With the 2022-23 college basketball season fast approaching, it’s a great time for your resident Hoop Thinker to do what he does best: Copy other people’s smart ideas!
When I read through my The Athletic colleague Andy Staples’ entertaining story in August ranking the 20 most influential college football games of the 2000s, I came down with an acute case of list envy. So with a not-so-gentle push from our college basketball senior managing editor Hugh Kellenberger (“If you don’t do this, we’re going to make you our Thursday Night Football beat writer”), I set out to do the same for the men’s game.
As Andy noted, it’s not easy to define what makes a game “influential.” First and foremost, the game needs to be consequential to the overall narrative of the sport. It should have a historically significant result, or at least an iconic moment or two. And it should have decided something important.
Not surprisingly, most of these games took place in the NCAA Tournament. But not all. March Madness is the capstone for college basketball, but there are plenty of other golden nuggets from the past 22 years that are well worth revisiting. So with a tip of the hat to Andy, here are my Influential 20, followed by the 10 games that almost made the cut.
20. UConn 76, Pittsburgh 74
March 10, 2011
Since UConn went 9-9 and finished ninth in the Big East, it did not get a bye into Wednesday’s second round for the conference tournament in Madison Square Garden, much less the double bye that went to the top four seeds. The Huskies beat DePaul and Georgetown in the first two rounds to earn a date with Pittsburgh in the quarterfinal. The game was exciting and tight throughout, and with 10 seconds remaining, the score was knotted at 74-all.
Following a timeout, UConn’s Kemba Walker dribbled around a ball screen set by Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, which forced Pittsburgh into a defensive switch that left the Panthers’ 6-foot-11 center Gary McGhee stranded on Kemba Island. Recognizing the obvious mismatch, Walker backed up a couple steps, sized up his bigger, slower defender, and did this:
The Kemba Walker Stepback Game was UConn’s third win in three days. That should have left the Huskies too exhausted to continue, but they beat Syracuse in overtime in the next day’s semifinal and then knocked off Louisville to capture the Big East trophy. Once again, they should have been totally spent, but their march through March kept right on going. They played their way into the Elite Eight, where they beat Arizona by two, scored a one-point win over Kentucky in the Final Four, and then beat Butler 53-41 to give coach Jim Calhoun his third and most unlikely NCAA championship.
19. Indiana 73, Kentucky 72
Dec. 10, 2011
Tom Crean was in his fourth season at Indiana, and he was finally getting the program moving again following Kelvin Sampson’s messy dismissal in 2008. The Hoosiers started 8-0 but came into this game unranked. Kentucky, on the other hand, was ranked No. 1 in both national polls and featured a stellar recruiting class led by 6-10 freshman center Anthony Davis. In a rivalry dating back to 1924, it was classic big brother-little brother stuff, and it unfurled in the colorful frenzy of one of the nation’s best on-campus arenas, IU’s Assembly Hall.
The Hoosiers looked like they had the game well in hand when they led by 10 points early in the second half. Alas, they frittered away that advantage, and when Kentucky guard Doron Lamb made a free throw to put the Wildcats up by a deuce with 5.6 seconds to play, it looked like Indiana’s cause was lost.
Then this happened:
The “Wat Shot,” so named because the bucket was made by Christian Watford, remains one of the most memorable regular season buckets in college basketball history. Regretfully, it also ended the series between Indiana and Kentucky, which had been played annually since 1969. The reason? UK coach John Calipari wanted the series to be moved to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and Crean wanted the teams to keep rotating between Assembly Hall and Rupp Arena. It appears the series is finally going to resume and will eventually move back to the respective campus arenas, but future editions of Indiana and Kentucky will have a hard time matching the drama and climax that this one produced.
18. Davidson 74, Georgetown 70
March 23, 2008
Sometimes we recognize the significance of a game immediately. Sometimes it takes a while. Both apply to the Wildcats’ upset of Georgetown in the second round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament.
Coming into March Madness, most of the country had never heard of Stephen Curry, even though Davidson’s baby-faced sophomore point guard had averaged 26 points per game. Folks learned about him in a hurry as Curry scored 40 points — 30 in the second half — in the Wildcats’ first-round upset of Gonzaga. That set up the confrontation with the No. 2 seeded Hoyas.
