Let’s play the “Blame Game.” If you thought it couldn’t get any worse for LeBron James and the Lakers, think again. Following a disappointing 113-105 loss to the Clippers, the Lakers are 38-44, trail the 8 seed by 5.5 games with 18 to play, and have less than a 0.1 percent chance of making the […]
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Warning: Please sit down while watching this teaser. It might cause you to faint.
THE NORTH REMEMBERS! To say I am jacked up on adrenaline is an understatement. We are under two weeks away from the premiere of the final season for the iconic Game of Thrones. If that doesn’t move the needle, then you’re probably dead already.
The teaser’s title is “Aftermath,” and as the footage depicts, it’s a glimpse into Winterfell after the highly anticipated showdown between the living and the dead. The teaser showcases Winterfell as a barren wasteland with valuable possessions scattered across the castle. Arya’s sword, a Dragonglass arrow, Daenerys’s dragon chain, and the hand of the kingpin are some of the artifacts found in the teaser.
However, the three items that stood out to me were:
I don’t believe this is a real scene in the show. It would be unlike Game of Thrones to reveal a scene frame-for-frame in a trailer. I’m not saying that Jamie and Jon don’t die and the shadowy figure isn’t the Night King. However, the teaser is more of a metaphor for the aftermath of the battle at Winterfell. The White Walkers are coming to Winterfell and they are going to kill A LOT of people. Your favorite characters are in danger of dying at the hands of the Army of the Dead. That’s a fact that may be tough to swallow for some. Will Jamie, Jon, and the other main characters escape to the South? Or, will they be met with the wrath of the Night King? I’m nervous just thinking about it.
In an interview with E! News about the final season, Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth, said, “You’re going to need therapy… I think just the show ending is going to send all of the world into professional help.” I’m starting to believe that Gwendoline is right.
Bring it on.
If you need a quarterback, trade for the former first round pick immediately. It’s amazing just how fast things can change in the NFL. At this time last April, Josh Rosen was in the running to be the number one pick. Rosen ended up going to the Arizona Cardinals at #10. Now, Rosen might be […]
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It is college basketball’s favorite time of year, March Madness! It is also the NCAA’s favorite time of year. The non-profit organization rakes in big bucks from essentially free labor. While the NCAA may be all smiles financially, the organization has endured a public relations nightmare. Since the beginning of March Madness, the NCAA has been subject to some pretty heavy criticism via Twitter.
First, the NCAA faced well-founded criticism due to a commercial depicting a fairytale life for college athletes. The NCAA also faced criticism stemming from two tweets. In one tweet, the NCAA completely disregarded the women’s March Madness tournament. Lastly, the NCAA was criticized for a tweet from 2016. In that tweet, they seemingly boasted providing a benefit to college athletes that should be a given.
The NCAA released a commercial intending to depict a day in the life of a college athlete.
In the above video, the athlete starts out in bed, goes straight to class, and then to practice. After practice, the athlete mingles with friends before playing in his game. After the game, the athlete studies before winding down to get a good night sleep. The athlete appears to be coasting through his day with no stress and no worries. He appears to have no problem balancing the challenges and responsibilities of being a student with those of being an athlete.
In sum, the commercial depicts a very false narrative of a perfect college athlete life. A life where college athletes maintain the perfect balance between academics, athletics, and social time. Anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention to college athletics knows that the commercial cannot be representative of reality. It logistically does not make sense, especially when just one factor is considered. That factor is travel time for games. The miles between each game simply do not add up.
Consider the makeup of the Big 10 Conference. The Big 10 is made up of schools on the East Coast and the Midwest. Maryland and Rutgers are on the East Coast while Nebraska and Wisconsin are in the Midwest. When travel alone time is considered, there is no way that the depiction in the commercial can be accurate. There is no way college athletes are almost always able to leave their game, study, mingle with friends, and get sufficient sleep. This is especially true when early morning training sessions, team meetings, regular practice time, and individual practice time are added to the equation. Individual practice time is necessary to stay on top and earn playing time. Based on these factors alone, there is no way the commercial can be an accurate representation.
