The Final Four is bringing back some powerful memories for Jim Nantz, who did play-by-play for the event for CBS from 1991 through 2023.
One Final Four Nantz vividly recalls also took place in the Alamodome in 2008. That event, like this year’s, also featured the four No. 1 seeds, the only other time that has happened. But that Final Four also marked the swan song for longtime CBS color analyst Billy Packer, who retired after the 2008 NCAA Championship game.
Nantz spent almost two decades working with Packer, who passed away in January 2023 at age 82. Nantz is at the Final Four this weekend as a fan, cheering on the Houston Cougars, but he found time to chat with Billy Packer’s son Mark, a. broadcaster with the ACC Network.
Nantz said he’ll never forget working that 2008 Final Four with Billy Packer.
He recalled Kansas jumping out to a huge lead over North Carolina in the first half in one of Saturday’s semifinals.
“Billy used to work with like a manilla folder in front of him. And it was 7:38 to go … and I think the score might have been 38-12 Kansas,” Nantz said. (Nantz, who is legendary for his photographic memory, got that right on both the score and time remaining.)
“And I looked at him, and we’re getting counted down to (commercial) break … and he takes his folder and goes, ‘Jim, this game is over,'” Nantz recalled. “And I said, ‘It is?’ My voice cracked. He said, ‘It is.’ I said something like, ‘We’ll be right back to San Antonio after this.'”
North Carolina cut that deficit to four midway through the second half, but the Jayhawks held on.
“His last game, that Monday night in San Antonio, was Memphis against Kansas,” Nantz continued. “And my distinct memory of that was the game went to overtime, Mario Chalmers (Memphis guard) hit a jump shot at the buzzer top of the key to send it to overtime. And my first thought was, ‘Oh, what a gift, I’ve got five more minutes to work with Billy.’ I’d been by his side for 18 years, and I didn’t want it to end.”
At the time, Nantz and several CBS executives knew Packer was retiring, but fans and players did not. This set up an awkward scene for Nantz during the Jayhawks’ postgame celebration.
“We interviewed Bill Self (Kansas coach), Jayhawks players were around us, and I was looking at Billy, my hands were shaking with the microphone, no one knew why, and I just thanked Billy for another great road to the Final Four. And it ended,” Nantz said.
“You’re bringing back some great memories right now for me. I miss him so much,” Nantz told Mark Packer.
Nantz recalled going to dinner with Packer and others after that championship game.
“We celebrated his great career deep into the night,” Nantz said, “and the next day, I had to get up really early to fly to Augusta, leaving behind one of the most treasured relationships of my life that didn’t end that night in San Antonio but the broadcasting side did.
“And you can bet when I’m sitting in the arena tomorrow and hopefully Monday night … I’ll be thinking about that very occasion.”