If this were the NCAA men's tournament, people would be having a field day.
Oral Roberts' star player, 6-foot guard Mariana Camargo, suffered a possible ACL injury after slipping and falling on a sign used by Tennessee's cheerleaders.
It happened in the first minute of Sunday's first-round matchup between the top-seeded Lady Volunteers and the No. 16 Golden Eagles at Purdue's Mackey Arena.
Just like that, the underdogs had to play without their leading scorer (13.3 points per game, 5.1 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 2.4 steals) and the upset bid was all but officially over.
"Not to jinx anybody, but losing Mariana is like losing Candace (Parker) -- on a different level, on a different planet, a different league," said Oral Roberts coach Jerry Finkbeiner on Sunday after The Sun went to press. "But Mariana is really the heart and soul of our team, and so we were dealt a big blow."
Finkbeiner felt Camargo -- a four-time member of the Brazil selection team -- was the one player who could match up physically with the Lady Vols.
Coach Pat Summitt told Finkbeiner after her team's 94-55 win that she knew exactly what Camargo meant to his program.
Then, in another classy act by the game's all-time winningest coach, Summitt greeted Camargo on the Golden Eagles sideline and shared a few words with her.
Any choice words for the Lady Vols' cheerleaders or the accident in general?
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