Final Four is Full of Nostalgia

Just when it looked like all the nostalgia talk at the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Final Four was going to be about 1985, the Michigan State Spartans threw a wrench in the plan and ensured that the 30th anniversary of their first championship would be properly remembered.

By trouncing top seeded Louisville 64-52, the Spartans denied the Big East’s bid at taking three teams to the Final Four for the first time since 1985. With the Final Four being played in Detroit, Michigan State is looking to be the first team since UCLA in 1975 to win the national championship in their home state*.

Of course, the return of Villanova to the Final Four for the first time since winning the title in 1985 ensures that there will still be lots of talk about that unbelievable upset.

While I personally believe that North Carolina State upsetting Houston in the 1983 finals was a little more improbable, it is hard to dispute that Rollie Massimino and his 1985 Wildcats played one of the best games in tournament history to defeat defending champion Georgetown.

Having twice faced the Hoyas during the regular season and lost close games both times (52-50 in overtime in Philadelphia and 57-50 in Washington), Villanova wasn’t intimidated by the defending NCAA Champions and their lineup of stars, which was led by senior All-American Patrick Ewing.

In the era before the shot clock and three-point line, the Wildcats knew that the key for them was to break the pressing defense of the Hoyas and then to make the most of every possession by waiting for the opportunity to take good shots.

What ensued was a 40-minute clinic in which Villanova executed that game plan to perfection.

Villanova connected on an amazing 72.2 percent (13 of 18) of their field goal attempts in the first half and led 29-28 at intermission. The hot shooting made for a great half of basketball, but surely they would cool off in the second half and Georgetown would pull away for the expected victory.

Not only did the Wildcats not cool off in the second half, they actually improved. Villanova connected on nine of 10 field goal attempts in the final 20 minutes to finish the game at 78.6 percent, easily the best showing ever for an NCAA final. And it wasn’t as if Georgetown was throwing up bricks. They hit on a very respectable 54.7 percent of their field goal attempts.

A 6-0 run late in the second half gave Georgetown a 54-53 lead with just under five minutes remaining. The Hoyas tried to run off some clock, but a steal by Dwayne McClain and a basket by Harold Jensen gave Villanova a lead and they would never again trail. The final score was Villanova 66, Georgetown 64.

The 1979 NCAA Championship victory for Michigan State was not quite as surprising, but it did prove to be just as memorable.

Unbeknownst to those watching the game that night, the meeting between the undefeated Indiana State Sycamores, led by senior Larry Bird, and the Michigan State Spartans, led by sophomore Magic Johnson, would serve as the trigger to a rivalry that would forever change professional basketball.

Still the most watched college basketball game ever, the 1979 Championship game wasn’t a barnburner with a final pivotal moment. In fact, Michigan State pretty much controlled the contest throughout and won 75-64.

However, in an era before ESPN and the over saturation of college basketball on television that exists today, the game served as a coming out party for two future legends. The game introduced the nation to a 6-8 point guard who had the charisma, smile and all-around basketball ability that would eventually captivate a nation. It also gave fans across the country a chance to see the grit and determination of a farm boy from French Lick, Indiana, who didn’t play his best game, but still did everything he could to keep his team in the game.

Of course the game was the final college game for both players and, as they say, “the rest is history.” Bird went on to lead the Boston Celtics to three NBA Championships, including a win over Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1984 Finals. Johnson would play in nine NBA Finals for the Los Angeles Lakers and the team won five championships. After losing the 1984 title to Boston, the Lakers edged Boston in both 1985 and 1987.

The game also helped usher in a golden era for the NCAA Basketball Division I Tournament. The 1979 tournament featured 40 teams, but over the next six years the field was twice expanded until it reached 64 teams in 1985. NBC paid only $5.2 million to broadcast the tournament in 1979, but by the time CBS snatched the rights away in 1982 it was $48 million. The current contract for rights to what is now known as “March Madness” is $6 billion over 11 years.

While both Villanova and Michigan State bring nostalgia to the 2009 NCAA Final Four, the championship pedigrees of the other two Final Four participants are also pretty impressive. Like Michigan State, which claimed the title in 2000, Connecticut (2004) and North Carolina (2005) are looking to join Florida as the only school to claim two titles this decade.

The Tar Heels are looking to join UCLA (11), Kentucky (7) and Indiana (5) as the only schools with at least five NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships. If Connecticut can claim the championship, Jim Calhoun would become only the fifth coach in NCAA history (joining John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Bobby Knight and Mike Kryzewski) to lead a team to at least three championships.



