Mississippi State lists its starting point guard, Morgan William, as 5 feet 5 inches (1.65m). It is a matter of generosity more than accuracy.
“We need to remeasure because I’m pretty sure she ain’t the 5 on the second part of that,” coach Vic Schaefer said.
No matter. William, the shortest player on the court, made the biggest play of the US national semi-finals late on Friday. Her 12m jump shot at the buzzer in overtime defeated Connecticut, 66-64, in an epic upset that halted the Huskies’ 111-game winning streak and ended their chance of a fifth consecutive NCAA championship.
Photo: AP
“I was in shock; I’m still in shock,” William, who had 13 points and six assists, said half an hour after the game. “I’m over here like, dang, I just won the game.”
It was a startling moment of release for William in a career forged by the doubts of others, bereavement, injury, newfound assurance and a remarkably close bond with her coach. And it was a rousing moment of liberation for the NCAA in the 36th year that it has sponsored a women’s basketball tournament.
UConn and Tennessee — with 19 national titles between them — have provided reliable and appreciated greatness. Their success has given women’s basketball groundbreaking visibility and legitimacy.
And now the sport has another luminous moment that many observers felt it needed: not certainty, but mystery. A surprise ending, a last-second revelation, a champion dethroned. A stunning instant that will be replayed for as long as games are won in a final astonishment. A woman hitting a late shot and her face blooming in jubilant disbelief and her teammates engulfing her in an ecstatic pile.
“I think the fun of the men’s game is the parity, and the fun of the NCAA tournament is the upsets,” said Muffet McGraw, the longtime women’s coach at Notre Dame, which won the 2001 NCAA title and reached the final in four of the previous six seasons.
“You hear about a lot of different teams on the men’s side; you know about a lot of different players,” McGraw said.
Referring to UConn, she added, “I think it gets boring for some people to watch and say, ‘Eh, they’re going to win.’ You want to see a great game. When the Yankees dominated, when the Celtics dominated, they still lost games.”
However, with the Huskies, she said, “Nobody comes close.”
Well, hardly ever.
UConn had not lost a game since Nov. 17, 2014. No team had seriously threatened this season since the Huskies escaped the opener in November by two points at Florida State, but there was something personal about Mississippi State’s determination on Friday after it had lost to the Huskies by 60 points — 60 points — in last year’s tournament.
“I feel like we earned respect,” William said. “People didn’t believe in us, but it didn’t faze us.”
“It breathes a little life into women’s basketball, knowing that it’s not the same old, same old, same old UConn,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said.
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