so the delta is down to 9. UD presses again and forces a Wolf Pack TO. Foster for Nevada misses a corner three with the shot clock winding down. Brea buries a deep three with 4:22 to go and the lead is down to a half dozen. After a massive scrum, Nevada is somehow granted a TO. Blackshear dribbles the ball off his leg and its our apple.
Nate drills a corner three off of a great pass by Elvis to cut the margin to only three. Jarod Lucas for the Wolf Pack misses a long triple but they get the carom. Blackshear is forced to launch a three with the shot clock about to expire and it rims out. Koby completes the comeback with yet another trey and we are tied at 56!
With 2:15 to go, Lucas buries a two for Nevada. DaRon drives for a dunk but gets hammered and somehow the ball still goes in, much to the delight of Tom Eggemeier and his son. Deuce completes the three point play and the Flyers lead. The Flyers have not led since the 1st half they do now says Nessler. AG TO.
Nick Davidson misses a jumper and in one of the few bad possessions in the last 10 minutes, Elvis loses the rock on his way to the hoop and Brendan Heywood correctly assesses that Coming down the stretch, for Dayton its gotta be Holmes or Brea.
Blackshear banks in a short J and Nevada is back up by a single point with a minute to goit would be their last basket. Nate makes a big boy bucket to regain the lead. Davidson dribbles it off his leg, Cheeks grabs it and shovels it to Nate who is immediately hammered. After Lucas says something to Nate, he calmly converts both FTs. Nice try, dude. AG takes a TO.
Davidson launches a three that misses, but Coleman snares the rebound. (Later, Charles Barkley will say that Davidson was fouled by Deuce but if you watch the replay, Davidson just gets up and keeps playing with no complaints). Blackshear airballs a three as Nessler exclaims Thats not his game and he is correct, its notits UDs game!
A lot has been written about the comeback. Arch had a couple of good ones in The DDN:
This was about Dayton grit
https://www.daytondailynews.com/spor...CEBFLRDKTUBXQ/
Comeback becomes part of UDs storied lore People will be talking about this in 40 years
https://www.daytondailynews.com/spor...IPD3RUJENYFP4/
My favorite is this one:
March Madness Pain Index: Ranking every 2024 tournament loss
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ournament-loss
1. Nevada Wolf Pack (No. 10 seed, West)
How they lost: 63-60 to No. 7 seed Dayton in the first round
Peak win probability: 99.5% while up 56-39 with 7:30 left. The Wolf Pack went on a 22-4 run spanning halftime and looked to have the game sealed, but Dayton went a perfect 7-7 FG and 5-5 FT to end the game and complete the miraculous comeback.
How much the loss hurt: We didn't see a lot of Undertaker coffin GIFs in the 2024 tournament, with very few turnarounds of this magnitude. Nevada's collapse has to take the cake in these rankings, even as only 1.5-point favorites that lost by three. As the lead dwindled, it still didn't feel like the Flyers could actually pull it off, and the Wolf Pack had multiple chances late to win or send the game to OT. If an alien ever visits Earth and asks me to describe March Madness, this is the game film I'm pulling.
And then there is this:
Rigged Dayton Flyers COMEBACK VS Nevada | they literally went brain-dead for last 7 minutes SMH !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN5lCXtDpTk
A lot has changed since The Comeback. Koby will be taking his talents to UK; Zimi will be a Jacksonville Dolphin; Elvis is venturing west to Oklahoma; Petras is headed to Mercer and DaRon will most likely be selected in the NBA Draft.
But we will always have Nevada!
Thats it From the Swamp.
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com