TAMPA — Teams advance in the NCAAs, that’s the way of March Madness. Yesterday it was the losing team that advanced the NCAA tournament.
That rarely happens, but by the way the Princeton Tigers played the game, responded to their fans, and then how their coach showed tearful compassion for his players, it was Princeton that came away with a special day at the St. Pete
Times Forum, even though the Tigers were beaten, 59-57, on a spectacular basket with two seconds remaining by freshman Kentucky guard Brandon Knight.
Knight’s swooping, cradled layup high off the glass was his only basket of the game, as he flew past 6-foot-8 senior forward Kareem Maddox on a defensive switch to break the tie.
When the final horn sounded, even though the Princeton players were crushed by the result, coach Sydney Johnson told his team to give the Tigers’ fans a curtain call, and the players did just that, crossing the court and clapping and cheering for their fans.
This was the end of the line for the Princeton seniors, who had come so far in four years, and no one wanted to let go of the season. Miracles on Ice or hardwood, don’t often happen. Sometimes the good guys don’t deliver on their dream.
Coming so close to victory made it that much more difficult, but in this classless, stare-down “Jersey Shore” age that we live in, the kids from the Jersey school did the right things all day long.
“There was a lot of emotion flowing through my head, very disappointed, but you know, being a senior and ending on this note is not all bad,” Princeton guard Dan Mavraides said. “We came from a rough beginning as freshmen.
“My class with Kareem and Bobby [Foley], we’re helping turn this program in the right direction.”
This program is more than turned. This is a program that needs to be embraced by basketball fans. Princeton showed it could run with the best. This was not slow-down basketball from your father’s Princeton, this was tournament-time excitement, explosive basketball, and it took every breath that John Calipari’s Kentucky team had to beat back Princeton.
On that last basket Knight said he did not want to “settle” for a pull-up or go to the line. It took his best to beat Princeton, and for that effort he was rewarded. As Princeton guard Doug Davis said, “Brandon is a good player. In the last seconds you expect players to make plays.”
Kentucky defenders hounded Princeton on the ensuing inbounds and the Tigers could not get a long pass down the court. By the time Maddux got the ball in the backcourt and took a few dribbles, he did not have time to get up his final prayer.
The game was over. The season was over.
Beyond the emotion, and the caring, don’t forget that the Princeton Tigers can play this game. They can hang with the bluegrass big boys of college basketball. And when it ended, it was time to show respect for the game, respect for the fans.
“I just feel there’s a lot of love for this program,” Johnson said.
Yesterday that love showed itself in so many ways.
kevin.kernan@nypost.com