At the end of the day, the players on the court win or lose the game. But in this game, Coach Brad Brownell made a decision that changed the entire momentum of the game.

Arizona spent the entire second half cutting the lead to tie the game, simply for Clemson to hit a basket or two to regain the lead. But Brownell made a big decision with 1:06 seconds. Oumar Ballo had just cut the lead to 3 points, and Clemson had taken 21 seconds off the shot clock when they got the ball in the post. As the Clemson player started trying to back down his Arizona defender in the lane, Brownell called time out. As the whistles blew, the shot missed – but of course, it didn’t matter since time out was called.

So, instead of getting this well-contested miss, Clemson inbounded the ball and Chase Hunter found PJ Hall for a dunk to extend the lead to 5. But while the assist in the scorebook goes to Hunter, I feel like the assist here should go to the great play that Brownell drew up during the time-out.

Arizona’s Jaden Bradley made it a two point game with a nice three-pointer from the wing. So, Clemson ran the clock down again and Chase Hunter drove to the basket, made an acrobatic move towards the hoop and scooped the ball in while being fouled. His free throw made it a 5 point game with 25 seconds to play.

Arizona’s Caleb Love drove the lane and hit an impressive jumper in the lane to cut the lead to 3 with 16 seconds. And then the Wildcats forgot they were playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Clemson in-bounded the ball to a wide open Joseph Girard III, who was probably baffled by the fact that the Wildcats were letting him just hold the ball unguarded. By the time the Wildcats realized that they probably needed to foul Girard, he threw the ball all the way up-court to a streaking Dillon Hunter – who made a layup while getting fouled. He missed the free-throw, but at this point, the damage was done.

Jaden Bradley would miss a three-pointer, Chase Hunter would get the defensive rebound, and the Clemson Tigers won 77-72 to advance to the Elite 8. Of course, it makes sense, all the teams in the Sweet 16 had either won a regular season championship, a conference tournament championship or were ranked in the final top 25 poll except for Clemson. So, of course, the first team to advance to the Elite 8 is – Clemson.

Meanwhile, we should also congratulate the UConn Huskies – who completely destroyed San Diego State in the second half. I am not going to write a lot about it since I was watching the closer game in Los Angeles. But the three starting guards for the Huskies, Cam Spencer, Tristen Newton and Stephon Castle combined for 51 points as they almost outscored the Aztecs by themselves. So, the UConn Huskies become the first defending champion to make the Elite 8 since Florida in 2007 by beating the Aztecs 82-52.

Congratulations to the Tigers and Huskies!!!!