The clock struck midnight for Metro State mens basketball
(photo: Curtis Compton, Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Associated Press via Denver Post)
“Metro led for all but sixty-eight seconds of today’s NCAA Division II National Championship game. Unfortunately, the clock struck midnight, without a championship, for the Roadrunners.”
Read more …
This isn’t the article that I planned on writing today.
In a game which seemed destined to bring Metro State their third national championship – heartbreak and shock replaced joy and excitement as the Roadrunners fell to Drury University 74-73.
Metro led for all but sixty-eight seconds of today’s NCAA Division II National Championship game. Unfortunately, the clock struck midnight, without a championship, for the Roadrunners. And like most games – it’s easy to pick out seven or eight plays where had things went differently the end result would have brought a third championship trophy to the Auraria Events Center.
Too often, in both life and sports, coming up short is viewed as failure. However, the 2012-2013 men’s basketball team from Metropolitan State University of Denver is everything but failures. To me, this team will be remembered as champions – even though they fell just inches short of winning a national championship. This loss does not define them.
Agonizing doesn’t even begin to describe what it felt like as I watched the Roadrunner’s fail to hit that last second game winning shot this afternoon. I have witnessed this team from a far this season. However, it was clear to me – anyone who was lucky enough to see this team play – that these players and coaches genuinely loved each other.
Damn, I just wish they could have made one more shot.
It would be easy for me to blame a number of things – questionable officiating, missed hacks, and inconsistent free throw shooting – but I’m going to just say: thanks. Thanks for the ride, Roadrunners. You gave me, my fellow students, alumni, staff, and fans alike one magical season that will not soon be forgotten.
In early February, I took my dad to the Metro vs. Mines game. At the game, I told him that I was absolutely certain of confetti falling in the last game of the season for the Roadrunners. It turns out the confetti just fell for the other team. And that, my friends, is a damn shame.
Make no mistake about it though – one loss does not define a team. As a commuter school, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd at Metro. I would know. Yet, this year has been different – thanks to the men’s basketball team. They brought an entire campus together and made Roadrunner pride a reality, not just a saying. It wasn’t supposed to end like this though. Is it really over?
As time passes – wounds are healed and painful memories are replaced with joyful ones. In the future, we will look back on the journey, not the end, of this magical, and now tragic, season for the Roadrunners. Yet, that time is not today.
For now, let me – on behalf of the students, alumni, faculty, and city of Denver – extend thanks to the 2012-2013 Metropolitan State University of Denver men’s basketball team for this wonderful season.
You are winners in my book.
