DENVER – They had one player with March Madness experience, and that was 14 seconds, 46 seconds and 1:47 of garbage time (and no points) in three games with St. Mary’s.
They were playing in the largest venue in school history, seating 15,099 more than their modest home.
They had no one on the roster taller than 6-foot-8, and the other team started a pair of 7-footers.
They are in the first year of full NCAA Division I membership. Their opponent was playing its 97th NCAA Tournament game.
Cinderella didn’t slay Goliath. But she made him blink.
UC San Diego’s men’s basketball team acquitted itself well in its first NCAA Tournament appearance, fighting back from 15 down and taking one of college basketball’s most storied programs to the brink before succumbing 68-65 against Michigan in the first round Thursday night at Denver’s Ball Arena.
“They just keep coming at you, keep coming at you,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “They believe as well. They have older guys. Man, they put on a performance in the second half.”
After looking like they might never score and lose 100-0 — they trailed 10-0 after opening the game with four turnovers and four missed shots — the Tritons, yes, actually led 65-63 with 2:29 to go.
Auburn transfer Tre Donaldson responded with a deep 3 to give the Wolverines the lead back.
Both teams missed chances at the hoop with no foul whistled, then 7-foot-1 center Vlad Goldin grabbed an offensive rebound, was fouled and made both free throws for a three-point margin with 19 seconds left.
Both teams missed chances at the rim with no foul whistled, then 7-1 center Vlad Goldin grabbed an offensive rebound, was fouled and made both free throws for a three-point margin with 19 seconds left.
UCSD coach Eric Olen had a decision to make. Call timeout and diagram a play, or let them figure it out on the floor.
“The way Ty was playing,” Olen said of senior guard Tyler McGhie, “we knew we weren’t going to call timeout to say. ‘Get the ball to Ty, let him go one-on-one.’ (That) didn’t feel necessary. I try not to do that in those moments. I try not to overcoach them. I think everyone on our team knew exactly what we were trying to do.
“We got the (defensive) switch we wanted, the matchup we wanted, the guy we wanted with the ball.”
McGhie dribbled off a ball screen and drew 7-0 Danny Wolf as his teammates cleared out to give him space to operate. It was one-on-one now.
On the opposite bench, May also had a decision to make: foul intentionally, as the Wolverines usually do when they’re up three inside 10 seconds to go, or play it out.
“I was trying to get Danny to (foul),” May said. “I don’t have my voice. He couldn’t see me. He was locked into playing defense. He actually forced him inside the line, popped back out. I thought Danny stayed in the space fairly well.”
McGhie stepped inside the 3-point line, then stepped back moving to his left – his preferred motion – and fired.
“I got the shot I wanted,” McGhie said. “I thought it was in. Hit the back rim. I still can’t believe it. Hit the back rim.”
An inch shorter, and they’re going to overtime.
“We had a shot, man,” senior guard Hayden Gray said. “We had a shot at the end. Put it in our best player’s hands. Hit the back rim. It is what it is.”
No good.
Buzzer.
Game over.
Fifteen-game win streak over.
Season over.
Magical journey over.
“Seasons are hard when they finish,” said Olen, in his 21st season at UCSD and 12th as head coach. “Everyone is emotional in the locker room. I don’t think I have a full appreciation for what the last six months have done. It’s a special group. I told those guys it’s been the best basketball experience of my life.”
McGhie finished with 25 points despite shooting 3 of 15 behind the arc. Nordin Kapic added 15, and Hayden Gray had 10. Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, their leading scoring and the Big West Player of the Year, had just seven before fouling out with 6:57 to go.
Michigan (25-9) struggled against UCSD’s matchup zone and switching man-to-man defenses, shooting just 42.1% — 28% in the second half — and turning it over 14 times.
The Tritons (30-5) trailed 41-27 at the half, but in a way that was somewhat OK considering what it could have been after the opening five minutes.
Olen took the unusual step of calling timeout just 2:49 into the game to settle down a team that starts two juniors and three fifth-year seniors. It took until 14:53 left in the first half – and seven misses and four turnovers – before they finally made a basket, a jumper in the lane by McGhie.
“I did think the nerves maybe affected us early in the game,” Olen said. “I just thought we found our rhythm, and we played more of the way that honestly we’ve been playing all year. I was glad that we found that and gave ourselves an opportunity.”
The crazy part was, it came with Tait-Jones on the bench in foul trouble for most of it. The Tritons outscored the Wolverines by 16 points in the 15 minutes he wasn’t on the floor.
A 12-0 run got them within three and won over the sellout crowd in Ball Arena, each cheer for a Tritons basket louder than the last, each boo for a questionable call louder than the last.
The Tritons got within a point at 45-44 … only for an 11-2 Michigan run to push the margin back to double figures … only for the Tritons to battle back and take a 65-63 lead.
It was their first and, it turned out, only lead of the game.
Win or lose, though, simply being here, in an NBA arena, rubbing shoulders with college basketball royalty, amounts to a major victory for a still young university known for nerdy students and not for school spirit generated through athletics.
That changed in the four days since Selection Sunday, when the Tritons heard their name called for the first time.
The athletic department received 1,500 requests for their NCAA allotment of 350 tickets at Ball Arena. Those fortunate enough to get them jammed into a bar near the arena Thursday afternoon, with signs like: “Nobel Laureates: UCSD 16, Michigan 10.”
Chancellor Pradeep Khosla posed for a photo with this one: “Flight: $500. Train $10. 30-year wait for March Madness: Priceless.”
Back home, students took notice as well.
Borrowing a tradition from Ohio State before its annual rivalry game in football against Michigan, they crossed out capital Ms on signs across campus. Thurgood Marshall College had an X through the M. So did Muir College. So did Mandeville Center.
A university, transformed.
Said Gray: “It’s been real cool just to see the culture kind of shifting around campus.”
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