Alex Renfroe and the Belmont Bruins were living a dream. With less than a minute to go in the opening round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament, No. 15-seeded Belmont was ahead of No. 2-seeded powerhouse Duke 70-69.
Renfore said they could almost taste the upset.
“Man we were all pumped,” Renfroe said. ”We could almost taste the victory. It was 20 seconds away so of course we were anxious and excited. We had never been close in an NCAA tournament game but this time we were winning with less than a minute to go so we were living a dream.”
With 11.9 seconds to go, Duke’s Gerald Henderson’s full court drive and layup put the Blue Devils ahead by one, for good in a 71-70 win.
Renfroe, who led Belmont with 15 points – he added five boards and three assists – was only half joking when he said he couldn’t take any consolation from such a close loss, even in a game no one expected them to win.
“The past two years we were in the tournament we were happy to be there,” the junior guard said. “But this time was different. We were expecting to win. I know that’s hard to say seeing that we were a No. 15-seed but we actually believed that we could win. We just knew we would have to play great. And we made it and we were 11.7 seconds away from making our dreams come true.”
It may have been hard to believe for most bracketologists, but not for the Atlantic Sun champ Bruins, who many thought should have been seeded much higher, maybe as high as No. 10 after regular season wins at Cincinnati and Alabama.
Coach Rick Byrd had his team prepared. They came in having won 13 straight conference games, sporting a 25-8 mark overall.
“We just tried to keep the ball moving and get up and down the floor in transition,” Renfroe said. ”We also tried to create mismatches by setting ball screens because we knew they were switching. Then we would try to post the smaller man or spread the court and dribble penetrate on the bigger man. We shot the ball well. And as a team we played our hearts out.”
Along the way, Belmont etched its name among the most memorable games in NCAA Tournament history.
Filed under: NCAA Basketball
That was the second best game of the tourney so far in my opinion
Hey Speck will you be covering the Mudcats any this year?
Best game Western Kentucky? UConn? Yeah, I’ll be covering a good bit of the Mudcats. Don’t know how long I’ll be there tonight. Do you enjoy them?
The Western Kentucky was the best in my opinion. Love the Mudcats but they are kinda turning it into a monry thing this year.
Hook a man up with some passes
It took a background check to get mine. Those things are hard to come by. Enjoy the game if you go. Hopefully it’ll be a big crowd.
Fayetteville should be a challenge tonight.
Hey Brandon I am little worried about the Rebel baseball team. Me and my Dad have had season tickets for about 5 or 6 years now and everyone is talking about how this is the deepest team they have had. What do you think? In my opinion this team may be deepest but by far not the best.
It’s hard to say this is the best team when you compare it to a couple of the Stephen Head teams in my opinion. Deepest, maybe, but that depth has to perform against SEC competition if they want to get to Omaha. Losing 2 of 3 shouldn’t be happening to them, that’s for sure.
Think they got a shot at the CWS?
There is a lot of season left and they could get hot, but to be honest Omaha may not be our thing.
Had to add this one to get the comments to double figures.
The more the merrier. I agree with Bianco that fielding percentage has to improve.