11/05/24
March 04, 2010
Thrill List: College basketball: It's getting close to tournament time. What are your best moments? Good or bad?
posted by gfinsf to basketball at 09:57 AM - 15 comments
I went to PC '68-'72, we/they went to the final 4 in 1973. We lost to UCLA at Pauley Pavilion by 23 during the year. PC was in full control of the game vs Memphis until Marvin Barnes got hurt. I believe up by 18. Ernie D was on fire. Larry Kenon said they would have beat us anyway, that's what I hate. There was no way, Walton's historic 21 for 22 show in the championship game would have happened With Barnes I know we would have beaten Memphis, and UCLA, maybeI never doubted Ernie and Marvin. Still always wondering what if..
posted by gfinsf at 10:27 AM on March 04, 2010
UNC beating Georgetown 63-62 on freshman Michael Jordan's jump shot with 17 seconds left in the 1982 championship game.
The second half of that game is still the most exciting, most intense basketball game I've ever seen. I don't think either team had a lead of more than three points the entire second half.
posted by cjets at 11:02 AM on March 04, 2010
My memory banks can only go back to the late '80s (basically, as long as it's been a 64 team tournament), so can someone help me lift the fog? I'm trying to remember when Loyola Marymount had that run-and-gun offense that scored a ridiculous number of points per game. Early '90s, no? And for some reason I thought it was a tournament game, but Michigan, instead of trying to slow the pace like other teams did, they went hard at 'em and just outscored them. For something that is supposed to be so memorable, I sure don't have a clear memory of it, but that's the gist of it anyway.
posted by Spitztengle at 11:53 AM on March 04, 2010
In 1979, the Final Four game between Penn and Michigan State took my breath away. Magic and Kelser got going and I had never seen anything like that.
Similarly, I was stunned at what Houston did to Louisville in the 1983 Final Four. I had never seen anything like that, either. Which made the title game with NC State all the more unbelievable.
Providence beating Georgetown to go to the Final Four in 1987. State police had stopped the team bus on the highway to tell the Pitinos that their infant son had died. How the Friars won that game, I don't know.
posted by beaverboard at 12:04 PM on March 04, 2010
Villanova beating Georgetown for the championship. They had to play a perfect game to even be within 10 of Georgetown, the Hoyas made some mistakes and they pulled it off.
NC State's last second victory.
Indiana winning the championship with Keith Smart being their best player - we'll never see better coaching than what Bobby Knight provided in that year.
posted by cixelsyd at 12:26 PM on March 04, 2010
1979 Michigan State and 1983 NC State.
posted by NoMich at 12:27 PM on March 04, 2010
Villanova beating Georgetown for the championship. They had to play a perfect game to even be within 10 of Georgetown, the Hoyas made some mistakes and they pulled it off.
I remember seeing that game. The 1984-85 season was the last one in college basketball before they instituted the 45-second possession clock, and 'Nova had come up with a slow-down method of playing basketball that confounded all their opponents, including the Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown squad that was favored to win it all. The Hoyas had already won both Big East meetings against the Cats earlier in the season. Some G-Town fans may still cry foul at that championship game, but it still ranks as one of the greatest upsets in Tourney History.
posted by NerfballPro at 04:19 PM on March 04, 2010
My freshman year of high school, UNC over Michigan. It happened to fall on the same night as our basketball team's season ending banquet and everyone had abandoned the banquet hall to watch the game out at the bar. It ended up being all of the big basketball players cheering for Michigan at one end of the bar and me the dorky freshman stat guy sitting at the other end by myself.
I still maintain that the reason Chris Webber wore the number 4 during his Michigan career was because he wasn't capable of counting to 5!!
posted by Demophon at 05:23 PM on March 04, 2010
I'm trying to remember when Loyola Marymount had that run-and-gun offense that scored a ridiculous number of points per game. Early '90s, no?
The season you are thinking of is 89-90. This link has some of the info on the Loyola Marymount season you are referring to. It was the year before Hank Gathers died on the court.
posted by Demophon at 05:30 PM on March 04, 2010
Dean Smith disliker and contrarian that I am, I will take this opportunity to mention that Coach Smith won two national championships during his career at North Carolina and both of them came at least partly as a result of two of the most colossal errors ever witnessed in the history of college basketball on the part of UNC's opponents in the waning moments of both games.
Which reminds me - a moment of high gratification: Marquette beating North Carolina in the 1977 championship game in Al McGuire's final game as head coach.
I guess I'm also glad that Roy Williams finally won a title(s) somewhere and that Kansas finally won another title in the current era regardless of who the coach was, so we could avoid having to listen to that whole heart rending saga for the rest of eternity.
posted by beaverboard at 07:05 PM on March 04, 2010
The season you are thinking of is 89-90.
Doh! It was UNLV ... I kinda thought my memory was ragged around the details.
posted by Spitztengle at 09:55 PM on March 04, 2010
I'm not sure of the year, but I think it was '75, when the Indiana Hoosiers went undefeated through the entire season and then lost to Kentucky in the tournament semi's after Scott May broke his arm. The next year, they went undefeated again with basically the same team (Bob Greene replaced Ralph Abernathy, or vice-versa), and Bobby Wilkerson broke his arm in the tournament and I thought history was gonna repeat, but they won it all and were the last Div I team to go undefeated through an entire season.
Go Hoosiers!!
posted by outonleave at 12:01 AM on March 05, 2010
The season you are thinking of is 89-90. It was the year before Hank Gathers died on the court.
March 4 marks 20 years ago to the day Hank Gathers collapsed on the court during a game. Loyola-Marymount still made a considerable run in the tournament, upending Michigan (defending national champs at the time) in the Sweet 16, scoring 149 points on them.
posted by NerfballPro at 09:41 AM on March 05, 2010
Bo Kimble shooting left handed in memory of Hank Gathers is one of the best moments in sports period.
posted by gfinsf at 10:12 AM on March 05, 2010
Duke beating UNLV in the Final Four. I was (and am) a UNLV fan and I remember literally sitting on the edge of my seat that entire game, almost overwhelmed by tension. There has been a lot of great games since then but that is the game that made me into a diehard NCAA basketball fan.