I want to thank Brigham Young's senior forward Mark Bigelow for some unexpected entertainment on ESPN's midnight Monday men's basketball broadcast recently.
To quickly summarize, with four seconds left in a tie game between BYU and New Mexico, Bigelow inexplicably jumped off the bench and ran out onto the court to encourage his teammates. He was charged with a technical and the host Lobos had a chance to win the game at the foul stripe. But they missed both shots. Still, the Lobos got the ball and won on a buzzer-beater.
ESPN, which televised the game, replayed the misstep more times during the extended time outs after it happened more times than CNN did the Dean scream.
But that's not the whole story. I intended to write about the incident as an amusing diversion in late night TV hoops, but when I contact the BYU Sports Information Office for a mug shot of Bigelow, I learned a whole flap has exploded over the incident involving an investigation by the front office of the Mountain West Conference.
It turns out that Bigelow insisted he heard a referee's whistle, and therefore thought it was OK to bound onto the court. A close examination of some video footage apparently shows he was right, and that an official did blow a whistle and raise his arm, only to quickly pull it back down.
A commentary by Richard Stevens in the Albuquerque Tribune last week blasted the officials for not having the integrity to acknowledge their mistake and placing the blame, and potentially the game's outcome, on Bigelow, making him a laughing stock.
For me, however, watching the game on TV 2,000 miles away and knowing nothing but what ESPN was showing, Bigelow was not a laughing stock, but a fallible human being whose only real crime was being too enthusiastic. What made the whole thing parable-like was the incredible way he was spared by the failure of the Lobos to make either free throw.
For those of us who work late, and especially when we have to endure covering an arduous Monday night Falls Church City Council meeting into the wee hours, coming home to some live hoops from somewhere out west always provides a nice way to wind down. Even with that record Council meeting this Monday that lasted until 2 a.m., when I got home there was still three minutes to play in the Air Force-UNLV game from Las Vegas.
But while its often the case that I never learn the outcome of these games until morning because I fall asleep in my recliner long before they're over (which is kind of the point), Mr. Bigelow snapped me away from a drift into dreamland with his special adventure on Jan. 26.
Good, but no superstar for the BYU Cougars, Bigelow fouled out with about four minutes left of a hotly-contested game at the University of New Mexico's infamous Pit in Albuquerque.
The TV camera then often panned to him, clutching a towel under his chin, helplessly watching the action from the bench, eyes darting left and right. It was obvious he was chomping at the bit. He really wanted to be out there as neither team could hold onto a lead of more than two points down the stretch.
Then the game came down the wire, with only seconds left. The Lobos scored for a two-point lead and it was desperation time for the underdog Cougars.
A long shot missed, and in the scramble for the rebound as the clock ticked toward zero, a Cougar tipped the ball back up and in to tie the score.
Out of time outs and with only four seconds to go, the Lobos raced the ball up the court for a last desperation effort at avoiding overtime with a win.
But wait!
The Lobos' guard had to dribble around an extra Cougar.
It was Bigelow. In his excitement, he'd leapt off the bench and bounded a good 10 feet out onto the floor, long arms waving to urge on his mates. (We now know it was because he'd heard a whistle, which apparently was, in fact, blown by an official). As the Lobo player dribbled behind him, Bigelow realized he wasn't supposed to be there, got a big "Oops" look on his face, and scrambled back to the bench.
Too late. The referee's whistle blew. Technical foul on BYU! Three seconds left, and the Lobos were given the gift of two free throw tries plus the ball back to win the game.
As Bigelow slinked back to the bench, with the look of a deer in the headlights, no one on his team, not a coach or a player or a water boy, would look at him as the referees conferred to determine how much time should be left on the clock.
Only when he tried to bury his head in a towel did a coach tell him not to.
The Lobos sent their best free throw shooter to the foul line having to make only one out of two free throws.
He missed the first. The second hit the front rim softly, then the backboard and came down as a seeming sure bet to fall through the hoop. But, amazingly, it fell back down at an angle, landing on the rim again, and rolling around it only to, after an infinitely long micro-second, fall off to the side for a miss.
Bigelow still looked like the deer in the headlights. But someone upstairs had decided to give him a reprieve. As the TV announcer said, Bigelow had to be the happiest man in the entire arena, although he was still too much in shock to appreciate it.
Starting again from where they were before Bigelow's big adventure, the Lobos in-bounded the ball, lobbing it over the defense for an easy lay-up to win the game as the buzzer sounded.
To most of America reading the result the next day, the game was about that last second pass and shot to win. But it's what happened in the cosmic warp that preceded it that was the real story.
Few people outside the Albuquerque or Provo, Utah, are aware of the controversy that flowed from it, either. Oh well, at least you, dear reader, and I now are.