(*Note: The University of Kansas won the 1988 title at Kemper Arena, where they regularly played one home game a season, but the arena is located in Kansas City, Missouri, rather than in the state of Kansas)

Time for Cinderella to Dance

So how does your NCAA bracket look? If yours is anything like mine, the toughest choices have not been in picking Final Four teams, but instead in trying to predict which school will come out of nowhere to crash the party.

Almost every year at least one school that is familiar only to people within its home area code suddenly becomes a national darling thanks to an upset, or near upset, of a team with significantly more national recognition. These schools are often referred to as “Cinderella” and just to avoid the kind of confusion that occurred at my house the other night when my four-year old daughter heard a promo for the NCAA Tournament and thought it meant one of her favorite princesses was going to be playing basketball, in this case Cinderella does not have flowing blonde hair, a glass slipper or a Fairy Godmother.

Rather, the typical Cinderella of the NCAA Tournament is a school that has been playing good basketball throughout the year, but has stayed under the radar while schools from the power conferences hog the national television spotlight and spots in the national polls. One of the endearing elements of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is that the opening rounds of the tournament are the one time each year when those power conference schools must share that spotlight with schools that aren’t so familiar to a national audience.

Unlike during any regular season match-ups that are almost always played at the home site of the power conference school and come with all the trappings of a home court edge including rowdy student sections and officials assigned by the host schools conference, when power conference schools face schools from smaller conferences on a neutral court in the NCAA Tournament anything can happen.

Over the years, the results have included some of the most memorable upsets in NCAA Tournament history. Over the last 30 years many schools have played the role of Cinderella, but I have chosen to highlight five schools that wore the glass slipper with particular distinction and helped create the concept of “March Madness.”

James Madison University – 1981, 1982, 1983 – Few outside of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley had heard of James Madison University, which had been known as Madison College until 1977, when the Dukes made their first trip to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament in 1981. However, under the guidance of head coach Lou Campanelli, they quickly developed a reputation as a team higher seeds did not want to play. The 10th seeded Dukes defeated seventh seed Georgetown 61-55 before losing to second seed Notre Dame 54-45. The following season, JMU defeated Ohio State in the opening round before quite nearly pulling off the upset of the century. Facing top-seeded North Carolina, JMU gave the eventual national champions everything they could handle in a 52-50 decision that wasn’t decided until the final minute. The following season, JMU made it three straight years with an NCAA Tournament victory as they defeated West Virginia 57-50 before being eliminated by North Carolina in the second round.

University of Richmond – 1984, 1988, 1991, 1998 – During the 1980s and early 1990s, no team wanted to play Dick Tarrant and his “Giant Killers” from the University of Richmond in the NCAA Tournament. The Spiders made their initial NCAA Tournament appearance in 1984 a memorable one as they defeated fifth seeded Auburn, led by Charles Barkley, before dropping a tough 75-67 decision to Indiana. Four years later, the Spiders got their revenge on Bobby Knight and the defending NCAA Champions as the 13th seeded Spiders defeated fourth seeded Indiana 72-69 in the first round of the tournament. However, they weren’t done as they reached the Sweet 16 with a 59-55 victory over fifth seed Georgia Tech. The top seeded Temple Owls finally eliminated them in the round of 16. In 1991 the Spiders became the first 15th seed in NCAA Tournament history to win a game in the tournament as they shocked second seeded Syracuse, led by Derrick Coleman, 73-69. Though Tarrant’s retirement in 1993 signaled the end to a period of dominance for Richmond, they did return to the tournament in 1998 under the guidance of head coach John Beilein, now the head coach at the University of Michigan, and continued their upset tradition with a 62-61 win over third seeded South Carolina.

Loyola Marymount – 1990 – Few teams have tugged at the heart strings of college basketball fans the way Loyola Marymount did during the 1990 NCAA Tournament. An exciting team that set a new NCAA record by averaging 122 points per game under the guidance of former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Paul Westhead, LMU entered the 1990 West Coast Conference Tournament looking to secure a third straight bid to the NCAA Tournament. However, tragedy struck late during their first round conference tournament game against Gonzaga when All-American center Hank Gathers collapsed and later died due to a heart condition. The tournament was immediately suspended with the regular season champion Lions awarded the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Few expected the Lions to make much noise when they started play in the NCAA Tournament as the 11th seed in the West just 13 days after the death of their star player. However, led by emotional leader Bo Kimble, the Lions captivated the nation by defeating sixth seeded New Mexico State 111-92 in the opening round and then whipping defending national champion Michigan 149-115 to reach the Sweet 16. LMU then edged Alabama 62-60 before losing to eventual national champion UNLV 131-101 in the West Regional Final.

