Auburn fans thought the game was won.
The Tigers were seconds away from reaching the program’s first national title game, but a foul on Kyle Guy’s desperation 3, which followed a missed double-dribble, meant that Auburn’s storybook run would end in the Final Four.
The problem: Many fans saw Guy’s 3 hit off the iron and assumed the game was over. Back in Auburn, hundreds of fans left the bars and watch parties to roll Toomer’s Corner without stopping to make sure the game was actually over.
The result was devastatingly awkward. I can’t imagine the roller coaster of emotions those fans went through upon learning that Auburn had actually lost. But because basketball Twitter rarely disappoints, someone mashed up Auburn’s radio call of the game-deciding sequence with the live feed of Toomer’s Corner.
It’s tough to look away. But man, Auburn radio announcer Rod Bramblett was HEATED. The juxtaposition of his anger with the fans’ clueless jubilation took the videos to new levels.
You can see exactly when word began to spread amongst the crowd that the game wasn’t over. It was around the moment Guy hit the go-ahead free-throw (two minutes into the second video). By the time those fans made it to a TV, it was too late. Virginia had won. Bramblett had this to say:
“The Auburn Tigers just had a trip to the national championship stolen from ‘em!”
What a call. What a video.
