Actually, I Think They're Still Playing...

Goodness, where does one begin?  Couple thoughts of my own before we check the Interwebs:

• It was amazing to watch the game go from testy to chippy to being within one elbow from an all-out brawl to no one having the energy to fight so let's just play great basketball.  We didn't just go to ludicrous speed, we went to plaid.
  
• HOW did UConn not win it in the 3rd OT?  I believe they had a 7-point lead, Cuse whittled it down to 2 and then UConn got ANOTHER 7-point lead with about a minute left.  That was amazing (amongst 47 other things).
• We finally figured out how to take Thabeet out of the equation.  Play at least 4 overtimes.  Why didn't we think of this before? 
• Paul, do we really need to dedicate a couple hours in practice this week to dunking?  DO WE???
• Can we all just admit we were all a little happy when AO fouled out?  Admit it, you'll feel better about yourself.  Especially when you look at the free throw numbers.
• Justin Thomas.  Oh my, you are incorrigible from friend.  The jumping around and arm-waving when he entered the game in the 5th (?) OT?  So cute, just wanna eat you up!!!  (no homo).

Speaking of Thomas, fantastic nugget from Pete Thamel over at the NY Times about the most important thing Justin Thomas could have done before entering the game:

Soon after he entered the game, Thomas looked over to the Syracuse bench with a panicked look on his face.

"Hop," he screamed to the Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins, "Gum."

Hopkins grabbed a piece of Big Red and handed it to Syracuse reserve center Rick Jackson, who passed it on to Thomas.

"When you get nervous in certain situations when you first get in, you get real dry, like cotton mouth," Hopkins said.

GET THAT MAN AN ENDORSEMENT DEAL NOW!

Now to the Webersphere.  Such an epic game is going to inspire some epic-esque sports-writing.  Who wants to take a stab at it?  ESPN's Dana O'Neil...go!

Epic? Classic? Not good enough -- not for a six-overtime game where skill gave way to will somewhere in the third overtime and will gave way to survival by the sixth.

 

The Syracuse Orange turned to pulp.

Um...thanks?  Bud Poliquin...go!

"History," Jim Boeheim said. "That was the greatest game in history."

You could make that argument. You really could. You could argue that Syracuse University's 127-117 survival of the Connecticut Huskies at Madison Square Garden was grander than anything ever played by the college boys. And nobody would laugh.

More important, what did Jimmy B have to say about things?

I've never been prouder of any team I've ever coached."

Word.  Seriously, I'm just linking from here on out.  I don't have the energy.  If I missed anything, please e-mail me and I'll add.  I'm too old for this sh*t.

• Get the player reactions...Donna Ditota
• Dan Patrick replays the overtime play-by-play at Chipmunks-speed...Syracuse.com
• Check out the many overtime versions of the Post-Standard as the night progressed...Syracuse.com
• The game is being replayed on ESPN Classic right now...Mike Waters
• More video reactions from the team and coaches...Syracuse.com
• "Any running debates concerning what is the greatest game ever played in the long history of Syracuse University Basketball are over."...Brent Axe
• Post-game reactions and thoughts...Orange44
• More reactions and thoughts...Cuse Country
• Jimmy B has a sense of humor at the post-game press conference and Paul walks right into it...D.O. Sports Blog
• Wow is all you can really say...Holding on Ruben Brown
• "Games like this, you don’t just watch.  All the senses are engaged.  You breathe them.  You taste them.  Even better, these games breathe you."...Rush The Court
• Longest.  Game.  Ever...CuseOrange
• Like many SU fans, Damon was forced to keep moving from location to location last night just to keep watching...Orange Fizz
• The game to end all games, take it from the guy who was there's...Jameson Fleming
• Six game videos, interviews and previews of tonight's game...Palestra.net
• The most epic game in the history of forever...Storming The Floor
• "A classic — a true classic, not one just to fill a slot on ESPN — deserves special notice, before it is placed to stay in the inner sanctum of great games."...USA Today
• Go inside the numbers of the game...Dan Wetzel, Yahoo!
• This game was so big even Jay Mariotti is writing about it...Jay Mariotti
• Take it from someone who was there, this was witnessing history...Ballin' Is A Habit

Stay giddy, you guys.