Miracle Misses

How Providence survived against Butler

Sometimes this game just defies analysis.

A 90-percent free throw shooter at the line for two shots in a tie game with 1.3 seconds remaining. That game is over.

Not on this night.

But that was just one of the many improbable occurrences in Providence’s 97-87 double overtime victory over Butler Wednesday night.

But first, the free throws. Butler’s leading scorer on the season and on this night, Finley Bizjack, went to the foul line with 1.3 seconds remaining in regulation and the score tied at 73, after he was fouled on an attempted corner jump shot. To that point in the game Bizjack had made all 12 of his free throws and 100 of 115 (87 percent) of his foul shots this season, including 71 of 76 (93 percent) in Big East play.

So it appeared the last-place Friars were about to fall to 2-10 in the Big East with their fifth loss in a row, and suffer yet another close defeat, putting another nail in the coffin of embattled head coach Kim English.

But Bizjack missed both free throws, and the game went to overtime.

Now the cold hard math suggests that a 90-percent FT shooter will miss two foul shots in a row one percent of the time. But I will tell you that I have seen a lot of professional and college basketball in my time and I can’t remember a shooter of that caliber missing two straight free throws in a tie game with one second remaining.

And neither could the other writers and coaches I talked to about the misses after the game. A quick internet search uncovered some references to Magic Johnson missing two free throws in overtime in the 1984 NBA Finals, but those did not occur with one second left in a tie game, and four straight misses by Nick Anderson in another NBA finals contest, but Anderson was not a good free throw shooter. So I challenge you to find a similar occurrence at the highest levels of basketball.

Of course, one might argue that this game would not qualify as such, with two struggling Big East teams taking turns giving away a game they could not afford to lose. But it was fun, and it did, as I said, include a series of improbable occurrences to go along with Bizjack’s missed foul shots.

For example, this was the first time in the history of the Big East, that two teams had played double overtime games in both of their head-to-head meetings, as Butler had defeated Providence, 113-110, in double OT earlier this season.

Providence was led in scoring by Jaylin Sellers, who had a career high 36 points, even though he appeared to be done for the evening early in the second half with a lower leg injury. In fact, a hobbled Sellers, kept being subbed out on defense down the stretch, but still managed to score 27 of his points after halftime.

But Sellers didn’t hit the biggest basket of the night for Providence, that honor may have gone to Nilavan Daniels, a rarely-used slender sophomore guard, who scored his only points of the game, draining a corner three with the Friars trailing by two and just 18 seconds remaining in the first overtime.

Daniels, a former walk-on, has been getting more time on the court of late, mostly due to injuries to Providence’s other backcourt players, but you should know that he has now scored all of 20 points this season and just 29 in his Providence career.

Daniels was the only Friar player English brought with him to the interview room after the game, even though he scored just those three points, to go along with one rebound and one assist. But Daniels did have a lot to do with the Providence win, as he logged a career-high 21 minutes on the court, or almost a third of the 66 minutes he had played prior this season, and more than a fifth of the 97 minutes he had spent on the court thus far in his career.

Daniels spent a good deal of that time guarding the shifty, savvy Bizjack, who led the Bulldogs with 30 points, but only scored five total in the two overtimes.

Daniels soaked up his 15 (or 21) minutes of fame. He said all the right things, noting that he’s always had the mindset of being ready if and when called upon.

But it’s one thing to be “ready to play,” it’s another thing to be the guy called on to guard the other team’s best scorer down the stretch. So I asked Daniels if he was ready for that.

“Actually, yeah, I was mentally preparing to guard him,’’ said Daniels. “I mentally prepare to guard everyone, but I specifically was focusing on him.”

Sounds good, but I should point out, as English did later, that Daniels still spends much of practice on the scout team, running the opposing team’s offense against the starters. In fact, Daniels was the guy who acted as Bizjack in preparation for this game. Safe to say if you are the player who is pretending to be the others team’s star in practice, then you are not the key cog in the defensive game plan.

If Daniels’ 3-pointer was not the biggest basket for the Friars on this night, it may have belonged to Duncan Powell, who otherwise struggled throughout the evening, and spent much of his time on the bench after committing an awful turnover early in the second half. Powell, only back in the game because of injuries and foul-outs, scored HIS only points of the game with an old-school 3-point play to put the Friars up for good to start the second overtime.

We should keep all of these improbables in mind if indeed this win sparks a season turnaround for the Friars (10-13, 3-9) and/or saves Kim English’s job.