One shining moment

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Years later, what will remain of the epic contest that played out here tonight -- No. 13-seeded Vermont's stunning, 60-57 win over No. 4 Syracuse in overtime -- is a few precious seconds in an NCAA tournament video montage. An editor will make room in the upset heroics file -- a reel of gigantic feats by small-school guards -- alongside Bryce Drew, Richie Frahm and the like for a crew-cutted Catamounts senior named T.J. Sorrentine, whose gutsy, NBA-range 3-pointer with 1:06 left in OT sent the Orange to a first-round big-dance exit.

But in the here-and-now at the DCU Center, Sorrentine's 3 was more than just another exhibit for the tourney museum: This upset marked the real start of March Madness in 2005. The dance may have tipped off at 12:20 p.m. on Thursday, but it didn't begin, in truth, until Sorrentine's shot sailed through the net late Friday night, and Vermont held on for the victory.

As its quartet of senior starters -- Sorrentine, Taylor Coppenrath, David Hehn and Germain Mopa Njila -- and its retiring character of a coach, Tom Brennan, danced on the hardwood to make it official, the NCAA tournament goose bumps set in. The Catamount faithful, who turned out in droves to Worcester, were already overwhelmed by emotion, but all others present -- those not in Syracuse orange, that is -- became instant converts. If not Vermonters by blood, they were Vermonters in spirit. And the feeling, carried on the airwaves of national television, rapidly spread beyond the arena walls.

Let UW-Milwaukee and Bucknell enjoy their moments in the sun, but America found its Cinderella on Friday night: Vermont. And its story stacks up against any fairy tale.

Sorrentine's shot was a product of improvisation-- beautiful improvisation -- made in crunch-time from the top of the Orange's 2-3 zone, the scoreboard reading Vermont 56, Syracuse 55. "[The shot clock] got down to 15, and I looked at coach, and he said, 'Run red! Run red!,'" Sorrentine said, in reference to a play calling for a screen-and-fade by a post-man. Red -- well, red was never put into action.

"I just shook him off. I gave coach this [shaking his head], and said, 'No, I got this one.' And he looked in my eyes and said, 'OK.' It got to six seconds and I looked at [ Syracuse guards Gerry] McNamara and Louie McCroskey and said, 'Run the play!' -- just to decoy them so they didn't come out at me."

And that was when the dagger flew. "Once I let it go, I knew it was in," Sorrentine said.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim called timeout immediately, and Sorrentine ran to the bench pumping his chest while Brennan flailed his arms in jubilation. A dejected McNamara -- the same gunner who was a tourney star in 2003 (hitting six 3s in the title game) and 2004 (scoring 43 against BYU in round one) -- walked the other direction with his head down in disappointment. He would later turn over the ball with 15.9 seconds left, dribbling it off Terrence Roberts' foot, and then miss a potential game-tying 3 attempt with three seconds on the clock. McNamara would finish 4-of-18 from the field, and 1-of-7 from the line in the loss.

"This is the worst I've ever felt," McNamara said in the locker room afterward. "We were out of rhythm in the first half and we never picked it up. It's hard to explain."

The 'Cuse being out of rhythm -- shooting 41.8 percent from the field and just 25 percent from beyond the arc -- was one way to explain how the Catamounts could slay the Orange while shooting just 37.3 percent from the field themselves. Or how Vermont could manage a victory while star Coppenrath (who averaged 25.7 points coming into the game, and had scored 30 in his three previous contests) was largely contained by the long, athletic bottom line of 'Cuse's 2-3 zone, scoring 16 points and grabbing just four rebounds.