The POP-EXPOSE ‘One Shining Moment 2017′ by Mitchell Smith’!
The NCAA Basketball Tournament has had many memorable moments including blowouts, upsets, last second shots, and raw emotions. The Final four is always a major milestone for any team to reach and if one team can put together that one monumental championship game it may go down in history. The Oregon Ducks won the first NCAA championship game beating Ohio State 46 to 33. This must have been a real barn burner, remember there was no 3 pointers or shot clocks back then, so there must have been a lot of running around playing keep away. 1957 hosted a wild championship with the game starting out with the Kansas Jayhawk’s Wilt Chamberlain the 7 footer and North Carolina’s Tommy Keams just under 6 feet doing the jump ball. There was not a lot of NCAA games aired in these days and this ended up being the largest televised game up to that time.
It took 3 over times but NC prevailed and won 54-53. The shot clock was created by Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasone when he was attempting to speed up the tempo in NBA play and attract more people to games. It worked and the NCAA finally accepted the shot clock in 1985. The 3 pointer was first tested in 1945 in a game Fordham vs Columbia. The NBA adopted the 3 point line in 1979 and NCAA finally adopted the 3 point rule in 1986. These 2 things speed up the game and created a lot more scoring and action. Had these been in place earlier UCLA may not have dominated the 60’s and 70’s, but they did have legendary coach John Wooden. Arguably one of the greatest championship games of all time the 1983 Heavily favored Houston Cougars lead by Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler met up with a feisty team ready to play in the NC State Wolfpack. NC State came out fired up but the game was tied near the end of regulation when Dereck Whittenburg took a desperation shot and Lorenzo Charles caught the short shot and slammed it at the buzzer to win 54-52, we still see the shot replay and beloved coach Jimmy V running around the court looking for a player to hug as they held on to a monumental win. The Shot.
The 1992 regional championship was another great game, even though this was not a championship game it is one of the most memorable games in tournament history. Duke and Kentucky were close the entire game and Christian Laettner’s final catch turn around shot sank for a 104-103 victory for the Blue Devils. It wasn’t all last second shots and champions remembered, the 1993 Chris Webber time out call when they had no time outs Probably cost Michigan and the Fab Five their last chance at a NCAA championship. And once again we had amazing games this year especially when Florida’s Chris Chiozza hit a running 3 pointer to beat the buzzer and down Wisconsin.
I grew up watching the Fab Five and I’ve loved the tournament ever since. There is so much emotion and watching these teams put everything on the line just to bring home that coveted championship is so special to watch. So tomorrow will be the national championship game, I just hope we get one for the ages. Sit back and enjoy and good luck to both teams. Join us to talk about the 2017 Tourney AFTER THE JUMP!
