Written by Jonathan Knight

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Six inches to the left and this would be an entirely different conversation.

It’s easy to obsess about. If D.J. Cooper’s desperate (yet somehow not so desperate) 50-foot  heave as the buzzer sounded to end regulation in Ohio University’s NCAA regional semifinal against North Carolina on Friday night had been just six inches to the left, it would have settled into the cylinder instead of gently kissing off it.

And instead of tumbling into an overtime session in which the exhausted and overmatched Bobcats finally ran out of magic against the mighty Tar Heels, OU would have advanced to the Elite Eight after perhaps the biggest basketball upset and greatest buzzer-beater of all time.

Six inches. 

The difference between disappointment and immortality was the length of a slice of late-night pizza.

Not unlike Butler’s half-court ka-THUNK off the glass and rim at the conclusion of the national title game against Duke two years ago. We were that close.

The Bobcats came within six inches of making Cinderella herself look like a three-dollar hooker. But alas, the glass slipper wouldn’t fit. They tried everything they could think of to keep their paws inside the transparent footwear they’d slipped into following dazzling back-to-back upsets, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Not that part, anyway.

What was meant to be was everything that happened before that - the part that hopefully nobody forgets.

OU’s remarkable run to the Sweet Sixteen will be long remembered - partly because of what Cooper and his teammates accomplished over the past two weeks, but mostly because of what those accomplishments led to off the floor.

In the strange way that only sports can, it united a nation of relatively disparate alumni and - for the first time - made them one. 

There was a healthy pulse of relatively anonymous Bobcat spunk and spirit out there in the ether, but this brought it all together. Old roommates exchanged emails. Coworkers and neighbors made heretofore unknown connections. For a full week, Facebook oozed green and white.

What was unique about this? Nothing, really. This kind of excitement is, after all, the Big Mac and fries of the massive industry that is college sports.

Except it had never happened to OU. Every other school still dancing last weekend already had a well-established basketball program (and/or football program) that had fused its graduates into a mobilized empire long ago.

While there’s always been OU pride - just as with any respected institution of higher learning - until last week it had never truly crystalized.

Which isn’t to say there hadn’t been little lightning flashes of fun over the years. But a handful of MAC titles and a win in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl didn’t exactly put Ohio University on the map.

Advancing to the Sweet Sixteen - and spooking the hell out of a No. 1 seed - did. Suddenly, the Bobcats were playing against guys whom they’d been watching on television for years.

And in standing up to them, they became the celebrities.

On Saturday, anybody wearing OU gear in grocery stores and shopping malls was approached by smiling strangers who, until a week before, hadn’t known the difference between a bobcat and a yoga mat.

“Did you watch the game?”

“I thought they were going to pull it out.”

“You have to be so proud.”

Ten minutes into the game, the idea of Bobcat fans walking tall on Saturday looked patently ridiculous. In the early going, OU looked like the Little Rascals trying to outsmart the Navy SEALS that took down bin Laden. They were shorter, slower, and scared. 

But then something started to happen.

Just when all the alums who’d gathered in sweaty taverns across the nation were about to turn their full attention to reminiscing and alcohol (not necessarily in that order), the Bobcats went and turned it into a game.

And not just any game. Maybe the best game of the entire tournament.

The Little Team That Could just kept chugging, and soon their unspoken mantra began to infiltrate into bars and living rooms from Athens to Anaheim: “We think you can...We think you can....”

The 15-point deficit turned into a four-point lead as the final minutes ticked down. The sports world leaned forward, shaking its collective head at these crazy ‘Cats that wouldn’t take the hint and leave the party. A 13 seed had never done this before - and may never again.

Something truly special was happening, and for the first time, Ohio University was right in the middle of it.

It was something, for example, that the four illustrious programs remaining are long past the point of appreciating.

Those four reached the pinnacle of college basketball last weekend and proclaimed, “Damn right we expected to be here! About time, too.”

Which is understandable and their right. Having high expectations is good. Reaching them is even better.

And whichever school is still standing late next Monday night, its followers will revel in the memory for decades.

For the other three, the season will likely go down as a disappointment.

Strange as it may sound, OU generated more excitement and pride in losing once last weekend than any of the surviving quartet did in winning twice.

Were their expectations lower going in? Of course. The Bobcats and their fans were the baby-faced new kids on the block - the never-been-kissed wallflowers who landed a spot on Dancing With the Stars.

By the time they were done dancing, they were the talk of the nation.

These Cinderella Bobcats had done more than win a pair of basketball games and come within a half-foot of a miracle.

They brought comrades together. They formed a community. 

And, in so doing, bridged a gap much wider than six inches.

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