I am very happy to bring you my #3 Pick for Top Sports Moments of 2008:
Kansas wins the NCAA Basketball Tournament
because you have no idea how long I’ve waited for that to happen. I love their program so much that I will actually admit to owning and wearing my Kansas Jayhawk jersey that I bought in the late 1990’s when Steve Woodberry was on the team. And it figures the one year I wasn’t able to do my brackets and pick them to win, they won!
The 2007-08 KU men’s basketball team was amazing. They started the season with a 20-0 streak before falling to Kansas State on the road. They finished the regular season 31-3 and won the Big 12 tournment to gain their 51st Conference Championship in 100 years.
The win earned them the #1 seed for the Midwest in the NCAA Tournament. But as anyone who watches college basketball knows, that means absolutely nothing. The March Madness tournament is riddled with shocking upsets, especially for #1 seeds and especially for Kansas. Since 1986 the Jayhawks have been the #1 seed 8 times, the #2 seed 4 times and before the 2008 season, the only time they actually won the championship was in 1988, when they were ranked #6.
So even with all the hype from their remarkable season and their amazing 84-66 win over the tournment’s #1 overall seed North Carolina, KU fans were still wary of believing that 2008 would be their year. (Could be because of that small incident in 2003 when they lost the championship to Syracuse….)
But it was their year. And not only that, but the 2008 NCAA National Championship was one of the most memorable games in tourney history.
With two minutes left in the second half, the Jayhawks were losing 60-51 to the Memphis Tigers. But in March Madness, anything can happen in those critical two minutes. For those following 117.9 seconds Kansas battled back and with 2.1 seconds remaining, Mario Chalmbers sank a 3-point shot to tie the game and sent the game into overtime.
In overtime, Kansas went on to outscore Memphis 12-5 to win the game 75-68 and become 2008 NCAA Division I National Championships.
It was their long-time coming and very well deserved, third national title.
40,000 screaming Jayhawk fans line the streets in Kansas
Up Next: #2 The end of a baseball legacy
go back to #4 The Boston Three-Party
more about KU and Rock Chalk Jayhawks
Check out the Top Sports Commercials of 2008
About the author: Jennifer Taglione is the owner of this fabulous website Stiletto Sports. Despite writing well over 500 posts, she still maintains that she is not a sports writer! She is however a huge fan of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Mark Sanchez, the Celtics, and totally kicks butt on March Madness brackets! Connect with her by following her on Twitter @StilettoSportsJ and subscribing to her weekly newsletter. For more info check out the About the Editor page!
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