25 years of NCAA Tournament memories

By Dick Jerardi

My first game in the NCAA Tournament for the Daily News was 25 years ago, a first-rounder in South Bend between La Salle (with senior Tim Legler, sophomore Lionel Simmons and freshman Doug Overton, NBA players all) and Kansas State, with Mitch Richmond and Steve Henson. It was also coach Speedy Morris' first NCAA game. It was the first of five teams K-State coach Lon Kruger would take to the tournament.

La Salle had a really good team, but K-State was much more experienced and also very talented. The experience showed. La Salle played nervous. K-State played as if it belonged. It was not close.

Since that game in 1988, I have done NCAA games every year. Back in the day, I attended two Final Fours as a fan. My first Final Four for the DN was 1992 and I have been to every Final Four since 1994. So I saw the Fab Five lose to that great Duke team in 1992, but did not see the Chris Webber timeout in 1993.

Some of my NCAA memories are vivid; others needed to be jogged by a look back at history. Like the best coaches say, it is about the journey. Here are some thoughts on my NCAA journey.

Best team

Kentucky, 1996

This is really close. Duke (1992) and Florida (2007) are both right there as repeat champions. But that UK team was amazing.

I caught up with them in Minneapolis for the regionals and was right there until they cut down the nets at the Meadowlands, the last non-dome Final Four.

What I remember most about Minneapolis is sitting around a table with a few writers listening to Rick Pitino talk basketball on the off days. It was an education I have never forgotten.

I learned so much about the game from a man who had really revolutionized it by becoming the first to embrace the three-point shot and utilizing fullcourt pressure as a weapon more than any coach since UCLA's legendary John Wooden. Pitino, unlike many of his peers, did not try to hide anything. He willingly shared what his team was doing and why they were doing it.

I remember Utah's Rick Majerus being so stunned by the UK pressure in the Sweet 16 that he could hardly talk after his team got crushed, 101-70. You never knew Tim Duncan was on the court after Kentucky buried Wake Forest, 83-63, in the regional final. Those Wildcats were that good.

Heading for a rematch with Massachusetts in the Final Four, UK had won its four NCAA games by a combined 113 points. UMass was the only team to beat Kentucky during the regular season. Mississippi State, also at the Meadowlands, was the only SEC team to beat Kentucky, having beaten them in the SEC Tournament championship game.

Nobody was beating Kentucky in that Final Four. They had so many NBA players that I lost count. The Wildcats beat UMass in a classic semifinal, but had little left for the championship game against Syracuse. Just about everybody but Tony Delk (seven threes) and Ron Mercer (who didn't even start) shot poorly, but Pitino's defense was everywhere and the Wildcats made 12 threes. It was more than enough.

I remember driving home that night wondering if I would write about a better college team. It has not happened yet. And I don't expect it to happen.

Best prediction

Connecticut over Duke 1999

Duke crushed just about everybody all season. Duke was the classic, front-running basketball bully. I was pretty certain what would happen if a team took the early punches and threw some back.

UConn was the last team to lose that season. The Huskies had been in close games all season and knew how to play in them.

Duke had a really tough game in the semifinals against a coming-of-age Michigan State team that would win the national championship the next year. The Blue Devils won, but did not look great doing it. They looked tired physically. More, it looked as if the weight of the expectations was starting to crush them.

Other than Elton Brand, Duke had no transcendent players. Shane Battier would go on to be the Player of the Year in 2001, but he was really a role player at that point. Trajan Langdon was a great shooter, but a shaky ballhandler. Some of Duke's young stars were not really ready for the stage.

More than anything, I thought UConn's Big East experience would make them the tougher team. They had something to prove in the school's first Final Four after so many near-misses. All the pressure was on the opponent. They had the game's best player in Coatesville's Richard Hamilton. And they had a coach in Jim Calhoun who was determined to prove he belonged.

Duke took an early lead, but UConn quickly caught up. As I watched the game courtside, it was clear UConn was the better team. Duke was hanging in because it kept scoring on out-of-bounds plays, Langdon kept hitting threes and they got to the foul line 27 times to 18 for UConn.

Duke, however, never adjusted to the constant double teams on Brand and had no clue where Hamilton's shots were coming from. Hamilton finished with 27 in his final college game and UConn won, 77-74.

Sometimes, you just know. I knew UConn was going to win that game. It played out just like I expected and because I knew the result before the game it was an easy story to write. My game story won a Top 10 national award.

Worst prediction

Michigan State

over North Carolina 2009

I got caught up in the Detroit/Ford Field story. No major American city was more affected by the Great Recession. Here was Michigan State, the team that was going to make everything right.

