There was something poetic about Emeka Okafor putting Connecticut ahead with 22 seconds left, something just about his free throw sealing the deal with 3.2 seconds left. He had been cheated out of playing the first half by whistle-happy referees, put on the bench by a pair of phantom fouls that never should have been called. The most talented big man in the country was called on, having barely worked up a sweat, to bail his team out, to save a season, and he did.
We almost didn't get to see him at his best the final 12 minutes, and sadly we never got to see a game that under normal conditions might have been a classic. If I were going to pick two teams to see play, out of 327 in Division I, I would pick UConn vs. Duke with something on the line. I'd want to see Okafor and Connecticut's tall trees against Chris Duhon, J.J. Redick, Luol Deng and Daniel Ewing working their magic end to end.
What folks got, instead, was a battle of attrition, a marathon of inbounds plays, necessary substitutions and foul shooting. UConn escaped, barely, by erasing an eight-point deficit in the final five minutes. Okafor, his legs fresh from sitting so long, made just about all the big baskets and grabbed all the big rebounds down the stretch for the 79-78 victory. And dare we not forget him blocking Deng's dunk to provide the airborne moment of the night in which both national semifinals ended so dramatically.
UConn suffered through bad foul calls early. Duke was saddled with its share of ridiculous foul calls late, all of it regrettable. The referees should never, ever, ever be The Story of a game this big. I hate writing about refs because by and large they do such good work. But the zebras cannot be ignored in the retelling and the analysis of this game.
There was barely a possession in the second half without a whistle interrupting it. The zebras called tacky, little fouls. They whistled downright lame fouls; they called fouls that didn't exist, occasionally calls that suggested total incompetence. They came close to ruining the game. With eight minutes to go half the people in the Alamodome, some with no rooting interests whatsoever, began chanting, "Let them play! Let them play!" David Hall, Olandis Poole and Ted Hillary apparently never heard the sentiment that zebras should be seen but not heard.
There was never any kind of flow or back-and-forth rhythm to the game, even though Duke and Connecticut are polished teams offensively. And neither is particularly physical or foul-prone. UConn vs. Duke isn't Michigan State vs. Oklahoma. UConn and Duke rely on skill; they play beautiful basketball. They don't hack it up. Yet, the game was ugly, perhaps even unsatisfying, because the officiating was embarrassingly, even unforgettably awful and actually prevented the teams from playing to the level they'd shown through the first four games of the tournament. All three of them should have been taken from the court at the half and been replaced during intermission.
They eliminated Okafor from the first half with two bogus calls. They fouled out Duke's Shelden Williams unnecessarily with five minutes to go, then his backup, Shavlik Randolph, with three minutes to play. The thing that's misleading about big early leads in college games is that kids seem to think they've thrown a quick knockout punch and they haven't. A big lead against Duke especially is fool's gold. Three years ago in a national semifinal Maryland took a 22-point lead early, was up only 11 at halftime and Duke had no trouble winning the game in regulation. The Terrapins figured their best shot couldn't be answered, but it was. Really good teams simply aren't accustomed to seeing their best stretches of basketball answered, then trumped.
Connecticut's 15-4 lead came too early for the Huskies' own good. It was 5-0 on Taliek Brown's layup and Ben Gordon's three-pointer. It was 13-4 on Charlie Villanueva's three-pointer, and the cushion went to 11 points on Villanueva's move to the basket in transition.
The problem for UConn wasn't just being impressed with itself, though. Okafor was whistled for two fouls within the first 3 minutes 55 seconds of the game. The first call was terrible; the whistle never should have been blown. The second call was completely phantom. As well as the first game was officiated, the second game was far too influenced by the zebras by those two foul calls alone. And as a result, the best player on either team was sent to the bench less than four minutes into the game for no reason.
Can UConn play without Okafor? Yes. Against most teams in the country, perhaps even Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State, the Huskies might get away most nights without Okafor for long stretches. But Duke is too talented, too disciplined, and too well schooled in the art of exploiting opponents' weaknesses. The Huskies have grown used to funneling opposing players to Okafor, who when he isn't blocking shots, changes them or discourages them from being taken altogether.
But with Okafor affixed to the bench, there was no goaltender when the Huskies gambled on the perimeter or just played lazy on the perimeter. And that early U-Conn. lead disappeared in a hurry as Duhon, Deng, Williams and Randolph made shot after shot from inside the lane. Randolph made all four of his shots the first half, and accounted for nearly a quarter of Duke's baskets the first 20 minutes. Twice Jim Calhoun called time out within 57 seconds just to scream at his players for not playing defense, particularly 6-5 swingman Rashad Anderson.
During Duke's 15-1 charge to take command of the game, Calhoun screamed at the zebras (understandably) and the Huskies appeared lost. They committed dumb turnovers (11 the first half). They gave up an absurd number of offensive rebounds (13) to a smaller team.
They had to come back with a second half of basketball as sharp, mentally and physically, as anything they'd put forth all season. They had to regain their own composure first, then deal with an opponent that never beats itself, never gives anything away. The Huskies, to come back, had one shining moment after another. The question is whether they have enough left for Georgia Tech on Monday night.