I thought the Duke choke job on Saturday in the Final Four was bad; it was, but what Houston did during the National Championship game on Monday night… might was well call that the “National Choke Job”…
Yeah, I had a small wager the Cougars; just my normal size bet. I was feeling pretty good about it, until I wasn’t. With about fifteen and a half minutes to go in the 2nd half, Houston held a 12 point lead over Florida, but that was nothing for these “comeback kids”… way too much time on the clock left. About 8 minutes later, the game was tied. From there it was back and forth like this… Houston takes the lead, Florida ties it, etc, etc, etc… It wasn’t until 46 seconds left in the game that Florida took the lead for the first time since 8-6 a little more than 4 minutes into the game. So they lead for less than 5 minutes all game and ended up winning? That’s got to be some kind of record. Great job Gators… What didn’t make sense to me, and the reason I’m calling this a choke job, were the possessions down the stretch for Houston. Things that make you go hmmmm…
With Houston up by one point, Cryer drove to the hoop, then mysteriously lost the ball. The next possession with Houston down by one point, Sharp turned it over. The final possession down by 2 points, well, you saw what happened there; just some straight up weird shit. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m not a big conspiracy guy, but… once in a while stuff happens that makes you think. Most of the time, things go so seamlessly, you don’t think anything… unless you are that conspiracy guy and think every game is fixed; I get it. In this situation, to see 3 turnovers in a row by your 2 best players during the most important stretch of the season… well, like I said, choke job, or… was it something else? I’m not going down that hole, not today.
It was a shitty way to end the game. I don’t care if Florida still pulled it out, but man… just get up a shot in any of those last 3 possessions and see what happens. Make it, great; miss it, you had 15 offensive rebounds… good chance you’re getting a second chance on one of those shots… maybe that’s why they couldn’t afford to even take a shot in those spots; OK, I’ll stop. OT would have been sweet. I liked that it came down to the last possession, but let’s see a game winning/tying shot attempt for God’s sake. Even if that meant Clayton from Florida getting the ball in his hands in a tie game with seconds remaining; get the shot off!
Well, it was a crappy ending to a pretty good college basketball season; a crappy ending to a pretty blah NCAA tourney. Yes, I miss the run of the underdogs, and with the NIL still running out of control, and more kids in the transfer portal than not, those days may be over for good. Is College Basketball destined to take the path of the current day NBA? I hope not. Moving on…
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