Davidson, a No. 10 seed, had not won a tourney game in 39 years before that weekend, and the inexperience showed early on as Curry only scored five points in the first half. With 17:52 to play, the Hoyas led by 17. From there, Curry went on an offensive barrage that has since become all too familiar. He poured in 25 points in the second half (he was 5 of 6 from the foul line in the final 23 seconds) to spur the Wildcats’ dramatic comeback. “He had guys all over him,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III lamented afterward. “And the ball was going in.”
Curry went on to score 33 points in Davidson’s Sweet 16 win over Wisconsin, with LeBron James cheering him on courtside. He added 25 in the Wildcats’ two-point loss to Kansas in the Elite Eight. In the weeks that followed, several high-major schools showed interest in having Curry transfer, but he figured if those schools didn’t want him two years before, they didn’t need him now. Curry played one more year at Davidson and was selected seventh in the NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors. We all know what happened next.
17. Duke 98, Maryland 96
Jan. 27, 2001
This game is commonly referred to as the “Miracle Minute,” but in actuality, Duke’s comeback took just 38.1 seconds. It was spurred by the Blue Devils’ All-American sophomore point guard, Jason Williams, whose poor play during the first 39 minutes was a big reason Maryland was able to build a 10-point lead in the first place.
The contest in loud, rickety Cole Field House arrived with great anticipation. The Blue Devils were ranked No. 2 in the AP’s Top 25; Maryland was No. 8. With his team trailing 90-80, Williams drove for a layup, and then intercepted the ensuing inbounds pass and quickly drilled a 3-pointer to cut Maryland’s deficit to five. After Terrapins guard Drew Nicholas missed a pair of free throws, Williams calmly dribbled downcourt and sank another 3. Duke forced another turnover with its full-court press, and Nate James got fouled rebounding a Mike Dunleavy miss. James made both free throws to make it 90-90 with 21.9 seconds to play. That remained the score at the end of regulation, and the Blue Devils sealed the win in overtime when Shane Battier blocked a layup attempt by Maryland guard Juan Dixon at the buzzer.
The “Miracle Minute” has remained etched in the memory of college basketball fans because of the talent on the floor (all five Duke starters would go on to play in the NBA), the suddenness of the comeback, and the flash point it represented in this burgeoning rivalry. The two teams met again in the Final Four, where Duke erased a 22-point first-half deficit en route to capturing the NCAA championship. Maryland won the title the following year.
March 9, 2000
The most remarkable thing about the play was how unremarkable it was. A few minutes into this Conference USA tournament quarterfinal, Kenyon Martin, Cincinnati’s 6-9 senior center and the runaway favorite for national player of the year, stepped past the foul line and into the lane, where he half-screened, half-collided with Billikens guard Justin Love. Upon impact, Martin spun to his left and fell onto his right foot, which was planted awkwardly behind him. By the time he hit the floor, Martin had broken his right fibula and torn several ligaments in his knee. His season was over, and Cincinnati, which came into the game ranked No. 1 in the country, suffered its third loss of the season.
Martin’s injury convinced the NCAA men’s basketball committee to award the Bearcats a No. 2 seed instead of the No. 1 their resume warranted. That unconventional decision was validated when Cincinnati lost to Tulsa in the second round. (That result, incidentally, helped send Tulsa to the Elite Eight, and its coach, Bill Self, into the Illinois job three months later.) Martin’s injury also denied Bob Huggins his best chance at a title, which remains the only blemish on his resume. Huggins finally got inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame this year, but he would likely have been voted in a lot sooner if things had turned out differently in 2000.
A few weeks after the tournament ended, Martin’s No. 4 jersey was retired at the Bearcats’ awards banquet. It was a nice honor, but he would have gladly traded it for an NCAA championship banner.
Duke’s season changed when Zion Williamson’s shoe came apart. (Rob Kinnan / USA Today)
15. North Carolina 88, Duke 72
Feb. 20, 2019
College basketball had never seen a player quite like Zion Williamson. At 6-7 and 285 pounds, Duke’s incandescent freshman was built like an NFL defensive lineman, but he jumped like Michael Jordan, dunked like Dominique Wilkins, and possessed soft hands, a keen mind, and well over a million Instagram followers. Williams had helped the Blue Devils to a 23-2 record and the No. 1 ranking heading into its showdown with No. 8 North Carolina in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
It was by far the most hyped game of the season, but just 33 seconds into the game, Williamson made a simple change-of-direction dribble at the foul line, crumpled awkwardly to the floor and clutched his right knee. Sitting courtside, former president Barack Obama, who at that point was only the second-biggest celebrity in the building, pointed at Williamson and said three words that would come to define that moment:
“His shoe broke.”
