The best tournament I have ever seen.

Great first weekend. I kind of expect the next two weeks not to be as good since some of the favorites have pretty easy paths to the next round.

 

I agree that the first weekend was great, but we'll see about things the rest of the way.

As fun as Northern Iowa beating Kansas was, I'm disappointed that we won't be seeing a Kentucky-Kansas final. Those were the two best teams all year and would have put probably 8-10 future pros on the court in the final game.

 

I cannot remember it because I was too young, but the DePaul, Michigan State, Indiana State and Penn tourney had to of been pretty cool, right?

Bird, Magic, Aguirre and an Ivy would place it in the conversation for me.

 

That was the first tournament I watched as a kid. Back then it was a 40-team tournament and the top six seeds in each region received first round byes.

I googled the results from that year because I have no recall of where each team was seeded and who they beat to get to Salt Lake.

Indiana State was the only No. 1 seed to reach the Final Four.

Michigan State was No. 2 in the Mideast behind Notre Dame. DePaul was No. 2 behind UCLA in the West. Penn was the No. 9 in East (North Carolina was No. 1).

Penn beat Iona (8 seed) in the first round, Carolina in the second round, Syracuse (4 seed) in the regional semis and the No. 10 seed St. John's in the regional final. St. John's knocked out the No. 2 seed Duke in the regional semis.

The East was the only regional that didn't play to form up to the Elite Eight. The top two teams in the other three regions all reached the regional final, though Indiana State was the only No. 1 to advance.

While the East was pretty wild in terms of upsets there wasn't much drama in the other three regions.

 

I would love it even more if CBS would switch to the closer games in a more timely fashion.

 

Without googling. Was that Santa Clara?

I'm 34, and I already forget too much shit.

 

And that's back when Notre Dame carried some heavy weight in basketball. Those ND teams were pretty fun to watch as well--Tripucka, Woolridge and many others.

Funny thing is no one probably saw Bird until the regional finals. Even though he was an SI cover boy, Indiana State wouldn't have warranted the coverage of a lot of the other heavyweights, and unlike today, you got one game at a time--didn't get a lot of switching back and forth between games, if at all.

One of the first revelations of how cool cable TV could be (in addition to seeing movies like Corvette Summer on the Movie Channel damn near whenever you wanted) was when ESPN broadcast some round of 16 games in the early 80s. Must have been in addition to CBS, but it was the first time you really got to see beyond your single game and into all the games. Can still remember watching Sleepy Floyd on a Thursday night in March and thinking this is pretty sweet (sixteen).

 

And it's also made the NBA less watchable, enjoyable and competitive.

Best Tourney: Maryland WINS
2nd & 3rd best: Georgetown loses

 

All the college teams blend together because you do not get a chance to know the star players over 3-4 years.

Imagine Durant still in college. How would you look at Texas, or Love at UCLA?

 

Young man, you are just asking for it. Don't you people understand how hard it is to be a Syracuse fan?