The mighty have fallen, but only 1 NCAA team blew 99.9 percent chance to win
The Cincinnati Bearcats had it all laid out for them.
All the other top teams in the South Region of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament were gone.
No. 1 Virginia lost to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, No. 3 Tennessee was ousted by Loyola-Chicago, and No. 4 Arizona was bounced by Buffalo.
The road to the Final Four for No. 2 seed Cincinnati was wide open.
In their second-round matchup Sunday against seventh-seeded Nevada, the Bearcats were cruising — up 65-43 with about 11 minutes left in the game. At that point, ESPN’s win tracker gave a 99.9 percent probability that Cincinnati would win the game.
Cincinnati lost to Nevada after having a 99.9% win probability with 11:17 left in the game! #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/oXjH3n7wMx
— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) March 19, 2018
Then the unthinkable happened. The Bearcats blew that 22-point lead and lost 75-73 after Nevada’s Josh Hall got an offensive rebound and scored with nine seconds left. It was Nevada’s first lead of the game.
It was the biggest comeback in the tournament since 2012, when BYU beat Iona after trailing by 25 points.
“That locker room right now, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” Nevada coach Eric Musselman said via the Associated Press. “It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen. It’s the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.”
After the game, Cincinnati coach Mike Cronin had no patience for some questions from reporters, particularly one asked by Jeremy Rauch of WXIX-TV in Cincinnati.
Unhappy Mick Cronin when I asked if a loss like this would keep him awake at night:
"You come up with that question by yourself? You kidding me?" #Bearcats @fox19 pic.twitter.com/LGoQQUSty8
— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) March 19, 2018
“Like you said, that wasn’t the goal. The goal was the championship,” Rauch said. “How disappointing was it for you, how hard is it for you to walk away when you know that you didn’t get that this year?”
“It’s hard,” said Cronin.
“Is it something that keeps you awake? How long does it bother you?” Rauch followed up.
“I didn’t go to sleep yet. Did you come up with that question by yourself?” said Cronin. “What do you mean, awake? I’m standing here. We’ll see. You call me tomorrow, I’ll tell you if it keeps me awake tonight. I answered the question. You asked if it kept me awake. I haven’t been asleep yet. Come on, man. You kidding me?”
He does have a point there.
While this loss is as brutal as it gets, given the lead the Bearcats had, they aren’t the only high seed to go down in flames.
We’ve seen the aforementioned Virginia and Arizona go down in the first round. And in the second round we saw more top seeds fall.
In the West Region, No. 1 Xavier lost to no. 9 Florida State 75-70, and No. 2 North Carolina fell to No. 7 Texas A&M 86-65.
In the Midwest, No. 3 Michigan State lost to No. 11 Syracuse 55-53.
Who’s next?
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