Obama pointed at the Nike PG 2.5 on Williams’ left foot, which inexplicably broke open in the front and caused Williamson to fall. He left the game and did not return, and his shellshocked teammates suffered a 16-point defeat. The knee strain kept Williamson out of Duke’s lineup for the next five games, but the play reverberated well beyond basketball. The next day, Nike’s stock dropped 1.05 percent, and the incident unleashed a passionate dialogue about a system that allowed coaches to get paid millions for their players to wear a certain shoe, while the players got no money from the deal. Many observers argued that Williamson should not play any more games for Duke in order to preserve his pro career. The NBA’s 19-year-old draft minimum came under scrutiny. So did the role of sneaker companies in college sports, which had been shown in a very unflattering light during the FBI’s lengthy investigation into college basketball.
Williamson’s shoe fail didn’t singlehandedly cause the breakthrough in the Name, Image and Likeness space that we are now seeing, but it was a major flash point. He played only 33 games for Duke — the last being a one-point loss to Michigan State in the Elite Eight — and he made so many did-you-see-that plays during that span that they became one big blur. There is, however, no doubt as to what was his most memorable college moment. His shoe broke, and the game changed.
14. Syracuse 81, Kansas 78
April 7, 2003
Prior to this game, there were two assumptions about college basketball that were accepted as gospel: You can’t win a national championship playing zone, and Jim Boeheim will always be a bridesmaid. Those assumptions were shattered — or should we say, deflected — when Syracuse’s long-armed center Hakim Warrick, who was playing in the back of the Orange’s 2-3 zone, dashed all the way to the corner to swat an attempted 3-pointer by Jayhawks guard Michael Lee at the buzzer. Having lost in the 1987 and 1996 NCAA finals, the win gave Boeheim his long-awaited trip to the altar, and it cemented him as arguably the best zone coach in college basketball history.
The result was a bitter loss for the sport’s other perennial bridesmaid, Kansas coach Roy Williams, who was coaching in his fourth Final Four without a title to show for it. Five days before Williams faced Syracuse, Matt Doherty resigned at North Carolina, Williams’ alma mater, and speculation was rampant that as soon as the NCAA Tournament was over, Williams was heading home. Pressed about that possibility after the game, Williams famously snapped at CBS reporter Bonnie Bernstein, “I could give a s— about North Carolina right now.” One week later, Williams was named the new coach of the Tar Heels.
13. Syracuse 127, UConn 117 (6OT)
March 12-13, 2009
The game took three hours and 46 minutes to complete. Neither team led by more than five points throughout regulation. At one point, ESPN’s Dick Vitale had to leave the broadcast table while still on-air so he could dash to the men’s room. Such was the drama that unfolded at the World’s Most Famous Arena, which produced one of college basketball’s most famous games in a late-night/early-morning quarterfinal matchup at the 2009 Big East tournament.
The extra sessions almost didn’t happen. With the score tied at 71-all in regulation, Syracuse’s Eric Devendorf sank a 28-foot jumper that appeared to give his team the win. After a lengthy replay review, however, the referees determined that Devendorf did not quite beat the buzzer. That sent the teams into the wee hours of the morning. By the sixth OT, so many players had fouled out that Syracuse had to play a walk-on. “I’ve got no words,” a victorious and understandably drained Boeheim said afterwards. “I have never been prouder of any team I’ve coached.”
Boeheim’s players could have used a long rest, but they had to play a semifinal game against West Virginia later that evening. That, too, went to overtime, and once again Syracuse prevailed, 74-69. The Orange finally ran out of juice in the final, where they lost to Louisville.
March 22, 2013
Prior to this game, a No. 15 seed had defeated a No. 2 just six times in the history of the NCAA Tournament. Most of those games were decided by one or two possessions, but in this instance, the underdog looked like the heavy favorite from tipoff. Florida Gulf Coast, a school from the Atlantic Sun Conference that two years before wasn’t even eligible to play in the NCAA Tournament, blew the game open early in the second half with a fast-paced, high-flying, dunk-o-riffic 20-2 run that gave the Eagles a 52-33 lead with 12:30 to play. The win was sealed with 1:53 remaining when Chase Fielder flushed a one-handed alleyoop against the Hoyas’ full-court press.
