Derrick Low sat right behind Tony Bennett's wife, Laurel, on Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium wanting to believe his former coach would get to play for a national championship.
With Virginia trailing with under a minute left after Auburn's 12-0 run, Low could see those title hopes fading right in front of his eyes.

"They should've lost," Low said. "But the way things happened, it felt like someone was watching out for them."
Team of destiny is what the Cavaliers appear to be this season with seemingly a higher power at work when everything fell into place for Bennett to reach Monday's NCAA championship against Texas Tech.
Low, a former Washington State guard, could've watched the Final Four on TV in the islands, but he traveled thousands of miles to Minneapolis from Hawaii to support Bennett, who he played for on Bennett's first two NCAA tournament teams with the Cougars in 2007 and 2008.
"I think these guys are similar but several notches above us," Low said comparing his Sweet 16 team his senior year to Virginia. "These guys are tough. I don't think many of these guys were highly recruited, but he saw something special in these individuals. They weren't five-star recruits, but their character was good and they had to have that toughness factor. You look at Kyle Guy has ice in his veins. Ty Jerome might not be the most athletic or the quickest, but he's tough as nails."
Sure, Bennett is on a much bigger stage Monday night with his Virginia team, but how he helped his father, Dick, build Washington State into a national power wasn't much different.
Low, a four-time Hawaii prep player of the year at Iolani (my alma mater), was part of a backcourt that was considered at that time arguably the best in college hoops. The Cougars three-headed monster of Low, Taylor Rochestie and Kyle Weaver didn't have lottery pick potential, but they checked off a lot of other boxes to help teams win: toughness, versatility, basketball IQ, playmaking.