This was the final sequence of Saturday night’s NCAA tournament game between Butler and Pittsburgh in Verizon Center:
A basket.
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A foul.
A conversation between the fouler and the foulee while the officials were checking to see where to set the clock.
A made free throw.
A missed free throw.
A rebound.
A foul.
Another check of the clock.
A made free throw.
An intentionally missed free throw.
A desperation heave right that came close but would not have counted.
All of that took place in 2.2 seconds. Seriously. When the buzzer finally sounded and the dust cleared, Butler had — somehow — done it again, stunning top-seeded Pittsburgh, 71-70, to advance to the round of 16 in the Southeast Region next Thursday in New Orleans.
“That was crazy,” said Butler Coach Brad Stevens as he walked down the hallway to his locker room. This from a man who, if he had been alive when man first landed on the moon probably would have said, “Interesting stuff.”
This was one of those NCAA tournament games that felt special almost from the start. Eight minutes in, Pittsburgh had made 7 of 10 shots and trailed, 20-14. For the game, the Panthers shot 56.5 percent — and lost.
“We didn’t win these two games because we’re a better basketball team than Pittsburgh or Old Dominion,” Stevens said. “We won because we had the ball last.”
That’s true. Sort of.
The Bulldogs have a remarkable knack for shining when the spotlight is brightest. This is a team that lost early in the season to Evansville and lost twice to Wisconsin-Milwaukee. And yet, three weeks ago, when making the tournament was hardly a lock, Stevens said, “If we do get in, I think we might be a tough out for people.”
Pittsburgh can now attest to the accuracy of that statement.
Matt Howard, the curly-haired senior center who made the basket at the buzzer to beat Old Dominion on Thursday, made the game-winning free throw with 0.8 of a second left. Andrew Smith, Howard’s running mate inside, made the layup that put Butler ahead with 2.2 seconds left. But the central figure for the Bulldogs in this soap opera was Shelvin Mack, the junior shooting guard, who was the reason Butler had a chance to win the game and almost became the reason it lost.
“This has to be the craziest weekend of my life,” he said, able to smile when it was over. “I mean, talk about ups and downs. I committed the worst foul in Butler history and it turned out okay.”
Mack had kept his team in the game with white-hot shooting, most notably going 7 of 12 from beyond the three-point line on his way to a 30-point night. But with Butler up, 66-65, he had a three-pointer go in and out and then, several seconds later, made only 1 of 2 free throws. Pitt got the lead back at 69-67 on two free throws by Brad Wanamaker and then Smith made only 1 of 2 free throws with 1 minute 35 seconds left. But Pitt ran the clock down too far and didn’t get a shot off, giving Butler the ball back, down 69-68 with nine seconds left.
Just like Thursday’s final play, the ball ended up in the hands of senior Shawn Vanzant. Looking for Howard, he penetrated and, seeing Howard covered, he calmly found Smith, whose layup made it 70-69.
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