ATLANTA — Mike Hopkins sat inside a locker in the back-right corner of the room. His suit jacket hung on a hook to the right of his face. He was dazed. Misty-eyed.

The Syracuse assistant coach spoke quietly as he explained the final play of the game, detailing what was supposed to happen before turning to what went wrong.

The season wasn’t supposed to end with the ball in Trevor Cooney’s hands, the redshirt freshman guard forced to hurl a right-handed runner at the rim out of desperation. It should have been with Southerland, the sharpshooting senior who was silent for 38 minutes before scoring five quick points to give the Orange life when its season seemed dead.

But that all went wrong when Michigan played six seconds of perfect defense to preserve a 61-56 win and earn a spot in the national championship game. The most important possession of the season went up in flames with a backup guard thrust into a precarious position.

“If Michael Carter-Williams and them were in there it would be a little bit different,” Hopkins said.

Only they weren’t. Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche, Syracuse’s two starting guards who handle the ball almost exclusively, both fouled out. It left the keys to Cooney, a sparsely used role player unfamiliar with the point guard position.

The situation was as follows: Syracuse down 59-56 with 15 seconds left. Head coach Jim Boeheim calls timeout.

It was designed for Cooney to bring the ball up the court and find Southerland, who had two options based on how Michigan defended him. He ran off a double screen and could either pop out for a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer — something he had done dozens of times this season — or he could change direction and go back door for a quick two.

“He had two options,” Hopkins said. “Then the guy just popped. So he went back door and Trevor was stuck.”

As Southerland curled off the screen, a Michigan defender was there to greet him. He tried to go back door, and that was covered as well.

It meant Cooney, a player in his first NCAA Tournament and only on the court due to foul trouble, would have to create on his own. He drove right, opting for a two-point basket instead of a 3, and flung up a runner against an arriving double team.

The shot clanged off the rim. Michigan got the rebound. The game was over.

“The best play probably should have been shooting the 3. He’s a great 3-point shooter,” Triche said of Cooney. “You either want to just go early if you have 19 seconds left and maybe get two points with 12 seconds left. But once it got eight seconds and he didn’t find James, he probably should have put it up and shot a 3.”

Tim Hardaway Jr. snared the rebound and threw the ball ahead to Jordan Morgan for an emphatic slam with two seconds left.

Michigan was off to the national championship game. Syracuse was off to the airport.

“Trevor had no choice,” Boeheim said. “That was it. He had no choice. He did the best he could in that situation.”

Published on April 7, 2013 at 9:29 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13