We’ve been anxiously awaiting the next thirty days for the last eleven months. You have too. In fact, if this isn’t your favorite time of year by a healthy margin then you should probably click away from this site for a while. Because we plan on waterboarding you with March Madness coverage. Seriously, you’re going to feel like Dick Cheney himself is holding a Spalding-logoed towel over your face. Your intake will be so voluminous that you’ll be drooling Gus Johnson and bracket residue in your sleep. Or Seth Davis, if that’s more your style. The point is that we’re all locked in and ready to go. Are you? To help us all get into the mood, we like to click around a fancy little website called YouTube for a daily dose of notable events, happenings, finishes, ups and downs relating to the next month. We’re going to try to make this video compilation a little smarter, a little edgier, a little historical-er. Or whatever. Sure, you’ll see some old favorites that never lose their luster, but you’ll also see some that maybe you’ve forgotten or never knew to begin with. That’s the hope, at least. We’ll be matching the videos by the appropriate week, so for the next eight days, we’ll be re-visiting some of the timeless moments from Championship Week. Enjoy.
Championship Week
Dateline: 2006 Big East Tournament
Context: Coming into the Big East Tournament, senior Gerry McNamara’s Syracuse Orange (19-11, 7-9) were bubbling and trending toward the NIT with three straight losses. Over the course of the next four nights, G-Mac electrified the Madison Square Garden crowd with consecutive nights of buzzer-beating threes against Cincinnati and #1 Connecticut (the first to win; the second to tie). On the third night against Georgetown, his five second-half threes rallied the Orange to another win, and in the championship game he sealed Tournament MVP honors as SU became the first Big East team to win the title playing four games in four days. Of particular interest is that McNamara had been voted the “most overrated” player in the Big East by two different publications. Enjoy this montage, although, apologies in advance for the Pat Benatar…