We have a Cinderella, and she’s from Wichita
Posted: April 4, 2013 Filed under: Basketball, college basketball, final four, NCAA | Tags: Bill Bradley, Bradley 58 points, Cazzie Russell, Cinderella, Dave Stallworth, final four, Nate Bowman, Wichita State Leave a comment »
This year’s NCAA Cinderella is a Shocker. Ninth-seeded Wichita State of the Missouri Valley Conference knocked off #1 seed Gonzaga and #2 seed Ohio State in a surprising run to the Final Four. Wichita evoked memories of mid-majors like George Mason, VCU, and Butler, other recent tournament darlings who made it to the last dance.
For Wichita, it’s been quite the NCAA drought. The last time the Shockers advanced this far, in 1965, LBJ was President, “The Sound of Music” was released, the Beatles played at Shea Stadium and gasoline cost 31 center per gallon.
That year Wichita State survived the in-season losses of two future NBA players, All-American forward Dave Stallworth and center Nate Bowman. Stallworth’s eligibility expired in the middle of the season, and Bowman was declared academically ineligible.
Still the Shockers persevered. They were ranked No. 1 in the country in December, won the MVC by two games, then beat SMU and Oklahoma State to reach the Final Four in Portland, Oregon
The Shockers lost to eventual champion UCLA, coached by the legendary John Wooden, in the semifinals. In those days, the semi losers played in a consolation game for third place.
Wichita fell to Princeton 118-82 in a game in which Bill Bradley, pictured above, scored a Final Four record 58 points. That night, Bradley made 22-of-29 field goals and 14-of-15 free throws to set a record which has stood for nearly 50 years.
UCLA, led by guard Gail Goodrich, went on to beat Michigan and All-American Cazzie Russell for its second consecutive NCAA title. The Bruins, sparked by Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton and others, would go on to win 10 NCAA titles in a 12-year span.
Stallworth, Bowman, Bradley and Russell were all members of the New York Knicks 1970 NBA championship team. A year later, Stallworth was traded to the Baltimore Bullets along with Mike Riordan for Earl “The Pearl” Monroe. And Russell was dealt to the San Francisco Warriors for Jerry Lucas.
Bowman, who filled in for Willis Reed in that famed 1970 Game Seven against the Lakers and actually outscored the Knicks captain 6-4, was sent to the Buffalo Braves along with Mike Silliman for cash after the 1970 season. Bradley played his entire 10-year career with the Knicks and became both a Hall of Famer and a United States Senator.
One last dance for the Big East
Posted: March 18, 2013 Filed under: Basketball, final four, NCAA | Tags: Big East, Big East basketball, Georgetown, Louisville, St. John's, Syracuse, UConn, Villanova Leave a comment »
Is the Big East primed for one last NCAA dance, a final run for old time’s sake?
The powerhouse Big East, which was founded in 1979, has produced six NCAA Championships — three by UConn and one apiece from Georgetown, Villanova and Syracuse. Big East teams have made 16 Final Four appearances since 1980, including a tour de force in 1985 when eventual champion Villanova, runner-up Georgetown and St. John’s all made it, the only time that’s occurred in the tournament.
Of the league’s current members, only South Florida has failed to make the Final Four, although Marquette, DePaul, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Cincinnati and Pitt all made it before they became Big East members.
Only the ACC with 10 titles — Duke and North Carolina with four each, and NC State and Maryland with one apiece — has won more NCAA Championships since 1980. And no conference has sent more different teams to the Final Four during that span. That’s parity.
When the late Dave Gavitt, former Providence coach, founded the Big East in 1979, it consisted of seven charter members — Providence, St. John’s, Georgetown, Villanova, Syracuse, Boston College and Connecticut. The first four along with Seton Hall, DePaul and Marquette will form their own BCS basketball league, taking the Big East name with them. But it won’t be the Big East as we know it.
The Beast of the East. What memories. Great coaches like Jim Boheim, Jim Calhoun, Lou Carnesecca, John Thompson, Rick Pitino. P.J. Carlesimo and Rollie Massimino. Great players like Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Ray Allen, Mark Jackson, Kemba Walker, Walter Berry and Dwayne “Pearl” Washington. And so many great rivalries and games, arguably none better than “Six in the City” — the six overtime classic between Syracuse and UConn in the 2009 Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden.
