Heartache consumes Vanderbilt after painful, 'dumb' error

SALT LAKE CITY — At the moment one of the worst mistakes in NCAA tournament history occurred, Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew didn’t react immediately. He had pointed toward Northwestern guard Bryant McIntosh, imploring his player, Matthew Fisher-Davis to guard the biggest threat remaining between the Commodores and a first-round victory.

But somewhere in the chaos of VivintSmart Home Arena, as Vanderbilt’s furious comeback to take the lead with 17.8 seconds left had transitioned to the reality of needing one more stop, Fisher-Davis had committed the most mindless error of his basketball life.

Somehow thinking the Commodores were still trailing rather than ahead by one, he reached out to grab McIntosh 60 feet from the basket. As the whistle blew, it took a moment for the Northwestern crowd, Vanderbilt players and Drew himself to figure out what was going on.

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Did he do it intentionally? Did the Commodores have a foul to give? Why would Vanderbilt put an 86% free-throw shooter on the line? 

Eyes bulging, Drew put his hands on his temples. Fisher-Davis, who had almost single-handedly led Vanderbilt back from a 15-point deficit, was staggered. And later, after the Commodores had sobbed their way back to the locker room following Northwestern’s 68-66 victory, it became clear: Fisher-Davis had committed the biggest basketball sin of all, something drilled into players every day of their lives. He didn’t know the time and score.

“I was just surprised,” freshman Payton Willis said. “He just didn’t know we were up.”

Fisher-Davis, to his credit, owned everything. Though he didn’t elaborate much — maybe there was nothing to elaborate on — he acknowledged he just lost track of the game situation in the emotion of the moment.

“I made a dumb-ass foul,” he said. “That was it. I saw (Drew) point but that was just to tell me I got 30. I made a dumb-ass foul. Obviously it’s hard to take. I especially feel bad for our seniors, going out like that, off a play like that.”

Vanderbilt, of course, still could have won the game, including Riley LaChance’s long 3-pointer from the top of the key that missed with six seconds left. The Commodores also could blame their inability guard McIntosh the entire game (he had 25 points on 10-of-16 field goals and a brutally slow start offensively that left them in a 49-34 hole with 13:42 remaining and the fact that Drew used their last timeout with 7:12 left, which might have come in handy down the stretch.

But Northwestern is advancing to the Round of 32 to face No. 1 seed Gonzaga on Saturday, winning its first NCAA tournament game in school history, largely because of Fisher-Davis’ error at the worst possible time.

“One or two plays at the end doesn’t win or lose a game for us,” Drew said, only allowing that he’ll talk with Fisher-Davis more about the play at some point in the future.

Other Vanderbilt players tried to make sense of it, but they also had to be prodded to acknowledge that without Fisher-Davis providing an offensive spark in the second half, they might have been blown off the court.

Fisher-Davis finished with 22 points on 7-of-15 attempts, including a handful of shots in the second half that were higher than your normal degree of difficulty.

“We wouldn't have come back without him,” LaChance said.

It was both the best and worst of Fisher-Davis, which isn’t unfamiliar to Vanderbilt fans. Despite his high-end scoring talent, he has clashed at times with Drew, who replaced Kevin Stallings after last season. Fisher-Davis was benched at one point in January, suspended for a game in February, and it’s to his credit that he came back and finished strong for the Commodores, who won seven of their last nine games to come from nowhere and make the NCAA tournament as a No. 9 seed.

Still, as Vanderbilt athletics director David Williams sat next to him in the locker room, grabbed his right arm and tried to whisper some encouraging words to a player whose gaffe was now a national story, it was clear the Commodores were still thinking about what had just been ripped away from them.

“I don’t really know what happened, but it is what it is,” guard Joe Toye said. “We can’t go back and change it.”

“We didn’t talk about (the foul),” Willis said. “It’s just too soon.”

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