Butler Earns Sweet Taste Of Victory With Wideman's Last Second Tip-In
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
If you were Seton Hall, you had to like the way things stacked up for you before Thursday night’s BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinal matchup with Butler.
If you’re the Pirates, you took solace in the fact that your senior-dominated team had already defeated the Bulldogs twice this season -- with the second win coming just five days ago in Newark. You could boast a roster that contained four seniors who have combined for more than 5,000 career points and nearly 3,000 rebounds while playing more than 13,000 minutes of basketball over the last four seasons. And that several key members of this Pirates team were also part of Seton Hall’s 2016 BIG EAST Tournament championship squad. So the Pirates also had that “we’ve-been-here before” feeling going for them.
Oh, and then there was this little nugget --since joining the BIG EAST five seasons ago, Butler had exactly zero wins on its ledger in its brief
BIG EAST Tournament history. The Bulldogs went into Thursday night’s showdown with Seton Hall 0-4 all-time in the tournament with one loss coming by one point, one coming in overtime and one loss by five points. Talk about a snakebit program.
Well, not anymore. Thanks to Tyler Wideman.
With the Bulldogs trailing by one and with the final seconds ticking off the clock, Wideman tipped in Kamar Baldwin’s missed layup with 3.1 seconds to play, then the Bulldogs held their breath until Seton Hall’s Myles Powell missed with a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer as Butler won its first ever BIG EAST Tournament game, 75-74, in front of 19,812 fans, the first quarterfinal-round sellout for the BIG EAST Tournament since the league reconfigured five seasons ago.
“That’s a heck of a way to finish the night at Madison Square Garden,” an ebullient Butler head coach LaVall Jordan said. “An unbelievable ending, an unbelievable time of year, BIG EAST Tournament at Madison Square Garden. It’s my first time around and that was just an epic ending to a great day of BIG EAST basketball.”
Perhaps it was only fitting that when the first tournament win finally arrived for Butler, it came in dramatic fashion after all the anguish experienced in past losses. In 2014 there was a 51-50 loss to Seton Hall. In 2015, an overtime loss to Xavier. In 2016 Providence took it to the
Bulldogs, beating them, 74-60, before another agonizing five-point loss last year to Xavier.
But finally, redemption - and the sweet taste of victory.
“These two guys next to me, this was a big goal of theirs, to get a win in the BIG EAST Tournament before they get out of here,” Jordan said, referring to Wideman and senior Kelan Martin. “It was poetic justice that the big cat here gets the big tip-in to get it done. These guys had set their minds together as a group and they knew it was going to take a togetherness and a toughness and they showed that tonight.”
Seton Hall appeared to be pulling away with just under 6:00 left in the second half when a pair of free throws by Myles Cale gave the Pirates a 64-57 lead. And considering the Bulldogs’ past tournament history, you thought this might be where they folded their tent. Instead the Bulldogs came storming back behind Kamar Baldwin, who was having himself a night to remember by pouring in a career-best 32 points.
The Bulldogs finally caught the Pirates at 66-66 on a three-pointer by Baldwin and then again at 68-68 on two Baldwin free throws with 1:39 to play. And when Baldwin hit a jumper with 35.1 seconds to play with Butler down, 71-70, the Bulldogs actually had the lead. Seton Hall would wrestle it back one final time when Khadeen Carrington’s three-point play with 11.6 seconds gave the Pirates a 74-73 lead.
But that just set the stage for the most memorable tip-in of Wideman’s career and Butler finally got to savor its first tourney victory.
“Cat came up and set a screen and I was just trying to get to the basket,” Baldwin said, referring to Wideman on the last play. I was able to get there but I wasn’t able to finish. Then Cat, like we always say, the bigs just finish rolling and that’s what he did and put it back in for the win.”
When asked for his take on that final play, Wideman, a.k.a Cat, didn’t exactly break into color commentary.
“Yeah, pretty much what he said,” Wideman said to laughs.
It may not have been the prettiest of games but it was off-the-charts entertaining. And that’s just fine by Butler.
“Our motto is gritty, not pretty,” Baldwin said. “We knew it was going to be a battle the whole game.”
Sixth-seeded Butler will now face No. 2 seed Villanova in Friday night’s late semifinal game.