This is kind of difficult. It took me about an hour and a train, air tran and shuttle ride to get back to my room and the words still escape me. Six overtimes? Syracuse and UConn? Boeheim and Calhoun? Big East tourney? MSG? Really? No, really?

I don’t want to wander into sacrilegious, but that was every bit of WVU v. Wake Forest, which is (was?) the best I’ve seen. Just amazing and inspiring performances across the floor. My head hurts. Devendorf’s “game-winner” was unlike anything I’ve witnessed and, stunningly, the officials made the right, though impossibly difficult decision to wave it off. And Syracuse never wilted and hung in, though never leading, through five overtimes. By the sixth, it just looked like UConn was done and didn’t want any more.

It was nuts. And not only that, but the six overtimes — that just doesn’t look right — were played at a really high, really competitive level. Just an incredible game on an incredible day. I mean, you completely forget Villanova won a terrific game at the buzzer and WVU smothered Pitt hours earlier. I guess that happens when you play one of the best … games … ever.

Is that fair?

I’m physically tired from watching — everyone was; that’s when you know it’s good — and I need sleep. Just a few other thoughts to accompany the Diet Coke and Sun Chips:

– Jonny Flynn played 67 minutes! 67! OK, he was wonderful and nothing less … but 67 minutes? They “only” played 70! And now he’s got to play WVU’s defense, in whatever form it chooses to take. 

– Paul Harris played all six overtimes and the final few minutes of regulation with four fouls.

– Syracuse either doesn’t or won’t rebound.

– You can’t accurately describe the advantage WVU has tonight.

– You can’t accurately describe the destiny Syracuse has tonight. 

– The Mountaineers bullied Pitt.

– The 1-3-1 is for real.  

– What happens if/when Ruoff and Butler decide to have good nights simultaneously?

– I know he said “no question,” but does Ebanks remember saying he was coming back for his sophomore year?

– Levance Fields didn’t look healthy.

– Where has John Flowers been?

– Most impressive, I thought, was WVU basically decided it didn’t need to score in the final few minutes and was perfectly content running clock. If the Mountaineers scored, good for them. If not, they were entirely confident in their defense.

– The officiating here is, put kindly, terrible.

– Whatever criticism the Big East was taking for this alignment is looooooong gone.