Ohio St. 60 - 62 Kentucky (Final) (NCAA Tournament) (No. 2,051)

There are moments in the life of a fan base that are never forgotten. Moments that become markers for years to come. This game was one of those moments. Twenty years from now, UK will lose two or three close road games, and people will be complaining on the message boards, and someone will come on with a post about how in 2011, UK lost six conference road games and still upset Ohio State in the Sweet 16. Someday, UK will be going up against a great big man, and someone will remind everyone of how Josh Harrellson took on Jared Sullinger. Someday, UK will have a talented freshman with a bad attitude, and someone will remind everyone of how DeAndre Liggins turned his career around. Someday, people will be complaining about how we never seem to win on the last shot, and someone will remind everyone of Brandon Knight's game-winner against Ohio State.

For those fans too young to remember the glory days of the 1990s, this game will be particularly important in their memories. I am confident that whatever else he remembers of his childhood, Number 3 son -- who stuck with UK through the whole game -- will remember his dad jumping and screaming around the basement after time finally expired. For make no mistake: this was one of the great victories.

Ohio State fans will believe, no doubt, that their team played far below its potential. And maybe that is true. But they looked awfully good to me. In an odd way, the game felt very much like all of those SEC road games that we had to watch all year: a low-scoring, grinding sort of game against a team with a really good big guy and a red-hot shooting guard. But Sullinger (21 pts, 16 rebounds) and Jon Diebler (4-7 from three-point range, including an amazing shot with 21 seconds left to tie the game at 60) were much better than others we have seen in those roles. And I can see why the OSU fans were so confident that their freshman point guard Aaron Craft could match Brandon Knight. They were a very, very good team, and if Brandon Knight had missed that last shot -- or if OSU's three-pointer at the buzzer had gone in -- this would be a very different report.

As for UK's performance, what can you say? Let's start with Coach Cal, who pushed all the right buttons. He decided to guard Sullinger with Harrellson one-on-one, and therefore was able to hold OSU to 6-16 shooting from three-point range. He shuffled players in and out very effectively in the first half, when UK was in big foul trouble. Most importantly, his team executed better than OSU on play after play after play. This was a tense, nervous, exhausting sort of game -- but UK handled the pressure at least as well as the more experienced Buckeyes. The next time someone claims Cal can't coach, he should have to watch the film of this game.

Then let's talk about Liggins. I don't think I have ever disliked any UK player as much as I disliked Liggins as a freshman. He was the single stupidest player I had ever seen. I actually wanted Cal to kick him off the team. But somehow, he has managed to retain his energy, yapping, and cockiness while becoming a remarkably clever and determined player. His defense was as good as usual today, but UK needed him to score -- and he responded with 15 points.

Harrellson's performance has already been mentioned, but it is worth repeating: he pretty much played Sullinger to a draw. Sullinger was very good, but Harrellson almost matched his numbers with 17 points and 10 rebounds. He was even 3-3 from the line. And his three blocks were part of 11 blocks that pretty much destroyed OSU's two-point offense, and left the Buckeyes almost wholly dependent on Sullinger and Diebler. Harrellson was already going to be remembered as a fan favorite; this game may make him a legend. The play where he saved the ball by throwing it (really hard) off of Sullinger will be remembered forever as a classic example of how to show the other team's star that you are not afraid of them.

And what can you say about Brandon Knight? So many times this year, things went wrong for UK at the end of games. But he has now hit two game-winning shots in three NCAA games, and has carved a spot for himself in UK history that will not be forgotten.

Jones, Miller, and Lamb all had a hard time scoring against the Buckeyes' very long and physical defense, but they all did everything they could to help -- and they each made key plays when needed. I thought Jones's play in the first half -- when he was hampered by two early fouls -- was essential to keeping us in the game.

This is a happy post, because this was a happy night. But I want to make two angry points. First, if UK had lost this game the message boards -- heck, the whole Internet -- would have melted down with rage over the officiating. In the first half, UK had 11 fouls and OSU had only 4. For the game, UK shot only 14 FTs to 22 for OSU. And UK got hit with all sorts of other terrible calls -- a ridiculous five-second call, multiple mistakes on out-of-bounds calls, a ludicrous technical on Liggins, and a general willingness to let Craft do whatever he wanted. (They only called 2 of his 9 fouls).

Second, on Sunday night we have to play the worst team in all of American sports. I don't respect UNC or any aspect of their program. They are the anti-Kentucky -- the antithesis of everything we like about college basketball. They are floppers, whiners, complainers, and snobs. They cheated us when we played them earlier in the year -- fouling out four of our guys in a two-point game. And they shouldn't even be in this game, because under any fair interpretation of the rules they would have been eliminated last Sunday against Washington -- even though they got to play that game in their home state. For 34 years, I have rooted for them to lose every single game they play. And I sincerely hope we destroy them on Sunday.

But that will be a topic for another post. Tonight we celebrate this great, great victory. And I think we will be celebrating it in memory for decades to come.