The Eagles called themselves “Dunk City,” and two days later they raised their game even higher by beating San Diego State, 81-71, to become the first No. 15 seed to make the Sweet 16. That achievement earned the team an ESPY award for Best Upset, and it further shrunk the gap between the high-majors and mid-majors.
FGCU’s historic achievement also boosted the career of its coach, Andy Enfield, who was hired at USC 10 days later. It had the opposite effect on Hoyas coach John Thompson III, who was let go by the school in 2017 after going to the NCAA Tournament just one time in the previous four seasons.
It was nine years ago that Dunk City became a thing. (Rob Carr / Getty Images)
11. VCU 71, Kansas 61
March 27, 2011
VCU coach Shaka Smart thought his team’s chances to make the NCAA Tournament were so slim that he didn’t even gather his players to watch the Selection Show. Instead, he invited a few underclassmen into his office so they would be motivated by the expected omission. In the past, Smart would have been correct, but the NCAA had just expanded the field to 68 teams. That left just enough slots for the Rams to be invited into the new early-round pair of doubleheaders that were dubbed the First Four.
Over the next two-and-a-half weeks, the Rams wreaked havoc on March Madness, quite literally, as Smart utilized the up-tempo, end-to-end style he called “havoc” to great effect. Not only did VCU win its First Four game over USC, it went on to beat Georgetown and Purdue to reach the Sweet 16, where it barely escaped Florida State in overtime.
The next game was the biggest of all as VCU knocked off No. 1 seeded Kansas to complete a remarkable run from the First Four to the Final Four. The Rams lost to another mid-major team, Butler, in the semifinal, but their shocking achievement, and the flair with which they completed it, turned the 33-year-old Smart into a rising star. He was immediately flooded with lucrative offers, but he remained in Richmond for another four years before leaving for Texas. VCU remains one of the sport’s preeminent mid-major programs, and it would be another 10 years until another team, UCLA, matched its feat of going from the First Four to the Final Four.
10. UCLA 73, Gonzaga 71
March 23, 2006
He was long-armed and long-haired, charismatic and outspoken — and boy, could he get buckets. Adam Morrison, Gonzaga’s magnificently mustachioed 6-8 junior forward, averaged 28.1 points per game in the 2005-06 season and won a riveting battle with Duke guard J.J. Redick for the NCAA’s scoring title. His college career, however, is best remembered not only for a heartbreaking loss, but for the heart-wrenching site of Morrison collapsing to the floor in tears as the clock expired on what turned out to be his final college game.
It had been seven years since the Bulldogs first made their slipper-still-fits run to the 1999 Elite Eight under then-coach Dan Monson. They had returned to the NCAA Tournament every year since then, but the question was starting to settle in as to whether they would ever take the next step. They appeared ready to do that at the start of their Sweet 16 game against UCLA, when they raced to a 17-point first-half lead. They maintained a 71-62 advantage with just over three minutes to play.
Then it all fell apart. UCLA made basket after basket, while Morrison and his teammates could only answer with misses and miscues. When the Bruins took a one-point lead and forced a turnover with 2.6 seconds to play, Morrison bent over and contorted his face in agony. When his teammate, J.P. Batista, missed an attempted game-winning 3 at the buzzer, Morrison crumpled to the floor, buried his face in his jersey, rolled onto his stomach, and wept. It was a stark reminder that for every joyful celebration we see in March Madness, there comes an equally deep feeling of devastation.
9. Kansas 75, Memphis 68 (OT)
April 7, 2008
Contrary to what many people think, Mario Chalmers’ 3-pointer did not win this game. It didn’t even happen at the buzzer. It did, however, send the teams into overtime, and when the Jayhawks prevailed, Chalmers was forever a part of NCAA Tournament lore.
Things looked dire for Kansas when it trailed by nine points with 2:12 left in regulation, but the Tigers helped the Jayhawks come back by missing four of their last five free throws. Then, Memphis made a critical error when it failed to foul Sherron Collins as he brought the ball upcourt with under 10 seconds to play and the Tigers leading by three. Collins pushed ahead on the right wing and lost his balance, but he managed to shuffle the ball to a curling Chalmers before he fell. Chalmers momentarily bobbled the pass before letting a shot fly from the top of the key. Swish. With 2.1 seconds on the clock, Memphis inbounded the ball to Robert Dozier, whose halfcourt heave bounced off the backboard as time expired.
