Scribbler's 2-for-1 Special: NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships

Although no team has received more attention in my 36 years of life than that team who wears burgundy and gold and plays in Landover, I used to be a bigger fan of NCAA Men's Division I Basketball during the 80s and 90s than the NFL.  Heck, I was even more willing to watch regular season games in college basketball than the NBA because between the energy of the crowds, the brewing rivalries between schools and the hunger and raw talent of the players, college hoops have always been a little more exciting.  Although the Georgetown Hoyas, the Maryland Terrapins and the Michigan Wolverines have always been my top three teams, respectively, there have always been "prisoner of the moment" teams on my list like the 1989-90 UNLV Running Rebels with Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, George Ackles and Greg Anthony; or even the 1990-91 Duke Blue Devils with Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill--who amazed me just being able to play ball with that hideously obstructive face mask after suffering a broken nose in a loss to Virginia.  So when March Madness would roll around, it was pretty much "don't even look at me and think we're going to have a meaningful conversation" time.  So in honor of the upcoming title game next Monday, I've decided to do a "Rave & Favorite Five" of the the most memorable and/or most personal championship games in my lifetime.  Oh, and it happens to be the "11th Hour Post of the Week", too, so you're welcome once again...

#5 HOUSTON COUGARS VS. GEORGETOWN HOYAS, (April 2, 1984).  Truth be told, this game was a good matchup, but this is more of a nostalgia, team loyalty and historical pick than anything.  At an early age, I knew exactly who Patrick Ewing, John Thompson and the Georgetown Hoyas were and I've been all in on the hoopla since then--although the Hoyas couldn't even get into the tourney this year.  I remember just how big it was in the city when they won this championship--especially because the Burgundy and Gold lost badly to my AFC team, the (then) Los Angeles Raiders, in the Super Bowl earlier in the year.  Moreover, I understand the cultural and historical significance of John Thompson being the first Black head coach to win an NCAA championship--although he scoffed at being the first Black anything because it suggested that "in 1984, a Black man finally became intelligent enough to win the NCAA title".  (Fair point, although I give a little more of my take on how I still feel it was important here.)  In what was supposed to be the battle of the big men between Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing, they both had modest numbers--Olajuwon posted 15 points and nine rebounds (he sat a good amount of the second half with four fouls) while Ewing had ten points (eight of those points in the first half) and nine rebounds.  There were points where Coach John Thompson actually had Michael Graham on Olajuwon instead of Ewing to keep his star center out of foul trouble, but when they faced each other, it was often physical--something to which they would get accustomed when they faced each other ten years later in the 1994 NBA Finals.  The true offensive stars were Houston's Alvin Franklin (21 points, nine assists and quite a few acrobatic shots in between taller defenders as well as overcoming a near ankle injury) and Michael Young (18 points, five rebounds) and Georgetown's Reggie Williams (19 points, seven rebounds) and David Wingate (16 points).  Although the Cougars made the Hoyas a bit tentative on offense when playing the 1-3-1 defense, the Hoyas knew how to beat the zones more often than not.  Furthermore, and this is a theme for the bottom three games in this countdown, Houston missed nine free throws as a team and Olajuwon contributed four of those misses.  They lost by nine...you do the math...

#4 SYRACUSE ORANGEMEN VS. KANSAS JAYHAWKS (April 7, 2003).  Although I've watched quite a few championship games since, this is the last one that I remember pretty well.  Although the Hoyas have always been my favorite college basketball team, I was a huge fan of both Carmelo Anthony and Hakim Warrick in 2002-03 and felt that Syracuse had the best shot to win the tournament.  Coincidentally, this game signified many times where my younger brother--a longtime, die-hard Kansas fan--and I rooted against each other's teams.  Although the Orangemen were known more for their stifling defense, they took the Jayhawks off guard early in this game offensively as Gerry McNamara contributed 18 first-half points all from downtown and Anthony, who was playing with back soreness for most of the game, played as expected and finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.  Defensively, they initially stifled Kansas by getting back quickly in potential fast-break situations--only allowing two points in the first half--and made them second-guess themselves on the perimeter.  Despite a surge by Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich and Jeff Graves that whittled down an 18-point deficit to as little as two points in the second half, three things ultimately hurt Kansas: 1) Keith Langford, one of their best scorers throughout the season who had 19 points, fouled out with a little over five minutes left in the game; 2) fatigue caught up with Collison and Graves as they played 40 and 38 minutes, respectively (Collison fouled out in the waning moments); and 3) Kansas got to the free throw line 13 more times than Syracuse, but missed 18 free throws.  Not hard to see at least one way that they lost when Syracuse gave them 30 free opportunities to beat them.  Forget all of that though...the play of the game that motivated me to watch this game all the way through again was Hakim Warrick's wicked block of Kirk Hinrich with about a second left in the game, essentially sealing Syracuse's 81-78 victory for the first title in school history.  Safe to say that a good block party always ranks high... 

