Relive craziest March Madness comeback between Texas A&M, Northern Iowa with Alex Caruso
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Alex Caruso often gets the same two questions when it comes to basketball.
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“They ask me about LeBron,” Caruso said, “and then they ask me how crazy was the Northern Iowa comeback? Those are the two staples.”
The ending of that 2016 game resurfaces on social media every March.
Caruso’s third-seeded Texas A&M Aggies trailed No. 11 seed Northern Iowa 69-57 with 44 seconds left before mounting one of the wildest comebacks in NCAA Tournament history. And it happened right here in Oklahoma City, in the same gym where the 32-year-old Caruso plays his Thunder home games.
“It feels completely different,” Caruso said of what was then Chesapeake Energy Arena. “The court is so different. I don’t even remember what locker we were in for that game.”
The Thunder is on the road this week as Oklahoma City hosts the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Caruso scored 25 points to lift Texas A&M to that improbable 92-88 double-overtime win against Northern Iowa.
It’s only fitting that, 10 years later, Caruso’s Aggies are one of the eight teams opening their NCAA Tournament in Oklahoma City. No. 10 seed Texas A&M will face No. 7 seed Saint Mary’s at 6:35 p.m. Thursday at Paycom Center.
Maybe there will be some residual magic in the building for the maroon and white.
Northern Iowa, by the way, is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since that game. A No. 12 seed, Northern Iowa will play No. 5 seed St. John’s at 6 p.m. Friday in San Diego.
Caruso can recite the play-by-play action of that Texas A&M-Northern Iowa game without looking.
“I usually watch it a couple times a year,” he said. “It always pops up around this time.”
One more time never hurts, though.
I queued up the replay on my laptop as Caruso looked on, his mind traveling back 10 years.
58.3 seconds left: Northern Iowa 67, Texas A&M 57
Northern Iowa’s Paul Jesperson makes a pair of free throws to give the Panthers a 10-point lead with under a minute remaining.
If Texas A&M is going to make one last run, it has to start on the ensuing possession.
But the Aggies come up empty.
Caruso slings a pass to Tonny Trocha-Morelos in the corner for an open 3-pointer that clangs off the iron. Northern Iowa secures the rebound. Caruso commits the foul.
“That’s when the game feels over,” I tell Caruso.
“Yeah,” he says. “That’s it.”
As Northern Iowa walks to the free throw line, the camera pans to a bunch of people in purple losing their minds. Among the Northern Iowa fans …
“Kurt Warner,” Caruso says, pointing out the hall-of-fame quarterback and UNI alum.
We keep watching.
44.3 seconds left: Northern Iowa 69, Texas A&M 57
Now the camera zooms in on a very sad looking Tyler Davis, the Texas A&M big man who played in one NBA game with the Thunder.
Northern Iowa makes two more free throws to take a 12-point lead with 44 seconds left.
“That’s the biggest margin with the least amount of time that everyone talks about,” Caruso says.
Texas A&M’s 12-point deficit is the largest ever overcome in the final minute to win a game. That’s not just an NCAA Tournament record. It’s the NCAA Division I men’s basketball record for any game.
Texas A&M inbounds the ball, and with 38 seconds left, Caruso misses a contested 3-pointer. Aggie teammate Admon Gilder skies for the offensive rebound and put-back to cut the Northern Iowa lead to 10 with 34 seconds left.
Then all hell breaks loose.
31.1 seconds left: Northern Iowa 69, Texas A&M 59
Texas A&M traps Northern Iowa on the ensuing inbounds pass, forcing Ben Jacobsen — now in his 20th season as Northern Iowa’s head coach — to call timeout.
“They did as much a job helping us as …” Caruso trails off as he watches Northern Iowa commit its first of a series of blunders.
The Panthers try to throw the ball over the top, but the Aggies intercept it. Gilder passes to Danuel House, who played eight NBA seasons, and House lays it in.
Timeout, Aggies. The last timeout for either team.
“Just extend the game at this point,” Caruso says.
25.8 seconds left: Northern Iowa 69, Texas A&M 61
“Still down eight with 30 seconds left,” Caruso says. “It seems pretty cooked.”
A rough ending for the senior from College Station, Texas.
“It’s my last game,” Caruso thought to himself.
Northern Iowa gets the ball in this time, but Jesperson is trapped on the catch. As he loses his balance near the baseline, Jesperson leaps and tries to throw the ball off a Texas A&M defender.
In hindsight, the Panthers would’ve been better off had Jesperson stepped out of bounds. Had he just chucked the ball to the other side of the court.
Instead, in trying to force a deflection, Jesperson bounces the ball right to Texas A&M’s Jalen Jones, who pivots for an easy dunk.
Jesperson, just two days before, was the hero for Northern Iowa. He banked in a half-court shot at the buzzer to beat Texas, spoiling a potential Texas vs. Texas A&M matchup in the second round.
Jesperson is now the coach of the Suns’ G League team.
“Is he really? Wow,” Caruso says.
21.7 seconds left: Northern Iowa 69, Texas A&M 63
From being “cooked” just four seconds before, now “there’s hope,” Caruso says. “There’s hope, there’s hope, there’s hope,” he repeats.
Another inbound pass for the Panthers. Another disaster.
Sophomore guard Wyatt Lohaus tries to find teammate Jeremy Morgan, but Lohaus’ pass sails out of bounds.
“They probably wouldn’t have lost if they had just thrown it down the court, 50/50 ball every time,” Caruso says.
