Sunday’s matchup of Northern Tennessee University and Buckley University had an unexpected ending when both teams decided to leave it at a tie.
“I never liked competition as a kid,” says Buckley Senior forward, Dylan Beck. “The game was just getting too rough, and I really didn’t want it to end on bad terms.”
After the final buzzer, both teams opted out of over time and left the game as a 74 to 74 tie.
The big question is who will be continuing on in the tournament. “Actually, both teams,” Beck says. “We combined to form what I like to call a super team. Now, when we play, everyone gets to have a second player riding on their shoulders. They’ll be twice the size. Super.”
“The idea actually came from watching "Pacific Rim",” says the captain for Northern Tennessee, Lucas Zimmerman. “We all thought it was really cool that two minds could pilot one vessel.
Zimmerman says the original idea was to actually have his teammates pilot giant robots around the court, but they ran into some problems after realizing such robots didn’t actually exist.
“The piggyback thing is a compromise,” says Zimmerman.
Buckley coach James Marsh says he thinks the super team is a great way to make sure both teams get a shot at the spotlight. “It’s rare to see these two schools make it to the tournament at all. Mostly because they’re fake and were made up for the purposes of this article.”
NCAA spokesman Ron Howard described the super team as “definitely illegal,” but said they were willing to let it slide.
“It’ll probably make a great TV movie someday,” he said.
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