This guy (Mouphtao Yarou) got a key rebound, and passed to freshman Ryan Arcidiacono for a tying 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left in regulation. Villanova won in overtime.
Now, if you haven't, read why this game is so important to me.......
As 99.9% of kids do when you grow up in or around Syracuse, NY your athletic rooting interests pretty much begin and end with Syracuse University Football and Basketball. Growing up in the 1970's and 1980's I saw unbelievable change to Syracuse University athletics and the overall connection of the University to the region.
First and foremost, Syracuse University decided to make a bold leap, and replace ancient Archbold Stadium, which was one of the oldest facilities in use at the time. And boy did they replace it. The 50,000 seat Carrier Dome was built on the Archbold site and became the new home for both the Football and Basketball programs in 1980. I happened to be attending Syracuse University basketball camp in the summer of 1980, and took a tour of the new building the day before they inflated the roof!
Secondly, Syracuse was a charter member of the Big East Conference in 1979. This new league consolidated the best East Coast basketball programs into a monster that would eventually land 3 teams in the 1985 Final Four. The basketball program at Syracuse went from playing to roughly 9,000 at wonderful Manley Field House to its official capacity for basketball at 34,616.
Syracuse basketball was good before the Big East. Syracuse basketball became a national power in the Big East and because of the Big East.
I decided to skip town for college, and ended up somewhere very familiar from a basketball standpoint: Villanova.
Syracuse - Villanova games have always meant a little bit more to me than any other games I watch or attend. Only time I'm not rooting for Syracuse is this game. There have been many special games in this series, and Villanova carries the best winning percentage of any Big East team in the Carrier Dome. The top-3 crowds ever in the Carrier Dome are for Villanova.
Due to the conference landscape radically changing due to football television revenue realities, Syracuse is leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference next season. Villanova will be moving forward into a new league after next season.
This means that this Saturday's Syracuse - Villanova game in Philadelphia is the last time these teams will meet in a Big East conference game. As someone who was weaned on Big East basketball, weaned on Syracuse basketball, and now a Villanova basketball fan, this is a sad, sad thing.
I remember being at the Big East Tournament at the Carrier Dome in 1981 (that's right, the tournament was not always held at Madison Square Garden). I saw Leo Rautins elevate Syracuse to victory and the Big East Championship in triple overtime over, you guessed it, Villanova. I remember coming back to Syracuse in 1989 to see Villanova beat then #1 and undefeated Syracuse by 19 points. I've seen every great player for both sides over the past three plus decades.
Pearl Washington, Ed Pinckney, Derrick Coleman, John Pinone, Lawrence Moten, Kerry Kittles, Roosevelt Bouie, Tim Thomas, Sherman Douglas, Scottie Reynolds, Carmello Anthony, Randy Foye and so many more. Jim Boeheim has been a constant on the Syracuse bench. Villanova has had the incomparable Rollie Massimino, to Steve Lappas and now the dapper Jay Wright. So much history. So many memories. For one last time.......
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