For Appalachian State, the end comes all too quickly in the First Four

Mar. 19—BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Bloomington, Ind.

It was a few minutes before Adrian Delph would finally allow himself to be helped from the floor. The Appalachian State guard just lay there, under the basket, not far from where the Mountaineer’s last shot fell far too short.

Moments earlier, Norfolk State’s Joe Bryant Jr. had left his team’s celebration and crossed the court to extend his condolences to Delph and RJ Duhart, who was equally immobile on the other side of the lane, a gesture of sportsmanship that underlined the stakes.

It was just a First Four game between No. 16 seeds, and the 68th of 68 seeds had just lost. The end of a season never comes easy. But Appalachian State had been down 19 late in the first half — in an inversion of the old “Is it basketball season yet?” fall ritual in the Triangle, it was suddenly almost spring football season in Boone — and fought all the way back to take the lead.

The Mountaineers had been all but left for dead, only to come within a single shot of victory.

They had the ball, they had 4.9 seconds and they got the rebound when Michael Almonacy’s 3-pointer hit off the back of the rim. The play had originally been designed for Justin Forrest, who had a team-high 18 points, but Norfolk State blew it up. Forrest got the rebound, and had one last quick-trigger heave. It came up short. As did the Mountaineers.

“It’ll take a minute to get over this one,” said Forrest, who had fallen face-first on the floor after his final miss.

So Norfolk State will get its shot at top-seeded Gonzaga on Saturday with a 54-53 win, and Appalachian State will go home, a reality that came crashing down all at once for players who saw victory laid out before them.

It’s easy to say the tournament proper begins Friday with the first round, but only by ignoring what these games mean to the teams that aren’t moving on. A No. 16 seed has one chance in a thousand to beat a No. 1 seed. Appalachian State had every chance in the world to win this one.

“There’s emotions, right? This is emotional,” Appalachian State coach Dustin Kerns said. “When it comes to a screeching halt there, that’s difficult. At some point, when we get through it, instead of being sad we’ll be glad it happened.”

If Appalachian State had folded after that dismal first half, when the Mountaineers missed all 18 of their 3-point attempts and were victimized by Norfolk State’s swarming defense for eight steals, no one would have blamed the Mountaineers. They would not have been the first conference champion to leave it all at that tournament.

Then it all came together. Everything that had gone wrong started going right. The shots started falling, except for a Delph dunk that crashed off the back rim, two points the Sun Belt champions would later wish they had collected.

“We wish we could have this one back, for sure,” Forrest said. “A lot of plays we wish we could have back. It’s just tough. We’re proud to get here, and we know we belong. We just wish the outcome was different.”

It’s funny how the NCAA basketball committee can almost always squeeze North Carolina and Kansas into the same regional, but put the winner of the other First Four game between No. 16 seeds up against Michigan and left the winner of this game for Gonzaga.

It’s moot now. We were already denied App State-Michigan but with the Mountaineers’ loss, we also lost the chance to compare how an upset of Gonzaga on the basketball court would compare with the historic upset of Michigan on the football field.

Especially in the wake of Virginia’s loss to UMBC, it would still have lacked the epic class struggle of football. It’s impossible to argue that Michigan and Appalachian State, in 2007, competed on anything close to a level playing field. But even though Sports Illustrated rated the Big Win in the Big House the greatest college football upset of all time, by Vegas’ standards it was merely in the top 10, a sign of how well the defending FCS national champions were regarded.

Then again Michigan wasn’t far and away the best team in the country, either. Gonzaga is. On this occasion, Appalachian State had less success in a Big Ten venue. Alas.

It would have been a fun question to ponder, but that’s what March is, an endless series of what-ifs and should-haves. For Appalachian State, there are several.

“That’s March Madness,” Kerns said. “There’s heartbreak. There’s buzzer-beaters. That’s it right there and that’s why everybody loves it.”

In the end only one team leaves with no regrets. Some just leave earlier than others.