Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I remember watching this game kind of hoping for a Florida upset but expecting Michigan State to win, which proved to be true. All season long Michigan State seemed the best team in college basketball to me. It was rewarding to see the Flintstones go out with a national championship, Michigan State's first since the 1978-79 season. I'll never forget the middle of the second half when Mateen Cleaves got his ankle caught and badly twisted with Florida guard Teddy Dupay, who made a dirty play trying to track the Spartans' point guard down. Cleaves got up and mouthed to the bench, "It's broken." Michigan State would rally from this injury, with Cleaves gutting it out, and put the game away, giving Tom Izzo his first and only national title to this day. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I remember watching this game by myself, happy to see Florida with a comfortable lead for most of the game. At this point Florida versus Michigan State seemed to be a better championship game in terms of a potential upset. After Florida ended North Carolina's surprising run to the Final Four under Bill Gutheridge, I remember my friends picking me up that Saturday night. We ended driving around the neighborhood for a few hours before calling it quits around 1 a.m. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I remember having the house to myself for this first Final Four game, which turned out to be a Big Ten grinder. I believe Wisconsin barely cracked 40 points while Michigan State just got past 50 points. Anyway, at one point my Uncle stopped by my house looking for my Dad, who was not home. I am not sure if he needed some help working on his car, but my Uncle ended up staying and watching the game with me. I was happy to see Michigan State get to the title game as the Spartans were the team beside Illinois that I most wanted to win this tournament. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I remember sneaking peeks at the score of this Elite Eight game as I was working on my term paper about Shakespeare. At this point in the tournament I was all for the Gators after beating Duke in the Sweet Sixteen. I loved the depth of this Billy Donovan team, which went 10 deep. I was a big fan of Florida freshman Donnell Harvey. That guy was a man child who should have stayed in college for at least for one more season. As for Oklahoma State, a Cowboys team that included point guard Doug Gottlieb had a great run. Note: If you watch closely, you will notice that Fox sideline reporter Erin Andrews was a cheerleader for Florida at this time. Andrews is visible several times throughout this game. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I remember not being too interested or having much time to watch this Elite Eight game as I had to write a term paper for my senior ELA class. I believe the paper was about the true identity of William Shakespeare. Anyways, I was reluctantly pulling for North Carolina to win this game as Tulsa just didn't stand out to me all that much. The Tar Heels would win a tight game to advance to its third Final Four in four seasons. Tulsa's run would familiarize me with Head Coach Bill Self, who would get hired af few months later by the University of Illinois after Lon Kruger shocked everyone and left to take the head coaching position of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. After slogging through the brutal Wisconsin-Purdue Elite Eight game, I remember watching this Iowa State versus Michigan State contest with great anticipation. While rooting for Michigan State, I was very impressed with the Cyclones, which led by double digits at halftime at a partisan The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Ultimately, Michigan State would rally in the second half to get back to the Final Four. I'll never forget Iowa State Head Coach Larry Eustachy losing his mind at the end of this game, getting T'd up and ejected, with backup big Paul Shirley crying on the bench. While happy to see Michigan State advance, this Iowa State team was quite amazing. I was so excited a few months later when the Bulls drafted Marcus Fizer, though it didn't work out for him in Chicago. Still, the thought of a front line of Fizer and Elton Brand had me excited.  

