The ending of last night’s instant classic between UCLA and Gonzaga has people like Jay Bilas talking about where the game ranks in the annals of NCAA Tournament history.
On SportsCenter this morning, Bilas shared the “best” phone call he got after the Bulldogs’ buzzer-beating victory. It was a late-night call from CBS color commentator Bill Raftery, who wanted to discuss what he had just witnessed in Indianapolis.
According to Bilas, longtime CBS play-by-play announcer Verne Lundquist declared last night’s game the greatest of all-time.
“When he [Raftery] called at two in the morning, we started talking about that game and the different plays in it and how great it was, and he said that Verne Lundquist had called him,” Bilas said. “Verne Lundquist called the Duke-Kentucky game in 1992, and he said ‘Tell your partner Grant Hill he’s got to move one step back, because that’s the best game ever.’”
The best call I got about the game was Bill Raftery at 2am. pic.twitter.com/Sy6fDm1cAY
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) April 4, 2021
That’s high-praise from Lundquist, who was courtside in Philadelphia 29 years ago for Christian Laettner’s iconic game-winner. Also, how cool is it to get a 2 a.m. phone call from Bill Raftery to talk hoops?
No matter where you rank Gonzaga-UCLA all-time, you can’t deny that it encapsulated all of the things we love about the NCAA Tournament. The drama was much-needed as well, considering how the first semifinal was a blowout and there have not been that many down-to-the-wire finishes throughout this year’s Big Dance.
Let’s hope tomorrow’s championship game can provide some more heroics.
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