Twitter instantly criticized the NCAA and the commercial. Everyone from college athlete rights advocates to pro athletes criticized the NCAA for the commercial. Some made videos of what is a more accurate representation of the daily life of a college athlete.
Current college athletes criticized the commercial, saying that it simply is not true. The commercial is completely unrealistic and only serves one purpose. That purpose is to further promote the sham of amateurism.
The NCAA again faced well-deserved criticism when they made a tweet completely disregarding the women’s basketball tournament. Even WNBA star Breanna Stewart commented on the NCAA’s total disregard for the women’s tournament.
The tweet stated that they were no more March Madness games happening until Thursday. However, this was not true. The women’s basketball tournament was in full swing during the gap days of the men’s tournament. The NCAA again was instantly faced with another Twitter firestorm.
With that tweet, the NCAA showed how they really view the women’s tournament. The NCAA could have taken the days that the men were not playing as an opportunity to promote the women’s tournament. Instead, they completely disregarded the women’s tournament and further promoted the men’s tournament. This marketing misstep leads one to question just how much does the NCAA really value Title IX and creating equitable opportunities for women’s sports? Or is Title IX just another tool in the NCAA’s belt to justify not sharing more of the college athletics revenue with the athletes?
The NCAA was forced to address a tweet from 2016 where they stated that they provide free Wifi to particpants in the March Madness tournament.
When the tweet resurfaced, it appeared that the NCAA was boasting about providing athletes with a resource that should automatically be given. However, the NCAA clarified that they made the tweet in 2016 to address accounts that college athletes did not have the WiFi access needed to complete their assignments. The NCAA’s tweet was in response to a tweet from a college basketball player in 2016 who tweeted about not having internet access to do his school work.
However, the real issue is in the fact that such a tweet was even necessary at all. It should have never been a question about whether the NCAA made sure that the participating athletes had everything they needed. After all, the NCAA prides its self on providing college athletes an opportunity to get an invaluable education. However, the NCAA and the college athletics system as a whole has been under much criticism for its inability to live up to the reality of that ideal. It is precisely for that reason, that an old tweet from 2016 can resurface in 2019 and instantly cause another Twitter firestorm for the NCAA.
The NCAA could save itself from a lot of these Twitter firestorms by sharing more revenue with college athletes. If the NCAA allowed college athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness, their image would improve drastically. However, the NCAA is unlikely to ever do that. The NCAA certainly will not do that while they are fighting to reclaim the ability to limit the amount of education-related benefits college athletes can receive. It seems that the NCAA prefers to fight PR nightmares than to give college athletes a more equitable piece of the pie.
Throughout the week, NFL personnel–including head coaches–have been in Arizona discussing and voting on rules chat could change the course of this upcoming season, and taking care of other pre-Draft business. But despite important discussions that were occurring, one seemed to dominate the headlines on Wednesday.
First-year Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury announced on Tuesday that he plans to implement a cell phone policy that is commonly used among the college football ranks. “They’re itching to get to those things,” Kingsbury said. “You start to see kind of hands twitching and legs shaking, and you know they need to get that social media fix, so we’ll let them hop over there and then get back in the meeting and refocus.”
This shouldn’t come as a shock.
According to Statista, there are over 4.9 billion mobile phone users in the world. What’s more, the average cell phone user will check their phones up to 47 times per day, with 2,617 likes, taps, or swipes; and 22 percent of those surveyed ages 18-29 check their phones every few minutes. While the data supports obsessive and addictive traits, fans have to realize that it’s not a coaches’ job to mitigate these issues. For Kingsbury to understand these habits is a testament to his attention to detail, and considering the lucrative contracts these players hold, Kingsbury would rather give them a few minutes in between activities to center their focus and hopefully see a greater return on their investments as a result.
Throughout the day, fans were calling Kliff Kingsbury and the Cardinals out for supporting a “millennial culture,” but it’s hypocritical, considering every cell phone holds personal data patterns, and the negative responses were likely coming from people who weren’t paying attention to the tasks or people in front of them in order to craft their opinions.
