MINNEAPOLIS — You wait your whole life for this, you work your whole life for this, and you are 0.6 seconds from the national championship game … then the dream you have dreamed from the time you were a little boy becomes a nightmare, and exhilaration turns to devastation.

By a referee’s call that will live in infamy in Auburn.

A controversial call that was the right call … at the wrong moment.

At the worst possible moment on the worst possible stage.

Samir Doughty had brushed Kyle Guy and now he sat patiently at his locker, a lion-hearted tattoo on his chest, answering question after question, the tears trying to dry in his eyes after Virginia’s 63-62 win over Auburn.

He was clearly wrestling with what he and his teammates considered the injustice of a lifetime and taking the high road at the behest of coach Bruce Pearl.

“I didn’t feel like I fouled whatsoever,” Doughty would eventually say. “Everybody in the locker room honestly thought it wasn’t a foul, but I don’t know, I gotta see it.”

When Guy’s shot missed, the Auburn players started celebrating more history.

And then they weren’t. And Pearl was raging in disbelief. Because referee James Breeding had been slow with the whistle.

“The first thing that went through my mind was, ‘That’s the incorrect call,’ but like I said, I gotta see it again,” Doughty said. “I don’t think nobody in the gym knew they were gonna call that call. I’m pretty sure none of y’all knew that they were gonna call that call. I thought it was time to celebrate with the win but — hey, man, they called a foul.”

“[Breeding] ruled that Doughty moved into the airborne shooter, making contact with Guy while taking away his landing spot,” national coordinator of officiating J.D. Collins said. “The foul was a violation of Rule 4, Section 39.i, which states, ‘The defender may not ‘belly up’ or use the lower part of the body or arms to cause contact outside his vertical plane or inside the opponent’s vertical plane.’ ”

The officials had let the teams play all night. Until one didn’t.

“I was super-surprised,” Doughty said. “They haven’t been calling those fouls all game.”

He had bitten his tongue when the media first descended upon him.

“I’m pretty sure he made the right call if that’s the call he called,” Doughty said.

He had fought through a screen to get in front of Guy. Jumped and bumped him as he came down. Ever so slightly.

“I felt as though I gave him a chance to land,” Doughty said. “I just tried to be right there and allow him to shoot the ball and whatever happens, happens.”

What happened was Guy stepping to the free-throw line for three free throws. With 0.6 seconds on the clock.

“These are moments that every basketball player has dreamed of, hitting the game-winning shot or free throws or whatever,” Guy said. “Kind of get that feeling in your stomach, like a good nervousness, like, ‘All right, this is my chance.’ ”

Doughty was filled with dread. Guy is an 81.8 percent free-throw shooter.

“He’s a great free-throw shooter. We kinda had a feeling he was gonna make all three of them,” Doughty said.

Guy made the first two and Pearl tried to ice him with a timeout. “I was terrified,” Guy said.

Guy avoided his team.

“I didn’t want anything to do with my teammates or coaches at that time,” he said. “I just wanted to be in my own space. I knew they had confidence in me. I just needed to build up my own.”

The third one was the tiebreaker. The third one sent Virginia to Monday night, one year after making the worst kind of history as the first 1-seed to lose to a 16-seed, UMBC.

The first Auburn team to reach a Final Four had stormed back from a 10-point deficit with 5:22 remaining when Bryce Brown carried it back with a trio of 3-point shots.



“NCAA needs to get some new refs,” Brown was caught moaning on video as he walked to the locker room.

Virginia trailed 61-57 when Guy drilled a 3 with seven seconds left, and Justin Harper missed the second of two free throws and the refs missed a double dribble on Ty Jerome to leave the door open for Guy.

Yes, Virginia, on the other side of the agony of defeat is the thrill of victory. On the other side of Samir Doughty stands Kyle Guy, who also waited his whole life for this, who also worked his whole life for this, who has fought back courageously from anxiety. And is 40 minutes from the redemption that would come with a national championship victory over the Michigan State-Texas Tech winner.

Someone asked Doughty, former St. John’s recruit, if he would like to see The Call right then and there.

“No, I don’t even want to look at it right now,” Doughty said. “I’ll look at it another time.”

He’ll have the rest of his life to look.