As the Memphis players walked dejectedly to their bench, their coach, John Calipari, who started his career as a low-level assistant to Larry Brown at Kansas, chopped his hand into his forearm as if to say, “You should have fouled.” The Tigers never regained their composure. After the game, Bill Self called Chalmers’ 3-pointer “probably the biggest shot ever made in Kansas history,” which was saying a lot considering the school’s first coach was James Naismith. But he was right. Calipari finally got his NCAA title four years later, but it was as the head coach at Kentucky.
8. Duke 61, Butler 59
April 5, 2010
Most games are remembered for a shot that went in. This one is best remembered for a shot that missed.
The 2010 NCAA championship game proffered a narrative straight out of “Hoosiers.” It pitted the game’s ultimate blueblood, Duke, against Butler, the upstart Cinderella from the Horizon League that was led by its cherubic coach, Brad Stevens. As if that wasn’t enough, the game took place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, a mere six miles from Butler’s campus. The site was so close that the Butler players were able to attend class that afternoon.
The game was taut from the opening tip. Duke finally built a five-point lead with 3:16 to play, but Butler shaved that to one. The Blue Devils’ Brian Zoubek made the first of two free throws with three seconds remaining to put Duke up by two, but Mike Krzyzewski told Zoubek to miss the second intentionally. He did so because the Bulldogs did not have any timeouts remaining, which meant they could not throw an inbounds pass with a stopped clock. It was a risky move because it brought a loss into play, but Krzyzewski believed in basketball gods and Cinderella stories, and he had no interest in taking a chance on what overtime might bring.
Zoubek’s miss was rebounded by Butler’s best player, Gordon Hayward. He spun to his left, took four dribbles upcourt, got a hard (probably illegal, but uncalled) screen from teammate Matt Howard on Duke’s Kyle Singler, and launched the ball from just behind the midcourt line. The buzzer sounded while the ball hung in the air. Then it hit the backboard, bounced off the front of the rim, and landed on the floor. “Ohhh, it almost went in!” shouted CBS’ Jim Nantz. Alas, it didn’t, rendering Hayward’s Heave one of the most famous misses in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
The shot continued to reverberate the following March, when Butler made another unlikely journey to the NCAA championship game, this time losing to UConn. The back-to-back appearances established Stevens as one of the brightest minds in the sport. Over the next few years, he was approached with multiple offers to move to high-major programs, but it was a storied NBA franchise, the Boston Celtics, that finally lured him away in 2013.
Saint Peter’s took down Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. (Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
7. Saint Peter’s 67, Purdue 64
March 25, 2022
The 2021-22 Saint Peter’s Peacocks won’t be remembered for a game so much as an answer. It was delivered at a press conference by their coach, Shaheen Holloway, after he was asked about how his team dealt with Murray State’s “physicality” following the Peacocks’ second-round win. “I got guys from New Jersey and New York City. You think we scared of anything?” Holloway said with a grin. “You think we’re worried about guys trying to muscle us and tough us out? We do that. That’s who we are. We’re a very physical team. Our bodies probably don’t look like it, but these guys play very hard and very physical, so that I wasn’t worried about at all.”
As the old saying goes, it ain’t braggin’ if it’s true. The MAAC tourney champs were seeded No. 15, and they immediately proved their toughness during their first-round overtime win over second-seeded Kentucky. A week after their 10-point win over Murray State, the Peacocks put Holloway’s words to the test with a Purdue squad that featured the nation’s premier center pairing in 6-10 Trevion Williams and 7-4 Zach Edey, not to mention a dynamic All-American guard in Jaden Ivey.
None of the top nine players on Saint Peter’s was taller than 6-8, but the Peacocks used their quickness, toughness and guile to keep the Boilermakers off balance. The Peacocks were out-rebounded, but they forced Purdue’s big men to defend in space, hounded Ivey into one of his worst performances of the season (nine points and six turnovers on 1-of-6 3-point shooting) and committed just eight turnovers to Purdue’s 14. They also shot 19 of 21 from the foul line. When the game was over and the win secured, Saint Peter’s stood tall as the first No. 15 seed to reach an Elite Eight — on National Peacock Day, no less. Saint Peter’s was eliminated two days later in a 69-49 loss to North Carolina in the Elite Eight, and three days after that, Holloway was tapped by his alma mater, Seton Hall, to succeed Kevin Willard as head coach.