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. After attending the funeral and luncheon of my grandmother's brother-in-law, I remember getting home just in time to record and watch this unlikely Elite Eight game between two Big Ten teams. I was a bit torn as to whom I wanted to win. While I was not a fan of this Wisconsin team, I could at least respect the run the Badgers were on, having defeated Fresno State, Arizona and LSU. As for Purdue, I was just not a fan of this Boilermakers' team. While this was not an ideal Elite Eight game, I was at least happy that Wisconsin pulled off the victory. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. After going to the wake of my grandmother's brother-in-law, my family went to my grandparents' house to eat and watch the NCAA Tournament games. I remember this slate of games being a bit hard to watch. I definitely lost interest and felt a bit frustrated as this North Carolina team, during a down year, was one game away from the Final Four after defeating Tennessee. The one saving grace of this Tar Heels team was backup power forward Julius Peppers, who was quite the baller and athlete as a 6'6'' bowling ball of a power forward. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I remember having to go to a wake during this Friday night of Sweet Sixteen games. I was able to catch a little of the first half between Florida and Duke at the wake, I believe, on a miniature television on the second floor of the funeral parlor. I was shocked to see a few hours later that Florida had upset Duke. To be honest, Florida's victory made me feel less terrible about the Gators roughing up the Fighting Illini during the second round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. This set of games was disappointing in the moment, with Wisconsin frustrating LSU with its defense during a boring 61-48 victory. I especially remember eventual top NBA Draft pick Stromile Swift struggling against the Badgers. As for UCLA vs. Iowa State, this was a rematch of a classic Sweet Sixteen game from the 1997 NCAA Tournament, during which the Bruins won late on a Cameron Dollar layup. Iowa State would get revenge three years later, crushing the Bruins by 24 points and looking like a very formidable foe for #1 Michigan State a couple of days later. Little did I know that Michigan State vs. Iowa State would ultimately feel like the national championship game, not a good sign for an Elite Eight matchup. :-) 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I was so pumped up for this opening set of Thursday night games of the Sweet Sixteen, especially the Gonzaga game against Purdue. I remember having to run to the mall after school with a friend, who wanted to get some new shoes, hearing the amazing Supergrass song "Pumping On Your Stereo" for the first time, thinking that Gonzaga would knock off Purdue. That would not be the case as Purdue surprisingly handled the Bulldogs, ruining my dreams of Gonzaga making the 2000 NCAA Final Four. With that said, the Syracuse-Michigan State game was a classic. The Spartans had a miserable first half, getting down at halftime to a game Syracuse team in front of a stunned crowd at the Palace of Auburn Hills. As was the case during a second-round comeback against Utah, Michigan State would take control of the Syracuse game in the second half, leading to an all-timer of an Elite Eight matchup two days later! 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games, that is, if you can see any of the games as the picture quality was abysmal on this rainy Sunday afternoon in March of 2000. This last set of games had three teams from last year's Final Four playing: Ohio State, Duke and defending national champion UCONN. Only one of those teams would be standing as Ohio State and UCONN would be eliminated rather handily by Miami (FL) and Tennessee, respectively. I don't remember much from this group of games, with the exception of the Kansas-Duke game that was shown late in the second half. The Jayhawks gave the Blue Devils a very tough game, with stud freshman all over the court. Duke boasted freshman Jay Williams, Carlos Boozer and Mike Dunleavy while Kansas had first-year players Drew Gooden, Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich. While Duke would get by the Jayhawks' freshmen, the Blue Devils would not be lucky in the Sweet Sixteen against a Florida team with its own stable of stud first-timers: Donnell Harvey, Brett Nelson, Justin Hamilton and Matt Bonner. Note: I will try to find good copies of these games from YouTube, relying on two of my favorite channels: Keith Olenik and Vitamin J. 

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.  