The average age of an NFL player is much closer to the ages of the guys Kingsbury coached at Texas Tech. Moreover, Kingsbury, himself, is a former college and NFL player so he understands players on a deeper level than his cohorts. Cell phone breaks are even facilitated at the Ivy League level, so this isn’t groundbreaking or distracting, and shouldn’t be viewed as anything other than leadership understanding how to get the maximum output from their personnel.
From continued activism for benefits to former players, to concussion and CTE issues; domestic violence and drug incidents, to in-game protocol and reviews, the NFL has significantly larger issues to deal with than devolving to high school levels in terms of cell phone and attention management issues.
With just under two minutes left in the second round game between UCF and Duke, the Knights lead the Blue Devils 74-70. UCF had Duke on the ropes and were ready for the kill shot. UFC stole the ball and had a 2-on-1 fast break. UCF’s Dayon Griffin threw a lob pass to Aubrey Dawkins, who finished with 32 points, and had it been successful, the Knights would have been up 6 with all the momentum against one of the betting favorites to win it all. Instead, this happened.
We all know how the rest played out.
A couple questionable no-calls, some fortuitous bounces, and a missed put back helped Duke squeak out a 77-76 victory over UCF as the Blue Devils move on to the Sweet 16. Top seeds advancing to the Sweet 16 was the common theme this past weekend as all of the betting favorites won in the second round.
Although all of the favorites won, chalk is not necessarily a bad thing. Let’s say UCF beat Duke. That’s an awesome moment for UCF and its fans. However, to the common basketball fan, are you tuning in to watch UCF vs. Virginia Tech for a trip to the Elite 8? Or, would you rather watch Zion Williamson, Rj Barrett, and Duke play Virginia Tech in the Sweet 16? Unless you’re a UCF fan, my guess is that you’d rather watch Duke.
The NCAA Tournament is known as “March Madness,” but this year, it’s the furthest thing from chaos. There was a significant gap all season long between the top 10 teams and the rest of Division I. That growing sentiment came to fruition as all the top seeds took care of business this past weekend. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Cinderella stories are awesome. Watching a double digit seed fight their way through each round and advance to the Final Four is both entertaining and inspiring. Rooting for Sister Jean and Loyola-Chicago last season was a great story. However, there’s a reason why upsets rarely happen and that’s because of the talent disparity between the blue blood programs like Duke and UNC and the mid-major Cinderella stories like Loyola-Chicago or Wichita State. A Cinderella story is most likely a flash in the pan. Remember when Tim Tebow made the playoffs or “Linsanity” took over the Knicks? Those two athletes took the world by storm for a brief period of time and it was spectacular to witness. However, just like in Cinderella, the clock always strikes midnight. Tim Tebow never got another chance to start at quarterback and Jeremy Lin hasn’t been a star since. You know why? Tim Tebow may have won a few games, but Tom Brady wins Super Bowls. Jeremy Lin may dazzle for a few weeks, but LeBron James wins championships. Loyola Chicago and George Mason may win a region, but Duke, UNC, and Kentucky are staples in the Final Four
And you know what? That’s ok. The biggest gripe with the tournament is that the best team in the country does not always win it all. This year, one of the best teams in the country will win. Duke, UNC, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Gonzaga have all been in the top 3 at some point this year. Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, LSU, Texas Tech, Houston, Auburn, Virginia Tech, and Florida State have all been ranked inside the top 15. The only outlier is Oregon, but the Ducks have won 10 straight and are two years removed from a Final Four appearance.
The tournament has not been as exciting as year’s past, but there is hope on the horizon. There is a lot of good basketball to play from the best teams in the country. For now, chalk is fine by me.
