This is an opinion column.

______________________

Look at it this way. Samford might have lost a heart-breaker in the first round, but the Bulldogs still out-played pretty much the entire SEC on the first day of the NCAA Tournament.

Everyone’s going to talk about the foul call on Samford’s A.J. Staton-McCray at the end of the Bulldogs’ controversial 93-89 loss to Kansas, so let’s get that out of the way first. I don’t complain about refs in columns. That’s amateur-hour stuff. I will say, though, that the chase-down block by Samford’s A.J. Staton-McCray wasn’t a foul after watching the replay in super slow motion.

Does that make it a blown call? Yes, but at the same time most refs are going to make that call in that situation.

The officials called it tight on Samford the entire game, though. That’s the way it goes, apparently, when the SoCon champ is matched up with Kansas in the first round.

It was a new experience for me, seeing the refs so blatantly police a low-major team against a blue blood. I was seated behind Samford’s bench. The refs were watching Samford’s assistant coaches like Secret Service agents early in the game. It was weird, bush-league type stuff. A quick whistle hit Samford’s bench with a technical foul after an initial warning. Apparently one of the assistant coaches leaned too far out of his seat.

Those two points off the technical-foul call ended up being pretty significant. That’s the kind of thin margins Samford dealt with in its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2000.

Staton-McCray joked after the game that Casper the Ghost must have fouled Kansas’ Nicolas Timberlake on that chase down block. As for Samford’s talented guard, Staton-McCray knows he definitely didn’t touch Timberlake.

“I’ve been doing that all season,” Staton-McCray said. “I guess Casper hit him. It was straight ball. Left-hand block, too. Off hand.”

The comeback was basketball poetry. Kansas led by 22 points with 16:20 left in the game. I thought Samford was cooked liked a well-done steak. A paid skeptic, I have to admit that I didn’t believe.

It never felt so good to be so wrong.

The arena was fully behind Samford in the final minutes. I found myself wondering when the last time Delta Center was that loud for a Utah Jazz game. Asked to reflect on the atmosphere, Samford’s Rylan Jones, who is a native of Utah, couldn’t hold back his emotions. He got choked up talking about how much it meant to him. I was tearing up, too, after what he said. It was a soulful reflection of everything that’s right about college sports. Injury after injury cut Jones’ career short with Utah and then Utah State. After being medically released, he thought his career was over.

Then he caught on with Samford.

Then he felt the roar of his hometown crowd behind his back one last time.

“It was something, like, I can’t describe that feeling,” Jones said. “I grew up here, 22 years. Chose to go to Birmingham, Alabama, trust in Coach Bucky, these guys. We had a historic season for Samford.

“To come back here and be able to play in Salt Lake City, I just can’t describe the feeling. I could feel the whole stadium at the end. They were behind us. I had a lot of family and friends, Utah family, Utah State family, Logan High, Olympus, everybody supporting. I wish we could have got it done one more time in front of all these people.”

Jones had blood coming out his nose in the second half. They stopped it up with some gauze. He was knocked around time and again. He never stopped competing. What a champion. The same goes for Achor Achor, Samford’s forward who went out of the game with cramps throughout the second half. His dunk at the end brought the house down.

Achor is South Sudanese by way of Cairo, Egypt, by way of Melbourne, Australia. He’ll be back at Samford next season for his senior year. He wants to be the first person in his family to graduate. His mother fled South Sudan to give her children a better life. When Achor was finished at the post-game news conference, he asked the NCAA’s moderator if he could keep the nameplate on the dais.

“Y’all have a good rest of y’all day,” Achor said.

So pure of spirit. I wanted to stand up and give him a hug. I wanted to carry him to the team bus.

Kansas couldn’t miss to start the game, but you could see the legs beginning to fade with about nine minutes to go. Playing at altitude is no joke. Players will always say it doesn’t affect them, but Kansas hit a wall after its torrid start. That’s what Samford was expecting because that’s Samford’s game. That’s Bucky Ball and it was fun seeing it work against the Jayhawks in the NCAA Tournament after watching McMillan dominate at Mountain Brook.

“We always make plays late in games,” McMillan said. “I’ve been watching it for years.”

Maybe next time the refs will know what to expect. Certainly America isn’t forgetting these Bulldogs after getting robbed of a chance to make history there at the end.

“I knew we were going to win at halftime,” McMillan said, “and I knew we were going to win with 10 minutes left and I knew we were going to win at the end. Our players knew it, too, and I love these guys.”

I spoke with McMillan one-on-one for about five minutes after the game. That’s not normal protocol for post-game in the NCAA Tournament, but McMillan was appreciative of the local media who traveled with the Bulldogs and he gave me the time. I asked McMillan if he felt like he needed to prove something about himself in his first trip to the NCAA Tournament as a coach.

“I just feel like we should still be playing,” he said.

‘Nuff said.

“When you come back from 22 on Kansas in the NCAA Tournament and feel like you should have won the game then I guess that’s a pretty good sign for what you’re building,” McMillan said.

It was the end of a season for Samford, but it felt more like the beginning of something big.

SOUND OFF

Got a question about the changing landscape of college football, spring practice or March Madness? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe a question about what’s on your mind for the weekly mailbag. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the most controversial sports book ever written, “We Want Bama”.