Those Spartans really had no business being in that game. They were never national-championship good all season, but they kept beating teams they were not supposed to beat. And there they were playing UNC, with all those NBA players.

I went for sentiment. I knew I was wrong in the first 30 seconds when Ty Lawson started harassing the Spartans' guards.

UNC had crushed Michigan State at Ford Field during the regular season. They crushed them again for the championship.

The good news was that I was able to start writing my story after 10 minutes. It was over way before it was over.

None of us is any better than what is in front of us. The game was a mismatch and the favorite won easily. There are no awards for recounting the obvious.

Best player

in one tournament

Danny Manning, Kansas, 1988

I got Danny and the Miracles at the regionals in Detroit. They were not very good. Manning was great. The bigger the game, the better he played. No coach ever got more from a team than Larry Brown got from that Kansas team. They beat Mitch Richmond and K-State to get to the Final Four, which, providentially, was in Kansas City. They beat Duke in the semifinals and played a near-perfect game to beat Oklahoma for the title.

In the championship game, Manning had 31 points, 18 rebounds, five steals, two assists and two blocks. Please name another player on that KU team. Oklahoma had an All-Star team with Stacey King, Mookie Blaylock and Harvey Grant. Kansas had Danny Manning.

Best player in multiple tournaments

Christian Laettner, Duke, 1989-1992

Everybody remembers the shot at the Spectrum in 1992. Few remember the shot 2 years before at the Meadowlands against Connecticut. With his team trailing by a point each time, Laettner took a win-or-lose shot to get his team to the Final Four. He made both.

I saw the first one live, sitting under the basket where the shot went in. I watched the second in a friend's living room in Lexington, Ky., where I was going to chronicle the Fab Five beating Ohio State and Jimmy Jackson the next day. It was a giant funeral in Lexington that Saturday night.

Duke beat unbeatable UNLV in the 1991 Final Four on the way to school's first national championship. And then overwhelmed Michigan the next year in Laettner's final game.

Laettner's NCAA resume is actually quite astonishing. Duke also made the Final Four in 1989 and played UNLV in the 1990 national championship game. Four Final Fours. Three championship games. Two championships.

Best local teams covered in NCAA

Saint Joseph's 2004

La Salle 1990

Each team finished 30-2. Each team had the Player of the Year - Jameer Nelson (Hawks) and Lionel Simmons (Explorers).

The Hawks did not lose in the regular season, La Salle lost once.

I actually think La Salle had more overall talent, but SJU found a way to maximize what it had.

I have never been more surprised by an outcome that when La Salle gave up a huge second-half lead and lost to Clemson in the second round. If they played that game 10 times, La Salle would have won nine. But they could not make a shot in the second half, could not get to the foul line and got overwhelmed in the lane by Eldon Campbell and Dale Davis.

What I remember most was when the L-Train, in an otherwise quiet locker room, smiled and said: "It's time to get paid."

St. Joe's dramatically outplayed Oklahoma State in the regional final for the first 20 minutes. But their legs were tired and their threes were short. What should have been a bigger lead was not big enough.

Still, it looked as if the Hawks had it when Pat Carroll hit that three with 30 seconds left. Oklahoma State had no timeouts and looked lost. Then, the ball got knocked loose and ended up in the hands of John Lucas who made the shot of his life.

Nelson came down the court with the season in his hands. He told me later he looked at his teammates and they all had their hands at their sides. He knew he would have to shoot. I was thinking a three for the win. He tried to get to the rim for the tie, but was cut off. He took the final shot of his college career, a fadeway 16-footer on legs that had carried his team farther than it really had a right to go. I remember saying "short" as it left his hand.

Best Final Four site

San Antonio

There is really nothing like sitting on a hotel balcony overlooking the River Walk in the days leading up to the Final Four.

Or hanging on the River Walk with coaches from everywhere. Or being certain you are going to be fishing Bob Huggins out of the river one Friday night.

Or seeing Tubby Smith coach a brilliant game to give Kentucky the title in 1998. Or wondering if Saint Joseph's could have beaten Connecticut in 2004.

Or having to change an entire story when Mario Chalmers hit that three to get the game to overtime for Kansas; denying Memphis a certain championship in 2008. Or watching and listening to all those KU fans singing all night long after that game.

Sadly, the Alamodome is no longer in the Final Four rotation. The NCAA can sell more tickets to the Jerry Jones Dome in Dallas so that is the site of the 2014 Final Four. It will be a soul-less, antiseptic, giant money grab and in no way memorable.