6. Wisconsin 71, Kentucky 64
April 4, 2015
The 2015 Kentucky Wildcats entered the season ranked No. 1, bulldozed through the regular season mostly unchallenged, and they arrived at the Final Four undefeated and the heavy favorite to win it all. The Badgers, however, were perfectly designed to give Kentucky trouble. They played a patient, methodical, efficient system under coach Bo Ryan, and they boasted their own consensus first-team All-American in 7-foot senior Frank Kaminsky. They also had extra motivation given that they lost to Kentucky by one point in the previous year’s Final Four.
Like Kentucky, Wisconsin was a No. 1 seed, and it deployed a seven-man rotation that included four seniors and a junior. The Wildcats played one junior and no seniors. Ryan’s teams were long known for playing efficient defense without fouling, and that proved to be the difference as Kentucky could only muster 10 free-throw attempts. The Cats made nine of them, but Wisconsin made 18 of 22 while sinking 47.9 percent from the floor and 41.2 percent from 3-point range. The biggest shot of the night was hit by Sam Dekker, whose contested 3-pointer with two minutes remaining broke a 60-60 tie and allowed Wisconsin to salt away the win at the free-throw line.
Thus ended Kentucky’s dream of perfection. After it was over, freshman point guard Tyler Ulis said “the season was a waste” because his team failed to win a national championship. That was a harsh assessment given all that Kentucky had accomplished. But he wasn’t the only one saying it.
5. Gonzaga 93, UCLA 90 (OT)
April 3, 2021
The storyline was compelling, the scene surreal. UCLA owns more NCAA championships than any other school, yet it came in as the upstart that had made a surprising run from the First Four to the Final Four. Gonzaga, meanwhile, had long ago morphed from cute Cinderella to imposing powerhouse. The Bulldogs were making their second Final Four appearance in four years, and they came into the game with a chance to become the sport’s first undefeated champ since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.
As for the scene, the game took place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, but the court was placed in a corner of the dome, not the center, with a curtain draped behind the benches to hide the empty stadium. Attendance was limited, and the teams had spent the previous two weeks in virtual isolation at their hotel. All these measures were taken to mitigate the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had canceled the previous season’s tournament.
The game featured 16 ties and 19 lead changes. Gonzaga led by one point at halftime and by seven with 11:25 to play, but the Bruins reclaimed a one-point lead with six minutes remaining. The Zags went into the final minute of overtime with a five-point lead, but a 3-pointer by UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. cut that lead to two. When his teammate Johnny Juzang converted his own miss with three seconds remaining, it appeared the teams were going to a second OT.
Jalen Suggs had other ideas. Gonzaga’s five-star freshman guard took the inbounds pass and headed upcourt. His coach, Mark Few, could have called timeout, but he decided to trust his best player. It was a wise move.
Suggs’ banked-in 3-pointer concluded one of the most exciting games in NCAA Tournament history, and it kept Gonzaga’s hopes for a perfect season alive. Those hopes were extinguished two nights later when the Bulldogs got blitzed by Baylor, but on that night, with that shot, Suggs and his Gonzaga teammates gave the country exactly what it needed — something to enjoy and a moment to celebrate.
4. George Mason 86, UConn 84
March 26, 2006
For many years, mid-major teams had pulled off significant early-round upsets, but the Final Four had rarely included a true Cinderella. Larry Bird took Indiana State there in 1979, but the Sycamores were undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country. UMass was a No. 1 seed when it made the Final Four from the Atlantic 10 in 1996. LSU was seeded No. 11 when it made the 1986 Final Four, but the Tigers played in the high-major SEC. The closest example would have been Penn, a No. 9 seed from the Ivy that made the 1979 Final Four.
George Mason, a school from the Colonial Athletic Association that had never won an NCAA Tournament game, did not seem a likely candidate to repeat that feat. The Patriots were fortunate to make the field as an at-large team after losing to Hofstra in the semifinals of the CAA tournament and were given a No. 11 seed. Yet, they started the tournament by knocking off Michigan State and North Carolina — half of the previous year’s Final Four — followed by a 63-55 win over Wichita State in the Sweet 16. With each successive triumph, the Patriots’ quirky coach, Jim Larrañaga, won over more fans with his entertaining locker room spiels, which he sprinkled with homilies, poetry and good old-fashioned pluck.