March Madness 2019 is in full swing. The NCAA’s cash cow basketball tournament started on March 19th and is slated to make billions in revenue. The NCAA tournament has college basketball fans abuzz about who will be this year’s victor. In the midst of all of the excitement, the NCAA continues to face well-deserved criticism for its exploitive college athletics system. Even famed sports broadcaster Dick Vitale weighed in and stated that he believes that it is time that college basketball players get paid. Well-respected industry leaders addressing the injustices of college basketball’s premier event leads one to seriously question just how much money is at stake in March Madness?
2017 was a monumental year for the NCAA. It was the first year the NCAA cleared one billion dollars in revenue. That is right the NCAA, a non-profit organization, cleared one billion dollars in revenue. Where on Earth did all of that money come from?
A huge chunk of the NCAA’s revenue comes from its broadcasting deal for March Madness. In 2016, the NCAA extended their contract with CBS Sports and Turner, a division of Time Warner, for the broadcasting rights of the Men’s March Madness basketball tournament. The extension, which runs through 2032, added 8 years and 8.8 billion dollars to the original contract. Essentially, the new deal will pay an average of 1.1 billion dollars per season.
As a result of the contract extension, the NCAA made $817,517,801 from television and marketing rights fees in 2017. Also in 2017, the NCAA made $128,113,594 from ticket sales, concessions, parking, and other tournaments such as the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). The average price paid for tickets in 2018 was $1,845 for the full Final Four experience and a mere $1,010 for the championship game only.
From these numbers, it should be clear why Dick Vitale and college athlete rights advocates contend revenue generating athletes should be paid. Clearly, there is enough money. Without the athletes, the NCAA would not have a product to negotiate a deal like the one with CBS Sports and Turner. Fans tune in to see the best of the best compete. That very fact is what gave the NCAA the leverage for that billion dollar deal.
After the net is cut and the trophy is presented, colleges and their respective conferences await a big payday. A portion of the March Madness revenue is paid out to the colleges and conferences. Colleges use the money for a variety of things, including scholarships and funding for non-revenue sports. Division 1 conferences get the bulk of the money. The NCAA considers a variety of factors when distributing the money. Those factors include support of non-revenue sports, performance in the tournament over six years, and the number of full-rides given to athletes.
In 2016, the Big 10 received the biggest payout at $57,540,348. The Western Coast Conference came in at number ten on the list at $8,192,085. The conferences funnel the money down to the schools. The largest payment to a school came in 2016 when Stanford University was paid $3,250,544. From these numbers, is it is clear why the debate regarding payment for revenue-generating college athletes is such a hot topic. Clearly, there is enough money.
Similar to Division 1 college football coaches receiving bonuses for bowl game appearances, Division 1 college basketball coaches receive bonuses for March Madness appearances. Basketball coaches receive bonuses for merely advancing to the tournament. Some even receive a bonus for a victory in the first round of the tournament. The bonus incentive increases as the team progresses to each level of the tournament. The levels include the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and the Final Four.
If Arizona State’s head coach Bobby Hurley won the 2018 title, he would have received up to $1.4 million in bonuses above his base salary. The simple fact that $1.4 million in bonuses could have been paid to Hurley for coaching a winning team totally disproves the argument that there is not enough money floating around to pay the athletes. Clearly, there is enough money.
It appears that everyone, expect the labor force is able to profit from March Madness. Everyone from the NCAA down to the locales where the games are held rake in millions of dollars from the tournament. Even the least watched games will generate millions of dollars for their universities. However, the players will be limited to their scholarship. For the next few weeks, fans will be bombarded with March Madness ads using the likeness of athletes who would be guilty of NCAA violations if they individually promoted that same image. This is March Madness, the NCAA’s billion-dollar cash cow.
The SAP Center in San Jose, Ca hosted round 1 of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament in San Jose, Ca. The March Madness round of 64 was without a doubt some of the most exciting showcases we have seen in a while. It was a joy to watch from nearly the front row.
Walking in on the arena floor and staring up into the seats it was easy to feel the buzz in the air. To misquote the great Jim Nance, The NCAA Tournament is a tradition like no other. Parents, friends, families, alumni, and fans all gather from various places and descend to take part in March Madness.
