If you saw Georgetown’s comeback 96-84 overtime victory over North Carolina at East Rutherford, then you know how special it was for John Thompson III’s team. With his father looking on calling the game for Westwood One,  the second seeded Hoyas showed tremendous heart in fighting back to beat a very talented and deep Tar Heels squad.

On one side of the spectrum, you could call it a great comeback by a very focused bunch who never gave up despite trailing most of the night. From the opposite end though, it would be very easy to call this a choke job. That’s how much Roy Williams’ club imploded down the stretch to even make OT a possibility. They somehow blew an 11-point second half lead in a game they controlled throughout.

So, what happened to completely turn around what looked like a UNC win? For starters, the Heels went ice cold from the field. Over a 15-minute stretch, they made only one field goal in 23 attempts. That included bricking the first 12 in OT as Georgetown executed to perfection in the halfcourt set by scoring the first 14 to stretch Jonathan Wallace’s tying three-pointer in regulation to 17 unanswered. That’s how dominant they were down the stretch.

It really is amazing to think about all the ill-advised quick perimeter shots North Carolina took which helped erase their lead. They’ll be left to ponder how they let this one get away. Maybe it was the basketball gods looking down on the Hoyas, who got a measure of revenge 25 years after falling to the same Tar Heels 63-62 on Michael Jordan’s 17-foot jumper with 17 seconds left for the national championship. Now, people will have something else to discuss rather than why Fred Brown threw the ball away to James Worthy as if he was a teammate on that historic night at the Superdome.

They can talk about Wallace’s clutch trey from the left wing with under 35 seconds to play which got Georgetown all the way back to 81-81. Or maybe they can point to underrated guard Jessie Sapp’s relentless ballhandling as he continuously broke down defenders and got into the lane for easy buckets en route to 15 points and also set up teammates with eight dishes. Maybe they might praise Big East Player of The Year Jeff Green, who once again saved his best late in scoring a number of ways inside and outside on his way to 22 and 9. They might even point to how well defensively big man Roy Hibbert played with four fouls, altering shots and pulling down huge rebounds. He finished with 13 points, 11 boards (5 offensive), 6 blocks and even handed out four assists. Or they could even talk about DaJuan Summers’ 20 on efficient 7-of-10 shooting including 2-for-3 from beyond the arc- putting all five Hoya starters in double digits.

The balance allowed the Hoyas to overcome a large free throw discrepancy in which the Tar Heels took 16 more from the line- converting 29-of-34 compared to Georgetown’s 12-of-18. Putting it in perspective, UNC star Tyler Hansbrough made 14-of-16 by himself on his way to a game high 26.

They also overcame a 25-point deficit off the bench (UNC outscored them 32-7).

In the end though, Thompson III’s Hoyas were the more composed team who never panicked unlike their lesser experienced opponents.

They’ll now move on to Atlanta to play Ohio State in next weekend’s Final Four- the first the Hoyas have made since 1985 when they ousted St. John’s in the semis before being upset by Villanova in the final.

With defending champ Florida also winning by posting an 85-77 win over third seeded Oregon, it made us three-for-four regarding The Final Four. The only team we missed on was Texas A & M, who lost to Memphis by a point in the Sweet 16. Our championship is still intact where we have the Gators taking on the Hoyas for all the marbles in 10 days.

We’ll see what happens.

Meanwhile, in the women’s Sweet 16, Cinderella 13th seed Marist had their run end against top seeded Tennessee earlier today. After pulling off back-to-back upsets over Ohio State and Middle Tennessee, the Lady Red Foxes fell to the Lady Vols 65-46.

Candace Parker scored 16 in leading Pat Summitt’s team past the upstarts from Poughkeepsie, NY.

In NCAA history, Marist was just the third No.13 seed to make the Sweet 16. Though Brian Giorgis’ club fell short, he knew what they were up against Sunday:

“We went up against a tremendous basketball team today. It’s tough to lose, but to lose to that team is really not that tough.“

He added:

“They took us out of what we like to do. We don’t have the biggest or strongest team in the world, but we have a lot of heart and we don’t quit.“

They still had a wonderful season in becoming the first MAAC team to win a game in the NCAA women’s tourney. Congrats to them!