Tennessee narrowly avoids the ultimate David-over-Goliath March Madness upset

The school now known as Belmont University has been playing basketball for almost 70 years, under multiple nicknames, in multiple conferences, in men's and women's divisions, and until last year, it had not won an NCAA tournament first-round game.

Its Monday opponent, Tennessee, had won 127 women's tourney games. It had been to 34 Sweet 16s, and 18 Final Fours. It won eight national championships. It defined entire eras of women's basketball. It helped build the sport into what it is today.

And yet, around 9 p.m. in Knoxville, on the second night of the second round of the 2022 NCAA tournament, scoreboards at Thompson-Boling Arena read David 66, Goliath 64, 24 seconds remaining.

It was the ultimate upset, history turned on its head, and standing in a front row, Betty Wiseman was loving it.

In 1968, at age 23, Wiseman walked into the Belmont president's office and pleaded for a women's basketball program. He told her she could start it.

Six decades later, she bobbed her head. Her silver-white hair bobbed too. She clapped her hands to music as that program neared its first Sweet 16. The 12th-seeded Bruins had erased a 14-point deficit. They had a giant teetering on the brink of collapse.

Then, with 18 seconds to go, Sara Puckett ended Wiseman's party.

The Tennessee freshman let fly from the corner, splashed a 3-pointer, and started a party of her own.

The Lady Vols held on. Amid hysteria, "they didn't blink," Tennessee coach Kellie Harper said. They won 70-67 to advance to the program's 35th regional semifinal. They embraced Puckett, their savior.

At the other end of the court, Bruins players trudged down a tunnel in tears. Two walked with arms around each other. One clutched a towel to her face.

But an hour later, they exited the arena with chins up, and pride intact.

"We proved that we can keep up with anybody," sophomore forward Madison Bartley said. "We didn’t come up with the win. But being that close with Tennessee is something that we should be really proud of — and something that the world should look out for next year."

For 48 hours, ever since outlasting fifth-seeded Oregon, the Bruins had tried to ignore that name, Tennessee, and everything it represented. But reminders were everywhere, from the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, which they visited last week, to the rafters at Thompson-Boling.

Bart Brooks, their coach, had admitted Sunday that they were “really blessed” to be “on a really big stage, in a national spotlight, a nationally televised game, against one of the all-time great programs in the history of women's basketball, on their home court and in this great basketball state.”

And he knew, despite his love for his university, that its history paled in comparison.

The Belmont College Rebelettes, their name at the time, began playing hoops at the NAIA level under Wiseman's tutelage, and four years before Title IX. They ate sack lunches and traveled in used station wagons. They didn't crave glamor; they simply loved the game, and got the program up off the ground.

In 1997, they transitioned to Division I as the Bruins. In 2007, they made the NCAA tournament for the first time. They scored 36 points that day, but kept growing. And Wiseman, who'd moved into an administrative role within the athletic department, came along for the ride.

She missed their first March Madness win last year, but traveled to nearby Knoxville this year, and saw quite the scene. A packed gym. A pulsing pep band. And parity that her late friend Pat Summitt had long craved. It's defined this year's NCAA tournament. It's the source of upsets. It's a product of women's basketball's popularity, of a flourishing game.

It didn't quite allow Wiseman to celebrate late into the Tennessee night on Monday. But the program she'd created didn't cower from a big opponent on a big stage.

"We don't view ourselves as small or mid-major," Brooks had said. "We view ourselves as equals."

And even in defeat, they'd proved they were.