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. The middle picture of Pepperdine's Tezale Archie and Oklahoma State's Doug Gottlieb encapsulates how I was feeling this morning of the NCAA Tournament, angry and on edge. A high school buddy had come over to my house at like 7:30 that morning to work on a project with me for our Government class. I believe we had to write a sample piece of legislation, which we were really struggling with. In fact, I thought our legislation was horrible, though my buddy disagreed and said "It was good enough." After grinding three hours to finish the legislation early in the morning because I had to attend a family party later that afternoon, I began watching this Pepperdine-Oklahoma State game, only to have the picture be barely visible since it was raining a lot this morning. Sadly, this day's set of games are not the best quality due to the poor reception my house used to get for CBS Channel 2 when it rained. Ultimately, I don't remember much from what I could see of this game, though I know the Cowboys won a pretty competitive contest en route to a run to the Elite Eight. Overall, this Sunday set of games is what I think turned me off on the 2000 NCAA Tournament, with higher seeds Illinois, Ohio State, UCONN and Stanford all losing rather handily in boring games that were not that exciting. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. Perhaps I have been a bit too negative on the 2000 NCAA Tournament, as this Gonzaga-St. John's game was a classic, with prime Gus Johnson doing a great job on the call. After being down following Arizona's loss to Wisconsin in the prior set of games, Gonzaga and St. John's provided a compelling game that took my mind off of what happened to the Wildcats. Just like the second round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament, #10 Gonzaga proved itself worthy against a #2 seed, taking care of St. John's as the Bulldogs had done against Stanford the year before. After defeating the Johnnies, Gonzaga was certainly going to the Final Four, at least in my mind, with Purdue, Wisconsin and LSU left in the region. That would not be the case though for the Bulldogs, which forever changed as a program these two tournaments thanks to the play of Matt Santangelo, Richie Frahm, Casey Calvary and many others. To this day, these 1999 and 2000 squads are my favorite Gonzaga teams of all time, a testament to when the program was an upstart as opposed to a West Coast blue blood. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. Honestly, this set of games is most likely what caused me to sour on the 2000 NCAA Tournament. As I was a big Arizona fan at the time, I was hoping the CBS affiliate in Chicago would show the Wildcats game against Wisconsin, a Big Ten team. Rather, I had to watch another Big Ten team, Purdue, take on Oklahoma, a team that had upset Arizona during the first round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament. These Purdue and Wisconsin teams were a bit boring for my taste so I was not pleased to see Purdue upset Oklahoma and then switch over to Wisconsin leading Arizona late. Despite being a one-seed, the Wildcats were really injured, missing center Loren Woods. As Wisconsin controlled the second half and won, I was furious. I then remember having to drive and pick up some Chinese food for my family that night, stewing upon this loss for Arizona, which would get back to the Final Four during the 2001 NCAA Tournament. However, Arizona would eliminate my Illinois Fighting Illini that year in the Elite Eight, making this deep run bittersweet. :-) 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. After a great opening game to the second round between Kentucky and Syracuse, the Saturday slate continued with another intriguing game, Utah vs. Michigan State. Having played in the 1998 NCAA Championship Game, Utah was always a tough out behind Head Coach Rick Majerus, whose team included Final Four starters Hanno Mottola and Alex Jensen. After having made the 1999 NCAA Final Four, Michigan State was considered one of the teams to beat during the final go around of senior stars Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson. Through the first half of this game, Michigan State's dream of a national title was turning into a nightmare, with Utah outplaying the Spartans and leading at the break. However, as often has been the case with Tom Izzo teams out of the halftime break, the Spartans took control of the game in the second half, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. As for LSU and Texas, I remember watching this game specifically for the matchup between Tigers' big man Stromile Swift and Longhorns' center Chris Mihm. Both players projected as high first-round picks during what would turn out to be an awful 2000 NBA Draft. With the Chicago Bulls expected to have several first rounders, Swift and Mihm were guys I was keeping my eyes on. Ultimately, LSU would pull out this tournament game, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen where the Tigers would seemingly catch a break in #8 Wisconsin, which was about to pull off a major upset and put me in a major depression later on this Saturday. :( 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I was looking forward to this opening game of the second round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, a