Author's Note: I wanted to show a different perspective about the game that will always be remembered. Kentucky fans everywhere still believe that Watford traveled before he shot the ball.
“Here we are in Bloomington Indiana for a great match up tonight”. “We’ve got #1 Kentucky and #15 Indiana”. “I’m Jeff Carl and I’m here with Dick Vitale”. “Let’s go down to center court for tip off and get ready for a crazy game”. In this intense and extremely close game, it came down to the last shot by Christian Watford, which most people think was clean and released before time expired. When watching this nerve racking game and seeing that last second shot, in my perspective I saw Christian Watford catch the ball, travel, then shoot the ball for the win. In this point of view piece I will show the view I had when watching this game.
This was the one game all year I was just a little worried about because it was at Indiana, which according to www.BleacherReport.com is the forth toughest arena in NCAA basketball. Throughout the whole game each team would never fall far behind the other. At halftime it was 29 to 28, with Indiana on top. This game was going to be decided by defense and clearly both teams knew how play defense. Kentucky was coming into this game undefeated and with two future first and second draft picks to go into the NBA. It was so incredible how two freshmen would be the first and second draft picks.
It was a huge game to me, being a big Kentucky fan and also hating Indiana. My dad and I almost got tickets for the game, but were just a little too late. This was a game where you couldn’t take your eyes off the screen or even leave the room. Throughout the whole game it seemed as if my eyes were glued to the screen. As much faith as I had in my team, I was still very nervous and had a bad feeling that something terrible would happen this game.
With six minutes left in the game, Kentucky was playing excellent and turning stops into points. With three minutes left Indiana was down by seven and was forced to call a timeout. Kentucky Coach Calipari told his team they need to play defense and commit no stupid fouls. As time came down to 37 seconds it was a tie game and Kentucky’s ball. Kentucky wasted almost all the shot clock and got a layup and was up by two with 5.6 seconds left. Indiana called a quick timeout and got the ball on the other half of the court. Jordan Hull brought the ball up with great speed and passed it to Christian Watford to shoot at the last second. He caught the ball, stepped forward, then took two more steps and shot the ball and made the basket. Soon after, everyone stormed the court thinking they won. The referees had to fight their way to see the replay.
I’m shouting at the TV saying that he traveled. When the referee called the shot good, it made me furious. My team just got robbed from a win and would no longer be ranked number one overall. I believe the referees called the shot clean because every student that could fit on that floor was on it. If they called it a travel and Indiana lost, it would have turned into one huge fight and so many people might have been injured. Even though Kentucky won the National Championship that same year, Kentucky should have never lost that game.
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