Northern Iowa senior guard Matt Bohannon, who injured his knee during the game, watches all of this from the end of the bench with a towel draped across his shoulders.
“I forgot he was hurt,” Caruso says. “That’s one thing I did forget.”
22.0 seconds left: Northern Iowa 69, Texas A&M 63
After a lengthy delay, the officials put three-tenths of a second back on the clock. The Aggies were basically gifted an extra timeout as that got sorted out.
Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy huddled with his team.
“Before we got it to six, he was basically telling us to ‘go make a play,’” Caruso said.
Caruso, inbounding from under his basket, finds House, who rattles in a 3-pointer with 19.6 seconds left.
“Big shot,” Caruso says.
Jesperson, once again, takes the ball out for Northern Iowa.
“Now we’re scrambling,” Caruso says. “Our guys are not matched up, trying to switch everything, and we get beat for a Hail Mary.”
Jesperson throws a baseball pass to a wide open Klint Carlson, who swings on the rim for a two-handed dunk to make it a two-possession game.
This is the second moment in which it feels over for the Aggies.
“It’s different from the first time,” Caruso says. “It’s a two-possession game. If you get another score and they miss a free throw …”
17.9 seconds left: Northern Iowa 71, Texas A&M 66
Another whistle interrupts the frantic finish. Another clock malfunction that gives the Aggies time to draw something up.
Caruso takes the ball coast-to-coast for an and-1 layup. Jesperson commits the foul.
“Somewhat generous call,” Caruso says.
A mighty generous call.
“To be fair, he’s under me, but if I’m a Northern Iowa fan I hate that,” Caruso says. “If I’m an A&M fan, I love that.”
Caruso was going for the quick two, but he finishes the three-point play with the free throw.
Caruso’s stats pop up on the bottom of the screen. He would end with 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting — the second-highest scoring game of his college career.
“That’s a good night for me,” Caruso says. “I should’ve shot more, probably.”
11.8 seconds left: Northern Iowa 71, Texas A&M 69
Jesperson inbounds to Wes Washpun, who’s trapped in the corner before pulling a Jesperson.
Washpun attempts to throw the ball off an Aggie — a move that twice doomed the Panthers — but it bounces right to Gilder, who drives to the basket and makes a finger-roll layup with 1.9 seconds left.
Again, “if they just throw the ball down court right there,” Caruso says, “we probably lose the game.”
“Just an insane turn of events.”
1.9 seconds left: Northern Iowa 71, Texas A&M 71
Another stoppage (drink) to figure out the clock.
“Can the Panthers pull off another miracle at the buzzer?” play-by-play man Evan Washburn says.
Jesperson, who hit the halfcourt shot against Texas, was the inbounder. He passed to Washpun, whose heave caromed off the top of the backboard.
“OT in OKC,” Washburn bellows.
Texas A&M had gone on a 14-2 run in the final 44 seconds — a stretch in which the Aggies only made one 3-pointer.
A&M’s other five baskets were all layups or dunks as Northern Iowa failed time and again to advance the ball past halfcourt. Or anywhere close.
Start of first overtime: Northern Iowa 71, Texas A&M 71
The end of regulation was so preposterous that it’s easy to forget that this game went to not one, but two overtimes.
“They hit some big shots,” Caruso says. “It was a slugfest after we got to overtime.”
House drives for a layup and gets fouled to give the Aggies a lead early in overtime.
“Danuel House played really big for us in overtime,” Caruso says. “He was kind of quiet throughout the whole game, and I think that three late in regulation kind of woke him up.”
Northern Iowa hits back-to-back 3s to retake the lead 77-74 with 1:50 left.
House, who scored all 22 of his points in the second half and overtime, soars for a slam and buries a 3-pointer to tie the game 79-79 with 52 seconds left.
Lohaus responds with a clutch 3-pointer for the Panthers, who lead by three with 26 seconds left.
Caruso drives for an easy deuce. Texas A&M fouls, and Northern Iowa goes 1 for 2 at the line to take an 83-81 lead.
“We tried to run a play for Tyler Davis here, but I didn’t like how he was being guarded,” Caruso says. “At that point, it’s like, ‘Dude, I’m a senior, it’s my last game, I’m gonna take the shot.’”
Caruso, with nine seconds left, drives to his left and flings a floater from the middle of the paint. Tie game.
The Panthers and Aggies trade half-court hurls.
“I almost made this, too,” says Caruso, watching back. “Imagine.”
Start of double overtime: Northern Iowa 83, Texas A&M 83
“At this point it’s just a battle of wills,” Caruso says. “I think that was the thing for us, is that we had momentum on our side from not being alive to being in the game.”
Danuel House and Jalen Jones make a couple of tough baskets for the Aggies.
Texas A&M holds Northern Iowa to five points in the second overtime.
As the buzzer sounds, Caruso leaps and pumps his fist. The Aggies win 92-88.
“We were staring death in the face,” Caruso says. “... Yeah, and then we lost to Oklahoma.”
The Aggies fell to Buddy Hield and the Final Four-bound Sooners 77-63 in the Sweet 16, but before bowing out, at least Caruso and Co. gave us the greatest last-minute comeback we’ve ever seen.
A game so nuts that, for a guy with two NBA championship rings, it and LeBron James are still the things he’s asked about the most.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at [email protected]. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Alex Caruso relives Texas A&M's 2016 NCAA rally to beat Northern Iowa