#3 ARIZONA WILDCATS VS. KENTUCKY WILDCATS (March 31, 1997).  Truth moment: I have never really been a fan of Kentucky.   I don't know, maybe it came from the short time when I was demented enough to be a Duke fan (until I realized that Maryland and Duke were sworn enemies, of course).  Hence, when they drew the Arizona Wildcats, it was even more of a bonus for a team that I respected all year to beat a team for whom I didn't care too much.  Although Kentucky had a squad led by Ron Mercer, could run the floor with ease and were beating teams by an average of 14 points per game in the 1997 NCAA Tournament, they hadn't played a team that boasted the likes of Miles Simon, Mike Bibby, Jason Terry, A.J. Bramlett and Michael Dickerson.  Not only could Arizona keep up with Kentucky's pace, but they often outran them--much to the chagrin of Coach Rick Pitino, seen saying "get back" quite a few times.  Although this was probably one of the most competitive and underrated NCAA championships, Kentucky arguably lost this game on the strength of two factors: 1) Ron Mercer was playing at about 80 percent, couldn't get much lift on a lot of his shots and didn't have one of his best performances; and 2) Nazr Mohammed was an X-factor in the paint with twelve points and eleven rebounds, but was an abysmal 0 for 6 at the free throw line.  Kentucky lost by five points...once again, do the math.  The most memorable part of this championship was how Miles Simon did what Ron Mercer wished he had done more of: score, score and score some more.  With perhaps the most memorable performance of his college career with 30 points on the biggest stage, he put on a clinic of finding ways to get the ball in the hoop and largely carrying his team to victory.  Simon says "win"...

#2 NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS VS. MICHIGAN WOLVERINES (April 5, 1993).  As a Maryland fan going back to the days of Len Bias, I have plenty of reason not to like North Carolina.  Now while their fan base isn't as insufferable as dealing with Duke fans, they can still be annoying nonetheless.  So when they faced my Wolverines for the 1993 crown, I had yet another reason to play contrarian.  After Duke ramrodded them the year before--another reason for me to loathe those darn Blue Devils--the "Fab Five" of Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson returned to prove their legitimacy as contenders and silence their haters.  As byproducts and partial representatives of the Golden Era of Hip Hop, many of us rooted for them just because a certain section of America wanted to see them--five young brothers who looked and talked like many of us--fall on their faces.  However, North Carolina clearly came ready to play as they gave Michigan's defense some early fits--even to the point of Coach Steve Fisher having to sit Webber down for some plays to settle his nerves--while solid "blue-collar" defense led by George Lynch frustrated the Wolverines' offense throughout the game.  Boosted by a few Rob Pelinka three pointers and Webber finding his groove as he was constantly around the ball, Michigan would eventually find their stride as the game became one of runs and constant lead changes.  Despite what may have been a bit of a chess match between Fisher and Dean Smith with an abnormally exorbitant amount of substitutions taking away from the offensive flow, that didn't stop Webber's 23-point, 11-rebound performance or Carolina's Donald Williams and his memorable 25-point showing, which earned him the tournament's Most Outstanding Player Award.  

As much I could go on about these two teams jousting it out in the final five minutes, I know what you wanna hear about...the Webber rebound off of a Pat Sullivan missed free throw with 19 seconds left...an uncalled traveling call...and, alas, the phantom timeout heard 'round the world that cost them a technical foul and perhaps that elusive title.  In all fairness, later reports came out that either someone from the coaching staff and/or the entire Wolverine bench prompted Webber to call the timeout.  Considering that it was only 73-71, being able to get at least a two-pointer could've possibly sent the game into overtime.  Nevertheless, the mystery of what could've happened is like figuring how many licks it takes to get to the bubble gum center of a Tootsie Roll Pop as the best team that day won.  If Charlamagne Tha God were handing out Donkeys of the Day in 1993--which would've only made him twelve years old at the time--then C-Webb and/or whoever prompted him to call that timeout would've at least won one of those.  Yeah...still salty about it.  Now as heartbroken as I was about the Fab 5 never getting that coveted championship, nothing was more gut-wrenching than...

