Best Buzzer Beater

The ESPN website really blows my coals. They asked what was the most memorable clutch, end-of-game shot so far in the NCAA tournament. They gave three options to choose from: Arizona's Salim Stoudamire beats Oklahoma State, or Bucknell's Chris McNaughton beats Kansas, or West Virginia gets a stop and a breakaway dunk to beat Creighton. Welllllllllllllllll! Everyone knows that the biggest, baddest, Packer-smacker was the three-pointer at the end of regulation to tie the score during the Kentucky-Michigan State regional final in Austin. Here's the scene: with under a minute to go Patrick Sparks, Kentucky's shooting guard, misses the front end of a one-and-one free throw bonus situation. Usually, he's clutch. Two free throws would give the Cats a one point lead. Instead MSU goes down court and makes two to give them a three point lead with a few seconds left. Here we are, three points down, clock ticking to oblivion. Sparks launches a three and misses, long rebound by Kentucky's Azubuike who races outside the three-point line and shoots, misses, and the rebound goes to Sparks who races to the three-point area and shoots with a couple seconds left. The ball bounces off the rim, off the glass, off the rim, and DROP's in for a THREE to tie the game as the clock runs out. The crowd of 17,000 wait on their feet for five and a half minutes while the officials review the shot to confirm whether Sparks was behind or on the three-point line. The drama was head-splitting, gut-wrenching, expletive-spewing, and that was just the sequence of events in the last seconds of the clock. The eternally long wait for the officials' call following up the shot will irrefutably go down as my choice for biggest clutch shot...even though two overtimes were needed to settle the score of this game!