Basketball is played 5-on-5. Apparently Bobby Lutz missed that memo

Last night, Charlotte was playing for their tournament lives.

The 49ers looked to be close to a lock to the tournament a month ago, but after losing six of their last seven games to close the regular season, Charlotte was playing an absolute must-win game against UMass in the opening round of the A-10 tournament.

The same inconsistent Charlotte team showed up. The 49ers used a 14-5 run to open up a 51-47 lead and seemed to be on the brink of pulling away from the Minutemen. But Charlotte proceeded to go ice cold from the field, missing five straight shots and turning the ball over three times over a five minute stretch that saw UMass take a 54-51 lead on a Terrell Vinson jumper with 56 seconds left.

Ricky Harris scored 24 points as UMass knocked off Charlotte in the A-10's first round last night.
(photo credit: ESPN)

Bobby Lutz called a timeout, drew up a play, and sent his team on the court with a chance to tie up the game.

What happened next?

Charlotte got a technical foul. For having six players on the floor.

"You would think a guy with three undergraduate and two graduate degrees could count to five," Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz said. "It ultimately comes to me."

"That was big," Harris told reporters after the game. "Usually those kind of mental mistakes happen on us, but it was them this time."

Talk about a microcosm of your season. For a team that was so successful early on in the season -- the 49ers beat Louisville by 22 on the road, they beat Temple, they won at Richmond -- to end the year losing seven of eight and missing the tournament, it only seems fitting that their season would end this way.

Want to add insult to injury?

Ricky Harris knocked down both technical free throws. Two seconds after that, Gokhan Sirin hit a three that would have tied the game had no technical been called. Charlotte was never able to get a shot off with a chance to tie.

Talk about your all-time brain farts.