HARTFORD, Conn. – The Cincinnati Bearcats could not have realized it at the moment, but the free throw UConn’s Ryan Boatright missed with 25.5 seconds remaining Friday was a very bad thing for them.
It would be inaccurate to say it was the worst thing. The worst thing was Boatright’s step-back 3-point shot with :0.2 remaining in the game that gave the Huskies a 57-54 victory over the No. 3 seed in the American Athletic Conference championship tournament. That’s what everyone will remember, and rightfully so.
But Boatright’s reasoning is that you couldn’t have one without the other. The missed free throw made it a lock that Boatright would win the game just a few seconds later.
That is the gospel according to Boat.
Listen to coach Kevin Ollie and Boatright explain it during the postgame press conference.
Here’s the key. Boatright thought the free throw was going in. He wasn’t going to make a miss his last memory in a UConn uniform. The Huskies need to keep winning, need to win the automatic bid to make absolutely sure they are going to the NCAA tournament – not the NIT – next week.
“That felt better than the first two I made,” he said of the pair that he made with 36.6 seconds left to give UConn a 54-49 lead. “Once I missed it, man, they got that put back, it was like deja vu, this is Texas all over again. Once we got to the huddle, Coach kept us composed and he told me he’s going to give me the ball.
“I told myself I’m not going out like that. We’re going to take this last shot, and I’m going to make it. Coach drew up a great play for the slip so they couldn’t double me. Once I came off, he was so nervous about me beating them baseline, gave him one good crossover to give myself a good look and knock it down.”
Cincinnati’s Kevin Johnson picked up Boatright off the inbound pass. When Daniel Hamilton set a screen and rolled off to the top of the key, the Bearcats switched and forward Octavius Ellis picked up Boatright. That was no match. Ellis fell back on the Kemba Walker-like move and Boatright had created the look he wanted.
“Maybe it was fate tonight for them,” Cincinnati associate head coach Larry Davis said.
Everybody in the building knew Boatright would have the ball in his hands.
“I see him take that shot all the time,” Rodney Purvis said. “I knew it was in when it left his hands.”
UConn opponents must be sick of this. Whether the name is Kemba or Shabazz or Boat, this has been going on all decade.
Said Boatright: “I’m just blessed and fortunate to be in this situation and have the opportunity to play with this team and play for this great program and just to make a shot like that man, great guards that we done have, Shabazz, Kemba, we put in that work to be in that situation and be able to make that shot, but without my teammates, we not in that situation for me to be able to take that shot so I give all the credit to them.”
Well after the game had ended, Boatright sat in the UConn locker room, his No. 11 blue jersey still on as he answered questions from reporters. During this tournament, just pulling that jersey on before the game is motivation for him.
Now he is halfway to his goal of winning four games here.
“I’m not going to go out like this, losing at home,” he said. “I’m not trying to out, period. I want to put this jersey on as much as I can. Like I said at the beginning of the year, I want to win another championship. That’s what we’re fighting for.”
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