Maybe the Big East can do it again. Louisville is the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAAs. Georgetown, a #2 seed, is playing in the year of the Jesuit, as is third-seed Marquette. And perennials like Syracuse and Notre Dame are in the mix. Once more, for old time’s sake.
If Kentucky wins, the Yankees will march
Posted: March 29, 2012 Filed under: Baseball, Basketball, final four, MLB, NCAA | Tags: Adolph Rupp, Bucky Dent, Casey Stengel, final four, Joe Torre, Kentucky, NCAA basketball, Rick Pitino, World Series, Yankees 3 Comments »
If Kentucky wins the NCAAs, you can count on a Yankee parade down Broadway this fall.
The last six times Kentucky has won the NCAA men’s basketball title, the Yankees have gone on to win the World Series.
The Wildcats have won seven titles overall, second only to UCLA’s 11 and by far the most of any team in this year’s Final Four. Kansas has taken three, Louisville two and Ohio State one.
Kentucky won its first championship in 1948, the year the Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Braves to win their last World Series.
Kentucky repeated in 1949, beating Oklahoma State in the final, under the tutelage of immortal coach Adolph Rupp, the “Baron of the Bluegrass.”
Rupp, fourth all-time with 876 victories, would go on to win in 1951 (against Kansas State) and 1958 (against Seattle) for a total of four championships.
Meanwhile the Yankees were winning five World Series in a row between 1949 and 1953 under another legendary leader, Casey Stengel. In 1958, the Yankees rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Milwaukee Braves.
It took Kentucky 20 years to return to the mountaintop, when coach Joe B. Hall’s Wildcats defeated Duke for the 1978 national championship. That fall, the Yankees rallied to knock off the Red Sox on Bucky Dent’s home run, then repeated against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Rick Pitino, now the head coach at Louisville (which meets Kentucky in a Final Four intra-state rivalry on Saturday), coached the Wildcats to the NCAA title in 1996. Two years later, coach Tubby Smith guided Kentucky to its last championship, against Utah.
Meanwhile, Joe Torre piloted the Yankees to World Series wins in 1996 (vs. the Braves) and 1998 (vs. the Padres).
Of the other Final Four finalists, Kansas won its first championship in 1952, followed by a Yankee win over the Dodgers. Ohio State’s only title occurred in 1960, the year the Yankees lost the Series to Bill Mazeroski and the Pirates. And although the Yankees didn’t win the World Series following Louisville’s 1986 title run, the Mets did.
Kentucky is heavily favored to cut down the nets Monday night. And if they do, the Yankees can start planning a parade down Broadway
Top 10 Game-Winners in NCAAs
Posted: March 27, 2011 Filed under: Basketball, final four, NCAA, Uncategorized | Tags: best game-winning shots, Bryce Drew, Christian Laettner, final four, Gordon Hayward, greates shots in NCAA Tournament history, Lorenzo Charles, Michael Jordan, Richard Washington, U.S. Reed, Valparaiso Leave a comment »
With Valparaiso coach Homer Drew looking on, his son Bryce Drew unleashes game-winning three-pointer at buzzer to slay Ole Miss in 1998 NCAA Tournament.
Somewhere in this vast galaxy, in some alternate universe, Gordon Hayward’s halfcourt heave went in the basket and Butler beat Duke to win the 2010 NCAA National Championship. In that other world, it is celebrated as the greatest shot in college basketball history and arguably the greatest shot ever in sports.
Hayward’s shot would have topped this SportsLifer list except for one important detail. In this world, Hayward’s shot rimmed out and instead Duke held on to win its fourth National Championship.
There were plenty of other shots that did go in and made a difference.
Here are the 10 greatest game-winning shots in NCAA Tournament history:
1. Bryce Drew , Valparaiso, 1998, First Round: You remember the play. Valpo trailing Ole Miss by two, seconds left to play….and…we’ll let CBS broadcaster Ted Robinson, now the 49ers play-by-play man, make the call: “The inbounds pass to be thrown by Jamie Sykes, Carter pressuring. It’s to Jenkins….to Drew for the win…GOOD! HE DID IT! BRYCE DREW DID IT! VALPO HAS WON THE GAME A MIRACLE!” The leaning three pointer well behind the arc gave 13th-seeded Valpo a 70-69 win. Cinderella beat Florida State to gain the Sweet 16, where Valparaiso fell to Rhode Island
2. Christian Laettner, Duke, 1992, East Regional Final: In one of the greatest games every played and Duke trailing Kentucky by one in overtime, Calvin Hill threw a desperation 80-foot pass to Christian Laettner who caught the ball, faked and put up 
a fadeway shot from the free throw line as time expired. The Blue Devils advanced to the Final Four with the 104-103 win and went on to win their second straight title.
