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Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I remember catching most of the first half of this Florida and Illinois game, with the Illini's Sergio McClain making a short jumper in the lane to give the boys from Champaign a 32-25 lead late in the first half. From that point on, the Gator Boys, as Joakim Noah would later call the basketball players at Florida, would be in total control. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I had to leave at the end of the first half to go to a family party out in the suburbs. I remember listening to the second half in the car and getting frustrated as Florida seized control of this game. I then walked into my cousin's house to see Illinois down double digits with a few minutes to go, knowing that was it for the Illini. I felt less bad about this loss as the 2000 NCAA Tournament progressed, with Florida beating Duke in the Sweet Sixteen and advancing all the way to the National Title Game before losing to Michigan State.
Also in this stretch of games are a day of upsets, with #7 Tulsa knocking off #2 Cincinnati and #8 North Carolina defeating #1 Stanford. In regards to the Tulsa victory, this was hardly an upset as Cincinnati, the #1 team for most of the season, lost star Kenyon Martin to a broken leg during the first round of the Conference USA Tournament. Interestingly enough, Tulsa would lose to UNC during the Elite Eight, with Head Coach Bill Self eventually taking the Illinois job vacated early that summer by Lon Kruger, who left for the NBA to be the Head Coach of the Atlanta Hawks. Of course, Kruger took Florida, the team that knocked him out of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, to a Final Four in 1994. Ironically, Kruger's last game at Illinois was against his former school. Talk about a strange turn of events.
Please pardon the poor picture quality at points as it was raining all day and my television reception was shoddy. With that in mind, I have found and included parts of these games from the great YouTube channel of Keith Olenik.
Also in this stretch of games are a day of upsets, with #7 Tulsa knocking off #2 Cincinnati and #8 North Carolina defeating #1 Stanford. In regards to the Tulsa victory, this was hardly an upset as Cincinnati, the #1 team for most of the season, lost star Kenyon Martin to a broken leg during the first round of the Conference USA Tournament. Interestingly enough, Tulsa would lose to UNC during the Elite Eight, with Head Coach Bill Self eventually taking the Illinois job vacated early that summer by Lon Kruger, who left for the NBA to be the Head Coach of the Atlanta Hawks. Of course, Kruger took Florida, the team that knocked him out of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, to a Final Four in 1994. Ironically, Kruger's last game at Illinois was against his former school. Talk about a strange turn of events.
Please pardon the poor picture quality at points as it was raining all day and my television reception was shoddy. With that in mind, I have found and included parts of these games from the great YouTube channel of Keith Olenik.
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