On the most critical play of Nebraska’s Sweet 16 loss to rival Iowa, the Cornhuskers had only four players on the floor, and coach Fred Hoiberg took the blame.
’Put that one on me,” he said. “It was a miscommunication and I’m the head coach.”
After Nebraska cut Iowa’s lead to three with 58.8 seconds left of the teams’ NCAA Tournament Midwest Region semifinal, the Hawkeyes’ Alvaro Folgueiras was supposed to hang around the midcourt line. As Kael Combs was looking to inbound the ball, Folgueiras started jumping and raced toward the basket.
Nebraska’s Rienk Mast wasn’t on the floor with the rest of his teammates, and as he tried to sprint from the bench down the sideline to the opposite end of the court, Combs fired a 70-foot pass to Folgueiras — who should have been covered by Mast.
Folgueiras caught the pass, took one dribble and slammed it home. He was fouled on the play and popped up screaming with joy, then converted the free throw for a six-point lead. Iowa went on to win 77-71, securing its first Elite Eight appearance since 1987.
“I saw some movement on the bench,” Folgueiras said. “I just told Kael to get me the ball because I saw that there were only four on the floor. They were trying to figure out who they were guarding.”
Iowa coach Ben McCollum made clear the play didn’t result from any brilliant strategy on his part. He was as surprised as anyone.
“I was like, I don’t know why he isn’t being guarded,” McCollum said. “I didn’t know (they only had four players on the floor), and then he dunked it, and then I’m like, ‘What the heck just happened?’”
McCollum said one of his assistants told him Nebraska didn’t have five players on the floor.
Folgueiras, a native of Malaga, Spain, described what happened in soccer terms.
“It was great to have that striker look where you get the ball against nobody,” he said.
The 20-year-old transfer from Robert Morris finished with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting. His 3-pointer with 5:03 tied the game at 65-all, four days after his corner 3 in the closing seconds gave the Hawkeyes a second-round win over top-seeded and defending national champion Florida.
This time, he capitalized on a critical error.
“I was pretty shocked to see Alvaro wide open,” Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz said. “I didn’t even know they had four players on until we were in the locker room. Kael threw a great pass.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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