One Shining Moment

As Final Four week approaches, my thoughts always turn to the many memories of watching the games with friends and family. As a sophomore in high school, the Final Four fell on spring break, and was in Indianapolis. My friends and I took the Metro downtown, and were greeted by hummers filled with Mountain Dew (they were unveiling their wide-mouth can), the new Reebok DMX running shoe (you could take a pair for a trial run, literally), and our radio debut, giving shout-outs on Hoosier Hot 96! As high schoolers, there's nothing better than walking through the streets of downtown Indy, and yelling "Minnesotaaaaaaaa" or "UK sucks" just to hear the random reaction of cheers and boos from others walking around. I remember watching IU beat Oklahoma in 2002, and then listening to my friend Bill call Aaron McGhee's dorm room (Oklahoma has a ridiculously simple student directory on their website,or at least they did in 2002) precisely as the buzzer sounded to leave a rude comment or five. I also think about my annual phone call to Arizona, where my friend Ben is undoubtedly watching CBS' tear jerking montage set to "One Shining Moment." Ben's Final Four highlight came in 2000 when he sent conciliatory emails to Billy Donovan and Mike Miller. He got no response. He also sent Mateen Cleaves an email, suggesting that me might want to consider pressing charges for what Miller did to his ankle. He got no response.

My original intention was to research, collect, and comment on the montages from years past, but fortunately, someone else did all the work for me! And so I give you the last 10 years of "One Shining Moment," brought to you by The Morning After.

I'll give you one montage, to whet your whistle. It's from 2005, and the highlights include, but are not limited to:

- the Nevada Wolf Pack mascot getting rejected as he tries to console the Nevada player on the bench (when will people realize that mascots aren't simply clowns for our amusement. they can offer emotional support as well, if we just let them!).

- the Fairleigh player "flexing" his "bicep"

- the Lachey, Judd, Murray celebrity mini-montage

- the greatest jersey name pop in history (no one does it better than Bucknell, and everyone knows that 2005 was the year of the jersey pop)




See the other 9 years of moments here.