3. Arkansas, US Reed, 1981, Second Round: U.S. (Ulysses S) Reed, unable to get the ball to any of his teammates and with time running out, took a desperation shot from beyond the midcourt line, left. The ball went in (this before the advent of the three-point shot) and Arkansas stunned defending champ Louisville, 74-73.
4. Lorenzo Charles, North Carolina State, 1983, National Championship: With the game tied at 52 and four seconds to play, NC State’s Dereck Whittenburg flung a desperation heave. It was an airball, but Lorenzo Charles turned the miss into a dunk, and causing Wolfpack coach Jim Valanvo to run wild looking for somebody to love.
5. Keith Smart, Indiana, 1987, National Championship: The title game was held on Oscar night and while the nominated “Hoosiers” didn’t win in Hollywood, Bob Knight’s Hoosiers did in New Orleans. Keith Smart hit the winning jumper in the final seconds for the 74–73 win over Syracuse.
6. Tyus Edney, UCLA, 1995, Second Round — 5’10″ guard Tyrus Edney went cost-to-coast with 4.8 seconds left and made a game-winning layup as the buzzer sounded the give the Bruins a 75-74 win over Missouri. UCLA went on to win its 11th national championship, the only one since John Wooden’s run of 10 titles ended in 1975.
7. Tate George, UConn, 1990, Elite Eight, Regional Semifinals: With only one second left in the game and UConn down a point to Clemson, Scott Burrell threw a full court pass to George. George caught the pass, spun around and released a 15-footer that fell through as time expired for a 71-70 win. Two days later, the Huskies lost a heartbreaker to Duke on a buzzer beater by Christian Laettner.
8. Michael Jordan, North Carolina, 1982, National Championship: No list of great exploits in basketball history is complete without the obligatory Jordan reference. The freshman hit a 17-foot jumper from the left side with around 10 seconds left. giving Dean Smith his first national title with the 63-62 win over Georgetown.
9. Vic Rouse, Loyola of Chicago, 1963, National Championship: The underdog Ramblers rallied from 15 points down in the second half to force overtime, then won the game on a last-second rebound and basket by Vic Rouse. Loyola’s improbable 60-59 win and denied Cincinnati the first three-peat in NCAA history.
10. Richard Washington, UCLA, 1975, National Semifinals: John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins won 10 titles in 12, and most weren’t even close. But this battle against former Wooden assistant and Louisville head coach was. The Bruins rallied to force overtime and won the game 75-74 on a last-second shot by Richard Washington. They went on to beat Kentucky for Wooden’s last championship.
Top 10 Games in College Basketball History
Posted: March 13, 2011 Filed under: Basketball, college basketball, final four, NCAA, Uncategorized | Tags: 10 greatest college basketball games ever, Christian Laettner, Duke-Kentucky, Dwight Clay, Michael Jordan, NCAA Tournament, North Carolina, North Carolina State-Maryland, UCLA 88-game winning streak 2 Comments »
1. 1992 — Duke 104, Kentucky 103 (OT) — Playing in a regional final and a chance to go to the Final Four, the Blue Devils and Wildcats scored on the final five possessions of the game, trading the lead each time. Kentucky took a 103-102 lead with 2.9 seconds left on Sean Woods’ crazy, 10-foot bankshot. Then Grant Hill threw the ball three quarters of the way down court to Christian Laettner, above, who turned and hit the winning shot at the buzzer. Laettner finished with 10-for-10 from the field and 10-for-10 at the foul line.
2. 1974 — NC State 103, Maryland 100 (OT) — The top-ranked Wolfpack overcame a 13-point first half deficit and endured in overtime to win the ACC Tournament. Rules at the time allowed only one of the teams to advance to the NCAAs, so the fourth-ranked Terrapins were left on the outside looking in . The game featured five players who received All-American honors in their careers — David Thompson and Tom Burleson of NC State and Tom McMillen, John Lucas and Len Elmore of Maryland — and 11 players drafted by the NBA.