By all rights, the ride should have ended in the Elite Eight against Connecticut, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, but the Patriots, playing a veritable home game at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., were up for the challenge. Even when they trailed by 12 points late in the first half and by nine with 17 minutes to play, they never lost their poise. They also got hot, at one point making six straight 3s to take a 56-53 lead with 10:39 to play. UConn needed two baskets in the final seven seconds to force overtime, but the Patriots never trailed in OT and finished off the upset.
The run ended in the semifinal against Florida, but just like Roger Bannister’s breaking of the four-minute mile opened the floodgates for other runners to accomplish that long-elusive feat, the Patriots inspired future Cinderellas like Butler, VCU, Wichita State and Loyola Chicago, not to mention that mid-major turned powerhouse Gonzaga to reach the Final Four. None of them won the title, but it’s just a matter of time before a mid-major school cuts down the nets.
3. North Carolina 81, Duke 77
April 2, 2022
The members of college basketball’s preeminent rivalry had played each other 257 times, but never in the NCAA Tournament. That last box was checked in the most dramatic fashion. Not only would the meeting take place at the Final Four, but it would happen at the end of Mike Krzyzewski’s final season in Durham. The 75-year-old icon had announced the previous summer that he would be turning over his program to his top assistant, Jon Scheyer, as soon as the 2021-22 season was over.
North Carolina had undergone its own transition the year before, with former player and assistant coach Hubert Davis taking over for the retiring Roy Williams. Davis’ first season included some humiliating blowouts — by 17 points to Tennessee, by 29 to Kentucky, by 18 to Miami, by 22 to Wake Forest, by 20 at home to Duke — but the Tar Heels found their stride in mid-February and won six straight games to play themselves off the bubble. That included a shocking 94-81 victory in Krzyzewski’s final game in Cameron Indoor Stadium, which the Duke coach deemed “unacceptable” in a postgame address to fans.
Like so many of the matchups between these two programs, this one did not disappoint. The game was tied 12 times. There were 18 lead changes. Duke fought gamely despite early foul trouble to its top shot blocker, 7-foot sophomore Mark Williams, and went into halftime up three. With 46 seconds left in the second half and the Tar Heels leading by one, Williams went to the free-throw line with a chance to reclaim the lead, but he missed both free throws. On the ensuing possession, Tar Heels guard Caleb Love calmly stood and dribbled as he watched the seconds tick off the clock. Then he drove to his left, got a ball screen from R.J. Davis, and pulled up for a 3-pointer over Williams’ outstretched left hand. Swish. That gave the Tar Heels a 78-74 lead with 24.8 seconds to play, and enough breathing room to prevail.
North Carolina suffered its own heartbreak two nights later when it blew a 16-point lead to Kansas to lose in the championship game, but as consolation prizes go, the win over the Blue Devils in Coach K’s final game was as good as it gets.
2. Villanova 77, North Carolina 74
April 4, 2016
The play was called Nova, fittingly enough. Jay Wright had used it since his days as a young head coach at Hofstra. His Villanova Wildcats practiced it several times a week throughout each season, so when they were tied with North Carolina with 4.7 seconds remaining in the NCAA championship game, everyone knew what to do. Just to be sure, Wright called timeout and went over all the options Ryan Arcidiacano would have as he dribbled upcourt. A pass to the trailing inbounder was the last resort.
Just as he had done in all those practices, Arcidiacano took the inbounds pass and made his forward dash. He was initially intent on shooting, but as he crossed midcourt, the Tar Heels sent a second defender his way. Quickly scanning the possibilities, he heard a voice from behind yelling “Arch! Arch! Arch!” It was Kris Jenkins, who to that point had made 47.1 percent of his 3-point attempts in the tournament. Arcidiacano shoveled the ball to Jenkins, who caught it in perfect stride and launched his fateful trey:
Jenkins’ bucket came just after North Carolina guard Marcus Paige sank an off-balance, double-pump, leg-kicking 3-point rattler that had tied the score at 74-all. Had North Carolina gone on to win, Paige’s shot would be the one everyone is still talking about. Instead, Jenkins had just the second buzzer-beating championship game-winner in NCAA Tournament history. (N.C. State’s Lorenzo Charles did it with a putback against Houston in 1983.) The shot gave Wright his first national title, and elicited one of the great non-reactions in the history of sports as the coach quietly said “Bang” when Jenkins’ shot went in.
