Nobody may be giving Penn much of a chance of upsetting Texas, but a simulation of Friday’s First Round matchup in College Hoops 2K6 on the Xbox came down to a shot at the buzzer. Here’s how it went down, in images and video.
There was no sign of a digitized version of Mark Cuban at the American Airlines Center.
“Win this game, guys. Then I won’t have to answer a bunch of questions about the Temple job in the postgame.”
The first upset of the night: Mark Zoller — not Ibby Jaaber — is the Quaker spotlighted in pregame introductions.
LaMarcus Aldridge skies over Steve Danley to win the opening tip for Texas.
Off a missed shot, P.J. Tucker grabs the offensive board and slams it home for a bucket on Texas’s first possession.
David Whitehurst answers with a long two on Penn’s first possession, evening the game at 2-2.
Danley gets his revenge on Aldridge, dunking over the big man to give Penn its first lead of the game at 10-8 early on.
Both offenses have come out firing, and it’s 12-10 Penn less than four minutes in.
Brian Grandieri leaks out for a fastbreak layup to put Penn up 24-23 midway through the first half.
Jaaber hits his trademark runner over Brad Buckman to extend Penn’s lead to 28-23 at the 7:43 mark.
A Friedrich Ebede jumper gives Penn a 30-23 advantage with 6:40 left in the first half.
On the next trip down, Ebede drills a three-pointer to extend the Quaker lead to 33-23, prompting Rick Barnes to call a timeout.
The Longhorns respond with a 12-2 run to tie the game at 35-35 with 18.2 seconds left before halftime. Mark Zoller is fouled and has a chance to give the Quakers the lead at intermission, but misses both free throws.
The two teams head to the longer room exactly where they started the game — dead even.
Penn did not shoot well at all in the first half — just 1 of 8 from three-point range — but forced 9 Texas turnovers and did a good job capitalizing on the Longhorns’ mistakes.
Steve Danley picks up his third foul 14 seconds into the second half and has words for the official.
Dunphy looks on as his team struggles with turnovers early on in the second half.
Jaaber gets the Penn offense untracked in the second half with a three-pointer to tie the game 43-43.
Just over five minutes into the second half, Brad Buckman has keyed a 24-10 Longhorn run to give the favorites a four-point lead.
Zoller picks up his fourth foul with 11:15 left, and it’s his turn to vent his frustration with the referee before heading to the bench.
With his team down by five, Jaaber makes a key defensive play, forcing a tie-up that gives the Quakers the ball on the alternating possession.
At the other end, Ebede once again comes up big for Penn, getting fouled — apparently in his injured groin, no less — while sinking a bucket for a three-point play to bring Penn to within two at 61-59 with 5:12 left.
Buckman sinks a fallaway baseline jumper off of some excellent ball movement to give Texas a 67-63 lead with under three minutes left.
After a steal, Jaaber finds Whitehurst in transition and the sophomore hits a breakaway finger roll to draw Penn to within 67-65 with 1:52 remaining in the contest.
Texas runs clock, but can’t get a three-pointer to fall at the shot clock buzzer, and Penn grabs the rebound. Jaaber feeds Zoller in the low post, and Zoller hits a jumper from close range knot it up at 67-67 with 59.8 seconds left, setting up a wild finish…
This is video of the final minute, beginning with a replay of Zoller’s tying bucket. The audio didn’t make it through the transfer very well, but you can still make out the call of Vern Lundquist and Bill Raftery.
