Four or five years ago Kansas University played Oklahoma. At the time, KU was ranked #1 in the country and Oklahoma was #2, or the other way around; I honestly don't remember which. It was a fantastic game; my memory is that Oklahoma had a chance to win it in regulation but missed a free throw in the closing seconds. It went to a second overtime and then a third, with each deadline being a story; you could have written several paragraphs about why KU didn't win it in the first overtime, why Oklahoma didn't win it in the second overtime, etc. They didn't. KU finally won it in three overtimes.
The whole crowd after the game was just dizzy, just disoriented by the madness of it all. It was an unbelievable experience, the sustained tension of that game. I wasn't sitting with my wife; I was watching the game from the scout's seats with a friend who works in the NBA. In the second overtime he caught the eye of another NBA guy sitting just down from us and pointed his finger at the top of the seats, circling the Field House. I knew what he meant by it: Look at that; we're in the 3rd overtime and there isn't an empty seat in the house. You'd never see that at an NBA game. At an NBA game there would be empty seats at the start of the game; by the third overtime the place would be half empty.
On the way out (re-uniting with my wife) we talked to an OU fan. "I've never seen us a win a game up here," he said. "I came up this year because I figured this was our best change. Came pretty close."
And then. . I hate to tell this part of the story, but it's true so I guess I'll throw it in." On the way out I ran into a guy that I play poker with; my wife had never met him, so I introduced her. His name was Shane. He was walking with his 5-year-old son, and he pointed at the boy and said "50 years from now, he'll be able to tell his son that he was at this game." Just a few weeks later Shane committed suicide. Came out of nowhere; we had no idea there was anything going on with him.
Well, since we're here, I'll go on a minute longer. KU and Missouri were bitter rivals in basketball--and in many other ways, not just sports--dating back to the cross-border raids of the 19th century, which killed hundreds of people. It wasn't just sports; people really hated each other, not as much now as they did ten years ago, and for the 160 years before that.
Anyway, it was always described as "the oldest college rivalry west of the Mississippli"' KU and Missouri had played one another annually for 100 years or something. Of course KU was ahead in the win count, but Missouri had had a lot of great teams, and they beat us many times.
In this year.. .don't remember the exact year. . .Missouri had announced that they were withdrawing from the Big 12 and intended to enter the SEC in the following year, so this game was, in a sense, permanent. Missouri was 19 points ahead with 9:30 to play. KU often goes into a full-on blitz press with about 4 minutes to go when we're in danger of losing. You usually pick up two or three possessions before the other team adjusts to it, gets another ball handler on the floor and re-sets their mind to realize that every pass and every dribble is going to be under pressure. But this time Self went to the bull-on blitz press with about 9 minutes to go, which was risky, because the "shock factor" isn't going to last for 9 minutes, but you know. . .exigent circumstances require unusual responses. KU came all the way back, and won the game in the last seconds; I think Missouri missed a wild shot at the gun.
The emotional reaction in the field house for that one was even crazier than the OU game, perhaps because in the OU game we were all half-exhausted. But the mass exhiliaration in the field house was like nothing I haver seen. It was hot as hell, for one thing; it was a cold night, but the heat in the field house had built up over the game so that people were sweating. Self vaulted off the bench and threw his arm in the air so hard he almost threw it out of joint. People were screaming and jumping, and everybody started hugging their neighbors. Hugging strangers. It was quite an experience.