Stomach to floor, Vanderbilt’s Tyler Tanner lay near the scorer’s table in an emotional heap Saturday night in the aftermath of the Commodores’ 74-72 loss to Nebraska in the NCAA Tournament. Tanner’s half-court heave at the buzzer was halfway down before rimming out, sending the Huskers to their first Sweet 16 appearance in program history.
The desperation toss from just beyond midcourt caromed off the backboard, went around the rim and out as the goal illuminated red, signaling the end of the contest.
“That one, it’s probably going to haunt me forever,” Tanner told Sports Illustrated. “I want to just focus on being grateful for how good of a year it was for this team. We made history in a lot of ways. But, I’m definitely gonna end up thinking about this a good amount, just because that was the last play of this season.”
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Tanner said he felt like his final shot was going in and looked similar to a half-court shot that also rimmed out this season during a loss to Missouri.
“It hurts pretty bad being that close especially, hard-fought game,” Tanner said. “It was electric the whole time through … big crowd presence. Yeah … it hurts the season’s over.”
Braden Frager’s driving layup with 2.2 seconds left gave Nebraska a two-point advantage before Tanner’s shot rimmed out.
“I just froze for two seconds,” Frager said. “I thought it went in. I didn’t know how to react. I was, just — everybody started celebrating. I was like, he actually missed it.”
Tanner finished with a game-high 27 points for the Commodores, who narrowly missed their first Sweet 16 since 2007.
“The hardest thing when you’re in a tournament like this is there’s a side of it with hurt and dejection, and you put everything into it,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said. “We were a play away, an inch away, from being in the Sweet 16.”
Nebraska, which started the season 20-0 and climbed to No. 5 in the AP rankings, will face off with top-seeded Florida or No. 9 seed Iowa on Thursday during the South Region semifinals in Houston.
The Huskers trailed by five with 5:34 left before they responded down the stretch.
“We withstood their run,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. “They went on a big run. We knew they would at some point in the game. As we talked going in this tournament, if you want to advance, it’s all about how you handle adversity, and our guys did a masterful job of hanging in there.”
