After two days of expected outcomes and teams doing just enough to appease their coaches, the Heels and the Hokies served up a classic. This is the kind of game fans pass down through the generations. This is a game and an outcome that left Tech coach Seth Greenberg choking back emotion in the post game news conference -- not because he lost, because he was proud of his team.

The building came alive with thunderous roars and angry boos. Deron Washington elegantly exploded with an alley oop dunk that stunned 20,000 witnesses. Carolina's Wayne Ellington answered with two, clutch threes that gave the Heels a chance. North Carolina trailed almost every second of the 2nd half until Tyler Hansbrough won it with .8 seconds left.

Any thoughts that Carolina had come for a "cocktail party" (Roy Williams suggested that's what the ACC Tournament has become) evaporated in a frenzied celebration that proved once again basketball is what Hansbrough does best. In fact, Hansbrough does basketball as well as anyone who's ever suited up in this tournament.

Even as we watched Carolina's Player of the Year miss a handful of shots at close range, everyone in the house knew that when it counted #50 would do something. Hansbrough wasn't sure how he grabbed Ty Lawson's miss in the final 2 seconds, but once he grabbed it, he wheeled and fired in one, pure motion. Hansbrough told us after the game that his last game winning shot came back in high school. He couldn't remember what game it was back in Missouri. I guess when you do enough to have your jersey retired at UNC, some of the details of high school glory kind of fade away.

Afterwards, Ty Lawson freely admitted he wanted to face Duke again in the finals. No offense intened to anyone at Clemson. Lawson said simply, "It's one of the great rivalries in sports. Who wouldn't want to play in that again?"

Thank you, Dean Smith. Thank you, Virginia Tech and North Carolina. Until today I couldn't really say that I've paid witness to America's best basketball tournament. Now I can.