In this modern 24/7 news cycle, it is quite easy to buy the hyperbole hailing the latest major sporting event as being the greatest one to date.
For example, nowadays it seems that any Super Bowl that is determined in the final minute (think Pats-Giants I and II, Steelers-Cardinals, Pats-Seahawks, etc.) is followed by the inevitable online headline the following day as the Greatest. Super Bowl. Ever. Here’s looking at you SI’s MMQB.
Such proclamations make great debates and draw Internet clicks, but oftentimes, are nothing more than the emotion of that event’s immediacy.
To truly determine the greatness of the game, there needs to be a passing of time, a calming of those subjective emotions and an objective look at that game as a whole.
Take last tournament’s national championship game between Villanova and North Carolina.
Without question, the last 10 seconds of the game were thrilling, from Marcus Paige’s ridiculous, double-pump three to Kris Jenkins’ stone-cold, buzzer-beating, championship -clinching three.
It’s amazing what a buzzer-beater can do to change the perspective of a game, lifting it from a solid game to possibly the greatest championship game of all time.
In all honestly, last night’s championship was a good game, but it wasn’t anywhere near the greatest.
Thankfully, the second half picked up in intensity after a surprisingly boring first half that was more of a feeling-out process, with Carolina hitting threes but unable to pull away from a Villanova team that looked really tight and like the recent ‘Nova teams that bowed out in the opening weekend, especially when Jenkins picked up his second foul before the first television timeout.
When Villanova came out of the locker room and started to perform like it had been all tournament long, locking down on defense and playing unflappable offense, this game was close to being a double-digit victory for the Wildcats, had it not been for several uncharacteristic Ryan Archidiacano turnovers and some questionable overpenetrating on separate occasions by the game’s hero, Phil Booth, and the tough-as-nails Josh Hart.
Carolina, more specifically Paige, took advantage of these rare Villanova mistakes and put itself into position to go to overtime and possibly steal this game and national championship.
Yet Jenkins’ three put an end to that and started the conversation about this being the best championship game of all time, which sounds nice the morning after but is not true.
Just think about the other championship games that these two schools have been a part of since 1980, which excludes Carolina’s triple-overtime victory against Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas in 1957.
Villanova’s 1985 championship victory against Georgetown was a much better and shocking result, given the Wildcats playing a near perfect game, shooting 78 percent from the field for the game (without a three-point line), including 9-out-of-10 shots in second half without a shot clock, and defeating a Hoya program that was looking to repeat as champs while appearing in three of the four last national championship games with then-senior Patrick Ewing.
In 1985, a Georgetown victory seemed to be a coronation; eighth-seed Villanova’s victory is still stunning 31 years later.
No disrespect to this North Carolina team, but no one would have been shocked if Villanova had won on Monday night, especially considering the Wildcats’ 44-point drubbing of Oklahoma on Saturday and strong play throughout this tournament. This was a very good Carolina team, but not a legendary team on the level of 1982 or 2009.
And if paying attention to the way Jenkins has been shooting the ball all tournament long, was it all that surprising when he drained the game-winner? As Jay Wright said after the game, “Kris lives for those shots.”
As for Carolina, go back to the 1982 title game against Georgetown at the Louisiana Superdome. From the opening minutes of that game, including then-freshman Ewing’s handful of goal-tending calls to freshman Michael Jordan’s decisive jumper that launched his legacy to poor Freddie Brown’s inopportune pass to James Worthy, the 82 title game was a nail-biter from start to finish.
Ditto the 1993 title game between Carolina and Michigan, another nip-and-tuck affair from beginning to end that unfortunately ended on Chris Webber’s infamous timeout call.
And in terms of buzzer-beating finals, nothing has yet topped North Carolina State – Houston from 1983, when Derek Whittenburg threw up a desperation heave that somehow landed into Lorenzo Charles’ hands, who guided the ball into the hoop for an upset on the level of Villanova – Georgetown.
Not to discredit last tournament’s title game, a fantastic finish to a very good tournament, but let’s all calm down and have some perspective here, which The College Basketball Nostalgic will strive to do when revisiting college basketball.