To pull back the curtain of separation between fan and sportswriter just a bit, I have covered many different events in my short time as a sportswriter but nothing quite like this. I have covered chalk talks, football games, conference championship games, and nothing gave me the jitters and feelings of sentiment quite like this.
The Tournament is a special thing yet continued to be a generational bridge in love of sports. Everyone appreciates the pageantry of March Madness. The passion of college athletics and fandoms alike as 64 teams are all equal in search of achieving the same common goal, cutting down the nets in US Bank Stadium.
The UC Irvine Anteaters took on the Kansas State Wildcats in the opening game of the day. In what was a back and forth contest all the way up until the last 1:25 seconds of the game we were treated to run and counter run. Junior guards Max Hazzard #2 and Evan Leonard both scored 19 points in the contest and were the last scorers in the first and second halves.
The Anteaters achieved their first ever NCAA tournament win and a classic #13 seed over #4 seed upset 70-64. It took a complete team effort every man on the bench was of vital importance as they wore down the Wildcats with their open court attack.
Nothing is better in the NCAA tourney than an upset. It brings out the best in fans and underdogs whom nobody gave a chance. The Anteaters had very little belief outside of their players and fanbase but it was clear they belonged from the start.
Winning in the tournament meant the world to their fanbase who made the trek down to support their team. The Anteaters haven’t lot since January, however they find themselves with a difficult round two matchup in the University of Oregon. The Anteaters expected this outcome because they know how much work they have put in to get here. Victory is the ultimate reward for focus dedication and execution.
The Oregon Ducks did battle with the Wisconsin Badgers in the second matchup of the afternoon. Early on it was a chess match, as the two teams felt each other out. Back and forth it would go in a bit of a defensive struggle, at the half the teams would find themselves tied at 25.
And then Oregon head coach Dana Altman would go into the locker room and whatever he said, whatever he drew
RS Sr. Paul White opened up the half on absolute fire. He scored in the paint he scored from behind the three-point line, and he scored from the free throw line. Within 9 minutes of the second half, White went 4-4 from the field, 2-2 from deep, and 2-2 at the line. Providing the Ducks the spark they needed to take flight.
Kenny Wooten Jr. was sensational and a major reason why the Ducks were able to go on a run and nearly double up the Badgers in the second half. Wooten was the defensive enforcer and no shot or layup was safe when he was in proximity. Wooten possesses the unique ability of being able to damn near jump out of the gym.
His bounce was magnificent and he soared up and over all of the Badgers futile shot attempts. Wooten slapped layups off the backboard, he got clean stuffs, and this one time at March Madness he swatted a shot off the court from just outside the paint.
Winners of four straight and the Pac-12 Championship the Ducks are thrilled to have this moment yet remain focused on the larger picture, winning a championship.
#12 seed Liberty University Eagles and #5 seed Mississippi State Bulldogs was a true underdog story. The Bulldogs led for 29:34 seconds of the game. They held the lead up until about the final 2:30 seconds of the game. The Eagles dug deep and when they needed stops and timely shooting they got them.
Redshirt Jr. Caleb Homesley drop a region-leading 30 points on the Bulldogs, going 10-16 from the field, 5-11 from deep, and 5-6 at the charity stripe. Myo Baxter-Bell was a beast down low and out of his 13 points the last four free-throws actually sealed the game for the Eagles by continuing to extend the score in the closing moments of regulation.
The Bulldogs played a great game for 36 minutes but the lone 10 point run they gave up was the difference in the game. Guards Lamar Peters #2 and Quinndary Weatherspoon #11 scored 21 and 27 points respectively and kept their team moving along in the led. Unfortunately down the stretch when they couldn’t score nobody else stepped up for the Bulldogs.
The final game of the evening pit the #15 seed Saint Louis University Billikins against the #4 seed Virginia Tech Hokies. After an upsetting evening to the favorites the Hokies restored the natural selection balance. SLU was outclassed across the board, the court and the sideline and it showed.
