By Anthony Bosco
Marcus Hatten and the rest of the St. John’s University men’s basketball team reinforced a notion made famous by the unique monosyllabic wisdom of Hall of Fame catcher and New York Yankee Yogi Berra, who once uttered the now immortal phrase “It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.”
For the uninformed, I am referring to the Red Storm’s thrilling comeback win over the Georgetown Hoyas on Jan. 18, when the team came from 16 points down with about seven minutes to play to win by 5, 77-72, at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C.
Hatten was like a Greek god that afternoon, scoring 19 points during the furious comeback, single-handedly willing and carrying his team to a win they honestly had no business getting, especially when judged by how the team played for the previous 33 minutes.
Afterward I actually muttered to myself that never again would I take any game score for granted. The Red Storm, and Hatten in particular, reacquainted me with the notion that no game is ever out of reach and no lead is ever safe.
In the grand scheme of things, I’m sure a very small portion of the sporting world got to see what Hatten and his team did that day. After all, it was a Big East Conference game between two teams most experts picked to finish in the middle of the pack. If the game took place in 1984 and guys named Mullin and Ewing were playing, surely more people would have taken notice, but the feeling of this particular game was more of nostalgia than one of, say, rabid anticipation.
I was sick to my stomach watching most of the game, mostly because St. John’s didn’t seem to be able to do anything. But that’s the mistake I made, the arrogant misconception that I already knew the outcome of a game not finished.
It was very similar to another great comeback, one probably even more nail-biting and far-fetched. Of course, I am referring to the New York Jets’ miracle at the Meadowlands, when my beloved Gang Green overcame a 30-3 deficit at the start of the fourth quarter en route to the most dramatic win in franchise history.
That game still ranks up there with my all-time greatest sports memories and maybe the most fulfilling Jets win in my long, sad and sorry career as a football fan painfully partial to Gang Green.
Some comebacks you can see coming, like water busting through a damn or an avalanche on a tall mountain — once the process starts, nothing in the world can stop it.
But as dramatic a win as the Red Storm’s was, it was just a prelude to what the University of Miami men’s basketball team did against the ranked Connecticut Huskies.
Miami, always a team that manages to pull out its share of tough conference wins, was led by a monster performance by Darius Rice, who scored 42 points, including a three-point shot at the buzzer to give the Hurricanes a thrilling one-point win.
Rice looked like Reggie Miller or Larry Bird in that game. He did everything and scored from everywhere on the court. Though his team gave up the lead in the second half, the Hurricanes stayed just close enough to let luck happen. Down by two with less than five seconds to play and UConn inbounding the ball, Rice stole an ill-advised pass, smartly found the three-point line and drilled a trey from the right corner that found nothing but net.
I am no Miami Hurricanes fan, but what Rice did was downright inspirational.
Any Knicks fan who was around to see it would probably not cop to the fact that what Miller did in a playoff game against the Knicks some years back — scoring 8 points, including two threes in the final seconds to lead the Indiana Pacers to an improbable win — was just as inspirational.
Even if your team is on the losing end of such a comeback, you have to tip your hat to the other club.
Perhaps the best comeback I ever saw was in the boxing ring, when Julio Ceasar Chavez knocked out Meldrick Taylor with two seconds remaining in the final round to retain his title and stay unbeaten. Had Taylor managed to make it to the final bell, he would have won a decision that most ringside observers had as a landslide.
I was lulled into the same false sense of security Sunday watching the Super Bowl. And even though the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the game handily, I don’t think there was a football fan in the world who didn’t think the Oakland Raiders would at least make a game of it in the second half.
Trailing 34-3, Oakland scored three consecutive touchdowns to get within 13, 34-21. On all three occasions Oakland went for 2 points and each time they were denied. But had they been successful on their three conversion attempts, the score would have been 34-27 with plenty of time remaining in the game for what would have been the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.
But it is a moot point. Tampa’s defense did what it had done all year and for most of the game Sunday down the stretch. It owned the opposing offense, and the final of 48-21 seemed a lot more like a romp than the potential blown lead it almost was.
Is any lead ever safe? Of course. When you are leading a basketball by 30 with under a minute to play, you can breathe easy. But unless it is a mortal lock, never, ever count out the team or athlete on the losing end.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 1-718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
