2008 Woodie Awards
66 reasons to love the 2008 NCAA Tourney
Brian Fitzsimmons
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: Sports
The "Chalk and Awe" (1) generated from Monday's thrilling overtime game (2) resurrected euphoric memories of Danny and the Miracles Kansas team twenty years ago (3) and gave the nation a new reason to love college basketball (4).
Mario Chalmers let one go in desperation and found salvation (5) for the precious extended period of time and it turned out to be just what the Jayhawks needed (6). Memphis, which played hard the entire season and broke a record for most wins in a year (7), waved the white flag in the end, and the crown was given to the rightful owner (8).
The kings of the NCAA tournament moved past Portland State (9), UNLV (10), and Villanova (11) with ease. They dismantled Stephen Curry's torrid run (12) and moved the clock up one more hour to midnight for Davidson (13)- the tournament's Cinderella team, though daylight saving's time was some time before.
Last week, they gave Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough (14) a real reason to forego the NBA draft (15) and return to North Carolina (16) for one more year, by coming out of the gate with a game-plan Roy Williams' crew wasn't ready for (17).
And finally, they took John Calipari's self-proclaimed "Princeton offense on steroids (18)" and transformed it into the likes of the New York Knicks under tranquilizers. It was the perfect formula (19): pressure in the half court set (20), out-rebounding the opponent (21), and taking advantage of missed free throws down the stretch (22). Oh, and Joe Dorsey fouling out in regulation (23) helped too.
Don't forget, as much as the final game invigorated us (24), the rest of the field put on one heck of show (25). We had a bunch of wild games including Tennessee being dumped by Louisville (26), Davidson putting away Wisconsin (27), San Diego disposing of UConn (28) and- who can forget- Western Kentucky (29) ousting Drake (30) at the buzzer in the opening round (31).
In addition, we were able to enjoy a first round game featuring future NBA stars (31) O.J. Mayo (32) against Michael Beasley (33) when Kansas State (34) knocked off USC (35).
Mario Chalmers let one go in desperation and found salvation (5) for the precious extended period of time and it turned out to be just what the Jayhawks needed (6). Memphis, which played hard the entire season and broke a record for most wins in a year (7), waved the white flag in the end, and the crown was given to the rightful owner (8).
The kings of the NCAA tournament moved past Portland State (9), UNLV (10), and Villanova (11) with ease. They dismantled Stephen Curry's torrid run (12) and moved the clock up one more hour to midnight for Davidson (13)- the tournament's Cinderella team, though daylight saving's time was some time before.
Last week, they gave Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough (14) a real reason to forego the NBA draft (15) and return to North Carolina (16) for one more year, by coming out of the gate with a game-plan Roy Williams' crew wasn't ready for (17).
And finally, they took John Calipari's self-proclaimed "Princeton offense on steroids (18)" and transformed it into the likes of the New York Knicks under tranquilizers. It was the perfect formula (19): pressure in the half court set (20), out-rebounding the opponent (21), and taking advantage of missed free throws down the stretch (22). Oh, and Joe Dorsey fouling out in regulation (23) helped too.
Don't forget, as much as the final game invigorated us (24), the rest of the field put on one heck of show (25). We had a bunch of wild games including Tennessee being dumped by Louisville (26), Davidson putting away Wisconsin (27), San Diego disposing of UConn (28) and- who can forget- Western Kentucky (29) ousting Drake (30) at the buzzer in the opening round (31).
In addition, we were able to enjoy a first round game featuring future NBA stars (31) O.J. Mayo (32) against Michael Beasley (33) when Kansas State (34) knocked off USC (35).
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