Lacking a low post scoring presence allowed the Hokies to run a defense which looked like a combination of a 3-2 zone and a half court trap and it completely baffled the Billikin’s offense.
It took the SLU offense nearly 15 minutes to acquire double digits in points. Up close it appeared they only were allowed to score because the coach of the Hokies chose not to employ his trap strategy on every possession.
Meanwhile there was nothing the SLU defense could throw at the Hokies that they weren’t ready for. The Hokies went to the rack at will, had no problems locating and converting shots, and to further assert dominance went coast to coast on inbounds numerous times.
SLU trailed by 15-20 points for the majority of the game until they began making a push halfway through the 2nd half to cut the lead to ten. The Hokies responded by going back to the trap defense and it re-stymied the Billikin offense all over again. 66-52 would be the final score and conclude an excellent opening round of basketball.
What is a “sophomore slump?” In film, a sophomore slump is when the second, or sophomore, film or effort from a director falls short or fails to live up to the standards of its first effort. Notable examples of the sophomore slump include Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka and Sam Raimi’s Crimewave.
However, not every director suffers from the sophomore slump. In some cases, a director’s second film exceeds expectations and ends up surpassing the first film in both critical acclaim and box office gross. With the release of Jordan Peele’s Us, the follow up to the iconic Get Out, here are a few of my choices for the greatest second films from directors.
*Note: These are all the second feature-length films from directors. The list does not count short films or television movies.
You know you’ve made a memorable second film when it is widely considered a masterpiece. Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is one of most unique and original films of all-time due to its nonlinear narrative. The film depicts the lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of diner bandits in Los Angeles and how their stories are intertwined. Tarantino won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and is credited with launching independent film into the mainstream due to Pulp Fiction‘s success.
For my money, this is the greatest coming-of-age film of all-time. Up until this point, John Hughes was known for writing National Lampoon’s Vacation and directing Sixteen Candles. His sophomore directorial effort, The Breakfast Club, tells the story of five high school students from completely different backgrounds who spend an entire Saturday in detention. Despite being from different social cliques, the students end up forming a special bond and friendship by the end of the film. With “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” playing in the background, the film’s final scene ends with one of the most memorable shots in movie history, the Jon Bender fist pump. The Breakfast Club was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX? Director David Fincher is known for suspenseful films with huge plot twists. Fincher has directed some of the most thrilling films of the last 20 years including Fight Club, Zodiac, and Gone Girl. However, it’s Fincher’s second film. Se7en, that stands above the rest. In Se7en, a rookie detective (Brad Pitt) and a retiring investigator (Morgan Freeman) team up to track down a serial killer (Kevin Spacey) who is using the seven deadly sins as his motive for the killings. Brilliantly paced and full of suspense, Se7en still keeps viewers on the edge of their seats almost 25 years later.
Bill Murray is known for being one of the most influential comedians of the past four decades. However, Murray’s dramatic turn in Lost in Translation will go down as one of his best performances thanks to Sofia Coppola, who wrote and directed the film. Daughter of the legendary Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather series), Sofia’s second feature film stars Murray as Bob Harris, an aging actor who befriends a young married college graduate, played by Scarlett Johansson, in Tokyo. The film perfectly depicts a midlife crisis as well as a quarter life crisis and how both characters deal with their unknown futures. Beautifully written and directed, Lost in Translation was nominated for four Academy Awards and won for Best Original Screenplay.
It took Barry Jenkins eight years to release his second feature-length film after his first film, Medicine for Melancholy, debuted in 2008. To say his second film, Moonlight, did not disappoint would be an understatement. Moonlight presents the story of Chiron in three stages: childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Jenkins’s film chronicles Chiron’s life in Miami, where he battles over issues of abuse and sexual identity. Moonlight received universal acclaim and received three Academy Awards including Best Picture.
What are your choices for the greatest second film from a director? Let us know in the comments or tweet your answers to @unafraidshow.
