It’s barely been nine hours since Northern Iowa took down Texas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on a heave from half court at the buzzer. Considering that this was one of the most tightly contested games that you’ll see this March, the final few seconds were a perfect embodiment of the whole contest. The Longhorns scored to make it 72-72 with 2.7 seconds remaining, the Panthers inbounded the ball, senior forward Paul Jesperson got as clean of a look as you can get from half court, and he managed to bank it in to send UNI to the next round.
If you watched the game on TBS, you heard a pretty good call from the announce team assigned to the game. But if you thought that their call was a bit tame, might we recommend that you listen to the official radio call from UNI play-by-play guy Gary Rima. Let’s just say that you don’t have to question whether or not Rima was excited.
This is such a wonderful summation of what most UNI fans probably felt – scared after the team missed a free throw to go up by three, a little bit of fear and disappointment when Texas tied the game up, and pure euphoria when the prayer from half court went in. On the scale of Minnesota Vikings to Seattle Seahawks, this one definitely leans towards the Seahawks.
If you’d like to see if Northern Iowa can one-up this ending, tune in on Sunday when the team hosts Texas A&M. The game is scheduled to tip off at 7:40 p.m. EST.
