Wrong Planet - George Mason Upset...... Unbelievable.

Anonymous writes "As George Mason, a team many thought should not have been in the 65-team NCAA field, threatened to become the unlikeliest Final Four team in decades sent the crowd at the Verizon Center into rafter-rattling delirium, a sign read, "Can you hear us now?"
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The message, an echo of Verizon's U.S. cellphone advertising campaign, came through loud and clear after five minutes of overtime. With players dancing and administrators crying, a deep voice spun a crazy, swirling dreamlike celebration both deeper into euphoria and more sharply into reality.
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"Your attention," a voice blared above the din. "Would the winners of the Washington, D.C., Regional please assemble on the center stage?"
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Up jumped the George Mason players. Above the chaos, the scoreboard silently offered the bare facts: Mason 86, UConn 84. Top-seeded Connecticut, which had won two NCAA titles since 1999, is not going to the Final Four. Eleventh-seeded George Mason, which had not won an NCAA tournament game until nine days earlier, is.
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In one of the greatest upsets in NCAA tournament history, the team with nothing to lose somehow won.?
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If you're wondering what this has to do with Asperger's or Autism, I'll tell you:

* Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith is an economics professor at George Mason. Vernon Smith has Asperger's Syndrome.
* WrongPlanet.net founder Alexander Plank is a George Mason student and is caught up in the celebration

"This is the greatest experience, for a lifetime," said George Mason center Jai Lewis, a hefty senior, who at 6 feet 7 inches, or 2.01 meters, gave up two inches or more to three Connecticut starters but outplayed them all. "It's something to tell the kids and grandkids. It's going to be a classic. You know when they show classic games, they're going to show George Mason."
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Coach Jim Larranaga's George Mason team, representing a 28,000-student university in Fairfax, Virginia, half an hour west of Washington, plays in the Colonial Athletic Association. It is the first team seeded in double digits to gain the semifinals since Louisiana State in 1986. A more apt comparison would be with 1979, when the University of Pennsylvania and Indiana State made it.
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Jim Calhoun, the Connecticut coach, stung by the upset, was able to step back for perspective.
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"I feel a great deal of inner joy, honestly, about what they must be going through right now, something they probably never could have imagined," Calhoun said. "We have imagined it and we've done it. But they could never have imagined that."
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After trading leads with Connecticut six times in less than 3 minutes, George Mason took its final lead in regulation with 5 minutes 55 seconds left. It stretched the lead to 4 points with 18 seconds left.
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George Mason players smiled through the tension, as if they could not believe what was happening. The George Mason pep band broke into regular renditions of Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer." Thousands in the crowd of 19,718 sang along.
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Connecticut, with the pressure of being the tournament favorite, looked tortured. It had only one acceptable outcome, and that was three victories away.
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"They weren't interacting with one another," George Mason guard Lamar Butler said. "They didn't look loose."
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But Connecticut had been in this situation before. In the first round, it beat Albany 72-59 after being down 12 points with 12 minutes left. It beat Kentucky by sinking six free throws in the final 30 seconds. On Friday against Washington, it overcame a four-point deficit in the final 21 seconds, tying the game on Rashad Anderson's long 3- pointer with 1.8 seconds left.
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History looked ready to repeat itself. Connecticut guard Marcus Williams coolly drove the lane and scored to cut the lead to 2 points with 7.9 seconds left. George Mason guard Tony Skinn missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw. Connecticut's Denham Brown drove, went under the basket and flipped up a reverse lay-up. The buzzer sounded as the ball bounced three times on the rim before falling through the net.
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"I thought we had dodged a bullet," Calhoun said. "We needed an adrenaline shot, and we got it. That was great - new life."
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Larranaga meanwhile was preaching poise and enjoying the moment.
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"I told them: There's no place on earth I'd rather be than here with you guys in the Verizon Center playing Connecticut. Now we have to beat them in a five-minute game."'
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George Mason, sticking resolutely to its game plan, did just that.
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Seemingly outmatched by Connecticut's size, George Mason nonetheless wanted the game in the hands of its front-line players, Lewis and Will Thomas. Connecticut, which has led the nation in blocked shots for five seasons in a row, was content to allow passes inside. Lewis and Thomas often caught the ball with their backs to the basket, bumped their way closer with a couple of dribbles, then spun for short turnaround and hook shots.
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Lewis finished with 20 points. Thomas had 19. George Mason's three frontline starters outscored Connecticut's, 54-34, and outrebounded them by 21-15, while giving up a combined 12 inches in height. In overtime, Lewis and Thomas combined for 8 of the team's 12 overtime points as George Mason scored first and never trailed.
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George Mason had already beaten sixth-seeded Michigan State, third- seeded North Carolina and seventh- seeded Wichita State. Now it had the biggest and unlikeliest victory of all.
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WASHINGTON As George Mason, a team many thought should not have been in the 65-team NCAA field, threatened to become the unlikeliest Final Four team in decades sent the crowd at the Verizon Center into rafter-rattling delirium, a sign read, "Can you hear us now?"
?
The message, an echo of Verizon's U.S. cellphone advertising campaign, came through loud and clear after five minutes of overtime. With players dancing and administrators crying, a deep voice spun a crazy, swirling dreamlike celebration both deeper into euphoria and more sharply into reality.
?
"Your attention," a voice blared above the din. "Would the winners of the Washington, D.C., Regional please assemble on the center stage?"
?
Up jumped the George Mason players. Above the chaos, the scoreboard silently offered the bare facts: Mason 86, UConn 84. Top-seeded Connecticut, which had won two NCAA titles since 1999, is not going to the Final Four. Eleventh-seeded George Mason, which had not won an NCAA tournament game until nine days earlier, is.
?
In one of the greatest upsets in NCAA tournament history, the team with nothing to lose somehow won.
?
"This is the greatest experience, for a lifetime," said George Mason center Jai Lewis, a hefty senior, who at 6 feet 7 inches, or 2.01 meters, gave up two inches or more to three Connecticut starters but outplayed them all. "It's something to tell the kids and grandkids. It's going to be a classic. You know when they show classic games, they're going to show George Mason."
?
Coach Jim Larranaga's George Mason team, representing a 28,000-student university in Fairfax, Virginia, half an hour west of Washington, plays in the Colonial Athletic Association. It is the first team seeded in double digits to gain the semifinals since Louisiana State in 1986. A more apt comparison would be with 1979, when the University of Pennsylvania and Indiana State made it.
?
Jim Calhoun, the Connecticut coach, stung by the upset, was able to step back for perspective.
?
"I feel a great deal of inner joy, honestly, about what they must be going through right now, something they probably never could have imagined," Calhoun said. "We have imagined it and we've done it. But they could never have imagined that."
?
After trading leads with Connecticut six times in less than 3 minutes, George Mason took its final lead in regulation with 5 minutes 55 seconds left. It stretched the lead to 4 points with 18 seconds left.

From the NY Times.

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