As College Basketball Insider Jon Rothstein likes to say, “This is March.” Welcome to one of the best times of the year, March Madness. For my money, the first two days of the NCAA Tournament are the two best sporting days of the year. There’s nothing better than 32 basketball games that are full of non-stop action, buzzer beaters, and the agony of defeat. I challenge you to name anything better in sports than those two days.
There are so many unforgettable March Madness moments that you began to lose track of them. It seems that every buzzer-beater gets better and better. Narrowing the list down to five is almost impossible, but I’m going to give you my most top 5 moments in NCAA Tournament History. Let the debate begin.
George Mason walked so that Sister Jean could run. Before VCU, Wichita State, and Loyola Chicago made their magical runs to the Final Four; there was George Mason. In 2006, the George Mason Patriots made one of the greatest runs to the Final Four as an 11 seed. Keep in mind that George Mason did not even win their conference that year. The Patriots lost in the CAA semis to Hofstra and had to sweat it out on Selection Sunday. The committee granted George Mason with an 11 seed, and the rest was history. On their historic run, George Mason knocked off Tom Izzo, Roy Williams, Gregg Marshall, and Jim Calhoun. Beating three Hall of Fame coaches on the way to the Final Four is pretty damn impressive. It wasn’t always pretty, but George Mason’s grit and toughness overcame the odds to reach the Final Four.
There’s putting on a show, and then there’s what Steph Curry did in the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Steph Curry was not on any NBA radars back in 2008. Steph was a talented shooter, but most people only recognized him because of his last name and his father, Dell, who played in the NBA. That all changed with one legendary NCAA tournament run. Look at these numbers that Steph posted in a four game stretch.
128 points in 4 games is insane. Keep in mind that Davidson was a #10 seed and was one shot away from making the Final Four. Steph’s range and ability to create his own shot were put on full display, and NBA scouts took notice. Now, Curry is arguably the greatest shooter in the history of the NBA. It all started with a magical run in the tournament.
Not all buzzer beaters are created equal. Winning in the first round from a buzzer beater is cool, but winning the National Championship with a buzzer beater is iconic. Under Jay Wright, Villanova was always a solid team, but could never put it all together when it really mattered. It wasn’t until 2013 that Villanova consistently became one of the best teams in the country. From 2013-2018, Villanova accumulated a record of 165 wins and 21 with two National Championships. Everything about this play is awesome. The presence of mind to flip back to Jenkins as Grant Hill says to “watch Jenkins.” Nantz says “for the championship” as the ball goes in is such a perfect moment. Plus, the confetti cannons going off while pandemonium ensues is incredible.
I mentioned that George Mason walked so that the other Cinderellas could run. Well, Jim Valvano and NC State crawled so that George Mason could walk. NC State upsetting Houston in the championship of the 1983 NCAA Tournament is one of the greatest upsets of all time. I highly recommend watching Survive and Advance, an ESPN 30 for 30 which chronicles Jimmy V and that 1983 NC State team that won it all. NC State was able to overcome a “Phi Slama Jama” which had two future Hall of Famers in Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. Lorenzo Charles’s dunk at the last second to win the title was special, but Jimmy V looking for someone to hug after the game is the defining image from this game.
Love him or hate him, and most people hate him, there’s no denying the fact that Christian Laettner was one of the greatest college basketball players of all time. In 1992, Mike Krzyzewski and the number one seed Duke squared off against Rick Pitino and the number two seed Kentucky in the Elite 8 to determine the last spot in the Final Four. With 2.1 seconds in overtime, Duke, the defending National Champion, was down 1 point with the ball. Grant Hill threw a full court heave to Laettner, who caught the ball at the free throw line, had the presence of mind to take a dribble, and nailed the game winning shot as time expired. This game is widely considered as the greatest game in the history of the NCAA Tournament. What’s so underrated about the game is Laettner’s stat line. Laettner finished the game with 31 points and 7 rebounds, which sounds like a good day from the office. However, Laettner was 10 for 10 from the field and 10 for 10 from the free throw line. Laettner was perfect and so was his shot.
What are your most unforgettable moments from the NCAA Tournament? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
