Granted, this is not the sort of meltdown you want to see in your home team in the first round, especially when you have a tough game against a good Villanova team playing at home. However, I think I can explain it.
The most obvious starting point, of course, is VCU guard Eric Maynor. He led all scorers in the game with 21, and got to the line for 13 free throws attempts, many coming in that last run. He undoubtedly sparked his team's near-comeback.
But there's more than that. We're gonna work backwards.
Maynor essentially ran circles around the UCLA defense all night, cutting into the lane, dishing out, and getting fouled. But that last, important run really started when Darren Collison, who had been guarding Maynor all night, sat out on the bench.
Collison went briefly to the bench in the second half. In terms of game time, he really didn't sit on the bench for that long; however, two consecutive time-outs were called during that period, each of which took a good CBS NCAA-coverage-like few minutes or longer.
So Collison essentially stepped out, sat through about five minutes worth of time-outs, a minute or so of game time, then sat on the sideline for another minute before going back into the game. What started as a quick break for a veteran point guard turned into a very long time of inaction, certainly enough to get cold.
And what happens when you go back into a game cold, trying to guard a streaky, veteran point guard? You make little fouls. Maynor hits 10 of 13 free throws, gets confident, knocks down a shot or two, then boom. 1 Point down and running up the floor to victory.
Of course he never made that last step, but it's a scary possibility, and all a result of some long time-outs.
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