Tar Heels Win It All

You didn't really think Michigan State could do it, did you?

Somewhere along the way this season, we forgot how good North Carolina was. It wasn't one single thing, it was more likely a cumulation of factors. It started back in January, when Carolina lost Marcus Ginyard, the best defender on a team whose defense was its main weakness. Then came the back-to-back losses to start the ACC season, to Boston College and Wake Forest. Then a loss to Maryland. Then Ty Lawson's toe injury, which seemed like it might keep him from playing at full strength in the postseason. Then the early exit from the ACC tournament at the hands of Florida State, without Lawson. The Heels looked mortal.

And the Spartans did their part to keep the doubts alive, getting better with each game in the tournament. After shaky victories against Southern California and Kansas, Michigan State fairly dominated its next two opponents, teams they weren't expected to beat; Louisville, the tournament's top overall seed, and Connecticut, the one team that seemed to have the firepower to take out North Carolina.

Monday's championship game was played at Ford Field in Detroit, and it was easy to get caught up in the possibility that home-state advantage would carry Michigan State. The scenario had seemingly endless feel-good storylines: the thirtieth anniversary of Bird v. Magic; the national championship won by the home team in a state whose professional football team set a record for futility this year and whose economy has been hit the hardest of any.

Given all of this, it was easy to forget about December 3, 2008, when Carolina, after winning the Maui Invitational in impressive fashion, truly flexed its muscle. The Heels positively throttled the Spartans that night, winning 98-65 in Michigan, on the same court on which the championship game would be played four months later. That night, it sure didn't look like anyone could beat North Carolina, and if anyone could, it certainly wasn't going to be Michigan State.

All of those doubts went away in about four-and-a-half minutes on Monday night, during which the Heels scored 17 points and took a double-digit lead they never gave up. Accepting the championship trophy on the podium, UNC coach Roy Williams noted that "everyone had anointed" his team all year long. And it's true. We all just temporarily forgot.

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On to more serious matters. After tonight's telecast, I learned -- along with millions of other CBS viewers -- that the man behind the network's trademark "One Shining Moment" video montage, played at the close of every NCAA Tournament, was named Doug Towey, and that he had passed away earlier this year.

The significance of this video is not lost on any college basketball fan, and certainly not lost on any kid who grew up with dreams of playing college basketball. My high school teammates and I were known to sing it on occasion, and although we never got to sing it to cap a championship season, I'm quite sure that many of us played that moment out in our heads. I know I did. I also know that I still do sing it in my head, when I reflect privately on the great memories I have from playing basketball in high school. Those years provided me with some of the most memorable moments of my life, and Doug Towey provided the soundtrack.

That's the great thing about "One Shining Moment." The final few seconds celebrate the year's champion, but the rest of the montage honors those who came up short in their ultimage goal, and that's what the NCAA Tournament is all about: hundreds of kids on 65 teams, all playing for what they've dreamt about their whole lives. And those kids represent the thousands of Division I college basketball players who don't get a chance to play in the Big Dance, who in turn represent the millions of young men who don't have the opportunity to play college basketball.

Your author at 19'9" was one of those young men, and "One Shining Moment" is his favorite three minutes or so of the college basketball season. A belated "thank you" is in order.

So thanks, Mr. Towey, for again -- like you do every year -- giving me chills for three minutes at the close of my favorite sports season. I'm sorry I never got a chance to tell you in person what "One Shining Moment" meant to me. I hope someone, somewhere, did.

Michigan State Advances to Final

I actually don't want to talk much about the game - I may post a bit about it in some sort of a championship preview between now and Monday night - but I do want to briefly talk about what I thought was a coaching error on the part of Connecticut's Jim Calhoun down the stretch in Saturday's first national semifinal.

Trailing by 11 points with less than 1:54 to go, the Huskies put on a furious full-court press. Several Spartan mistakes and 46 seconds later, Connecticut small forward Stanley Robinson found himself hanging from the rim, his thunderous jam following an A.J. Price miss having brought his team to within 74-71.

The momentum of the game had certainly shifted. More importantly, the circumstances of the game had shifted. Down just a possession, Connecticut no longer needed a steal or a quick foul. They needed a stop. And that need would best be filled not by the scrambling, high-risk, full-court pressure that had brought them back in the game, but by a solid possession of half-court defense.

But college kids are college kids, and this is the game's biggest stage, and after all, just seconds ago, it appeared that their national championship dreams were over. They can be forgiven for getting caught up in the moment and not recognizing this right away.

It's harder to excuse Calhoun. Perhaps he expected his counterpart at Michigan State, Tom Izzo, to call one, and didn't want to burn his final timeout unnecessarily. Perhaps he thought the Spartans were sufficiently rattled and didn't want to give them a chance to calm down. Or perhaps he, too, got caught up in the moment.

Whatever the reason, Calhoun didn't call timeout, and neither did Izzo, and the results were disastrous for Connecticut. MSU's Durrell Summers broke free from the frantic Connecticut press, and freshman Kemba Walker, desperate to stop an easy layup, got to Summers a moment too late. Summers got the basket and the foul, made the free throw, and it was pretty much over at that point.

Calhoun may have been nervous about entering the final 60 seconds of a one-possession game without a timeout, but it's hard to see what he was saving his final stoppage for; by the time he called it, Michigan State led 80-73 and there were 30 seconds left. That one possession was the most important of the game and required a substantial strategy shift, and Calhoun needed to call his final timeout there, whatever the consequences.