Nathaniel Burton doesn't quite do what coach Craig Esherick wants in the final seconds, but the Hoyas will take the result. (AP)

'That' was the defensive help Brandon Dean did not get as Burton barreled down the lane for the game-winner.

Umpire Ted Hillary said, "We looked to see if it was a shot-clock violation. It was not. The ball was out of his hand. It was an NCAA rule (to review it). Time had expired before the ball went through the net."

But the game is over and the 10th-seeded Hoyas (24-7) move on to play Hampton, a stunning upset winner over second-seeded Iowa State on Saturday night. The Razorbacks (20-11) take their seventh seed and go home.

More disappointing to Arkansas was the obvious: They had a seven-point lead with less than 10 minutes to go, began missing free throws, turned the ball over four times and allowed the Hoyas to catch them.

And it's nothing new.

"We had a little mind stoppage," Gipson said. "We got careless turning the ball over and just got comfortable with our lead. All year we've been doing that; we haven't been able to put teams away at the end."

The thing is, what Burton did was not the way coach Craig Esherick wrote it up by any stretch of the imagination when the Hoyas took the ball out of bounds with 35.8 seconds left on the clock. Burton was supposed to get the ball into the hands of point guard Kevin Braswell, who was to penetrate and dish it.

But Burton hung out around the top of the key and waved off Braswell when he came to get the ball.

"Nate ran his summer league play," Esherick said, tongue-in-cheek. "Kevin was the primary option. When Nate squared up, I thought he was going to throw a bounce pass to Mike (Sweetney). Then he kept hitching and I thought I was OK with what he was doing until he waved off Kevin ... 'Oh my goodness.'"

Everyone was surprised on both benches. Granted, Razorbacks coach Nolan Richardson wanted it that way, with Burton handling the ball and taking the shot.

"I thought we were defending the play the right way," said Richardson. "They wanted Braswell to have the ball. Georgetown was the best team tonight because they did a great job to be able to score the basket at the end."

Well, there was a little more to it than that. It was apparent that Esherick and the rest of the Hoyas were not only bemused but amused by Burton's antics.

"If I was going to miss that shot, I was going to be in big trouble with coach Esherick," Burton said. "Brandon Dean played good defense, but I was trying to put him to sleep and explode to the basket -- which I did -- and finish off with my left hand. Coach Esherick was surprised, Kevin was surprised, Ruben (Boumtjie Boumtjie) was surprised but I wasn't surprised."

The one thing they did have in common was after the buzzer, they were all happy.

"I can't be happier for how we won that game at the end," Esherick said. "If I had to draw up a play and a person to make the shot at the end like that, I would want it to be Nate. Let me just say ... I did not draw up that play."