I had never seen this before, but stumbled on it today via YouTube. It’s USC at Oregon, January 7th, 1999, and it’s pretty freakin’ sweet. The action starts at around the 1-minute mark of the clip. Here’s a contemporaneous news article about the game. And here’s a 2008 interview with the Trojan hero that night, Adam Spanich.
Not officially, of course. As far as the NCAA is concerned, NCAA Tournament pools do not exist. But effectively, they’ve just thrown a huge monkey wrench into the mid-March plans of every pool administrator, myself included: The final four at-large teams and final four automatic qualifiers in the newly minted 68-team NCAA men’s basketball tournament field will meet for the… Read more »
A true legend, a fine human being, a man whose greatness and goodness transcended the bitterest of rivalries — the only Bruin who could get a standing ovation in a roomful of Trojans — has died at age 99. Rest in Peace, John Wooden. P.S. I’m sad he won’t be around to see the UConn women potentially break his team’s… Read more »
If you sort of squint at this clip of an Adriatic League basketball game’s dramatic finish, you can almost pretend the Croatians (in white) are Duke, the Serbians (in black) are Butler… and Gordon Hayward’s shot goes in. The uniforms are even the right colors! (Kinda.) You may want to turn down the volume, though, as Croatia/”Duke” is, distractingly for… Read more »
In case you missed my tweet earlier, it seems there are some rather salacious rumors floating around South Bend about Notre Dame men’s basketball coach — and legendary on-again, off-again BrendanLoy.com Whipping Boy / Silly Meme Generator — Mike Brey. While this is still mostly in the realm of rumor and “undernews” for now, it appears there is some possibility… Read more »
I’ve made clear my opinion, in the face of some dissent, that, unless done right (which it won’t be), expansion of the NCAA Tournament to a 96-team field is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, wolf-face crazy idea that would reward mediocrity, squelch tournament magic, and generally destroy the greatest sporting event ever created. But, well, okay, did I… Read more »
…to lifting Butler to the national championship, over mighty Duke, in Indianapolis, on a halfcourt buzzer-beater, in the greatest moment in NCAA Tournament history, bar none — never to be surpassed if they keep playing the tourney for 500 years — and one of the greatest moments in American sports history? Really, really close. (Hat tip: Danny Pilz.) … [Bumped…. Read more »
I’ve blogged before about the UConn women’s march toward the UCLA men’s record 88-game winning streak. Now that the foregone conclusion of the 2010 NCAA UConn Huskies Invitational Championship is in the record books, it’s time to re-ask the question that I posed in early February: The Huskies could tie UCLA’s record in their tenth game of 2010-11, and break… Read more »
[Bumped to top — again — and edited/re-ordered a bit. -ed.] Kyle Whelliston’s “Epilogue, the Sixth” — an 8,173 epic featuring a quasi-political rant, a look back at the season that was, a look forward to the seasons that will be, major news about the composition of the Other 24 25, a non-sequitur about some girl Kyle has a crush… Read more »
So damn close. Would’ve been the greatest moment in the history of the NCAA Tournament, bar none, past, present or future — absolutely unsurpassed and unsurpassable. Instead: it hits the rim, and Duke wins another championship. Meh. On Twitter, several people made the comparison to Tom Watson’s missed putt at the 18th hole at the British Open. I think that’s… Read more »