NCAA Tourney History - Greatest Games

[im4wsu]

My greatest memory was in Kansas City, 1961. The final dat, we watched St. Jos beat Utah 127-120 in 4 ot while anxiously waiting for Cincinnati with Yates, Thacker and Hogue) to play and ultimately beat Ohio State with Lucas, Siegfried, Havlicek, Nowell and Bobby Knight, also in OT

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/mayhem/history/yearbyyear/1961?tag=pageRow;pageContainer

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

My personal greatest game was that Syracuse game from a few years back. Six overtimes. Epic...

for the sake of accuracy that was a Big East Tourney game. But epic it was!

[ShockerFever]

My personal greatest game was that Syracuse game from a few years back. Six overtimes. Epic...

ASM already stated that it was a Big East game. It also was last year, not a few years back.

[kcshocker11]

Bird, Magic!

[WuDrWu]

I have so many great memories of this tournament.....I could type for days.

Most of my favorites are going to be of WSU (duh) and huge upsets.


But perhaps the one that hits me the hardest was the 1990 round of 32 matchup between Michigan and Loyola Marymount. Marymount, still grieving from the death of their star Hank Gathers, summoned all the heart and courage one team could and spanked the Wolverines like they had talked about their mom.

Jeff Fryer must have hit 12 threes (at least) and Bo Kimble scored at will. Actually, everyone scored at will. My favorite memory of that game was after Jeff Fryer buried yet another bomb for what had to be a 30+ point lead at the time, just turned around and got in Michigan guard Rumeal Robinson's grill...who was dead spent, head dropped, he was DONE....and said to him....sorry, but we got a lot more for ya.

149-115 Loyola Marymount

RIP Hank Gathers (I hope you and Guy are having fantastic horse games)

http://www.lmulions.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/022405aal.html

[forevershockerfan]

Many moons ago, lowly touted Princeton just missed a win versus mighty Georgetown. That's why folk PLAY the game.

[ShockerKhan]

I am going with "Rollie" Massimino and the Super Nova in 1985 taking out Patrick Ewing and Georgetown. What a great run just to get to the Final game.
They beat # 1 seed Michigan, #2 Seed UNC, #2 Seed Memphis and #4 seed Maryland (with Len Bias). Maybe the biggest upset in Tornament history.
I remember Ed Pinckney ripping their hearts out.

[WuDrWu]

Many moons ago, lowly touted Princeton just missed a win versus mighty Georgetown. That's why folk PLAY the game.

.


Some say (me included) that the Princeton player was fouled on the last shot (he was). Perhaps the guttiest performance by a team woefully overmatched in the history of sports.

The Tigers deserved to win that game.

http://www.princetonbasketball.com/?cat=59

Scroll down for a copy of the hand written scorecard.

[forevershockerfan]

You are correct Doc. Princeton Was robbed!!! I also remember the Nova win. I was watching and somewhat nuetral as to the outcome. Then it seemed like Georgetown was thugging so I started pulling for Nova and was happy they won.

Also Doc, I hate to do this to you because we have visited this road before. The Shocks were playing St. John--Sasha goes for the steal, and who was that tall St. John player non-factor that drained the 15 footer to seal our sad fate??? Bardo? Yikes--that one still hurts to the bone!!!!!!!

[WuDrWu]

Marco Baldi.


He still hasn't made another shot from that distance some 23 years later.

[WuDrWu]

Actually, little known fact, his given name is F****** Marco Baldi.

[GarH]

I'll always remember that Michigan State-Indiana State game. Man I wanted Bird and Indiana state to win SO bad. How cool would it have been to see the NC won by a Valley team?

[shockball]

I thought it was Marco F******** Baldi, like Bucky F********* Dent.

[Good News]

I have so many great memories of this tournament.....I could type for days.

Most of my favorites are going to be of WSU (duh) and huge upsets.


But perhaps the one that hits me the hardest was the 1990 round of 32 matchup between Michigan and Loyola Marymount. Marymount, still grieving from the death of their star Hank Gathers, summoned all the heart and courage one team could and spanked the Wolverines like they had talked about their mom.

Jeff Fryer must have hit 12 threes (at least) and Bo Kimble scored at will. Actually, everyone scored at will. My favorite memory of that game was after Jeff Fryer buried yet another bomb for what had to be a 30+ point lead at the time, just turned around and got in Michigan guard Rumeal Robinson's grill...who was dead spent, head dropped, he was DONE....and said to him....sorry, but we got a lot more for ya.

