NEWARK, N.J. — What’s so glorious about sport is how frequently it gives us something that seems so rare, it feels sent from another dimension. As if it could never happen again.
What transpired at the Prudential Center on Thursday night surely applies.
Who knows how long it will take, if ever, for the world to witness something equal to or better than what the second-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide accomplished here. Nate Oats’ sniper-minded squad sank an NCAA Tournament-record 25 3-pointers against No. 6 seed BYU en route to a record-setting and program-defining 113-88 win in the East Regional semifinals.
“That was a fun game if you like offense,” said Oats in a tone not nearly loud enough to match the volume of what his team accomplished over the prior two hours. “I do believe that the record for 3s made in a game is held by Troy right out of Alabama with 28. We wanted to get to 28 tonight, but 25 is not bad.”
Alabama’s 25 triples broke the mark of 21 held for 35 years by Loyola Marymount, a team that changed how the game was played at a time when the 3-point shot was considered by most to be an accent, not a feature.
In its Sweet 16 game Thursday, Alabama deployed the shot like a blowtorch set to high, flaming the Cougars and rolling the Tide into the Elite Eight for a second consecutive season.
The nation’s highest-scoring offense (91.1 points per game) managed to outdo its expectations by 22 points in a game that was said to be a race to 100. That was a half-truth. Sure, Alabama hit 100 and won the game, but it was over many minutes before the Tide ripped their way to the century mark.
“I loved watching them play,” Oats said of those famous Lions teams coached by the revolutionary-minded Paul Westhead. “That was my freshman year in high school that year. I remember Bo Kimble shooting left-hand free throws in honor of Hank [Gathers]. I loved watching them play. They got up-and-down. Maybe…
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