Andrew Nicholson Deserved Better

St. Bonaventure's junior forward played his guts out tonight, posting 30-13-2 with 4 blocks on 10-19/1-1/9-11 shooting. His team gave up a two-point lead with less than 30 seconds to go in regulation and a three-point lead with less than 15 seconds to go in overtime. With three 3 seconds left in the second OT, St. Bonaventure had guard Da'Quan Cook - a .710 free throw shooter on the year - on the line for two with the Bonnies down one. Needing only to split them to tie the game, he missed them both, and the game was effectively over.

There's your hero.

Nicholson could have been the hero tonight, and his effort was certainly - in sports terms, if not in real life - heroic. Instead his monster game goes down as a footnote in A-10 history. Laurels will be feted upon LaSalle's Steve Weingarten instead. The 6'8" forward from Baltimore had hit only a quarter of his 24 three-point attempts on the year before his trey gave the Explorers a 74-73 lead with half a minute remaining in the second overtime. The first-team all conference player now has time to return to campus and focus on his studies. The A-10's Student-Athlete of the Year buried the biggest shot of the tournament so far, and his ticket to Boardwalk Hall has been punched.

I love this time of year.