149-115 Loyola Marymount

RIP Hank Gathers (I hope you and Guy are having fantastic horse games)

http://www.lmulions.com/sports/m-bas...022405aal.html

This is absolutely the #1 non-WSU game that springs to mind, Doc, and you beat me to it. I'm sure I've bored many friends describing how much fun that team was to watch.

There's a 15-20 second sequence of that game that remains unmatched in any college basketball game I've ever seen. I believe it involved three 3s with two steals off the press/inbounds, and Fryer had at least two of them. Think of it like Lenny Bias scoring, stealing the inbounds and dunking backwards, only 3 times better. It might be the sequence Doc referenced, but I remember thinking that I'd never seen a team more demoralized than Michigan.

Back when I coached junior high basketball and was teaching the press - specifically what it could do to your opponent mentally - I looked for tape of that game that I could show. No luck. I have a standing offer of $50 to anyone who can find a copy of that game in good quality.

There should be some decent footage of that game in the upcoming ESPN documentary:

http://30for30.espn.com/film/gurus-of-go.html

No true college basketball fan should miss that - if you were too young to remember, it's a fantastic look at one of the great stories in college basketball.


Anyway, that is my #1 non-WSU tournament game. Here are the others, in no particular order:

1987 - Austin Peay over Illinois. 14 beats a 3 and shuts up Dukie V, who wouldn't shut up at halftime and promised to stand on his head if the Govs beat Kendall Gill, Marcus Liberty, Kenny Battle, Nick Anderson, Stephen Bardo, and the rest of the Flyin' Illini. The original instance of BCS-bias blowing up in someone's face.

1991 - Richmond over Syracuse. 15 beats a 2. I never liked 'Cuse just because they hid superior athletes in the zone.

1989 - Georgetown - Princeton. Already discussed.

1996 - Princeton over UCLA. Back door cut at the end makes All-American Ed O'Bannon (I think) look stupid and dooms Lavin and the Bruins.

1998 - Valparaiso over Ole Miss. Probably my favorite last second shot, a beautifully drawn and executed screen, shot, and celebration. Plus it got Bryce Drew a cup of coffee in the NBA.

1999 - Weber State over North Carolina. Harold "The Show" Arceneaux drops 36 on a talented Tar Heels squad. Totally athletically outclassed at every position, Weber State survives a huge UNC run at the end.

1999 - Detroit over UCLA. Nobody ever talks about this one, but (1) I always disliked Steve Lavin for some reason (probably ratting out Harrick), (2) I picked this game in my bracket, and (3) the game was so exciting that at one point I jumped out of my chair and hit my head on the ceiling. I might be biased on this one.

2002 - Creighton over Florida. I know how most of us feel about Creighton, but this was back in the days when the Valley needed wins in the tournament no matter what. Plus, I was watching this game in Vegas and had Creighton plus the points... and Creighton on the money line. The sports book went completely berserk when Terrell Taylor hit that shot - my first great Vegas March Madness memory. Maybe I'm biased on this one too.

2006 - NW State (14) over Iowa (3). Late 3 from the corner, if I remember correctly, plus a great non-Ogirri Afro/Headband moment from one of the NW State guys.

2005 - Bucknell over Kansas. No explanation needed.

2006 - Bradley over Kansas. I just wanted to group those two together.

2001 - Hampton (15) over Iowa State (2).

2005 - Vermont Catamounts (13) over 'Cuse (4). TJ Sorrentine hits a bomb from about 10 feet behind the 3pt line with something like 8 or 10 seconds left. In the postgame interview, he was asked why he took the shot so early; his response was "because I knew if I gave it up I wasn't going to get it back". If the old saying is actually true - that there's only two types of players, those that want the ball at crunch time and those that don't - I think I know which group he falls in.

http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2010/03/17/sports/sports01.txt

I wish I could put George Mason over UConn on here, but I have to admit that I was unable to watch the game due to an overwhelming case of the "if only's".


Great thread idea, Doc.

[WuDrWu]

I thought it was Marco F******** Baldi, like Bucky F********* Dent.

Around my house, we like the F to lead the way. But I hear ya hummin'.