Posted: Tue March 31, 1998 at 3:17 PM ET

I could barely see him through all the legs of the players and coaches and cameramen who had suddenly taken the floor at the Alamodome, but somehow, when I caught a glimpse of a guy in a white jersey, lying on the floor face down and sobbing, I knew it was Cameron Mills.

Last week, I sat with Mills and Scott Padgett, Mills' teammate and fellow pro wrestling enthusiast, in their hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida, for a 30-minute interview. All I had to do was turn on my tape recorder and get out of the way. And as I saw Mills lying there on the floor, and watched how the rest of the Wildcats celebrated together, so obviously overjoyed to be sharing the moment with one another, I felt happy not just for them, but for college basketball, which has itself a truly deserving champion.

Let's be honest here. Kentucky is like the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Yankees. If you're not rooting for 'em, you're rooting against 'em. But it was hard not to root for this year's team. It was a team that knew how to win, that mounted stunning comebacks time and again and always did so with class and humility. As the group came over to CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Billy Packer for the postgame interview, Tubby Smith looked at Packer and asked, "Did we really win?"

It certainly was hard to believe, especially the way Utah controlled the game in the first half. Michael Doleac was repeatedly getting the ball close to the basket and he was scoring with ease. Hanno Möttölä, who has often been way too passive, was unusually aggressive. And even though Wayne Turner appeared to be giving Andre Miller problems on defense, Miller was causing enough problems in the open court to help spur his team to a 10-point halftime lead.

I remember thinking during the last few minutes of the first half that Smith was making a mistake by playing the lineup he had in the game. He had Saul Smith, Allen Edwards, Michael Bradley, Mills and Heshimu Evans all on the floor at one point, with Turner, Padgett and Nazr Mohammed on the bench. Not a time for rest, I thought, but not surprisingly, Tubby obviously knew what he was doing. By the time 10 minutes were left in the game, Utah, and Doleac in particular, was noticeably tired. Smith also made the decision at halftime to double-team Doleac every time he got the ball in the post. Doleac repeatedly forced up bad shots. Evans began the comeback by scoring eight straight points, and once Kentucky seized the momentum, it never relented.

We reporters were waiting outside the locker room when the Kentucky players gleefully sprinted back. "I told you we were going to win it!" Jamaal Magloire shouted at us. "Nobody believed me." True enough. Smith spoke to the team with the reporters waiting outside the locker room. He came out with some of his players and they all piled onto a golf cart to take them down to the post-game press conference. Smith was on the back and Evans sat down next to him. "Moo!" Smith shouted. "On the big cart!" He kissed the top of Evans' bald head.

When I walked into the locker room, sophomore guard Steve Masiello, who did not play in the game, was talking on a pay phone on the wall. I asked him who he was talking to, and he said it was his mom. I spent some time chatting with the affable Saul Smith, Tubby's son, who kept using the word "family" without specifying which family he was speaking about. "He treats all his players like they were his son," Saul said. When he talked about how stern Tubby could be as a father, I told him, "It sounds like he coaches like a father and fathers like a coach." Saul laughed and said, "I think you hit that right on the head."

On the other side of the room, one player appeared to be very subdued. His hat was pulled down low, his eyes were on the floor and he was speaking in hushed tones. I instantly knew it was Allen Edwards. Edwards' mother died last month after a long battle with cancer, and she was obviously on his mind. "I tried to be emotional with everyone out there, but I just didn't feel it," he said.

Someone asked Jeff Sheppard about the fun of coming back three games in a row to win the national championship. The Final Four's Most Outstanding Player replied, "Well, I think next year the guys need to work on not getting down so much." Smith later came back to the locker room, and as he went inside, he noticed actress and UK graduate/superfan Ashley Judd talking to reporters. "I thought you weren't giving any more interviews," he said. "I'm talking about you, coach!" she replied.

The scene was chaotic and fun. I walked alongside Smith as he left the locker room, walked down the hallway and out to the parking lot, where the bus was waiting to take his team away. A television reporter from San Antonio was walking with us, and Tubby was talking about how much he was looking forward to taking his boys to see the Alamo the next day. The man just won the national championship, and he was talking about giving his players a history lesson. Smith was just through talking about how happy he was when he caught sight of the bus and broke into a sprint. At that moment, I could have sworn he was a 12- year-old boy on the last day of school.

I turned to head back into the building, and coming my way was my old friend Mills. I extended my hand to congratulate him. He took it and gave me a hug. I thanked him again for the time he and Padgett gave me in St. Petersburg, and told him how happy I was for them. "No problem," Mills said. "Just call me if you need anything else."

It had just started to rain, but that didn't seem to dampen anyone's spirits. As I headed into the Alamodome, the last thing I saw was Mills sprinting for the bus, howling all the way.