Gonzaga – 1999, 2000, 2001 – Consistent success over the last decade has earned Gonzaga a tentative spot among the “Big Boys” of NCAA Division I basketball, but they most certainly wore the Cinderella slipper when they reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 1999 and then followed that run with consecutive trips to the Sweet 16. Gonzaga had made only one previous trip to the NCAA Tournament (losing to Maryland 87-63 in 1995) when they earned a bid to the 1999 tournament. The Bulldogs ripped through the field with wins over seventh seeded Minnesota, second seed Stanford and sixth seeded Florida before losing to eventual national champion Connecticut in the West Regional Final. In 2000 the Zags defeated seventh seeded Louisville and number two seed St. John’s before falling to Purdue in the Sweet 16. In 2001 they edged fifth seeded Virginia and dominated Indiana State before losing to top seeded Michigan State.

George Mason – 2006 – Of all the Cinderella teams from non-power conferences that have made runs in the NCAA Tournament, George Mason is the only one ever to make it all the way to the Final Four. The 2006 Patriots had needed a surprising at-large bid just to get into the tournament, but proved that the committee knew what they were doing. GMU upset sixth seeded Michigan State 75-65 in the opening round. They then shocked defending national champion North Carolina to reach the Sweet 16. After defeating fellow Cinderella Wichita State in the round of 16, the Patriots defeated top seeded Connecticut 86-84 in overtime to advance to the Final Four. Though they lost to eventual national champion Florida 73-58 in the semifinals, George Mason proved to the country that teams from smaller conferences deserved the chance to hang with the big boys in the NCAA Tournament.

Conference Tournaments Play Key Role in March Madness

With conference tournaments underway and the Division I men’s basketball pairings to be announced on Sunday, we are officially in the middle of “March Madness.” For college basketball fans, the next four weeks are nirvana as every basket, steal or turnover has the potential to catapult one team to a title while leading to the end of the line for another.

For teams from major conferences already sure that they have secured one of 34 at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament, conference tournaments provide a dress-rehearsal for the real show the following week. However, for teams from conferences that rarely receive more than one tournament bid and for those schools from major conferences who are “on the bubble”, conference tournaments provide an opportunity to guarantee a spot in the greatest dance in college sports.

One of the enticements of this time of the year is the feeling of hope that perpetuates among basketball fans on college campuses across the country. After a long season, slates are wiped clean and any team winning their conference championship can earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament, regardless of how they performed during the regular season.

College basketball history is dotted with teams that struggled during the regular season, but parlayed a late hot streak into a conference tournament win and trip to the NCAA Tournament. One need look no further back than to last season when the University of Georgia, which had won only four Southeastern Conference games during the entire regular season, rattled off four amazing wins, including two in one day thanks to wind damage to the roof of the Georgia Dome, to claim an improbable conference title and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Perhaps the greatest example in college basketball history of a team making the most of an unexpected conference tournament run is the famed 1983 North Carolina State Wolfpack under the guidance of the late, great, Jim Valvano. After registering a 17-10 record during the regular season, in large part due to a broken foot that forced star guard Dereck Whittenburg out of action for much of the season, Valvano knew that his team probably had to win the conference championship to earn a spot in the 48-team NCAA Tournament field.

The Wolfpack edged Wake Forest 71-70 and then defeated defending NCAA Champion North Carolina 91-84 to reach the ACC Tournament final. Facing the University of Virginia and All-American center Ralph Sampson, the Wolfpack completed their miraculous weekend with an 81-78 victory to reach the NCAA Tournament.

That victory sparked an improbable run that included a double-overtime victory over Pepperdine, a last second win against UNLV after trailing by 12 points in the second half and a thrilling 63-62 victory over Virginia in a rematch of the ACC tournament final. NC State then secured the NCAA Championship with a semifinal win against Georgia and a memorable last-second victory over top-ranked Houston in the NCAA Finals.

Even for teams already assured of playing in the NCAA Tournament, winning the conference tournament is often a determinate of future success. Of the last five NCAA champions, only the 2005 North Carolina Tar Heels didn’t claim their conference tournament championship. Last season all four Final Four teams had previously won their conference tournament championship.

So, as you get ready to set your NCAA Tournament brackets, you might pay close attention to what teams are cutting down the nets at conference tournaments. It is very likely one of those teams will also be cutting down the nets at the NCAA Finals in Detroit.