Happy March Memories!

It's March! The season of perpetual hope! The one time of year when the Sports Sauna really kicks into gear to celebrate my favorite sports tournament, the NCAA basketball championship. And honestly, the only reason why I shouldn't write so much this year is my new wife my dissertation my new house that needs to be fully painted among other things before we move in ...nothing! We're a full 24 hours before SU plays its first ACC Tournament game, a few days away from BRACKETS, and exactly a week before the tournament tips off. (Opening round? Never heard of it.) But because I just can't wait, and because old sports clips on YouTube is reason # 783 why the 21st century is going to be the most delightful century yet, I thought I'd post a random March (first week of April counts) Memory regularly (or not...we'll see) from now until...whenever.

Today's clip is the best near-miss in the history of the tournament. Butler. Duke. The great Gordon Hayward. Watch the whole finish of the game, or just start at 5:40 for the shot.



Oh, it almost went in! Remember, this game was in Indianapolis, and had Butler pulled off the greatest upset ever in NCAA Finals, I do believe the Butler students would have paraded all the way back to their campus, six miles away.

I was watching the game with my favorite Duke fans, Dr. Paul and his dad, a Duke graduate. By the end of the game, Doc and I, despite our own affinity for the Blue Devils, and despite the fact that Butler knocked the Orange out of the tournament that year, were secretly hoping Butler would win. Even Paul's dad had to admit that part of him - a very small part - would have enjoyed seeing the impossible happen.

It didn't go in. But it almost did. Almost...