Good Friday, Better Thursday
There is a method to March Madness. The filling out the brackets thing has grown so big that businesses throughout the country just allow it to happen now instead of fighting it. They know a lot less work gets done during these tournament games, because they know how much their employees are into it. It’s America’s national tournament, you know.
The two days and nights making up the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA basketball tournament often often gives us some of the best sporting entertainment we see all season. Those two days are the days of the opening round match ups of the “big dance,” and some of the quirky pairings between large schools and small schools have this amazing knack for providing those magical moments that make this tournament so special.
Somehow, that great idea of seeding the tournament the way they do – with highly ranked major conference teams usually playing the lower rated, but very accomplished in their own way, smaller schools from smaller conferences, has allowed for a whole lot of David vs. Goliath contests, where America could root for the small schools (people LOVE rooting for the underdog) to spring the big upsets. Some of the most memorable upsets in basketball history have occurred during the first round games of the NCAA Tournament.
This year’s tournament had some pretty good games on Friday. 11th seeded Dayton knocked off a 6th seeded Providence team. There were some really close games with Louisville edging UC Irvine and Maryland doing the same to Valparaiso (Goliath barely triumphing over David), with several other spirited, competitive games throughout the day, although form held in most cases and the favorites mostly won.
But Thursday was a day for the ages. Five games were settled by one point. Another game was settled by two. Two more were settled by three points.
Two teams that were seeded 14th knocked off number 3 seeds. That included modern day “Davids” Georgia State and Alabama Birmingham (UAB) beating major conference “Goliath” stalwarts Iowa State and Baylor. 11th seeded UCLA beat 6th seeded SMU. Tenth seeded Ohio State knocked off 10th seeded Georgia.
So many of these Thursday contests came down to the last second that American TV audiences were buzzing about the games all of that day and all of that night. CBS Sports has a national contest where they would reward ANYONE who could come up with a perfect NCAA bracket. After that first Thursday’s games and all of the upsets, 99% of the ballots had their first loss.
North Carolina State had a player throw up a last second shot that rolled around the rim for an extra second or two and when it tumbled into the basket, NC State won. If it had tumbled out, they would have lost.
UCLA trailed by two with seconds left. They hoisted up a three point attempt that was not going to go in, but an SMU player touched it as it was on the rim and the refs called it goal tending. They were awarded three points because it was a three point attempt. The fine line between winning and losing. They won a game by one point in a game that they could just as easily lost by two. A referee’s call can affect a close game that much. The excitement of a game that close that goes down to the wire is something you get on NCAA Day Number One.
Ohio State’s win over Virginia Commonwealth (VCU) was an overtime win.
UAB’s win over Iowa State was equally breathtaking. They trailed Big 12 Tournament Champion Iowa State late, and came back to outscore them 9 to 4 in the last minutes.
The excitement that occurs when underdog teams win thrilling, close games in an NCAA Tournament is one of the greatest TV viewing experiences you get in sports. Players race up and down the court, jumping all over each other. Directors pan the crowd for shots of crying cheerleaders, cheering spectators, and more shots of excited players in the midst of experiencing the sheer joy of triumph. People from the other “viewing” side, watching on TV as it all unfolds, get to experience the thrill of victory right there as it’s happening.
But there was a thrilling outcome to a game that topped everything. It literally was so exciting and so memorable that it will probably go down in the annals of NCAA Basketball history as one of the most iconic moments that ever happened.
I’m talking about the Georgia State game against Baylor. Baylor led by 12 with less than three minutes to play. Georgia State went into furious comeback mode, pressing and forcing Baylor turnovers. Their team, led by guard R.J. Hunter and coached by his father Ron Hunter, who was sitting on a specially made stool due to his recently torn Achilles’ tendon, made it all the way back to trailing by two with just seconds to play, and having the ball for one final shot.
R.J. Hunter launched a three pointer from close to 30 feet away that swished through the net for a game winning shot that was so exciting, the coach with the cast on his foot fell out of his stool on the sidelines and became an instant media sensation. The exciting ending was so memorable that millions of people saw the amazing shot over and over again on TV replays or on Internet streams of the shot and the coach tumbling over, and the crowd going berserk.
It was a play that captured the greatness of “March Madness” as well as any moment in recent memory. The coach in interviews called that game and the excitement around seeing his team win in such a way (and his son’s great contribution to them winning) the greatest moment of his entire life. And besides the fabulous ending to a sporting contest, it was an all time great father/son moment.
It was as exciting and improbable of an ending to a game as anything you have ever seen in sports. It was a moment that summed up exactly WHY everyone gets so excited about the NCAA Tournament.
The tournament so far. A Good Friday, but a Great Thursday.
