“Wow.  Unfreakingbelievable.”  That’s the text message I sent my friend Brett as I was leaving Comcast Center this afternoon.  After a back-and-forth game that included five lead changes in the final minute, I felt like I had actually been playing, and in the course of playing I had suffered a minor heart attack.  This game ranked up there in “Best Sporting Events I’ve Ever Seen Live”.  Both teams left everything out on the court.  Thank goodness it had a happy ending.  Here are the most coherent thoughts I can collect after seeing Cliff Tucker’s Shot Heard Round College Park.

Let’s go right to the game’s ending, because that’s what this game will be remembered for.  1:20 left in the game, it’s tied 68-68, and Eric Hayes hits a three.  The crowd goes nuts.  Everyone’s feeling good.  A hard fought game seems to finally be tipping in the Terps favor.  Georgia Tech gets the ball, Lawal misses his shot, but Derrick “Sexual” Favors gets the tip in off his 52nd offensive rebound of the day.  That has to be some kind of record.  Maryland has the ball up one.  The Terps get the ball into Dino Gregory and he misses from POINT BLANK RANGE.  After what was otherwise a solid game, Dino leaves us all shaking our heads, and of course Tech gets a jumper out of D’Andre Bell to fall for a 72-71 GT lead with 18 seconds left.

I start to feel The Fear.  Dread is starting to seep in at Comcast Center, but Terps fans are still pumped to get the last shot.  After a timeout, Greivis surprises everyone by getting a quick two, and Maryland’s up by one again, 73-72.  Elation returns.  Maryland fans start to celebrate.

This is where things got a little crazy.

Thirteen seconds left and GT has no timeouts, so they have to frantically drive the length of the floor.  Iman Shumpert, who had one of the better games of his life today, throws up a desperation shot.  As he’s shooting I yell at the top of my lungs, “PLEASE GET THE RE-BOUND!”  Time slows.  I can feel my temples throb.  Shumpert’s shot misses, but Derrick Favors collects his ninth offensive rebound of the day and puts the ball in the hoop.  “NOOOOOOOOO!”  Tech up 74-73.  Maryland didn’t get any breaks today, and this was no exception.

There are two seconds left.  I look up and Greivis has the ball in his hands at midcourt.  He heaves a shot… a whistle blows… the shot banks in!  Terps win!  The crowd goes nuts!  But it surfaces that Keith Booth had called a timeout right before Gerivis’s shot, and the crowd is suddenly quieted.  I have my head in my hands.  My friend Julie, a season ticket holder who brought me to the game, has tears in her eyes.  Her husband Mark is yelling.  It doesn’t seem possible.

What followed was just plain surreal.  There was five minutes of debate among the refs as to how much time should be on the clock.  This delay gave the fans, players, and coaches just enough time to breathe some oxygen, which, combined with the adrenaline and natural electricity shooting off everyones’ bodies, had the effect of providing everyone with that strange sense of calm that you probably feel right before you die.  Hayes goes to inbound, and suddenly the clock goes from .9 to .1, and the crowd yells out various explicatives.  Hayes is pointing at the clock.  The refs catch on and put 1.5 seconds on the clock, which is what it should be.  There was little hope among Terps fans at this point.  As my coblogger Scott would later put it, “I felt as though the Terps had spent all their karma on Vasquez’s shot.”  Everyone there shared the same sentiment.

1.5 seconds left, Maryland down one, Hayes to inbound.  He looks right and Greivis is blanketed.  Cliff Tucker springs free at the three point line.  The pass goes to Tucker and his defender is a step late, giving him time to square and shoot.  Cliff for THREEEEEE… THE SHOT RATTLES IN!  Maryland wins 76-74!  Cliff Tucker is the hero!  It’s pandemonium in the Comcast Center!  Fans are jumping around.  Terps players are chasing each other around the court, looking to hug-tackle each other in elation.  Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

That was three hours ago and I’m still checking my pulse to make sure that I’m not in cardiac arrest.  I’m going to remember this game for a long time.  I can’t help but think that the chances of a team hitting two buzzer beating shots in a row to win, only to have the first one be discounted by a timeout and the second one drop, have to be astronomical.  I’m just glad I saw it with my own eyes.

This is why I love sports.