By Bill from Tampa
Day two which blended into day three thanks to Wake Forest and Georgia Tech deciding that they weren’t satisfied with playing just a regular 40 minute game. Noooooooooooo, they had to play until 12:56 AM. Good God I’m sleep deprived along with probably about 3,000 other people who stayed until the end.
At any rate about yesterday’s game. Eh. So-so. I mean, really where was the excitement? So what if Al missed that first free throw. The least he could have done on that second one was have it bounce high off the rim two or three times before finding the bottom of the net. Now THAT would have been excitement right?
As the team was making its way through the tunnel you could hear some crazed person up in section 313 screaming “THERE’S YOUR ACC PLAYER OF THE YEAR RIGHT THERE!!!! JARED DUDLEY WHO????” who sounded a lot like me.
Oh wait!!! That was me. Man, am I paying for that today. I have some saved for North Carolina though. That’s a subtle cue to Al BTW for maybe another repeat of yesterday.
Apparently Al got it all wrong though. At the time out they told him to make the first one and miss the second on purpose. One of the coaches said later that day Al just had a brief case of dyslexia.
Yesterday’s game had a familiar tone similar to the Miami game. The Seminoles get down by five points, 66-61 with just over three minutes to play. It’s looking like the Tigers might go up by seven. Instead, the defense gets turnover. And then, as was the case in Miami, Toney Douglas comes down and hits a three although this one didn’t send it in OT.
The defense stuffs the Tigers the rest of the way and Al come up big on both ends of the floor tying the game at 66 with that slam dunk.
But as we have seen before, we start playing for the last shot letting the shot clock wind down. Problem was Clemson was going to get the ball back anyway. So here’s the offense fumbling around looking for an offensive option and the ball ends up in the hands of the one player probably no one wanted to see have it.
As the shot clock is down to two seconds the quickly rushed attempt is blocked and I’m thinking “Oh no, it’s going to be 68-66 all over again.”
But for once FSU catches a break. I’m sure no one ever thought an over and back call would show up at the most opportune time.
Cue Al Thornton.
Cue the band’s rendition of “Holding Out For A Hero” and the rest is history and a whole lot of Seminoles at the arena are high-fiving each other.
Now it’s on to a rematch with North Carolina. I wonder how Tyler Hansbrough in his first game using it will like that mask. We shall see.
Here’s hoping there's a Day Four at the ACC Tourney for FSU.
Comments? Questions? Kudos?