3. 1957 — North Carolina 54, Kansas 53 (3OT) – The unbeaten Tar Heels outlasted Wilt Chamberlain and the Jayhawks in the longest game in NCAA championship game history. Two free throws by Joe Quigg with six seconds left made the difference. UNC also playe
d three overtimes in the semifinals, beating Michigan State.
4. 1974 — Notre Dame 71, UCLA 70 — Notre Dame put together one of the most improbable runs ever, scoring the final 12 points of the game to beat UCLA and end the Bruins 88-game winning streak. Dwight Clay’s jumper from the right corner with 29 seconds left gave the Irish the lead and they survived several UCLA attempts in the final seconds before celebrating, left.
5. 1983 — NC State 54, Houston 52 – The Wolfpack, sixth seeded with 10 losses during the season, won when it mattered most as Lorenzo Charles putback dunk at the final buzzer upset Houston’s heavily favored Phi Slama Jama. Few will ever forget the sight of NC State coach Jim Valvano racing around the court looking for somebody to hug after the final buzzer.
6. 2009 — Syracuse 127, UConn 117 (6OT) — In the Big East Tournament semifinals, the Orange outlasted the Huskies in six overtimes in the longest college basketball game ever played at Madison Square Garden. The contest took nearly four hours to complete and ended at 1:22 am. Syracuse returned later that night to win the Big East Championship against Pittsburgh.
7. 1985 — Villanova 66, Georgetown 64 – In a shocker, the Wildcats shot a tournament record .786 percent. They attempted 10 field goals in the second half and made nine. Georgetown was defending champion and the top seed, but fell short against eighth-seeded Villanova after beating another Big East foe, St. John’s, in the semifinals.
8. 1982 — North Carolina 63, Georgetown 62 — This was Michael Jordan’s coming out party, and the freshman hit the game-winning shot, a 16-
foot jumper, below, with 15 seconds left, to give Tar Heel coach Dean Smith his first national championship. “I was all kinds of nervous,” Jordan said, “but I didn’t have time to think about doubts. I had a feeling it was going to go in.”
9. 1969 — Houston 71, UCLA 69 — It was hyped as the “Game of the Century.” A mid-season battle between two unbeaten teams. And it was played in front of 52,693 at the Astrodome, the largest crowd ever to watch a college basketball game at that time. Second-ranked Houston, led by Elvin Hayes, outplayed Lew Alcindor and #1 UCLA, ending the Bruins’ 47-game winning streak. Hayes outscored Alcindor, 39-15
10. 1964 — Michigan 80, Princeton 78 — Princeton’s Bill Bradley scored 41 points to give the Tigers a 12-point lead with less than five minutes to play, when he fouled out in this Holiday Festival game at Madison Square Garden. The top-ranked Wolverines rallied behind Cazzie Russell, who made the winning shot in the waning seconds. Both Bradley and Russell would later play in MSG for the Knicks.
Three Pointers….3 more for the ride
11. 1994 — Kentucky 99, LSU 95 — In the “Mardi Gras Miracle” the Wildcats engineered one of the great comebacks in NCAA history. Trailing by 31 points at halftime, Kentucky outscored LSU 62-27 in the second half for the win.
12. 1999 — USC 85, Oregon 84 – USC’s Adam Spanwich scored six points in the last 2.8 seconds, including a steal and half court heave that beat the buzzer and completed an incredible comeback
13. 1944 — Utah 42, Dartmouth 40 (OT) — Utah originally turned down an invite to the NCAA tournament, but was given a second chance after Arkansas pulled out of the tourney when two players were injured in an automobile accident. The Utes were the youngest NCAA champion in history, averaging 18 1/2 years age.
Sorry T.S., April Is The Best Month for Sports
Posted: April 15, 2010 Filed under: Baseball, Basketball, college basketball, final four, golf, Hockey, NBA, NHL, Uncategorized | Tags: April, Augusta National, Baseball, Basketball, final four, Hockey, Masters, NFL draft, T.S. Eliot Leave a comment »The Best of SportsLifer
First posted on April 13, 2009 by sportslifer
T.S. Eliot knew how to write, but sports wasn’t his strong suit.
“April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain. “
– T.S Eliot, The Waste Land, 1922
Thomas Stearns (T.S.) Eliot, the American-British poet, playwright and critic, may have been a member of the Literature Hall of Fame, but he didn’t know sports.
