B'ball Bevue

Last night, Nicky and I went to see Stevenson's men's and women's basketball teams take on Marymount. Both teams have been struggling mightily this season, but the two of us supported the Mustangs during the good times, and it just wouldn't feel right to abandon them during their moment of need. Early in the second half of the men's game, SU took the ball out of bounds, ran a play, and connected on a shot from outside. Nothing unusual in this... except that the Mustangs were attacking the same basket they had used during the first half. For those scoring at home, this meant that their score counted for Marymount.

Those with a deep knowledge of sports know that this sort of gaffe has happened before. Take the infamous case of Cal's Roy "Wrong Way" Riegels in the 1929 Rose Bowl, for example. Then there's Vikings' lineman Jim Marshall, who scooped up a fumble in a game in 1964 and ran it into Minnesota's end zone. Both of these mistakes were individual goofs, however. When's the last time you saw a team collectively lose its sense of direction? The only case I know of is that of Purdue in the second round of the 1988 NCAA Midwest Regional. At the start of the second half, the Boilermakers broke in the wrong direction and allowed Memphis State to score an uncontested basket.

These are the times that try fans' souls... are they ever.