It was quite a wild ride to the 2008 National Championship tonight. Here, in pictures, is a quick chronological look at the pomp and circumstance that surrounded the Kansas-Memphis title bout here in San Antonio...
(Four hours before Armageddon hits. The quiet tranquillity of the stadium you see here won't last for long as the crowd, the teams, the bands, the cheerleaders and the energy start to fill the building.)
(Jim Nantz and Billy Packer are prepping for their first on-camera appearance of the night. Doesn't it look like Nantz is looking straight at the camera as if to ask, "Who the hell is this freak taking a picture of me?")
("Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." ESPN's Shelley Smith is about to give a court-side pre-game report.)
(Ya' gotta love CBS hoop dude Gregg Doyel. Not only does he know his roundball stuff, but he also sported the coolest haircut among the Final Four media throng. Dig the Mohawk Gregg. Although he did tell me it was only temporary because his slight bald spot is exposed more with this cut.)
(The Memphis dancers and Pouncer the Tiger are keyed up for tip-off.)
(Who's more fired up, the Kansas dancers or the dudes in the lower sections that are leering at the Kansas dancers?)
(Of course, no Final Four would be complete without Jesse Jackson, right? Here, he and Houston Phi Slamma Jamma alum Clyde Drexler are chatting it up with a mutual friend.)
(Soon after, Hall-of-Famer Bill Russell happened to pass by and made this a trio of famous people all within the frame of my camera lens.)
(For the injured Roderick Stewart, this was the only way to get around the Alamodome before the game.)
(This is the Memphis Tigers walking out of the locker room on their way to the court. As you can see from some of the players that are laughing, they were loose and even quite jovial at this moment, seemingly at ease with the big game ahead of them.)
(KU, on the other hand, walked out a few minutes later and were very quiet and serious in demeanor. I didn't think this was a good sign for the Jayhawks.)
(ESPN roundball guru Andy Katz is caught courtside looking for another story to break.)
(KU seemed a step slow in the early going, although Mario Chalmers is providing some in-your-face D here.)
(At halftime, both teams walked amongst each other on their way to the locker rooms and to my surprise there was no trash talking at each other. Unlike on the way to the court to start the game where the two teams stood in the tunnel one behind the other and a couple of F-bombs were tossed back and forth - there's a picture of that in one of the earlier entries.)
(The dreadfully shy Dick Vitale gives Patrick Ewing a hug after being introduced at halftime of the game as part of the Hall of Fame class of 2008.)
(As the game went on, you could see John Calipari's body language and expressions change as the score tightened.)
(Ya' nervous there? I bet so. This Memphis dance girl had to catch her breath as she saw Kansas start making its move in the waning minutes of the game.)
(Check out this look that Calipari was shooting at Joey Dorsey. Ouch. Coach Cal was not particularly happy with his enforcer after he fouled out of the game in regulation.)
(As was their bugaboo all season long, the Tigers couldn't hit their free throws - even though Calipari swore up and down that the poor charity stripe percentage was not a big worry of his. Here Derrick Rose tosses up another late-game brick.)
(This was my view of Mario Chalmers' game-tying shot at the buzzer. Sorry for the slight blur to the picture. Then again, this whole final sequence seemed to go as fast as a blur anyway.)
(The scoreboard and the confetti didn't lie. Kansas wins the game and the national title. The jumbotron camera is fixed on MU's Joey Dorsey as he leaves the court.)
("Did this really just happen?" Chris Douglas-Roberts can barely look up as he makes the long walk back to the locker room.)
(The Jayhawk radio crew wrangles Chalmers up for a post-game interview. Doesn't that guy look like a slightly heavier version of James Carville?)
(Coach Self gets his post-game query from Jim Nantz. This is the one media interview every college coach dreams of doing.)
(Jim Gray, manning the mic for CBS Radio, gets second dibs on Self after the TV crew is done with him.)
(Funny thing I found out about the post-game celebration... See the KU player holding up the "Champions" newspaper - something that is very common for teams that win the football national championship. Now, notice the player behind him taking the paper out of his hands...)
(This is J.D. Hamilton of the NCAA, he has a wad of those faux "Champions" papers in his hands. J.D. would later tell me that those newspapers aren't allowed to be shown because only those advertisers that are "corporate champions" to the NCAA are allowed to have a post-game presence at the Final Four. So this fake Lawrence paper printed out well beforehand proclaiming Kansas as the national champs had to be confiscated.)
(To the victors go the nylon spoils. Mario Chalmers is relishing his turn up on the ladder after the game.)
(... and one last shot of the Kansas Jayhawks holding up the rather blandly-styled NCAA basketball trophy. Ever wonder what happens to the shirts and hats that were pre-printed with "Memphis - National Champions" on them? They are set in a locked room in the bowels of the stadium and later set ablaze by the NCAA, never to be seen again.)
