ORLANDO, Fla. — For eight-tenths of a second — actually, probably a little longer — Temple was headed for a semifinal matchup with Cincinnati on Saturday.
The Bearcats’ Kevin Johnson hit a deep three with less than a second to play in triple overtime to put his team ahead by three.
It was done. Over. You can’t get off a buzzer beater from something like 80 feet in eight-tenths of a second.
Well, evidently, you can. UConn’s Jalen Adams extended the game to a fourth extra session when his three-quarter-court heave beat the buzzer. The Huskies went on to win 104-97 in quadruple overtime and will now meet Temple at 3 p.m. on Saturday in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament.
“I seen them make a three. I was upset about it, but the least I could do was get a shot up,” Adams said. “Daniel (Hamilton) passed me the ball, and nobody was in front of me, so I shot the ball as quick as I could, and I watched it go in.
“And that was just amazing.”
Adams, explaining all this after the game, then immediately fist bumped his head coach, Kevin Ollie, who was seated next to him.
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Cincinnati’s head coach Mick Cronin is probably also bumping things with his fists right about now. Cronin congratulated UConn in his opening statements, but then quickly added: “I felt we won the game and the game was taken away from us, so that’s my opinion.”
When asked to elaborate, he did.
“In 0.8, you can’t catch the ball, take two steps, and then shoot it,” he said. “You can’t catch it, turn it, bring it below your waist, and then shoot it 80 feet in 0.8 seconds.
“The clock didn’t nearly start on time. I’ve already watched it five times. So it’s unfortunate it happened to my kids.”
Whether the clock started on time or not, it doesn’t matter now. Temple and UConn will square off Saturday with both teams’ NCAA Tournament hopes hanging in the balance. A win Saturday should be enough to advance Temple to the dance, but the Owls don’t want to take any chances after losing in the semifinals of this tournament and not hearing their name called during the selection show last year.
The Owls have already beaten UConn twice this season in close games, knocking off the No. 23 Huskies in Hartford on Jan. 5 and stunning Ollie’s team at the Liacouras Center with a 21-4 closing run on Feb. 11.
Perhaps it’s no surprise the two teams have fairly similar resumes. Temple is 21-10 with a 59 RPI and 63 strength of schedule, while UConn is 22-10 with a 58 RPI and a 54 SOS. A win for either combined with some bubble luck, and maybe it’s enough? Neither team is excited to take a chance. Winning the league’s outright bid is the only way either will get in for sure.
And so, after basking in the glow of his team’s largely absurd victory in the quarterfinals, Ollie turned his attention to Temple.
“I love Temple,” he said. “Fran Dunphy, congrats to him for winning back-to-back Coach of the Year [honors]. He’s a fabulous coach.
“We’re going to have to play hard, play aggressive. We’re going to need everybody on our bench to perform, because a lot of guys logged a lot of minutes. … We’re going to have to stay out of foul trouble. We’re going to have to play very, very solid, because they don’t beat themselves. They don’t turn the ball over. They rebound. They do a great job.
“It’s going to be a great game. We’ve battled them both times. I think it’s going to come down to a possession game.”