Davidson loss shows March is mean
by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports
LEXINGTON – March loves Cinderellas and underdogs. But not always.
A game like this is why we watch the NCAA Tournament. Marquette looks like a goner for sure, but suddenly the day is saved, and we see the happy faces of survival.
Here in the Davidson locker room is the other cruel side, in all its stunned silence. Kids sit with their heads in their hands, their hearts ripped out. Seldom do you see the basketball gods gang up on a team the way it did on these guys Thursday afternoon.
On one chair, a senior guard named Nik Cochran.
“The good thing about college basketball is, you always have a second chance, right? But we have four seniors and this was our last game . . .We all bleed and sweat and cry for it. So it’s really tough.”
On another chair, a junior forward named De’Mon Brooks, describing the locker room of the stricken.
“Pretty much quiet. No words really. We’re grown men, and we can’t speak.”
Standing outside is the coach who has given a lifetime to basketball, and is getting fried by Twitter analysts for what happened.
“Forty years,” Bob McKillop says. “And I’ll never forget this moment.”‘
You’ve probably heard how it ended. How Davidson, a No. 14 seed, had an upset fully in hand; the type that charm the masses so. How the Wildcats led Marquette by nine points with 6:26 to go, by seven with 1:49 to go, by four with 20 seconds to go.
And how the final score was Marquette 59, Davidson 58.
Fate had to hustle to pull this off. … [For more on Lopresti: Davidson loss shows sometimes, March is mean, click here.]
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