INDIANAPOLIS -- Maybe it’s the low-hanging rafters in here or the exposed air ducts. Maybe it’s the unusual lighting or the sunken floor. Maybe, just maybe, it’s the near 100-year-old aura that lives here at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Or maybe, in explaining Alabama’s disastrous free-throw shooting on Sunday night against UCLA, it was March. And not just any ole March, but March 2021, the revival of the NCAA tournament and the return of more madness than we’ve ever seen, quite literally.
The No. 11-seeded Bruins’ 88–78 overtime thriller over the No. 2-seeded Crimson Tide represented the 13th upset of this tournament, tying the NCAA record for upsets, which the organization defines as a win by a team seeded five spots higher than its opponent.