The epic almost

So what's in a second, then? Or a fraction thereof, actually?

In a second, in a fraction, there is euphoria and then despair and then the grim set of a jaw, because the job isn't finished yet after all.

In a second, in a fraction, there is the end of 39 years of drought and then its continuation, by the barest of margins possible.

In a second, in a fraction, there is an eyeblink, a hitched breath, a Final Four, not a Final Four, the beginning of a drawn-out "Arrrrrrggh!" from everyone out there in America whose hearts bleed black-and-old-gold.

Tell you what there isn't, in a second or a fraction thereof.

Perspective.

Which will come now, hours after Virginia 80, Purdue 75, hours after Mamadi Diakite got his shot off with that second or a fraction thereof left in regulation, a shot that somehow cleared 7-foot-3 Matt Haarms and dropped down the well to force overtime.

Where, for the second time, Purdue was 5.7 seconds away from the Final Four. Where, finally, Carsen Edwards' pass glanced off Ryan Cline's hand and out of bounds, and that was the end of it.

Once again, Purdue was denied entry into the Final Four. Once again, 1980 will remain more than just another year in the march of years, because it remains the last year a Purdue basketball team played in the Final Four.

But hours later, there is the beginning of perspective. There is the beginning of understanding that this season will be remembered more for what happened than what didn't happen, that years and decades from now the faithful will still be talking about it, still be talking about Haarms and Carsen Edwards and Ryan Cline and Grady Eifert the way they still talk about Rick Mount and Joe Barry Carroll and Glen Robinson, and the Three Amigos, Lewis and Mitchell and Stephens.

They will remember the 2018-19 Boilers as the team that got as close to the Final Four as humanly possible without actually getting there. They'll remember them as the team that outdid the Amigos and Big Dog and all the great Purdue teams that have come between 1980 and now. And they'll remember Carsen Edwards in particular for the greatest individual tournament run in Purdue basketball history.

It's hard to see it otherwise after what Edwards did these last three games, which is what almost no one has done in the long stretch of March Madness. In four tournament games, he averaged 34.8 points, the most for any tournament player in 29 years. His 28 3-pointers in four games was a tournament record. And last night ...

Well. Last night he put Purdue on his back again, dropping 42 points for the second time in three games, hitting 10 3s from ridiculous places against one of the best defenses in the country. It was so jaw-dropping that not only were Edwards' teammates awed, but so were his opponents.

No, it wasn't enough to get Purdue to the Final Four. But this March Madness will carry the Boilermakers' imprint anyway; whatever happens in Minneapolis next weekend, they were part of two games that helped make this tournament -- so far, the two best games.

In the end, it was another almost. But this time, a truly epic one.