rematch of the 1996 title game during which Kentucky defeated Syracuse. The Orangemen would exact some revenge on the Wildcats during this second round game, which was actually nip and tuck the whole way. I really liked this Syracuse team with Jason Hart, Etan Thomas and former Illinois player Ryan Blackwell. As for Kentucky, the Wildcats boasted Jamaal Magloire and Tayshaun Prince. Honestly, I don't remember much about this game except that it was pretty close and that I was kind of distracted during it. I believe I was trying to knock out some research I had for an upcoming ELA term paper about William Shakespeare. I figured I might as well try to get some work done early in the day with only one tournament game on at the time. After skipping school on Thursday and being off on Friday, I remember being slammed with homework this weekend, which was going to be a hard proposition with so much basketball to watch. For some damn reason, I always seemed to have big papers to write around March Madness throughout high school, with my senior year no exception during the 2000 NCAA Tournament. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. After DePaul lost to Kansas earlier this night, I was a little bummed and not interested in watching Indiana, a program I saw a lot of throughout the season in the Midwest. As a kid in Chicago, I was scared to death of Bobby Knight, whose recent teams were not as good but still incredibly fundamentally sound. I was surprised to see Pepperdine handle the Hoosiers during what would actually turn out to be Knight's last game at Indiana. That summer Knight was placed on a very strict protocol in response to practice video surfacing of him choking former Indiana player Neil Reed. As I was just starting my freshman year at the University of Illinois, I remember staying in my dorm and watching ESPN nonstop as Knight was fired for allegedly grabbing a student's arm to address him on his manners. Knight losing his job was a very big deal at the time as he was the most accomplished and controversial coach in college basketball. Ultimately, Knight would end up at Texas Tech, where he did a very good job, almost leading the Red Raiders to the Elite Eight during the 2005 NCAA Tournament. As an eventual ESPN analyst, Knight was a curmudgeon who looked miserable on television; however, when you listened to him break down a game, it was incredible. I learned a lot simply listening to Knight's observations and grew to appreciate him with time, though I still consider him a bully. Back to the 2000 NCAA Tournament, this video also features first-round action involving two number-one seeds, Duke and Stanford, that would not be too long for this tournament. The Blue Devils would handle Lamar before barely getting by Kansas and then losing to upstart Florida during the Sweet Sixteen. Stanford would beat South Carolina State before falling to North Carolina in the second round. In all actuality, this Friday of the opening round might have been the best day of games during the 2000 NCAA Tournament, one that ultimately left me disappointed. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. Oh, how I have fond memories of this Friday night DePaul-Kansas game, which took place on St. Patrick's Day. As my family has some Irish ancestry, we would always gather for corned beef and cabbage. This year, my Mom and Dad hosted, with my Aunt and Uncle and grandparents coming over. I remember that my younger brother and cousin were too cool to stay and watch this game, rather choosing to go out with high school buddies on a Friday night. Prior to Illinois becoming my college basketball team of choice, DePaul was my favorite as my Uncle John had taken my cousin, brother and me to so many Blue Demons' games during our young lives. The Blue Demons had not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1992 so I was so pumped for this game with DePaul's sophomore trio of Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons and Lance Williams. DePaul also had future pros Paul McPherson and Steven Hunter on this talented squad. Kansas was led by freshmen Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich, whom my Uncle John would call "annoying" as we watched this game. DePaul and Kansas played an outstanding game that went to overtime. I remember thinking that DePaul was going to break through when Richardson, who chose the Blue Demons instead of Kansas, had a three-point play late in regulation. It was not to be though as Kansas pulled out the game in overtime. Also included within this video is some coverage of the Missouri and North Carolina game. As an eight seed the Tar Heels would advance all the way to the Final Four, with future NFL star Julius Peppers a key player in their rotation. :-) 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. While I have talked a lot of smack about the quality of the 2000 NCAA Tournament as a whole, there is no debating that this first-round game between Butler and Florida was as good as it gets. I remember watching this game with great enjoyment, hoping Butler could pull off the upset as Illinois would get the winner of this game. I didn't want to play this talented Florida team, and my fears would be confirmed during the second round as the Gators handled the Illini. Butler seemed to be on the verge of the upset before Mike Miller's full-court heroics, hitting a floater at the buzzer. Such is the fine line between victory and defeat, with Florida using this momentum to advance all the way to the title game. Also in this set of games are the opening round contests of the defending national champion UCONN Huskies and a Temple team that I was hoping would get to the Final Four. Both teams would be upset in the second round, much to my chagrin. