The best tournament I have ever seen.

Exactly, Princeton-style basketball in the modern age is becoming a dinosaur - a lot like the wishbone in college football and mostly because nobody really wants to watch it.

 

The NCAA used to put a little chart in the Final Four record book -- it doesn't seem to be in there anymore and I can't find an old one online, but it used to mesmerize me for hours every March. They listed all the categories that would help quantify excitement levels of each year (close and overtime games, low seeds advancing etc.), and I remember 1990 being far far ahead of the field, with I think 1991 being second.

Scanning that '90 bracket, it's incredible how many moments they provide:

--Loyola Marymount
--16 seed Murray State taking Michigan State to OT
--Northern Iowa beating Missouri on a deep deep DEEP three (3 vs. 14)
--Rick Fox's buzzer-beater to knock out No. 1 Oklahoma in the second round
--Ball State playing three games decided by a total of five points, including that classic vs. UNLV
--Dayton knocking out Illinois in the Kendall Gill team's last go-round
--Tate George with the turnaround buzzer-beater against Clemson (the degree of difficulty on that play is still unreal), then Laettner with the turnaround buzzer-beater to knock UConn out of a Final Four spot two days later; both of those games were one-pointers
--Kenny Anderson with the B.S. after-the-buzzer three-pointer to take Michigan State to OT
--Anderson/Oliver/Scott vs. Chris Jackson/Shaq in a game that finished 94-91 in regulation

But as has been pointed out previously, all those top seeds falling really reduces the chance of a good Final Four. Teams like Mason, when they run out of gas, it's usually not a pretty sight.

 

Chris Jackson -- one of my all-time favorites to watch - dude could just go off for like 35 or 40.

How the hell did that team, with him and Shaq, not win it all.

 

I hate to say it, but UCLA over Missouri in the second round, which I covered in Boise back in the day, has got to be on any of those lists.

 

A horrid coach and broadbased moronicism,
for openers.

 

Huh? Roy? With that talent, defense was an afterthought.

And it was a joy to see smug ol' Roy get kicked square in the nuts, this year.

 

Georgetown plays it, and they play it pretty well, but it didn't end prettily for them, this time around.

 

They played excellent defense in the tournament and during the season, considering on most nights they could overwhelm teams with talent and outscore them, defense didn't need to be Pitt-like in order to win and win comfortably.

North Carolina last year played the game the right way and it was fun to watch.

And the problem they had this year was not defense, it was a flawed roster lacking legitmate guard play.

 

Well, actually they have modified it and are playing less of it every year as they acquire more talent. They still use some principles of it, but they aren't playing a hard-core version of it.

 

If they were playing a hardcore version of it, it would probably hurt recruiting.

 

It also isn't necessary for teams that have talent.

 

Very true.