One of the great games ever. Where does it rank?
A stunning double-clutch three to tie with 4 seconds left.
A brilliant three to win at the buzzer.
I can't think of a time I've seen a better game in this spot in the NCAA championship.
Where does this rank all time in college basketball? Where does it rank in all sports? (This is a "fun" thread. Recency bias is ok.)
Now that was an inbounds play for the ages... The player dribbled all the way to the 3 point arc, drew the coverage and dished. Sweet.
One Shining Moment ever.
The last 2 minutes of it should have just been the last 2 minutes of the game.
Am I the only person who thought it was one of the best ever?
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He needs to turn in his Mich fan card then. I think they showed Notre Dame as much as the Final Four teams.
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Fan card restored. I love that shot.
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Right after the two-point conversion in the Michigan spring game.
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You must be young. Hang in there, it's worth it.
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Harbaugh!
NCAA game ever was the semi-final in '89 against Illinois. Incredible talent on both teams, and we'd lost to them twice during the season.
As far as games without a rooting interest, this one was as good as it gets.
I loved the North Carolina game that year. We finally beat them after two losses in a row to them in the NCAAs. Once we got that monkey off our backs, I knew we'd would go far.
Every year it seemed like we lost to them in the tourney. Dunno why we were in their bracket every year, but we finally beat them in '89 because Rice scored 30 in every game.
Where should we all meet?
I'm going to throw out the 99 title game between UConn led by Rip Hamilton and Duke. It was nowhere near as dramatic as this one, but it was a close game throughout and it was a major upset, statistcially the biggest in title game history. Duke had won 32 straight games as well.
tht's not the biggest upset in the title game history. Not with NC State or Villanova winning it all.
than either 1983 (Houston was favored by 8.5) or 1985 (Georgetown was favored by 9 over Villanova).
That 1999 Duke team was incredible. Corey Magette came off the bench! Langdon, Battier, William Avery, Elton Brand.
Connecticut was darn good themselves, 2 losses and ran through the Big East. But that Duke team was seen as a "sure thing." They should have been undefeated entering the game, playing to be the only undefeated since Indiana. I remember their one loss, a 2:30 AM ESPN special in the Great Alaska Shootout: Cincinnati was very good and played darn near PERFECT, and still won by the slimmest of margins.
Is that true? It's a fantastic piece of trivia if so. 9.5 against a 37-2 UConn team? I wish I was old enough to bet that game. I do remember Duke beating an outstanding Michigan State team in the semi-final.
In retrospect, it seems absurd--that UConn team was absolutely loaded. But at the time Duke had what people felt was an unbeatable team, one of the best of all time.
So it was the rare game that was both a stunning upset and a massive heavyweight title fight. Kind of like Texas-USC at the Rose Bowl. In fact, a lot like that.
Perfect analogy.
Villanova seemed like huge underdogs against Georgetown. They lost to them twice during the season.
They also got blasted by Pitt in their regular season final (23 pts!), then beat them in the first round of the Big East tournament before getting crushed by St. Johns.
Sneaked into the tournament at 19-10.
Meanwhile, G'town was #1 almost the entire season.
Yeah, you can't go just by point spreads that Vegas sets to move the money from one side to the other.
I remember both NC State in '83 and and Villinova in '85. They were huge underdogs. They were both teams that had no business being in the Final and were given no shot to win it.
Nobody thought '99 UConn did not belong in the Final nor that it had no shot at all.
Yeah, that's what made that game so memorable for me. A) I hated Duke. B) Duke was a juggernaut, probably Coach K's second best team behind the Hurley, Laetner, Hill led teams.
too remember that Great Alaska Shoout. and the loss to Cincinatti featuring a young Kenyon Martin.
The win marked UConn's arrival on the scene as a national power and I remember Hamilton and Khalid El Amin yelling "They don't know! " over and over after they had won.
in Chicago when Jason Kidd willed Cal to beat the Hill, Hurley, Parks Dukies. Loved every minute!
Nova and NC State were a much worse team(and rightfully so since their seeds are a lot lower than 1 seed that UConn got). Both had zero business being in the title game unlike UConn.
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the thing is: Duke had one loss, and all their wins but 3 were by double-digits. Two 6-point neutral-court wins over Michigan State (very good themselves in 1999, they won 22 straight before playing Duke in the National SF), and a 4-point win at MSG over Ron Artest's St. John's squad.
1998-99 Duke swept the ACC, winning every game by double-digits. That's insane!
Even Kenpom, I think, would have realized them as a 4-standard-deviation-type extreme outlier. They were literally off the charts.
UConn was a 9.5 point underdog in the title game. This was the largest point spread in title game history. Villanova was a 9 point underdog to Georgetown. I couldn't find the spread for the 83 title game but if you read about it, the point spread was only the fourth largest.
It was not improbable for UConn to get there like it was for Villanova or NC State, but they were heavy underdogs to Duke. So yes, 99 UConn scored statistically the biggest upset in title game history.
Also the Tyus Edney UCLA game (with Ed O'Bannon) was up there in my memory. The Webber game while not fun to remember was actually a great game and had a wild (for weird reasons) finish.
That '99 game and the 2008 Kansas vs Memphis overtime game were the two best title games that I've watched that didn't feature Michigan, and I've seen every one since '89.
This one was good with a great finish but Nova should have put them to bed with 3 min to play.
"The ball don't lie."
I'm old enough to remember lots of great ones. Jordan's game-winner, Lorenzo Charles, Keith Smart against Syracuse, 'nova's upset against Ewing and Georgetown.
Even some unpleasant ones were great games. Duke's win over UNLV, our loss v. UNC.
And of course, Rumeal's big brass ones to seal it in '89!
I recall Indiana beating Michigan 86-68 in 1976. There wasn't much excitement or drama to that game. It was all Indiana. I was one disappointed 16 year old. But Ricky Green was fun to watch.
NCAA championship game I remember.
That Indiana team was Knight's masterpiece. They rolled us in the final, and beat us twice during the season.
Still the last undefeated team.
Rickey Green was fast as lightning, and Grote and Hubbard were warriors. Unfortunately no match for Buckner, May and Benson.
I was wondering if anyone would bring up '87. That was a pretty amazing finish too. I'm not sure I've ever seen two 3's hit in the last 5 seconds before though (in a title game)
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Oklahoma at Kansas was a better game.
Lots of great championship games if people think hard enough.
Last night's game was great, no question, and if you want to say that because it was a championship game, it should get the nod, I can't argue too much, but Oklahoma at Kansas was an unreal game between two heavyweights who both played like there was a championship at stake.
Thinking about it, the tournament as a whole was incredible, with the exception of the semifinal games. Besides tonight, there were at least 3 other buzzer beaters that I can think of. The half-courter UNI hit to beat Texas, Wisconsin over Xavier, and Iowa in the first round. Notre Dame also had closer to a buzzer beater. Then there were the epic comebacks. A&M making up 12 in the final 44 seconds,Syracuse against Virginia AND Gonzaga. And. I heard there was a 2-15 upset the first weekend.
It was a strange tournament. The first couple of rounds were great and obviously the Final was great. But the Elite Eight and Final Four games were very flat.
Had we not had this finish tonight it would have been one of the more disappointing tournaments in terms of drama.