Well if anyone doubted Belmont before 7:00, they stopped by 9:00.  The Bruins put on a tremendous show against Duke before losing 71-70, and it was one of those games where a little part of you can’t help but pull for the underdog. They were just magnificent.

The story line on this game is probably going to be little Belmont almost knocking off mighty Duke, and that’s valid, obviously.  But the smarter line would be:  an underrated team of upperclassmen had a more highly regarded team of mostly sophomores and freshmen on the ropes.

That’s one of the big reasons why there’s a rise in parity in college basketball, why schools like Belmont, Drake,  Butler and Davidson can keep up with schools from the so-called power conferences.  As much as it’s about anything, basketball is about familiarity and the ability to work well with other people – teamwork, in a word.  It’s not that Duke is a bad team, and certainly not an untalented one.  It’s just that Belmont has played together longer, and Thursday night, they played better together than Duke did.

Unfortunately for Belmont, it wasn’t enough. Though their team was better for most of the game – they shot better, they passed better, they understood each other better – Duke had enough of an edge to pull it out at the end.

Andy Wicke hit a long three to put Belmont within a point at 68-69 with 2:25 to go, then Justin Hare, who shoots over 90% from the line, hit a pair after being fouled by Gerald Henderson to put the Bruins up, 70-69.

Greg Paulus, who to his credit often tries to take charge at the end of a game even if it’s beyond his abilities, tried a layup on the left side of the basket, which missed.  After a timeout, Gerald Henderson drove and missed a short shot, which went in the basket and came back out.

Then Belmont’s Alex Renfroe missed a shot, and then Henderson made a play that will be talked about a long time by Duke people:  he took the rebound down, headed downcourt, considered passing to an open Kyle Singler then went straight to the basket himself to put Duke up 71-70 with seven seconds left.

Belmont came down, and Justin Hare missed a jumper and the ball ended up on the floor with the arrow pointing towards Belmont.  After a timeout, the second tremendous clutch play of the last part of the game was made by DeMarcus Nelson, when Belmont tried to loft a pass over the defense. He brought it down and was fouled with about two seconds left, and missed his first free throw.

Even then, Belmont got off a last-second shot, by Hare, who is a master of these situations, but for the second time in the last seven seconds, he missed, and Duke escaped.

Belmont didn’t win this game, but what they achieved was worth something.  Basketball, as we said, is a game where working together allows a lesser group of players to overcome a greater group.  It didn’t happen this time, but it reinforced the eternal nature of the game.

Belmont joins the ranks of the almost, of Princeton vs. Georgetown, of Kentucky vs. Duke, and others, of teams that were full, complete, wonderful teams that were more than the sum of their parts but just couldn’t quite get it done.  They hold a special place in the heart of the game.

If Belmont had won this game, we’d have been depressed, but also in another way perfectly fine with it, because a win would have upheld everything important in basketball. And actually, a loss like that, painful as it is for them, does as well.