College basketball is king. At least for three weeks in March. Three weeks of buzzer beaters, stunning upsets, nerve wracking close calls, and devastating blowouts.
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament can make legends out of unknown players and turn stars into goats. It can provide visibility to invisible teams and send them just as quickly back into the abyss. It is college basketball’s biggest, brightest spotlight and separates those who can handle that glare from those who cannot in front of the entire sports world.
And it produces lasting memories.
No one thought Jim Valvano’s North Carolina State Wolfpack team had a chance in 1983. They had been unspectacular on the floor but spectacularly pragmatic on the scoreboard. They just kept winning, winning ugly but winning nonetheless. And they eventually won themselves a title match-up with Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and the scary, high-flying Houston Cougars. With the game on the line, Derek Wittenburg shot a last-second, desperation air ball that somehow transformed itself into the perfect alley-oop pass in midair to teammate Lorenzo Charles for a buzzer-beating, title-winning basket. Valvano ran frantically but randomly on the court, Houston players sank to the floor in disbelief, and Whittenburg and Charles became instant legends.
Though Wittenburg never a played a game in the NBA and Charles played a just a single season there with modest results, they are remembered to this day by sports fans because of that single moment in the spotlight. Of course, eventual NBA superstars have had their day during March Madness as well.
Long before he became His Airness and Nike’s favorite marketing silhouette, Michael Jordan was a skinny sophomore guard for North Carolina, and his last-second jumper (with an inadvertent assist by Georgetown’s Fred Brown and his now-infamous blunder moments later) was a game-winning shot for the Tar Heels in the 1982 title game.
Magic Johnson and Larry Bird gave everyone a sneak preview of the great Lakers-Celtics NBA showdowns by battling each other in the NCAA title game in 1979 with Magic leading his Michigan State team to victory over Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores.
That said, it is the promise of the upset that captures the imagination of most people, and that promise only remains valid because of the notable instances when heavy underdogs have been able to make good against such long odds.
In 1985, a back-up guard for Villanova named Harold Jensen went 5-for-5 from the floor and 4-for-5 from the line in the championship game, pacing an astonishing 78.6% shooting night for his team. And it took every one of those made baskets to lift Jensen and his teammates over John Thompson, Patrick Ewing, and the defending national champion Georgetown Hoyas.
In 1998, Valparaiso University made its mark on the tournament. In their opening round game against fourth-seeded Ole Miss, the 13th-seeded Crusaders needed a miracle to win. And they got it. Trailing by two in the closing seconds, Valparaiso pulled out a trick play. Like the hook-and-ladder play in football, a long pass that drew defenders was followed by a short pitch to a wide open player. In Valpo’s case, the wide open player was 3-point assassin Bryce Drew who bombed in a long trey for the win.
And just like that, the tournament can be turned on its ear. Santa Clara and Steve Nash dump highly-touted Arizona (1993), unknown Cleveland State makes a miracle run to the Sweet Sixteen (1986), Taylor Coppenrath and the Vermont Catamounts stun media darling Syracuse (2005), and George Mason takes out tournament favorite Connecticut en route to a Final Four appearance (2006).
The Madness, the madness...
Like Whittenburg and Charles, March Madness is peppered with players who reached that single moment of fame in the tournament and were largely never heard from again. In 1977, Marquette’s Butch Lee helped to deliver a national title to legendary coach Al McGuire but was out the NBA in two years, having averaged only eight points and three assists a game. A year later, Kentucky’s Jack Givens scored 41 points in dominating the NCAA title game. Unfortunately, like Butch Lee, his NBA career also only lasted two seasons, where he averaged just under seven points and three rebounds a game
In 1987, Indiana’s Keith Smart won the NCAA championship with a last-second jumper against Syracuse. His subsequent NBA playing career lasted all of two games in which he scored exactly as many points for the Sacramento Kings as he did on that single play that brought glory to the Hoosiers and his everlasting college legacy.
In 1995, a pair of UCLA Bruins took turns in the spotlight. In a second round game against Missouri, UCLA guard Tyus Edney took the ball the length of the court in the final five seconds, split the defense, and hit a twisting layup at the buzzer to give the Bruins a thrilling one-point victory. After that, Ed O’Bannon took over. O’Bannon scored 30 points and pulled down 17 boards in the Bruins’ championship game win over Arkansas. However, neither Edney (four seasons, three teams, single-digit scoring average) nor O’Bannon (two season, two teams, single-digit scoring) parlayed their NCAA heroics into NBA success.
In 2000, Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves willed the Spartans to the title with points and fire and toughness. Six seasons later, Cleaves has a stalled NBA career and is working in the developmental league hoping for another chance to impress at the highest level.
Though that one exhilarating moment with the entire sports world watching was a zenith career event for many, never to be reached again by them, having such a trademark moment to begin with is undeniably valuable. In sports terms, it’s not a bad consolation prize to have, not bad at all. After all, a single moment of glory is still a moment of glory, an accomplishment that cannot be undone however brief the triumph.
Last season, Florida’s Joakim Noah was the face of the tournament. Whether blocking shots or running the floor, he seemed to be everywhere and led the Gators’ unstoppable run to the title. However, George Mason’s miracle run, Adam Morrison’s waterworks, and the “other” Big Baby also garnered some ink.
So, what teams and which players will step forward this season? Will it be future NBA superstars or will it be star college players who will go no further in their athletic careers? Will all the favored teams roll or will some lightly regarded underdogs stun the big boys? Either way, it promises to be very good drama and a welcomed sight in a lagging sports season.
Nooch is a lifelong sports fan who believes that Indianapolis ended up with a slightly better QB than San Diego in the 1998 NFL Draft, the Golden State Warriors may not make the NBA playoffs again in his lifetime (how was I supposed to know that Chris Mullin would make a coaching hire and a mid-season trade that would basically save the franchise?), and that Mike Ivie's pinch-hit, game winning grand slam for the Giants against the Dodgers in 1978 may have been the greatest moment in baseball history.
