The Dayton-Kansas finale, called by Dick Vitale.

This week saw famed ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale return to the booth following his October lymphoma diagnosis and ongoing chemo treatments. And he wound up getting to call a spectacular game Friday, the 2-3 Dayton Flyers’ buzzer-beating 74-73 win over the 4-0 No. 4 Kansas Jayhawks in the ESPN Events Invitational semifinal in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. That shot, from Mustapha Amzil (who grabbed the ball following a blocked layup from Malachi Smith), was the only basket Amzil made from the field all day, but it came at a great time. Here’s that call from Vitale:

“Oh my god! Oh my god! It went down! Look at the bedlam! Look at the bedlam! I can’t believe it!” The passion there from Vitale illustrates just how pumped up he still gets for college basketball, and it drew a lot of praise on Twitter as well.

That was Dayton’s first win over a top-5 team since they beat then-No. 3 DePaul 72-71 back in February of 1984. And it led to a great reaction from Amzil afterwards, too, as David Jablonski of The Dayton Daily News relays:

“It was great,” Amzil said. “I had to watch the ball bounce in and down. It’s hard to describe. It’s surreal. It’s a great feeling. I saw the clock when I was driving. I was about to kick it out, but there was just one second so I just had to take the shot.”

It sure worked out that he took the shot. And this was another fun moment in Vitale’s return to the ESPN broadcast booth. He received a standing ovation pre-game, and he was the perfect voice to call that finish.

[ESPN, Dayton Daily News]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.