The Improbable Becomes Impossible

It always ends like this. One team wins the national championship to the backdrop of “One Shining Moment” while the losing coach gets hauled down a dark corridor in a golf cart.

The best thing you can say about Georgia Tech in defeat is, well, there really wasn’t much to say.

Not when you shoot only 38% from the field and compound that by making only 12 of 21 free throws.

There comes a point when you curse tight rims and the basketball gods.

“Tonight they danced around the rim and didn’t fall in for us,” Georgia Tech Coach Paul Hewitt said of the 44 shots his team missed.

Hewitt made sure to credit Connecticut for its 82-73 victory at the Alamodome.

“They won, we lost, we’re going to move on to next year now,” he said.

The reality is Georgia Tech stretched this joyride further than anyone expected after being picked to finish seventh in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The game notes reflect this was the same team that defeated Connecticut by 16 points on Nov. 26.

In reality, neither team was the same.

Emeka Okafor, UConn’s star center, had back spasms in the first game while Georgia Tech was running like rabbits.

Okafor’s back was fine Monday night. Instead, he gave Georgia Tech a pain in the neck with his 24-point, 15-rebound effort while the Yellow Jackets scrambled to save face.

B.J. Elder, the team’s leading scorer, sprained an ankle against Nevada three games ago and wasn’t close to being the same player.

Elder had 14 points Monday, but made only four of 15 shots. Isma’ il Muhammad was also hobbled.

Connecticut had its opponent outmanned and outclassed, and one could say it was a credit to Georgia Tech it didn’t lose by 50 after twice trailing by 25 points in the second half.

“We were going to fight till the last buzzer,” guard Marvin Lewis said.

“You know, we did. We fought as hard as we could.”

The miracle, maybe, is that Georgia Tech survived long enough to waltz out to center court Monday given the Yellow Jackets’ failed to win any tournament game by more than eight points.

Heck, Georgia Tech barely survived a first-round game before holding off Northern Iowa, 65-60.

In round two, Jarrett Jack made a steal and dunk in the final six seconds to beat Boston College by three points.

Then, it was a whopping five-point win over Nevada followed by an eight-point overtime victory against Kansas.

In Saturday’s national semifinal game, the Yellow Jackets needed a layup by Will Bynum at the buzzer to beat Oklahoma State, 67-65.

“We’re just proud, especially me, we kept this thing going as long as possible,” Lewis said.

No way this high-wire act was going to extend through Connecticut.

It’s best in these cases to tip your hat to the winner and mosey on down the road.

Don’t make too much of the fact your team cut Connecticut’s lead to less than 10 points in the final minutes as Husky players started humming the CBS montage music.

Georgia Tech could be proud of what it accomplished with an outside-in, guard-crazy team tethered in the middle by a game, if not gangly, 7-foot-1 Australian at center.

The Yellow Jackets lose seniors Lewis and Clarence Moore, but the rest of the team returns to do battle again in the rugged ACC.

In the college game, there is never enough time to gloat over victory or despair over defeat.

“I’ve appreciated it already,” Hewitt said of his team’s tournament run.

“I’ve said all along there were about 20 teams that could have gotten to this point.”

Georgia Tech got to this point and lost.

It was never a game.

“We’ll be back out on the road Wednesday recruiting,” Hewitt said. “It never ends.”