One Shining Moment

An early evening treat for all you hardcore TMA'ers...

It's almost inarguable that at this point that the greatest three minutes in all sports is following the NCAA Men's Basketball Finals when CBS plays a montage of tournament highlights set to the late Luther Vandross singing "One Shining Moment." One day I was having one of my regular discussions with our weekly Ohio State guest, Tony Castricone from 1460 The Fan in Columbus, and he told me that he had recently spent a very enjoyable half hour on a Sunday afternoon rifling through YouTube and watching every "One Shining Moment" montage from the past ten years. It sounded like a great idea though I was too busy at the time to actually pursue the mini-marathon on my own.

Well, with my being laid up today I decided to give the One Shining Moment Mini-Marathon a shot and aside from the bizarre version of the song *NOT* sung by Luther Vandross (2000-2002) it was just an excellent way to kill 30 minutes. Don't worry, though... I've done the digging for you guys and all you have to do is click play... (hopefully this isn't too intense on your computer's memory)

1997



Final Four: UNC, Arizona, Minnesota, Kentucky
National Championship: Arizona 84 - Kentucky 79 (OT)

1998



Final Four: UNC, Utah, Kentucky, Stanford
National Championship: Kentucky 78 - Utah 69

1999



Final Four: Duke, Michigan State, Ohio State, Connecticut
National Championship: Connecticut 77 - Duke 74

2000



Final Four: Florida, UNC, Michigan State, Wisconsin
National Championship: Michigan State 89 - Florida 76

2001



Final Four: Duke, Maryland, Michigan State, Arizona
National Championship: Duke 82 - Arizona 72

2002



Final Four: Maryland, Kansas, Indiana, Oklahoma
National Championship: Maryland 64 - Indiana 52

2003



Final Four: Texas, Syracuse, Marquette, Kansas
National Championship: Syracuse 81 - Kansas 78

2004



Final Four: Connecticut, Duke, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech
National Champhionship: Connecticut 82 - Georgia Tech 73

2005



Final Four: UNC, Louisville, Illinois, Michigan State
National Championship: UNC 75 - Illinois 70

2006



Final Four: Florida, George Mason, UCLA, LSU
National Championship: Florida 73 - UCLA 57

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Needless to say, I'm ridiculously excited for this year's installment.