With apologies to old T.S., shown below, April is America’s best month for sports.
April, the rites of passage, the season of rebirth, where Opening Day signals the start of another baseball season.
April has the pageantry of the Masters, from Augusta National, the most beautiful golf course in the world.
Both the NBA and NHL playoffs begin in April, the second season for 32 basketball and hockey teams.
The NCAA Tournament may be heralded as March Madness, but the Final Four is an April event.
And finally there’s the NFL draft, one of the most popular events in the NFL outside of the Super Bowl.
What other months challenge April?
June has the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup, the U.S. Open, and the Belmont Stakes, last leg in horse racing’s Triple Crown.
October has the World Series, and peak activity in college and pro football to go with Fall foliage.
And February has the Super Bowl, the single biggest day in American sports, and the Daytona 500.
Give me April every time.
Pac-10 Leads With 15 NCAA Titles
Posted: April 4, 2010 Filed under: Basketball, college basketball, final four, NCAA, Uncategorized | Tags: ACC, Butler, Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, NCAA basketball, NCAA basketball tournament, North Carolina, Pac-10, UCLA 1 Comment »
Throughout history, the NCAA basketball tournament has been dominated by teams from the six major conferences — ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC. In fact, 61 of the 71 total championships — more than 85 percent — have been won from teams from one of these six conferences.
Not surprisingly, the Pac 10 is the overall leader with 15, led by UCLA. The Bruins have won 11 NCAAs overall — 10 under John Wooden, including seven in a row from 1967 through 1973.
The ACC is next with 11 titles, led by five by North Carolina, three from Duke and two from NC State.
The Big East, Big 10 and SEC are even with 10 total titles apiece. Multiple winners are Kentucky (SEC) with seven; Indiana (Big 10) with five, and Michigan State (Big 10), Florida (SEC) and Cincinnati, Louisville and UConn (all Big East) with two apiece.
Kansas has won three of the five Big 12 NCAA championships and Oklahoma State (then Oklahoma A&M) the other two.
CCNY Now in CUNY
The other 10 championships are divided amongst the Mountain West (Wyoming, Utah and UNLV); West Coast (San Francisco twice); and Patriot League (Holy Cross); CUNY (CCNY); Atlantic 10 (LaSalle); Horizon (Loyola of Chicago); and Conference USA (Texas Western, now UTEP).
CCNY, which remains the only team to win both NCAA and NIT championships in the same year, 1950. The Beavers now face the likes of Baruch, Lehman and Hunter in the City University of New York (CUNY) Athletic Conference.
Butler could join the Ramblers of Loyola Chicago as the only Horizon League champions. Loyola Chicago beat two-time champion Cincinnati in overtime to win the crown in 1963.
Duke aims for its fourth championship overall and first since 2001 — all under Mike Krzyzewski. Coach K is looking to tie Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp for second all time behind Wooden with four championships.
Footnote: Of course, many of these conferences did not exist when Oregon won the first NCAA tournament in 1939. The championship tallies above are based on where the schools play today.
The Butler Did It: “Hoosiers” All Over Again
Posted: March 28, 2010 Filed under: Basketball, college basketball, final four, NCAA, Uncategorized | Tags: Bobby Plump, Butler University, final four, Gene Hackman, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Hoosiers, Jimmy Chitwood, NCAA bas 2 Comments »
Hinkle Field House at Butler University, scene of hoop miracles.
There’s a scene in the movie classic “Hoosiers” where Coach Norman Dale, played by Gene Hackman, gives a short locker room speech before his Hickory High School team plays for the Indiana state championship.
Once coach Dale finishes, he asks his players if they have anything to add. One of the Hickory players says: “Let’s win this one for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here.”
Well sometimes dreams do become reality, and Hollywood tales come true. Like Hickory High, Butler University, which punched a ticket to the Final Four with a win over Kansas State, is representing all the small schools across America who’ve ever dreamed of going to the Final Four.
Butler is a David among the Goliaths. A member of the mid-major Horizon League, is 32-4 and hasn’t lost a game since December. The fifth-seeded Bulldogs have won 24 games in a row.
Not Many Surprises
Although 11th-seed George Mason did make the Final Four in 2006, you really need to go back to 1966 to find the last time a small school won the NCAAs. That was Texas Western, now UTEP, which surprised top-ranked Kentucky.
