After two weeks of March Madness, Final Four weekend is at hand — the annual playoff for the championship of Division 1 college basketball. The original field of 65 teams has been pared to four survivors. On Saturday in Detroit, Michigan State will play Connecticut, followed by Villanova against North Carolina. The two winners will play next Monday night for the championship. Look for one of the “upstarts” — Villanova or Michigan State — to walk away with the title.
It is sometimes said that conservatives, instead of looking to the future, prefer to look to the past. In that spirit, then, here is our semi-official “Top Ten Moments in the History of the Final Four,” unmatchable by any other site:
Number 10: 1956: The University of San Francisco, behind Bill Russell, defeats Iowa 83-71, winning its second-consecutive championship and finishing 29-0 to become the first champion to finish a season undefeated. The Dons at that point were in the midst of a 60-game winning streak, the longest ever until UCLA surpassed it in 1973 on its way to an 88-game streak. Because of Russell’s ability to block shots under the basket, the NCAA the previous year widened the free-throw lane from 6 to 12 feet, changing it from a “key” to a “lane.” After watching Russell in the tournament, Red Auerbach, coach of the Boston Celtics, engineered a trade to acquire his contract from the St. Louis Hawks, leading to a 12-year championship dynasty for the Celtics.
Number 9: 1973: UCLA, led by Bill Walton’s 43 points, defeats Memphis State 87-66 for John Wooden’s ninth national title. Walton made 21 of 22 shots to establish a championship game scoring record that still stands. This year marked the beginning of the “Saturday to Monday” format of the Final Four. Up until 1973, semi-final games had been played on Friday evening with the final played on Saturday.
Number 8: 1965: John Wooden wins his second title at UCLA, as the Bruins beat the Michigan Wolverines 91-80 behind 42 points from Gail Goodrich. Michigan, the Big 10 champion, was led by All American Cazzie Russell. In the third-place game, Princeton’s Bill Bradley scored 58 points in a victory over Wichita State which, at the time, was a tournament-game scoring record.
Number 7: 1950: City College of New York wins the NCAA title, defeating Bradley University 71-68 at Madison Square Garden. Two weeks earlier, the Beavers had defeated Bradley to win the National Invitational Tournament, also at Madison Square Garden. The 1950 CCNY team is the only one to have won both titles in the same year, an achievement no longer possible. A year later, several players on the CCNY team were arrested for receiving payments from gamblers in a “point shaving” operation, leading to the de-emphasis of basketball at the school. (Technically, the “Final Four” did not begin until 1952 when the four semi-final teams were brought to a common site for the final two rounds of the tournament. Until 1952, the semi-finals were played at regional sites.)
Number 6: 1983: North Carolina State, coached by the Jim Valvano, defeats heavily favored Houston 54 -52 on a Lorenzo Charles tip-in of a last-second airball put up by teammate Dereck Whittenburg. Houston, led by future NBA stars Akeem Olajuwan and Clyde Drexler, earned the nickname Phi Slamma Jamma because of the high-flying style of play that carried them to the championship game. Films of Valvano ecstatically racing around the court after the victory are still used in NCAA promotions.
Number 5: 1963: Loyola (Chicago) defeats defending champion Cincinnatti 60-58 in overtime in the first national television broadcast of a championship game and in the first tournament in which civil rights issues played a prominent role. The Ramblers rallied from a 15-point deficit in the second half to tie the Bearcats at the end of regulation play. Loyola started four African-American players and Cincinnatti three, the first time a majority of starters in a championship game were non-white. On the eve of the tournament, the Mississippi legislature passed a resolution prohibiting the Mississippi State team from participating in a regional game against Loyola in East Lansing, Michigan. The team defied the legislature but lost to Loyola 61-51.
Number 4: 1979: Michigan State, led by Earvin “Magic” Johnson, wins the title with a 75-64 victory over Indiana State, led by Larry Bird. The contest marked the beginning of a long-running rivalry between Johnson and Byrd as they moved into the NBA. The 1979 championship still has the highest rating of any televised game in the history of college basketball.
Number 3: 1957: North Carolina, coached by Frank McGuire, wins the championship with a 54-53 triple-overtime victory over a Kansas team led by sophomore Wilt Chamberlain. North Carolina starts five players recruited from New York City area high schools, led by All-American Lenny Rosenbluth. North Carolina finishes the season with a record of 32-0. The previous evening, North Carolina defeated Michigan State 74-70 in the semi-finals in another triple overtime game.
Number 2: 1966: Texas Western (now the University of Texas at El Paso) wins the championship by defeating Kentucky (coached by Adolph Rupp) 72-65. The 2006 film Glory Road highlighted the civil-rights implications of the game because Texas Western started five African American players while Kentucky, playing in the then-segregated Southeastern Conference, started five white players (among them, future NBA player and coach, Pat Riley). Contrary to stereotype, however, Kentucky played a “run and gun” style while Texas Western played a more disciplined style, emphasizing defense and ball control. The Miners took an early lead and then never trailed during the game, winning by a comfortable margin. From the civil-rights standpoint, the 1966 championship game is highlighted at the expense of the 1963 tournament, which may have been more significant (see Number 5 above).
Number 1: 1985: Villanova shocks top-ranked and #1 seed Georgetown 66-64, led by Patrick Ewing, to win the title in one of the greatest upsets in sports history. Villanova made an incredible 79 percent of its shots during the game and 90 percent in the second half. Villanova (a # 8 seed) is the lowest seeded team ever to win the title.
– James Piereson is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and president of the William E. Simon Foundation.