Each year, fans of college basketball look forward to the traditional ending to the NCAA March Madness tournament: the song “One Shining Moment” played over the most exciting clips from three weeks of suspenseful games. But can people unfamiliar with college basketball rely on “One Shining Moment” to accurately represent the game?

“The ball is tipped”

True. This happens at the beginning of every basketball game.

“and there you are”

True. I’m usually not there, but context clues from the rest of the song suggest the “you” refers to the basketball players, who are there.

“you’re running for your life”

True. NCAA rules dictate that all players from each losing team be publicly executed by the end of the tournament. Only the winning team survives. These high stakes explain both the name and the extreme popularity of March Madness.

“you’re a shooting star”

This needs context. Most players do shoot at some point during the game. But not many are true stars; you will forget most names almost immediately after the game. Even among the few who avoid losing and consequently being executed to make room for the next class of exploited labor, most face a future career as, at best, the owner of a car dealership.

“And all the years / no one knows / just how hard you worked / but now it shows…”

This is misleading. Likely a lot of people knew. Their parents, for example, knew just how hard they worked, especially their mean dads, who made them do travel basketball all year even though they wanted to try out for the school musical.

“(in) One Shining Moment, it’s all on the line.”

True. A double entendre that works, since many players go to the foul line for high-pressure free throws, and, each game, as mentioned, they are literally wagering their lives.

“One Shining Moment, there frozen in time.”

False. Basketball is a very fast-paced game.

“And when it’s done / win or lose / you always did your best / ’cause inside you knew…”

This lacks evidence. It’s become a sports cliché to tell the losing players that at least they did their best. After all, they’re young and sad about losing, and, in this case, about to be ground to dust in the NCAA Athletic Loser Murder MachineTM. But obviously quite a few of them didn’t play great.

“Feel the beat of your heart / feel the wind in your face / it’s more than a contest / it’s more than a race…”

This is mostly false. By the time this song airs, only 1.47% of players still have a heartbeat. That’s why there are so many fewer NBA and WNBA teams than college teams.

“And when it’s done / win or lose / you always did your best / ’cause inside you knew…”

This is still misleading. Again, not everyone did their best. That’s what makes the sound of the bones crunching in the murder machine so satisfying. You know they kind of deserve it.

“One Shining Moment, you were willing to try”

This requires context. It’s likely that many players were willing to try. However, we all have those moments when, deep down, we’d rather die than muster up the energy to actually try at anything. There’s no reason to assume NCAA basketball players are exempt from that self-destructive impulse. A more accurate song would acknowledge that some small part of the horrified shrieks being emitted from the body crusher are cries of relief that the end has finally come.

“One Shining Moment….”

False. A regulation Division I college basketball game is 40 moments.