#1 GEORGETOWN HOYAS VS. NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS (March 29, 1982).  In what felt like a gladiator match between two hall of fame coaches in John Thompson and Dean Smith as well as three future NBA Hall of Famers, this is yet another example of how much I should despise and abhor the Tar Heels.  However, two words keep me from hating this particular Carolina squad: James Worthy.  It's hard to dislike any team that featured one of my favorite players in NBA history as well as Lakers lore and from the door, Worthy put everybody on notice that this was going to be his game before ultimately scoring 28 points and chipping in four rebounds.  At 6'9" and 225 pounds, he was arguably the fastest man on the court as he always got back quickly on defense and beat everybody down the court for breakaway dunks--including one monstrous slam on fellow Gastonia, North Carolina native Eric "Sleepy" Floyd.  Now although Worthy had the better game, Floyd was no slouch either as he scored from various points on the floor and showed his stellar game via an 18-point performance with five assists to boot.  The other monster in this game was freshman Patrick Ewing who, despite contributing 10 points to Carolina via five goal tends, was nearly as swift getting up and down the court as Worthy and absolutely menacing in the paint.  In fact, in one series toward the beginning of the second half, CBS announcer Gary Bender said a variation of "Ewing again" four straight times (which contributed to eleven rebounds) before a put back for two of his 23 points.  Bender later said, "Oh it's tough on the boards!"  Speaking of the boards and freshmen, we cannot talk the 1982 NCAA Championship without mentioning a young Michael Jordan.  Although he was relatively quiet in the first half, MJ ended up being the team's leading rebounder with nine--many of them on the offensive boards--and manifested early signs of his defensive prowess.  Add 15 points along with the game-winning shot and his legend in the national spotlight was born...

Much like the North Carolina-Michigan title game in '93, there is no discussion of the '82 championship without talking about poor Fred Brown.  Jordan just hit the jumper with 15 seconds left to put the Tar Heels up 63-62.  Brown gets the inbound pass and advances into the front court.  Jordan and Worthy are swarming Sleepy Floyd, cutting off his ability to get the ball in their best offensive player's hands.  Worthy steps behind Brown, almost as if he knows what's about to happen.  Brown gets caught up in trying to find an open man and makes one of the most baffling decisions in NCAA tournament history.  Let's simplify it...Georgetown's jerseys are blue...North Carolina's jerseys are white...how Brown confused James Worthy for one of his teammates enough to actually pass the ball to him is so far beyond my level of comprehension.  Let me tell it, this might be worse than Webber's blunder because at least Webber's blunder might have been a team effort; Brown messed this one up all by himself.  In perhaps the most hotly-contested championship game on any level in any sport, you just can't give the ball back to the man who's been torching your team.  Granted, Eric Smith fouled Worthy and he missed both of his free throws, but John Thompson called his final timeout before Worthy even stepped to the charity stripe--one that I know he wishes that he had back.  Despite being one of the most bittersweet games that I've ever watched, it was just too good of a game not to be at the top of the list.

Now I felt some kind of way about leaving the 2002 Maryland championship squad off of this list considering 1) that was their first and only championship in school history and 2) Juan Dixon was balling out of control during that tournament, ultimately winning MOP honors.  I also wanted to include other games like the infamous 1985 Villanova upset of Georgetown, Seton Hall vs. Michigan in 1989 or even as recent as Butler vs. Duke in 2010.  However, that's the beauty of NCAA tournament basketball: there are a plethora of underrated and legendary games from which to choose and love.  Ah, when ball really was life...

Since I know that none of you have a bracket that's still intact, you can still celebrate the awesomeness of March Madness here at New Problem Tuesdays.  Please feel free to comment with your favorite NCAA Championship games.  Don't forget to come back next week to see what new "Rave & Favorite Five" will be on deck!