Soft Pretzel Logic

That was shocking.

I'm sure most of you saw it... although if you were like some of the 9,212 fans at the Wachovia Center tonight, you turned the game off with nine minutes left and Villanova down by 21 points, 55-34.

Maybe you stuck it out a little longer, but gave up when LSU's Mike Thornton got two rebounds in a row and finally scored to give the Tigers a 15-point lead, 64-59, with 3:11 left.

Somehow, some way, Villanova came back and won.

And in a season when seemingly every player has had his night to be the star, this time it was Malcolm Grant. The freshman scored all 18 of his points in those last nine minutes, grabbed two assists and a rebound and made the drive that led to Dante Cunningham's game-winning putback.

Grant made seven of the eight free throws he took in that span, including one after he was fouled hitting a three and all three after he was fouled missing a shot from beyond the arc.

And speaking of threes, Villanova had missed all five of their long-range attempts prior to Grant's first trey with 6:05 left on the clock. All that did was cut the deficit to 18 points.

You have to credit LSU for shutting down Villanova on the perimeter, but the fact that the Wildcats couldn't make a three for 34 minutes of play is pretty bad.

In the end, though, it was the greatest comeback I've seen in six years covering basketball around here. Yes, that means it trumps Penn's 18-point comeback with 7:35 left against Princeton in 2005. In part because that game went to overtime while the Wildcats won tonight in regulation, and in part because of that s 15-point deficit with 3:11 to play.

It doesn't beat Princeton's comeback from 33-9 down at halftime against Penn in 1999, but that was before I got to town.

Having said that, this one somehow seems more believable than the one two years ago. I don't know about tempo stats yet (which always factor in when Princeton's on the floor), but I had this hunch early in the second half that Villanova just wasn't out of it yet, and that they somehow or other had too much talent to really be stuck in the hole they were in against a very young LSU team.

The comeback two years ago just didn't make any sense to me at the time, because Princeton had that game going at a snail's pace and I wasn't sure there would be enough possessions for Penn to get back in it the way they were playing at the time.

Anyway, I really have to go to sleep, because I have to be up early in the morning, but here are the postgame press conferences from Villanova and LSU, and here's another clip from Jay Wright talking to reporters after his press conference. That clip is a straight MP3 file, so be ready for it instead of going to a Philly.com page.

Believe me, though, there's more to come on this one..