Looking to the Rafters

There were a lot of unnecessarily broken hearts around Harvard Square last Saturday night. After the sold-out men's basketball game vs. Princeton drew to a dramatic close, the Harvard faithful dragged themselves from Lavietes Pavilion in despair, looking like something they believed in had let them down.

When Princeton sophomore guard Kyle Wente heaved up an off-balance three-pointer to decide the game, there were a lot of people praying in that gym. Apparently, the Tigers prayed a little bit harder. Down it swooshed, lifting Princeton to victory, and leaving Harvard fans shaking their heads and asking "Why?"

Why, indeed? Wente is a respectable player for Princeton, but by no means is he a star. Even so, he somehow sank a career-high 22 points in Saturday's game, including the infamous buzzer-beating three-pointer.

And it was an awful, awful shot.

"Awful" does not begin to describe it. He heaved the ball one-handed from his hip like an amateur shot-putter. It looked like the kind of shot an eight-year-old YMCA player tosses up because he is petrified of the five eight-year-olds on the other team, who are all waving their arms in his face.

And it still went in.

Realistically, there's only one explanation--some higher power directed that ball gracefully down into the Princeton basket with .0003 seconds left on the clock. Somebody was watching from the rafters and realized that these people have to go to school in New Jersey, for God's sake, and they were owed something for that.

Maybe some supreme being dimly remembered those orange "I agree with Kyle" T-shirts and misread the message. In any event, Wente's shot has been described as a miracle--by a dozen fans and sportswriters alike.

For the truly devoted, sports can be a near-religious experience. As dozens of stand-up comedians have commented, we live in a society where we thank the Lord for touchdowns. A few years back, the GodSpeaks advertising campaign blanketed Florida with billboards reading "Next Sunday, let's meet at My House before the game.--God." Talk about knowing your audience.

You can leave a gym feeling like sports are the Way and the Light as well as Life, the Universe and Everything. Maybe they are, if a couple of hours of action can make people leap out of their seats with jubilation or plunge them into speechless despair.

But whatever you believe, you will never convince me that there wasn't some miracle behind that Hail Mary of a shot.

--Jonelle M. Lonergan