Written by Zac Ellis at SI.com
Julian Jacobs leaned forward in a folding chair, his face surrounded by a handful of voice recorders. After two of three prodding questions from visitors in attendance, the USC guard sighed.
“Gosh,” Jacobs said, burying his face in his palms.
On the other side of USC’s quiet locker room, freshman forward Bennie Boatwright sprawled his 6’10” frame at the foot of his locker. Boatwright reached into a bag, pulled out an iPhone and glanced at the screen. The message, whatever it was, made the first-year player slowly shake his head.
Next to Boatwright, guard Katin Reinhardt sat planted on the edge of his seat. Speaking to a visitor, the redshirt junior mumbled, but his voice could be heard all across the hushed locker room. Reinhardt, still and reserved, described exactly why silence had suddenly taken ahold of his Trojan teammates.
“We’re going home,” Reinhardt said, “when we should be playing.”
Therein lies the beauty, and heartbreak, of March: A single, gut-wrenching defeat ends the euphoric experience of playing in the NCAA tournament. One loss has enough power to reduce a group of hooting-and-hollering hoopsters into a despondent pack of funeral attendees. On Thursday night, No. 8 USC mourned the death of its 2016 NCAA tournament run after a devastating 70–69 loss to No. 9 Providence. As losses go, this one shouldn’t have been; right now the Trojans should be basking in the glory of a trip to the second round, where they’d face No. 1 North Carolina on Saturday at PNC Arena. But now USC must begin its 2,544-mile trip home to Los Angeles earlier than expected, giving its players plenty of time to dwell on the same lingering question: How did that just happen?
That was a first-round loss to the Friars, a game USC had no business losing. It held a five-point lead, 66–61, with 3:20 to play and a one-point lead, 69–68, with 58 seconds left. But the Trojans squandered their advantage with atrocious late-game management, missing the front end of two one-and-one opportunities in the game’s final minute.
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