Front Page Of Sports This Week

From The Cheap Seats: NCAA Ending Didn’t Disappoint, One Shining Moment Did

Come on CBS. Seriously? Jennifer Hudson singing ‘One Shining Moment’? In another attempt to balk at tradition in sports, CBS had to out do itself in the final lasting images of their annual NCAA men’s basketball tournament that fans stay up past 10:30 to see.

The song has history. It was written by David Barrett a singer/songwriter from Michigan in the mid-1980’s. It was originally planned to debut after the Super Bowl in 1987, but was cancelled. Then, CBS asked to use the song after the 1987 NCAA championship game between Indiana and Syracuse. The positive public response led to it becoming an annual feature. It didn’t hurt that Keith Smart made the game winning shot as time expired to give kids all over the country dreams of doing the same.

I have watched over the years as they have gone from Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandross have sung it. Pendergrass was ok, Vandross was not.

It’s like going to your favorite band’s concert and not hearing that one song that made them as a band. Why mess with it? Why change something that works? Was there data somewhere that said that they needed a change? I’d like to see that information if it exists.

I go back to what changed. Did the Pendergrass version not inspire? Did the Vandross version not motivate? What will this version do? Ruin the moment? Turn off TV’s?

So, how do they come back from this? My suggestion is move everything to ESPN. The NCAA wants to expand the tournament to 96 teams which could open the door for a new network to cover the new first round of games. If any part of the tournament is on ESPN, I suggest the just move the whole thing there. They already have Jay Bilas and Brent Musberger calling games for CBS as they also work for ESPN/ABC.

ESPN covers college basketball well and basically camps out each week during the season with their College Gameday show that they started in recent seasons for basketball.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, this column is about the 90 seconds after the postgame is over. Youtube it if you need to.

Maybe I’m stuck in the 1980’s. However, when the song begins with Indiana celebrating and shots that pan the disappointed Syracuse bench and crowd, that is good stuff. Oh well, I wonder what the public response on this will be to this years version? Will there be one?

With that said, this was the best NCAA tournament that I can remember. There were so many good basketball games.

Monday’s title game was a gritty performance by the Butler Bulldogs and part of me felt that the last shot by Butler was meant to go in.

Though next year may not match this year, there will be a lot of watchers I am sure. Can UNI make a third straight tournament? Will Iowa or Iowa State get back to the big dance. We will see.

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you, at the game!