Loyola of Chicago was an upset winner in 1963. The Ramblers, now members of the Horizon League, stopped two-time champion Cincinnati. Holy Cross in 1947 and CCNY in 1950 were other surprise winners in a tournament generally dominated by the bigger-name schools, like UCLA, Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina and Duke.
Proving that fact can be stranger than fiction, the final game in “Hoosiers” — where undermanned Hickory beats a heavily favored team from South Bend Central on a last-second jumper by star Jimmy Chitwood — is filmed in Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse, called the Butler Fieldhouse in the 50s.
Butler played its first basketball game in the Fieldhouse in 1928, defeating Notre Dame 21-13 in overtime. The name of the facility was changed in 1966 from Butler Fieldhouse to Hinkle Fieldhouse in honor of Butler’s legendary coach and athletic director, Paul D. “Tony” Hinkle.
Historic Butler Fieldhouse
The Fieldhouse has served as host to four U.S. presidents (Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford), the Billy Graham Crusade, the Sonja Henie Ice Show, four professional basketball team, even a three-ring circus and a six-day bicycle race.
When the Fieldhouse was originally constructed, it was the largest basketball arena in the United States, and it retained that distinction for more than 20 years. Recent renovation has reduced the seating capacity from 15,000 to around 10,000, but the aura that made Hinkle Fieldhouse one of the nation’s first great basketball arenas remains today.
Fittingly, the Final Four next weekend will be held in Indianapolis, at Lucas Oil Stadium, just seven miles from the Butler campus.
Of course many people know that “Hooisers” is based on the story of tiny Milan High School, which in 1954 defeated heavily favored Muncie Central to win the Indiana state championship. In that game, Milan’s Bobby Plump hit a last-second jumper from roughly the same spot on the floor in the Butler Fieldhouse where Chitwood’s shot won it for Hickory
Does Butler have a Bobby Plump or Jimmy Chitwood moment waiting?
Sorry Dorothy, Kansas Loss Latest in Long Line of Great NCAA Basketball Tournament Upsets
Posted: March 21, 2010 Filed under: college basketball, final four, march madness, NCAA, Uncategorized | Tags: Ali Farokhmanes, Bryce Drew, Cinderellian, college basketball, final four, Kansas, NCAA basketball upsets, Northern Iowa, The Wizard of Oz Leave a comment »In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy told her little dog: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Well, Dorothy, Kansas isn’t in the NCAA tournament any more either after being kayoed by Northern Iowa in a Cinderellian effort. The top-seeded Jayhawks were knocked out by ninth-seeded NIU in one of the bigger surprises in NCAA history.
The Panthers became the first team to beat a No. 1 seed in the second round since UAB and Alabama did it to Kentucky and Stanford, respectively, in 2004.
The Kansas loss ranks as one of the top upsets in the history of the tournament, but there have been many. Here are the top 10, in chronological order:
10 Great NCAA Upsets
1944: Utah 42, Dartmouth 40 (OT) — Utah originally turned down an invitation to the NCAA tournament, but was given a second chance after losing in the NIT, and after Arkansas pulled out of the tourney after two players were injured in an automobile accident. In those days there were no seedings and no 64-team field, just two, four-team regionals and a title game at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The Utes, shown left, were the youngest NCAA champion in history; the team’s average age was 18 years, six months. And in the midst of World War II, the team had two Japanese-American players, one on release from an internment camp. The Utes defeated Eastern champion and heavily favored Dartmouth in the championship game on a set shot by forward Herb Wilkinson in the first overtime championship game in NCAA history. Utah became known as the Whiz Kids, Zoot Utes, and the Live Five from the Jive Drive.
1956: Canisius 79, North Carolina State 78 (4OT) — The Wolfpack was ranked second in the nation when they faced Canisius in the first round. The Golden Griffins won in four overtimes. The two teams set a record for longest NCAA Tournament game that’s been once tied (1961), but never broken. The San Francisco Dons, led by Bill Russell, won the NCAA title that year.
1966: Texas Western 72, Kentucky 65 — Texas Western (now the University of Texas at El Paso) and its all-black starting five was a heavy underdog to Kentucky’s all white starting five, including Pat Riley, and openly racist coach, Adolph Rupp. Yet the Miners managed the win. Rupp “carried the memory of that game to his grave,” wrote his biographer, Russell Rice.
