Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Greatest NCAA Basketball Games by Decade

I only went back to the sixties for this.

1960s: Texas Western: 72 Kentucky: 65 (1966): Texas Western fielded an all black starting five and knocked off #1 Kentucky led by a guy named Adolph. It was the first time a major college program started five black players in a NCAA Championship Game. Texas Western was also the first team to start five blacks in any game earlier that year.

1970s: MSU: 75 Indiana State: 64 (1979): Before Magic and Bird, NBA games were shown on tape delay at midnight and there was no March Madness or Bracketology. Then came the 1979 Championship Game and the Laker-Celtic matchups of the 80s…

1980s: NC State: 54 Houston: 52 (1983): NC State had to run the table in the ACC Tournament to make the dance. In the Championship Game, they played the high flying Phi Slama Jama Houston Cougars. The game ended with Lorenzo Charles’ dunk off an air ball thrown up by Dereck Whittenburg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH1Jt2XATgE

1990s: Duke: 104 Kentucky: 103 (1992) Elite 8: In the greatest basketball game of all time, Duke trailed Kentucky 103-102 when Christian Laettner threw up a prayer in overtime. With 2.1 seconds remaining, Grant Hill threw the ball the length of the court, Laettner caught it, pivoted, dribbled, and tossed up his shot. Duke wins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY-iq58_oz4

2000s: George Mason: 86 Uconn: 84 (2006) Elite 8: In an improbable upset, the Patriots stun the Huskies in overtime to make the Final Four. George Mason was an 11 seed. This was not only one of the great upsets, but also a portend of the trend of mid-majors beating the big boys in major collegiate sports.

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