For example, nowadays it seems that any Super Bowl that is determined in the final minute (think Pats-Giants I and II, Steelers-Cardinals, Pats-Seahawks, etc.) is followed by the inevitable online headline the following day as the Greatest. Super Bowl. Ever. Here’s looking at you SI’s MMQB.
Such proclamations make great debates and draw Internet clicks, but oftentimes, are nothing more than the emotion of that event’s immediacy.
To truly determine the greatness of the game, there needs to be a passing of time, a calming of those subjective emotions and an objective look at that game as a whole.
Take last tournament’s national championship game between Villanova and North Carolina.
Without question, the last 10 seconds of the game were thrilling, from Marcus Paige’s ridiculous, double-pump three to Kris Jenkins’ stone-cold, buzzer-beating, championship -clinching three.
It’s amazing what a buzzer-beater can do to change the perspective of a game, lifting it from a solid game to possibly the greatest championship game of all time.
In all honestly, last night’s championship was a good game, but it wasn’t anywhere near the greatest.
Thankfully, the second half picked up in intensity after a surprisingly boring first half that was more of a feeling-out process, with Carolina hitting threes but unable to pull away from a Villanova team that looked really tight and like the recent ‘Nova teams that bowed out in the opening weekend, especially when Jenkins picked up his second foul before the first television timeout.
When Villanova came out of the locker room and started to perform like it had been all tournament long, locking down on defense and playing unflappable offense, this game was close to being a double-digit victory for the Wildcats, had it not been for several uncharacteristic Ryan Archidiacano turnovers and some questionable overpenetrating on separate occasions by the game’s hero, Phil Booth, and the tough-as-nails Josh Hart.
Carolina, more specifically Paige, took advantage of these rare Villanova mistakes and put itself into position to go to overtime and possibly steal this game and national championship.
Yet Jenkins’ three put an end to that and started the conversation about this being the best championship game of all time, which sounds nice the morning after but is not true.
Just think about the other championship games that these two schools have been a part of since 1980, which excludes Carolina’s triple-overtime victory against Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas in 1957.
Villanova’s 1985 championship victory against Georgetown was a much better and shocking result, given the Wildcats playing a near perfect game, shooting 78 percent from the field for the game (without a three-point line), including 9-out-of-10 shots in second half without a shot clock, and defeating a Hoya program that was looking to repeat as champs while appearing in three of the four last national championship games with then-senior Patrick Ewing.
In 1985, a Georgetown victory seemed to be a coronation; eighth-seed Villanova’s victory is still stunning 31 years later.
No disrespect to this North Carolina team, but no one would have been shocked if Villanova had won on Monday night, especially considering the Wildcats’ 44-point drubbing of Oklahoma on Saturday and strong play throughout this tournament. This was a very good Carolina team, but not a legendary team on the level of 1982 or 2009.
And if paying attention to the way Jenkins has been shooting the ball all tournament long, was it all that surprising when he drained the game-winner? As Jay Wright said after the game, “Kris lives for those shots.”
As for Carolina, go back to the 1982 title game against Georgetown at the Louisiana Superdome. From the opening minutes of that game, including then-freshman Ewing’s handful of goal-tending calls to freshman Michael Jordan’s decisive jumper that launched his legacy to poor Freddie Brown’s inopportune pass to James Worthy, the 82 title game was a nail-biter from start to finish.
Ditto the 1993 title game between Carolina and Michigan, another nip-and-tuck affair from beginning to end that unfortunately ended on Chris Webber’s infamous timeout call.
And in terms of buzzer-beating finals, nothing has yet topped North Carolina State – Houston from 1983, when Derek Whittenburg threw up a desperation heave that somehow landed into Lorenzo Charles’ hands, who guided the ball into the hoop for an upset on the level of Villanova – Georgetown.
Not to discredit last tournament’s title game, a fantastic finish to a very good tournament, but let’s all calm down and have some perspective here, which The College Basketball Nostalgic will strive to do when revisiting college basketball.
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