Villanova, the small
Catholic college with about 10,000 students from Philadelphia took on the mighty North
Carolina Tar Heels with about 30,000 and gave us one of the greatest national
championship games in history.
Playing before 70,000 fans
in Houston with
millions watching on television, both teams put on an exceptional display of
why college sports are so popular. March
Madness is the NCAA national championship tourney with 68 teams battling it out
to see who is number one.
This season was full of
upsets with numerous teams reaching number one during the season only to be
beaten and it was one of few college seasons where none of the top teams
finished the season unbeaten.
There were no Michael
Jordans in this game. The star for the
Tar Heels was a guard from Iowa
but even with no marquee players, heroes were plentiful. The Iowa guard sank a three point shot with
just 4.7 seconds left in the game to tie it after Villanova had surge to a ten
point led with about seven minutes to play.
In the first half North Carolina pulled
ahead by seven point, but by the middle of the second half Villanova had
reversed the game and were ten points ahead. A furious run by Carolina the last five minutes resulted in
the three point shot with 4.7 left to tie the game.
The Wildcats threw the
ball in, their star dribbled across the half court line, then handed it back to
a teammate who let fly a long three point bomb just as time ran out and the
buzzer rang ending the game. What seemed
like an eternity but in fact was just fractions of a minute went by before the
ball swooshed through the hoop.
As the 70,000 exploded
when they realized the shot was good and the players and coaches stood
momentarily in shock, confetti rained from the ceiling and the Wildcats
realized they had pulled off one of the great upsets in an amazing game.
The top scorer for
Villanova came off the bench to score 20 points, he only scored 25 total in the
previous four games. The hero scoring
the winning bucket had a brother playing for North Carolina . Another Villanova star was home schooled in
high school by his Christian family and taught basketball by his mother.
I mention no names because
this game had so many of the most unlikely heroes they all deserve credit.
Both teams should be proud
and thanks Villanova for showing us giant killers still have a chance in America .
.