As Will Burghardt pulled the trigger on an improbable 3-point attempt in the closing minutes of Washington State’s beatdown of Oregon on Saturday, I stood in anticipation of what would be the perfect capper to the perfect game.
Given everything that had gone wrong this season for the Cougs, it might have been more poetic if the shot had bricked off the iron. Nothing can ever seem to be too good for WSU, which has seen its highest aspirations this season sabotaged by sickness and injury.
But on this day, the ball swished through the net, the crowd roared, Burghardt and his buddy Ryan Rapp hugged on their way down the floor, and I danced in the aisle in a way that I had not at a sporting event for a couple of years.