The game of the year

OK so this doesn't have any direct relevance to Penn, the Ivy League or the Big 5, but last night (or should I say early this morning) the best college basketball game of the year happened. No. 20 Syracuse and No. 4 Connecticut met in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament in Madison Square Garden.

And the game went to six overtimes.

Yes, you read that correctly. SIX (6) OVERTIMES. Eventually Syracuse won, 127-117.

The fact that Syracuse won is both fitting and shocking. At the end of regulation, with 1.1 seconds left, the Orange heaved a long pass a la Laettner in 1992. It was deflected by a Huskies player right to 'Cuse guard Eric Devendorf who heaved up a three-pointer right as the buzzer sounded. Although it swished in, it was soon called off since he released it literally a milisecond after the buzzer went off.

But besides that, it's amazing Syracuse won due to one simple stat: for the first five overtimes Syracuse never led. Yes there were ties, but the Huskies never relinquished a lead. But then in the sixth OT, the Orange came out and scored the first eight points of the period. After that they never trailed, and unfortunately one the most epic games in college basketball history ended somewhat lamely, as UConn never came close to coming back.

(The record for the most OT's in a game was seven, set in 1981 when Cincinnati beat Bradley by a ridiculously low score (for 75 minutes of play) of 75-73.)

So who's happiest with this result? West Virginia, who now faces Syracuse at 9 p.m. tonight. In some ways an Orange win in that game might even be more impressive than this morning's game.