At the end of the March Madness Men’s Final Four, a video that involves highlights and different moments from the entire NCAA tournament is put together. The video is set to the tune of “One Shining Moment,” which is sung by David Barrett, and the lyrics to the song match perfectly with the clips that are shown throughout the video. As a passionate fan of March Madness, I look forward to the One Shining Moment video every year, and this year it did not disappoint.
One thing that I thought this year’s video did well was highlighting the stars of the tournament. Jack Gohlke, Cam Spencer, Jared McCain, Dalton Knecht, Donovan Clingan, Zach Edey, and DJ Burns Jr. had some notable appearances in the video. For example, Jack Gohlke went viral after he made 10 three-pointers to lead Oakland to an upset win over Kentucky in the first round. So, in the video, he is shown making a three and celebrating as the lyrics read “You’re a shooting star”.
One particular aspect of the 2024 One Shining Moment video that caught my attention was the lack of the Creighton Bluejays. The only time any Creighton players appeared in the video was when the camera was focused on a player from Tennessee and you could see Tre Alexander and Ryan Kalkbrenner in the frame. Given the fact that the Bluejays were a three-seed in this year’s tournament and made it to the Sweet Sixteen, I thought that they should’ve been more involved in the video.
My favorite part of the entire video is when clips from inside the teams’ locker rooms are shown. It’s awesome to see when teams celebrate after a big win by cheering, spraying water everywhere, and even dancing. The video this year did a fantastic job of showing these cool moments.
While it is great to show teams celebrating after a win, in reality, most teams experience season-ending losses in the NCAA tournament. There are several clips of players who are emotional after losing that are included in the 2024 One Shining Moment video. Although these are extremely sad moments, I like this aspect of the video because it puts emphasis on the passion that players and coaches display during March Madness.
The 2024 video ended the same way that it does every year; by showing clips from the National Championship game and then finishing off with the winning team celebrating.
This year, we got to see some great highlights from the matchup between the Purdue Boilermakers and the UConn Huskies, such an amazing putback dunk, a three-pointer, and an acrobatic layup. Finally, the 2024 video comes to a close with UConn’s coach, Dan Hurley, celebrating the Huskies’ win and Donovan Clingan hoisting the Championship trophy in the air.