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I absolutely couldn't wait for this first-round game between Penn and Illinois, which ironically happened this past 2026 NCAA Tournament. I remember being off of school this Friday for St. Patrick's Day, pumped up as Illinois was the first game of the late morning and DePaul was playing later that night at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum in Winston Salem, North Carolina. By the way, I absolutely loved the Illini's white uniforms on the bright parquet court at Wake Forest. Illinois pretty much controlled this game against Penn, leading by about ten points most of the way. I remember the Quakers were led by guard Michael Jordan (no, not that Michael Jordan) and Matt Langel, who is the current head coach at Colgate. Speaking of current head coaches, Seton Hall's Shaheen Holloway starred during the Pirates' victory against Oregon, hitting a game-winning layup on the ugly court of the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I was so sure Fresno State was going to beat Wisconsin during this first-round game of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, though the Badgers would lock down the Bulldogs and begin an improbable run to the Final Four. Led by Tark the Shark, the legendary Jerry Tarkanian, Fresno State had a guard named Courtney Alexander who would be a first-round pick during the 2000 NBA Draft. The Bulldogs also had center Melvin Ely from Chicago-area Thornton Township High School. A future NBA player himself, Ely teamed with future NFL player Antwaan Randle El, Michigan wide receiver Tai Streets, and Oakland Raiders' linebacker Napoleon Harris to have an awesome boys basketball squad at Thornton during the 1996-97 season, my freshman year in high school. In fact, Thornton knocked out Corey Maggette and Fenwick to go down state after Maggette's high school had knocked out my high school, St. Patrick, in the previous round of the Illinois High School Association playoffs. Thornton was eventually defeated by a legendary Peoria Manual squad featuring three future Illini, forward Sergio McClain, center Marcus Griffin and guard Frank Williams. How high school basketball was so good back in the day. In addition to Wisconsin's victory against Fresno State, this video contains the end of a near upset by #15 Northern Arizona against #2 St. John's. I did not realize St. John's was losing this game during the last 10 seconds before Lavar Postell had a three-point play. While suriviving against Dan McClintock and Northern Arizona, St. John's would be upset in the second round by a plucky upstart from Spokane, Washington.

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. Now here's an actual exciting game from the 2000 NCAA Tournament, #10 Gonzaga vs. #7 Louisville. In what would be the final NCAA Tournament game for Cardinals' Head Coach Denny Crum, Gonzaga would continue its March Madness magic from the 1999 tourney, upsetting Louisville during an exciting, up-and-down contest. I remember really getting into this game, in large part due to announcer Gus Johnson. This was when Johnson was very good at calling games as opposed to the caricature he has become during the years, when his excitement seemed genuine rather than forced. I absolutely loved this Gonzaga team with Matt Santangelo, Richie Frahm and Casey Calvary. Louisville also had one of my favorite college basketball bad asses at the time, forward Nate Johnson. That guy was a dude, and this was a great game. Also included is early action between #16 Valparaiso and #1 Michigan State, which would begin its run to its first national title since 1979. I was a big fan of Valparaiso Head Coach Homer Drew, who just seemed like a class act. Now the Crusaders are coached by another class act, Roger Powell Jr., my all-time favorite Illinois basketball player of all time. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. It's safe to say the first slate of games for the 2000 NCAA Tournament were not the most appealing. One thing that always frustrated me about living in Chicago at the time was that the local CBS affiliate would always put on Big Ten teams during the NCAA Tournament. Case in point, the Purdue Boilermakers, a team that I had seen enough of during the regular season. Remember that this time period was before every game was broadcast on its own station; thus, I wanted to see teams I hadn't seen all season long. I don't remember much about this Dayton-Purdue game, though I can assume it was close and probably boring. I just wasn't a big fan of this Purdue team with Brian Cardinal, a very gritty player who had a long NBA career. Of course, Purdue would get all the way to the Elite Eight, losing to Wisconsin during a slog fest. I warned you that the 2000 NCAA Tournament was pretty bad so I hope I am not coming off as negative. Unfortunately, none of these early games was a lot to write home about. :(