Was doing some quick TV channel surfing this afternoon and I heard the basketball announcers say this might be the wildest sporting event finish that you will ever see…I, and a few others of us, must have missed this one the first time through because it was college basketball with the Alabama Crimson Tide taking on the Minnesota Golden Gophers, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York and the game was played back on November 25 of 2017….I had seen and mostly heard parts of this game before, there on the Stadium TV replay, but had never paid much attention to the game during its previous incarnations and with today’s maybe for the upteenth time re-incarnation, I, all-of-the-sudden, got glued to the TV set….
It was at the point in the game where there was about 6 minutes left in the men’s college basketball contest with Alabama vs. Minnesota and the Alabama Crimson Tide, coached by former NBAer Avery Johnson, was playing Minnesota, coached by Rick Pitino’s son Richard Pitino, and Alabama was playing Minnesota 3 on 5…..
Alabama was finishing the game with just three players on the court vs. Minnesota with the Golden Gophers having their full five-man allotment….Alabama was two men down and the Alabama coach, Avery Johnson just told his kids we will finish with just three players and they did and they even had a chance to win the game….Avery Johnson was sort of like making it go like Norman Dale, from Hoosiers and he said, “we only have three players and we will go with three”….
Some of you may have seen or heard about this game when it happened, but I was seeing this for the first time, and it was one of the craziest things I have seen on the court, or on the field, in a long, long time….
Alabama going with just three players vs. five and one of the kids from Alabama, freshman Collin Sexton, scored 40 points in the game…
The Crimson Tide, from Alabama, ended up losing the game 89-84, but with just three players on five, Alabama had trimmed the lead down to just three points, 83-80 Minnesota, with just a minute and thirty-nine seconds left in the game….
Wild, Crazy, Amazing, Unreal, this was one that left you standing there with your mouth open and thinking, “What did I just see”….Again, I had never seen anything like that before in my life and this was a real game, in real time, on National Television, there for all to see, on Stadium TV…I have seen plenty of three-on-two drills, over-and-over-and-over again, at basketball practices, there have been way too many times when you are playing the five-on-five outdoor court game and it really becomes 5-on-3, when your teammates won’t get back on defense…..
But, this was a real game, with a real ending and really, they(Alabama) were playing this game 3 on 5 for the final 10:41 of the contest….
Alabama was down to just three players due to fact that there was an altercation/fight and seven of the Alabama players were ejected for leaving the bench area…Alabama was down to just five overall players with seven ejected and of the five they lost one man to fouls, he fouled out with eleven and a-half minutes to go in the game and then with just four players left, Alabama lost another player to an ankle injury and now down to just three players, Alabama was charged by their coach, Avery Johnson, to carry on and finish the game with just Three Players, and they did….
Crazy, Wild, Unreal, simply Amazing, call it what you will, but this game and I am glad I just happened upon it, this game will go down as one of the most unusual, if not one of the greatest games in college basketball history, if not all of sports history….
Three taking on Five and the three stayed Alive and they Thrived…..You have to give it up to the three Alabama Crimson Tide players Collin Sexton, Riley Norris and Gavin Smith and their coach Avery Johnson, because they could have quit and thrown in the white towel, but they never did….They just kept on playing on and they had a chance to win that game…..
WOW!!!!! Crazy, Wild, Amazing, Unreal….Call it what you want to, but here is the report on the game from the Alabama Crimson Tide basketball website and I don’t really like Alabama football at all, but I have just today, found a brand new high level of respect for the college basketball team, at the University of Alabama, and for the three young men that finished and nearly won that game, going at it with just three players vs. five, on the basketball court….
See the game story below from the University of Alabama Athletics website…..
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The No. 25 Alabama men’s basketball team dropped a hard-fought battle to No. 14 Minnesota, 89-84, in the Barclay Classic championship game Saturday night at the Barclays Center.
The Crimson Tide (5-1) were forced to finish with only three players on the court over the final 10-plus minutes of the contest. Seven Alabama players were ejected for leaving the bench during an altercation at the 13:43 mark of the second half, which left five UA players on the court. Two minutes later, sophomore Dazon Ingram fouled out with 11:37 remaining. Less than a minute later, freshman John Petty went down with an injury, leaving Alabama with three players over the final 10:41 and the Tide trailing 67-56.
However, that’s when freshman Collin Sexton and his two remaining teammates turned up the pressure on Minnesota. Sexton put on a show in front of the Barclays Center crowd, as he ended the night with 40 points to become the first Alabama player to score 40 in a game since Reggie King had 43 points against Virginia on Dec. 29, 1978.
Sexton, senior Riley Norris and freshman Galin Smith went on to outscore Minnesota 30-22 over the final 10-plus minutes to give the Tide a chance to win. The three players were able to whittle the lead to just three, 83-80, with 1:39 remaining before the Golden Gophers ended the game on a 6-1 run to close out the victory.