Jan. 05--The only shame when Monday night's Kansas-Oklahoma game ended was that we didn't see a fourth overtime.
Everything else was perfect.
The setting: Allen Fieldhouse, the holiest of college basketball arenas.
The circumstances: No. 1 Kansas against No. 2 Oklahoma. (Or, if you consider the coaches poll, it was the writer's No. 1, Kansas, versus the coaches' No. 1, Oklahoma.)
The atmosphere: The crowd was still rocking at 11 p.m. Central time as the game spanned into a third overtime. The ESPN broadcast duo of Dick Vitale and Brent Musburger could barely hear each other. ESPN reporter Holly Rowe said Kansas players were straining to hear coach Bill Self in the huddle.
The result: Kansas' 109-106 triple overtime victory against the formerly undefeated Sooners.
Kansas coach Bill Self and Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger, who have coached 1,668 combined games, struggled to come up with a better game they've witnessed or participated in. Like most sports writers, I've racked my brain and can't come up with a more electric regular-season game in college basketball.
The games we revere the most weren't played during the regular season. "The Shot" game between Duke and Kentucky happened during the 1992 NCAA tournament. The six-overtime game between Syracuse and Connecticut took place in the 2009 Big East tournament. North Carolina State's 1983 buzzer-beating win against Houston was in the NCAA tourney.
Up until Monday night in Lawrence, Kan., the best regular-season games in history were usually upset victories.
Indiana defeated top-ranked Kentucky 73 -- 72 on a buzzer-beating three-point heave by Christian Watford at Assembly Hall in 2011. Notre Dame ended No. 1 UCLA's 88-game win streak on Jan. 19, 1974.
For longevity purposes, Gonzaga's triple overtime game against Michigan State at the Maui Invitational stood out in November 2005, but many of us have already forgotten about this game.
I suspect we'll remember the Kansas-Oklahoma game forever.
The players were gassed at the end but still smiling.
Nobody's smile seemed to beam so brightly as Oklahoma star Buddy Hield, who of course was on the losing side. He finished with 46 points having played all but one minute of a 55-minute game.
He told reporters afterward that he planned to watch the game immediately to help himself get better.
The rest of us? We are fortunate to have witnessed a game so special even once.
sryan@tribpub.com