March 16, 2018
It was just about the only thing left in sports that hadn’t happened. In the 39 years since the NCAA began seeding teams, a No. 16 had never defeated a No. 1. The vast majority of games that took place between such teams were blowouts. Virginia entered the 2018 tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, while UMBC had finished three games behind Vermont in the America East standings before winning the conference tournament to earn an automatic bid. Given all this, it was logical to count UMBC out even before the game tipped off. Which some dummy actually did:
Virginia. Sharpie.
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) March 17, 2018
The premature pronouncement failed to take two things into account. First and foremost, Virginia was playing without its most talented player and most versatile defender, forward De’Andre Hunter, a future lottery pick who had broken his wrist in a win over North Carolina in the finals of the ACC tournament. More importantly, the NCAA Tournament is the place where previously unthinkable scenarios take place. There’s a reason it’s commonly called March Madness.
As is so often the case, the favorite came out tense, while the underdog played as if it had nothing to lose. The score was tied 21-all at halftime, but the Retrievers began the second half with a 20-6 burst over five minutes. The Cavaliers were a plodding, grinding team that was not well-equipped to come from behind. They started hoisting quick shots, which allowed UMBC to build its momentum. In the end, all Virginia coach Tony Bennett could do was stand on the sidelines with his hands on his hips as his team got run off the floor.
The result was shocking enough. The margin was unfathomable. The Retrievers were still celebrating a short while later when Bennett gave a postgame interview to CBS that was the epitome of grace and class:
Bennett said he did not want to let the loss define his players’ careers, but he knew well that the only way to truly get past it was by winning. A year later, Virginia secured the biggest win of all when it beat Texas Tech 85-77 in overtime to capture the NCAA championship. That triumph did not erase the painful loss to UMBC, but it did show that Bennett and his Cavaliers were not defeated by it.
The next 10
(in chronological order)
Michigan State 89, Florida 76
April 3, 2000
Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves came back from a dirty foul by Florida’s Ted Dupay to lead the Spartans to their first title since Magic Johnson’s 1979 squad. Twenty-two years later, the Big Ten has yet to win another.
Hampton 58, Iowa State 57
March 15, 2001
This was just the fourth time a No. 15 seed defeated a No. 2 in the first round. It was punctuated by a gleeful celebration from Pirates coach Steve Merfeld, who splayed his legs in the air as he was lifted by reserve David Johnson.
Marquette 83, Kentucky 69
March 29, 2003
The Dwyane Wade Game. Marquette’s redshirt sophomore guard scored the fourth triple-double in NCAA Tournament history by going for 29 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, sending the Golden Eagles to their first Final Four since Al McGuire won a title in 1977.
Saint Joseph’s 82, St. Bonaventure 50
March 2, 2004
Led by its future NBA backcourt of Jameer Nelson and Delonte West, the Hawks completed college basketball’s first perfect regular season in 13 years.
Illinois 90, Arizona 89 (OT)
March 26, 2005
The Illini came back from 15 points down with four minutes to play to beat Arizona in the Elite Eight.
North Carolina 75, Illinois 70
April 4, 2005
On his fifth trip to the Final Four, Roy Williams captured his first title. He won two more at North Carolina before retiring in 2021.
Gonzaga 109, Michigan State 106 (3OT)
Nov. 22, 2005
In the best game ever played at the prestigious Maui Invitational, the Bulldogs prevailed behind Adam Morrison’s 43 points, a tournament record.
Kansas 109, Oklahoma 106 (3OT)
Jan. 4, 2016
The Buddy Hield Game. In a scintillating battle of No. 1 vs. No. 2, Oklahoma’s All-American guard scored a career-high 46 points. It wasn’t enough to get the Sooners the win, but it did earn him a robust ovation from the awed KU fans in Allen Fieldhouse.
Texas A&M 92, Northern Iowa 88 (2OT)
March 20, 2016
The Aggies were down by 12 points with 44 seconds remaining in regulation, but they pulled off the biggest last-minute comeback in NCAA Tournament history and went on to beat the shocked Panthers in overtime.
Loyola Chicago 63, Tennessee 62
March 17, 2018
The Ramblers got a last-second bucket by junior guard Clayton Custer, courtesy of a “Sister Jean Bounce” that appeared to defy the laws of physics. Custer’s bucket sent his squad on to the South Regional in Atlanta, where they beat Nevada and Kansas State to reach the Final Four.
