David defeats Goliath at the Cinderella Dance

It was a wild weekend in sports. But of course. We don't call it March Madness for nothing. For me, the end of March could not have been sweeter, as the Mississippi Bulldogs dethroned the UCONN Lady Huskies women's basketball team.

This might be the first time a Final Four matchup, as noteworthy as every one of them is, upstaged the ensuing championship game. Nonetheless, I would be remiss if I did not stop and congratulate Coach Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks for their historic victory against Mississippi State, which garnered South Carolina its first title on Sunday. Staley, whom I have admired for years, now has that college championship as a coach that eluded her as a player at Temple University. She was a collegiate star, a WNBA star, an Olympian, and an all-around class act. She has now led her team and her school to the ultimate. They have won it all. But the story of the year belongs to Mississippi State and what it accomplished Friday night.

It was David versus Goliath. Cinderella at the big dance.

When Coach Geno Auriemma and his team won their 100th consecutive game, I wrote about it. I showed the team -- a team that I have despised for years -- the love and respect it deserved while emphasizing that my heart belongs to the late Coach Pat Summitt and the Tennessee Lady Vols. I pushed past the loyalty of that rivalry to write that article because the occasion dictated it. Well, the occasion of UCONN's exit from championship contention dictates that I now share how the mighty has fallen.

No one gave Mississippi State a shot against UCONN. Anyone who said he did is flat-out lying, but no one would tell a lie that bold. It was UCONN after all. When UCONN took the court on Friday, it was looking for its 112th consecutive win and a chance to play for its fifth consecutive NCAA championship, having already won six of the last eight. Considering that the team regularly blows opponents away by 60 points or more, again, no one expected UCONN to lose -- but I sure was praying, and I enlisted an army of prayer warriors to do the same. I joked about it, but my hopes and dreams were no less serious. Yes, everyone who knows me knows I am a lifelong, card-carrying member of the UCONN "Hatah" Club -- and proud of it.

The beauty of Mississippi State's win was the way it won. Morgan William, listed at 5' 5" but is about 5' 2' if she's an inch had been told that she was too tiny to play the sport. How does such a LittleBit, as she is nicknamed, rise to the challenge of dealing the death blow to Goliath?

There was nothing little about William's play Friday, and the shot at the buzzer that secured her team's place in the championship game was certainly big -- her heart even bigger. Like David against Goliath, William had one shot and not a lot of time to get it off. As they say in sports, it was do-or-die. William did. As Goliath was not used to someone withstanding his pressure, so Auriemma and his players were not used to the pressure the Bulldogs put on them, but there it was. Goliath doesn't usually fall, so conquering him would be no small feat. The game went back and forth in the second half, and at the end of regulation, the two teams were knotted up.

I have played, coached, and been a basketball enthusiast all my life, so I have witnessed many incredible games. This, however, may very well have been the best game -- male or female -- I have ever seen. It's the game everyone is talking about. Some are even calling it the greatest upset in sports.

When it looked like we were headed into double-overtime, when it looked like Goliath would do what Goliath does -- slay his opponent -- David had "the rock" in hand, and at the risk of mixing my metaphors, "Down goes UCONN! Down goes UCONN!"

The look on the Mississippi State players' faces at the end of the championship game against the Gamecocks revealed that they were not just glad to be in the championship game Sunday. No, they wanted to win it all. But what they accomplished against UCONN will be remembered long after people forget who lost to South Carolina. I'm still luxuriating in that victory, and I just know Coach Summitt was in Heaven high-fiving folks and dancing with angels.

Adrienne Ross is an editor, writer, public speaker, former teacher and coach, Southeast Missourian editorial board member and owner of Adrienne Ross Communications.