Three Shining Moments

By: Eli Kaberon

At the end of every National Championship game for the past 21 years, CBS has aired a highlight montage while the song “One Shining Moment” by Luther Vandross is played in the background. It signifies different things for different people, but for me it always confirmed the thinking that in every game, there is one play, one basket, one defensive stand, one coaching decision, one something that separates the winners from the losers.

In Kansas’ historic 75-68 overtime victory on Monday night, my theory was proved wrong. There were in fact three shining moments that changed the game for the Jayhawks, who erased a nine-point lead in the final two minutes of the second half to extend the game into overtime. All three plays occurred in those final 120 seconds of regulation and they helped change history from a Memphis Tiger Title to a Rock, Chalk, Championship for Kansas.

Moment One:
As Memphis forward Robert Dozier in-bounded the ball with 1:54 remaining on the clock and a seven point Tigers lead on the scoreboard, it looked as though Kansas would need a series of big plays to make up the difference before time expired. And at that very moment, a big play occurred. Jayhawks guard Sherron Collins stole the inbounds pass from Dozier and four seconds later, sank a three-point shot to cut the margin to four. It was only the second three-pointer made by KU all night, though they would end up sinking one more before the night was done (See Moment Three). Collins was huge off the Kansas bench with 11 points, six assists and three steals, but no play he made all season was bigger than the thief-and-three he converted to give his team some life with just under two minutes left in regulation.

Moment Two:
The score was 62-56 with 1:23 left when Kansas guard Mario Chalmers was grabbed behind the three-point line on a reach-in foul. That put Chalmers on the line, but more importantly, it put Memphis center Joey Dorsey on the bench with his fifth foul of the game. Dorsey, who was the Tigers top rebounder during the course of the season with nearly ten boards a game, had a horrible night. He finished with more fouls than rebounds (five to two) and didn’t do anything to contain Kansas big man Darrell Arthur (20 points and ten boards). Yet none of that mattered. At the end of a National Title game, a team would like to have its senior captain on the floor. And because of Dorsey’s silly grab - Chalmers wasn’t even attacking the basket when the foul occurred - KU got the opportunity to cut the lead without the clock moving and forced Dorsey to sit and watch the rest of the contest from the sideline.

Moment Three:
It’s impossible to define what clutch is; instead only comparisons can be used. It’s the difference between Mike Vanderjagt, the most accurate kicker in NFL regular season history and known playoff choke artist, versus Adam Vinatieri, the kicker who has twice made field goals with less than three seconds left to win Super Bowls. On Monday night, clutch was the difference between Memphis guards Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose compared with Kansas guard Mario Chalmers. C.D.R. and Rose had nice nights - a combined 40 points - but when it mattered most, they were about as big as an infant’s pinky. The two Tigers were a combined one for five from the free throw line in the last 75 seconds of the second half, proving correct the critics that had been saying all season long that Memphis couldn’t cut down the nets at the end of the year because their performance at the charity stripe was too poor. Chalmers on the other hand showed his coolness when it mattered most, which is fitting for a player who hails from Anchorage, Alaska. The junior point guard drained the game-tying three-pointer with just over three seconds left in the second half, pushing the game into OT knotted up at 63. Any time a player makes a shot to tie an NCAA Championship game in the final seconds is clutch, but for Chalmers to do it while off-balance and with two hands in his face was remarkable.

After finishing the second half on a 12-3 run, Kansas kept up the attack in overtime, scoring on two layup’s and an alley-oop dunk before Memphis was able to put some points on the scoreboard. But even after the Tigers made it 69-65 with just over two minutes left in the extra session, it was too late. The big comeback and Chalmers’ three had given the Jayhawks the momentum, and they wouldn’t give it up. KU ended up out-scoring Memphis 12-5 in the final five minutes of the 2007-08 college basketball season, giving the National Championship to the only school in the country whose mascot is a made-up bird. And that cued up Luther Vandross, who once again reminded us that regardless of how you interpret the words, the song that signals the end of another year of college hoops is as much of a moment as any of the action played on the court.

The ball is tipped and there you are
you’re running for your life
you’re a shooting star

And all the years
no one knows just how hard you worked
but now it shows
in one shining moment, it’s all on the line
in one shining moment, there frozen in time

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Eli Kaberon is a 2005 graduate of Evanston Township High School and currently is attending Columbia College in the loop, majoring in print journalism. A life-long fan of the Cubs, Bears and Bulls, Eli also works as a seat vendor at Wrigley Field and has sold hot dogs to everyone ranging from Bears tight end Greg Olsen to Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Eli can be reached at ekaberon@yahoo.com.

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