April 5, 2005

By John Hennegan

Special to CSTV.com

Monday night, it looked as if Illinois might do it again.

The Illini stormed back from 15 points down in the second half. But a combination of Sean May's dominance and two key missed opportunities down the stretch kick-started the party on Franklin Street.

Luther Head led the charge for Illinois but came up short, turning the ball over and missing an open three in the game's waning moments.  Raymond Felton shook off early foul trouble, hit a big three and nailed some key free throws to ice it for North Carolina, giving Roy Williams his first ever National Championship.

Really good game. Not great. But really good. I guess we can't complain after all the early upsets and possibly the best Elite Eight games of all time.

It's going to be a long off-season for Big Ten tournament MVP James Augustine, who had zero points in nine minutes before fouling out. And after a great first half, Rashad McCants pulled an Amelia Earhart in the second half.

But the aforementioned Luther should not hang his ... um, he should keep his chin up. I think the bigger story last night, however, involved another Luther ... and a possible new version of "One Shining Moment"?

I usually hate that song.  The lyrics lame, the arrangement lamer. It's usually right up there with these on my "Most Hated Songs" short list ...

1. "Good Thing" by the Fine Young Cannibals

2.  The Paul McCartney holiday song that goes "sim-ply hav-ing a wonderful Christmas time"

3. "Roam" by the B-52's

But this time, when I listened, it seemed like Vandross must have gone back into the lab and worked out a new version - one not as cheesy. After nearly 20 years of dread, I was given my most satisfying experience ever with the overture. It might even go so far as to rank it as my second favorite LV offering of all time (don't worry, it's still a distant second to "Never Too Much"). So it was a good feeling to drift off to sleep knowing that at least one Luther left St. Louis victorious ...

And if anyone has information to confirm or deny my suspicion regarding the new version, please e-mail me at this address (jhennegan@cstv.com). And don't bother checking www.oneshiningmoment.com. There was no "Breaking News" or "Vandross News" tab.  Just quotes from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Coach K saying how great a song OSM is.

In summary, old OSM version bad, new OSM version (if it exists) better. But it's still can't hold a candle to anything by Peabo ...

So another great post-season has drawn to a close. The drama started with the two missed free throws in the Conference USA final and never stopped. So thanks again to Delaware State and Villanova for not giving up.

Thank you to Vermont and Bucknell for giving them hell, Patrick Sparks for getting the roll, and Kevin Pittsnogle for being awesome.

And to Illinois and UNC for all their resilience.

It's efforts like these that continue to make the NCAA Tournament the best of all American sports championships.

Thanks for reading. I had fun writing.

John Hennegan contributed regularly to CSTV.com throughout the NCAA Tournament.