Before the start of the weekend, we witnessed what is likely the March Madness buzzer-beater of the decade after Northern Iowa’s Paul Jesperson drilled a half court shot at the buzzer to upset Texas. But what Northern Iowa was part of Sunday night is exponentially more unbelievable. Unfortunately, the basketball gods were working against the Panthers this time.
Depending on how you look at unprecedented sequence of events, Northern Iowa either suffered the worst collapse ever witnessed in the sport, or Texas A&M performed the most miraculous comeback in college basketball history. Not even being facetious.
Northern Iowa was up 12 points with just :44 seconds to play — less than a minute to go to cap off an improbable run to the Sweet 16. But the Panthers would commit four turnovers, none of them past half court, while the Aggies would drill five twos, a three-pointer and a free throw to complete a 14-2 barrage to send the game into overtime, eventually winning the game 92-88 in double overtime.
It not only was likely the game of the 2016 NCAA Tournament, it’s unquestionably without a doubt the most amazing comeback in NCAA history.
This is according to the official NCAA stats guy:
In fact, Northern Iowa literally had a 99.99% chance of winning:
Tonny Trocha-Morelos #10 of Texas A&M celebrates with a teammate after defeating the Northern Iowa Panthers in double overtime with a score of 88 to 92 during the second round of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
I never thought I would see a comeback more unthinkable than Illinois’ 15-point erased deficit with 4 minutes to go against Arizona in the 2005 regional final. There’s also a 2005 game when UNLV came back to beat San Diego State after being down 10 with 18 seconds to go.
But there’s no question, nothing compares to this unreal comeback from Sunday night. It’s 35 seconds that every Northern Iowa player will agonize over for the rest of their lives, every Aggie player will gaze upon with a $100 smile for the rest of their lives, and a game all of us fans should never forget.
The comeback in full:
This is how you erase a 12-point deficit in 35 seconds. https://t.co/l3eJ83wDDB #MarchMadness
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 21, 2016
Klint Carlson #2 of the Northern Iowa Panthers reacts after defeated by Texas A&M in double overtime Sunday (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
Josh Helmuth is the editor of Crave Sports. Follow him on Twitter or like the channel on Facebook.
Photo: Getty
