Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. After shooting some pool with my childhood friend, we got back to my parents' house and watched the end of this tight Notre Dame-Ole Miss game. I need to research this Ole Miss team more. They were a tough squad, as seen during a competitive loss against Arizona during the Sweet Sixteen. Anyway, my friend and I bid adieu, promising to stay in touch. We have not talked during the 25 years since. After the game, I had to take the bus back down to Champaign. On the way down, a very cute girl sat next to me. We spent the next few hours talking about her spring break. Dumb me didn't get the girl's number, and we never saw each other again on campus! :( Going to an all-boys high school for four years sure was a hindrance my first year in college. :) Note: I believe my VHS ran out of tape at the end of the ND-Ole Miss game. I have included the ending from the great YouTube channel of TG Classic Sports, an Iowa State fan channel. 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. As I alluded to in the prior post, I spent the Charlotte-Illinois game playing some pool with a good childhood friend who randomly called me out of the blue. Thus, I didn't really watch this game too closely, which was unusual for me, an Illinois fanatic. I was very confident Illinois would get past the 49ers, which proved to be the case. I remember glancing up from the pool table to see Illinois up about 8-12 points seemingly all game long. Looking at the box score, Illinois got incredible balance from its starting lineup, as was the case for Arizona against Butler. Ultimately, this set of games was previewing an Elite Eight clash just one week later between the Illini and Wildcats. Back to the Illini game against Charlotte, the 49ers were led by two of my favorite shooters from the late 1990s/early 2000s, Diego Guevara and Jobey Thomas. Three years prior as a freshman during the second round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament, Guevara nearly shot UNC Charlotte past an amazing North Carolina team during a classic overtime game that is somehow not on YouTube! :( 

Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. I remember being back home in Chicago for the last day of spring break before heading down to Champaign to finish up my freshman year at the University of Illinois. One of my childhood buddies randomly called me out of the blue the night before to catch up. We ended up going to play some pool, as Kansas crushed Syracuse and Illinois took care of Charlotte on televisions in the background. Of course, Syracuse would get revenge against Kansas two years later in the NCAA Tournament, winning the 2003 Title Game behind the heroics of Carmelo Anthony and now Head Coach Gerry McNamara. As for Kansas, the Jayhawks had me worried after dominating the Orangemen in the second round, with Illinois next in the Sweet Sixteen. 

I am having trouble uploading this game onto YouTube thus I have included second-half footage from the great Keith Olenik. Stanford would get a scare from the Hawks, which included a freshman point guard by the name of Jameer Nelson, before holding on late. The Cardinal were upset the prior tournament as a #1 seed in the second round, that time by North Carolina. St. Joe's was led by Marvin O'Connor's 37 points on 15-for-20 from the field and 10-for-10 from the foul line! O'Connor's performance was so legendary that ESPN made a Sportscentury episode about the guard. If my memory serves me correct, Kentucky and Iowa met in the second round of the 1997 NCAA Tournament, with the Wildcats winning en route to the national title game, an overtime loss against Arizona.

I was having issues uploading this next set of NCAA Tournament games so I have included the games from the YouTube channels of CoachTroyBell (yes, the BC superstar guard) and the great Keith Olenik. USC would upset Boston College during a crazy finish while Kent State would be unable to sustain the momentum of a first-round upset of Indiana, getting crushed by Bob Huggins' Cincinnati Bearcats.