By: Julio Olmo
There is a criteria which has to be met in order to make a college basketball game a historical classic for the ages;
Must be a Magic-Versus-Bird type of showdown like the 1979 duel between Michigan State and Indiana State.
A landmark event, like Texas Western’s 1966 title-game victory over Kentucky.
North Carolina State’s dramatic last second upset over highly favored Houston.
And by game’s end , winners and losers will always leave their cheerleaders in tears.
My choice for most dramatic college basketball moment ever is…
It was really something else to see a villain turn into a hero, if only for a brief moment.
People hated the two-time national champion, who eventually became the symbol of Duke basketball and turned into college basketball’s public enemy No. 1.
He made – in my opinion – perhaps the most dramatic shot in the history of the NCAA basketball tournament.
Laettner is the only player to start in four consecutive Final Fours, and was instrumental in Duke winning two national championships.
So why was – still is – Christian Laettner disliked so intensely by so many?
Maybe it was the he stomped on the chest of a downed player, or the battles he had with his teammates, or a perceived sense of entitlement.