1979: Penn 72, North Carolina 71 — The Quakers beat top-rated UNC in the East Regionals and later St. John’s in the Eastern regional finals, and became what remains the last Ivy League team to make the Final Four. Penn would be the only team to beat four higher seeded opponents to reach the Final Four until the feat was matched in 1986 by LSU and again in 2006 by George Mason. Penn was crushed in the national semis by Magic Johnson and Michigan State, which went on to beat Larry Bird’s Indiana State team for the championship.
1983: NC State 54, Houston 52 — NC State had lost 10 games during the regular season and wasn’t expected to be in the title match. The Cougars and their “Phi Slamma Jamma” crew of Akeem (later Hakeem) “The Dream” Olajuwon and Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, meanwhile, were the nation’s top-ranked team and on a 25-game winning streak. But when Lorenzo Charles slammed home an errant shot as time expired, the Wolfpack had an improbable win and coach Jim Valvano, right, went “looking for someone to hug.”
1985: Villanova 66, Georgetown 64 — Many thought the eighth-seeded Wildcats didn’t belong on the same court with Patrick Ewing and the defending champion Hoyas. Georgetown had already beaten Villanova twice during the regular season. But the Wildcats shot a record 78.6 percent from the field, missed only one shot in the entire second half, and became the lowest-seeded team ever to win the national championship.
1991: Richmond 73, Syracuse 69 — Richmond became the first No. 15 to beat a two seed (16 seeds have never beaten a one seed in 104 tries in the tournament.) The win inspired the immortal headline: Orangemen Bitten by Spiders. Other 15-2 shockers include Santa Clara over Arizona in 1991 and Coppin State over South Carolina in 1997.
1998: Valparaiso 70, Mississippi 69 — One of the most famous last-second shots in basketball history and the poster child for buzzer beaters was the three pointer by Bryce Drew, left, that helped 13-seed Valparaiso beat Ole Miss in a stunner.
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2006: George Mason 86, Connecticut (OT) — A suburban commuter school from Fairfax, Va., that was a dicey choice to make the NCAA tournament as an at-large team, the 11th seeded Patriots upset No. 1 seed UConn and reached the Final Four. The Patriots were only the second double-digit seed to make the Final Four, matching LSU’s run, also as an 11th seed, in 1986. They were the first true outsider to crash the quartet since Penn and Indiana State both got there in 1979.
2010: Northern Ohio 67, Kansas 65 — It’s rare that the top seeded team in the tournament goes out this early. But NIU guard Ali Farokhmanes, the answer to future trivia question, hit a three-pointer with 34 seconds left to ultimately doom Kansas.
Yes Dorothy, lions and tigers and bears….and Panthers too.
Related Blog: Top 10 Championship Games in Final Four History
Wishing Well: 10 Changes We Need in Sports
Posted: February 20, 2010 Filed under: Baseball, Basketball, college basketball, college football, final four, football, Hockey, NBA, NCAA, NFL, Sports, Uncategorized | Tags: college football playoff system, NCAA, NHL scoring change, rule changes, team error 2 Comments »
Imagine if there really was a playoff system in college football, and that we really knew Alabama was the national champion.
Ever wish you could change the world? How about the world of sports?
If the SportsLifer had the power, here’s 10 changes he would make:
1. A College Football playoff system
Let’s get it right…..finally. Give us an 8-team playoff. It’s a no-brainer
2. A daytime World Series game….and a doubleheader, too
Mandate one daytime Series game and one doubleheader per team, per season
3. Change in NFL OT rules so both teams get a chance
Each team gets the ball once in overtime….after that it’s sudden death
4. Change the NHL system for regulation wins
Three points for a regulation win; if game goes to OT/shootout rules apply
5. Schedule last two NFL games with division rivals
To lessen the chance of teams tanking, schedule the last two game within division
6. Call palming violations in NBA and NCAA
The palming violation is still a basketball rule, so call it once in a while beyond CYO
7. Charge a team error in baseball
If you can’t find a culprit on a pop-up or other botched play, give the team an error
8. A national holiday day after the Super Bowl
The least productive day in American industry now becomes a day of rest
9. One replay per team, per MLB game (no balls and strikes)
Not a big fan of replay, but let’s make use of technology to get the call right
10. NCAA Basketball Tournament, don’t change a thing
If if ain’t broke, don’t fix it. March Madness still works just fine, thank you
