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[warthog]

Posted on Sun, Mar. 22, 2009
Marquette fans steamed after MU’s late drama
Joe Posnanski

BOISE, Idaho | Never before in the history of the NCAA Tournament have people been so angry about a coach putting in a lesser free-throw shooter. But they were angry, furious, enraged. Those Marquette fans leaned over the railing after the game ended, and they waved their fists, and they screamed at Missouri coach Mike Anderson.

“Great job representing your school!” they shouted.

“You have no integrity!” they shouted.

“I hope you sleep well tonight!” they shouted.

“You’re a disgrace,” they shouted.

Yes, there were some hard feelings. You get the feeling that many Marquette fans will always remember Sunday’s 83-79 loss to Missouri as the Great Free-Throw Robbery. The facts don’t quite back that up, but facts rarely have anything to do with sports emotion. Bill Buckner did not lose game six of the 1986 World Series (the score was already tied). Steve Bartman did not blow the Cubs’ playoff series by reaching for a foul ball (the Cubs blew a 3-0 lead and then lost again the next night). The Royals did not beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the ’85 World Series because of one bad call (as many people have pointed out, there was only one out when the winning run scored in game six, and the Royals won 11-0 the next night). But you would have a hard time convincing heartbroken fans.

No, losing fans don’t want cold logic. The situation Sunday was this: The score was tied in the dwindling seconds, and Missouri had the ball. What a game. The Tigers had played a brilliant first half; their suffocating full-court defense had the Marquette players jumping at shadows and dribbling off their own feet. Marquette did not score a single field goal in more than 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, Missouri freshman Kim English went nuclear hot — he scored 15 points in just 5 minutes, he made three-pointers, he drove hard to the basket, he was for a few moments (and for the first time in his Missouri career) utterly and completely unstoppable. The Marquette fans and players all must have had the same reaction: Who the heck is this guy? This would be important at the end.

Missouri led by 14 points with seconds left in the first half, and even after Marquette’s Jerel McNeal made a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer, the lead was still a comfortable 11. The game looked to be about over. Marquette did not seem to have the firepower to mount a comeback.

Ah, but what is Mike Anderson’s favorite postgame quote?

“It was a tale of two halves.”

He says that so much that St. Louis columnist Brian Burwell has suggested he shorten it to the acronym “TOTH.” And Marquette came out with a whole different energy level in the second half. The Golden Eagles pulled out a trapping defense that knocked Missouri’s players off-balance and sapped some of their confidence.

Nine minutes into the second half, Marquette cut Missouri’s lead to two.

With 5:36 left in the game, Marquette took the lead.

The Tigers suddenly looked tired and stunned. Marquette built the lead to four, 78-74, and the Missouri players said that’s when Tigers guard Zaire Taylor shouted: “We’ve been here before!”

And those words inspired them.

J.T. Tiller made two free throws. The Tigers’ defense forced a shot-clock violation. Leo Lyons made a spectacular reverse layup while getting fouled, and he made the free throw. McNeal made a free throw for Marquette. So the score was tied. And Missouri had the ball.

That’s when it happened. With about 8 seconds left in the game, Tiller drove hard, and he put up a shot as McNeal fouled him. Tiller fell to the ground. He stayed on the ground. He looked to be in pain. And it was right then that the Marquette fans started to sense something rotten was about to happen.

“That’s one of the technicalities of the game,” McNeal would say later. “If you are somewhat hurt or faking being hurt or whatever it is, you can lie on the ground and then your trainer can come out and basically you can get a sub for him.”

Well, no, that’s not an official reading of the rule, but it’s close enough. Tiller certainly looked to be hurt. He said his wrist had gone numb. And so Mike Anderson at that point was allowed to go to the bench and find someone else to shoot the free throws.

He looked at the players on the bench, looked to see who really wanted to shoot free throws with the score tied and 5.5 seconds left in an NCAA Tournament game. Anderson consulted with his assistants, he may or may not have asked Lyons (Leo said he was asked). And then he went with his gut. He could see that Kim English wanted those free throws badly. And so he said: “Kimmie.”

Before he got to the second syllable, English had thrown off his warm-ups and had started to sprint to the scorer’s table to check into the game.

“Sometimes, you just have that feeling,” Anderson would say.

This is where we can inject a few facts. Tiller is the best free-throw shooter among the Tigers’ starters. He is a significantly better free-throw shooter this year than Kim English. Tiller made 76 percent of his free throws this year, and he was a 79 percent free-throw shooter last year (English, meanwhile, made only 65 percent of his free throws and was an abysmal 12 of 21 in Big 12 play). Also, Tiller is a tough-as-sandpaper junior who only minutes before had made two huge free throws. English is a very likable but erratic freshman who had not scored a single point since his microwave act in the first half.

When you look at it like that, with a wide-view lens, it does not seem as if the Tigers were getting any advantage out of this move — quite the opposite.

Of course, none of the Marquette fans knew any of this. All they saw was a player claiming to be hurt, and the coach putting in a new guy (and it was that guy who scored all those points in the first half). Then they saw English make both free throws. Then — and this was the thing that really set everyone off — they saw Tiller immediately try to check back into the game.

And you can’t really argue: That last part, Tiller trying to get right back into the game, did make the whole thing feel a bit unseemly. The Tigers’ explanation was that while Tiller’s hurt wrist prevented him from shooting the free throw, a guy can play defense with a hurt wrist. That’s not an explanation that Marquette fans are ever likely to buy.

After English’s free throws, Marquette’s Lazar Hayward stepped over the line while trying to make the inbounds pass, a dreadful turnover. Then Lyons made two free throws that iced the game. In the final ticks, there were a few clock issues, lots of boos, and then Missouri’s Carroll threw the ball high in the air. The Tigers won their school-record 30th game and went back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2002. This amazing Missouri season goes on.

You probably will never convince many Marquette fans that Tiller was really hurt, that it would not make any sense to put in a freshman with a worse free-throw percentage unless you had to do it.

Then again, you will never convince many Missouri fans that Nebraska receiver Shevin Wiggins did not intentionally kick the ball to his teammate on the famous Flea Kicker or that an honest mistake cost the Tigers victory in the Fifth Down game against Colorado.

Losing hurts even more than winning heals.

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