The Kansas Jayhawks would have gone into this year’s NCAA tournament as the prohibitive favorites to cut down the nets in Atlanta, having finished the season ranked No. 1 in every major poll.
But as we know, the 2020 NCAA tournament was canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has left a huge void for college basketball fans and, well, CBS’ programming schedule.
So, Kansas fans made due with a replay.
On Sunday, CBS aired a full replay of the 2008 National Championship Game — the overtime classic between Kansas and the Derrick Rose-led Memphis team. Kansas overcame a nine-point deficit in just over two minutes and tied the game with a Mario Chalmers 3 to send the game into overtime.
Bill Self and Chalmers both live-tweeted the game, which was great. Chalmers was calling his shot while Self threw out some conspiracy theories about Memphis squirting water on the court to force a turnover.
But when the game ended (again) in a 75-68 Kansas win, Kansas fans drove to downtown Lawrence and celebrated a championship from their cars as if it had just happened — waving flags and honking their horns. It was a social-distanced celebration 12 years later.
Kansas won’t actually get to celebrate a championship this year — though the Jayhawks have the best claim to the title — but that made for a fun distraction nonetheless.
