Click here for Chad Sherwood’s Under The Radar Game of the Day (Hofstra at College of Charleston)
Click here for Chad and David’s weekly Under The Radar Podcast
1992 represented a major checkpoint in the evolution of the NCAA Tournament in many ways. This would be the 2nd time that CBS would garner “tip to trophy” coverage in the words of Greg Gumbel. UNLV finally began their postseason ban after coming short in the previous season’s title defense. A group of freshmen known as the Fab Five congregated in Ann Arbor, Michigan and gradually became one of the better stories of the season. Duke would finally play the role of the hunted throughout the course of the season.
The East regional featured a pair of heavyweights in Duke and Kentucky. While Duke came in as the favorite to win the region, Kentucky would finally be eligible for NCAA Tournament play for the first time under Rick Pitino. The Wildcats actually won the SEC regular season title the season before in 1990-91, but they were not eligible to play beyond that point. UMass and John Calipari made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 16 years and would offer up a sneak preview of their A-10 dynasty of the 1990s. Seton Hall also had a solid team out of the Big East and would offer up an eventual matchup in the Sweet 16 between the Hurley brothers – Bobby Hurley at Duke and Danny Hurley at Seton Hall. Even La Salle and Fordham qualified for the NCAA Tournament that season – the Explorers out of the MAAC and the Rams out of the Patriot League. While La Salle did offer the Pirates a scare in the opening round, chalk held up for the most part going into a legendary regional final between Duke and Kentucky. With a game featuring numerous lead changes, Christian Laettner and Duke would get the final word with the NCAA Tournament’s most signature moment in its brief history. Click here to watch the game in its entirety courtesy of the NCAA On Demand channel.
In the West regional, the top three seeds (UCLA, Indiana, and Florida State) would advance to the regional in Albuquerque. The fourth party-crasher, to the horror of hometown New Mexico fans, would be their archrival New Mexico State Aggies. The Aggies would upset DePaul and Oklahoma to earn their spot in the Sweet 16. The Aggies did give an inspired effort in their game against UCLA before losing 85-78 to the Bruins. Indiana would defeat Florida State and set up a rematch of UCLA-Indiana; the Bruins won the season opener between the two teams. Bob Knight had caused a stir in one of his pregame press conferences earlier in the week when he brought a whip to practice; however, it was UCLA who would feel the wrath of Knight and the Hoosiers this time around. Click here for game footage of Indiana’s 106-79 blowout win; the best moment comes at 1:28:45 when Calbert Cheaney turns the tables on Bob Knight for his whipping antics earlier in the week.
The Midwest regional can best be described as the Region of Misfit Seeds. Of the top 4 seeds (Kansas, USC, Arkansas and Cincinnati), only the Bearcats would even advance to the Sweet 16 in Kansas City. The first party crasher in this region was Texas-El Paso under the leadership of legendary coach Don Haskins; their win over Kansas vaulted them to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 25 years and was their greatest win since their historic win over Kentucky in the 1966 NCAA Championship game (when they were called Texas Western). Memphis State was responsible for taking out Arkansas in the Milwaukee subregional; the locals were also treated to a classic in the following game between Georgia Tech and USC. (Click here for this tournament’s 2nd most famous buzzer beater and Al McGuire’s legendary call of James Forrest’s game winner.) And as we noted in last week’s Throwback Thursday column, Cincinnati would afvance to the Final Four after defeating UTEP and Memphis State for a 4th time that season.
In the Southeast, it looked like Ohio State was well on their way to Minneapolis after blowout wins over Mississippi Valley State and UConn in the Cincinnati subregional. North Carolina offered a little more resistance to the Buckeyes in the Sweet 16, but the Tar Heels were a year away from their own memorable championship run. Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, the elephant in the room came in the form of the Michigan Wolverines. The Fab Five opened their tournament with wins over Temple and East Tennessee State (who upset Arizona in Round 1) and would defeat Oklahoma State to set up a memorable rematch with the Buckeyes in the Elite 8 in Lexington. After the Buckeyes missed a potential game winner in regulation, the Wolverines had all the answers in overtime and would avenge their two earlier losses to Ohio State with a 75-71 win; click here to view this forgotten classic. This game also denied the Buckeyes to meet up with Cincinnati for the first time since losing to the Bearcats in the 1962 NCAA Championship.
When the Final Four convened in Minneapolis, Michigan would defeat Cincinnati in the opener 76-72. Duke and Indiana offered up what turned out to be the best game of the weekend; they would jump out to a big lead before Indiana would mount a furious comeback late in the game. Click here to see the pupil Mike Krzyzewski finally defeat his teacher in Bob Knight; Duke’s 81-78 win would be a painful one for Indiana that would linger until the Hoosiers would get their revenge a decade later in the post-Bob Knight era. When Monday night came around, Michigan would actually outplay Duke in the first half, but the Blue Devils were too much to overcome and ended up with a 71-51 blowout win. The Blue Devils won back-to-back titles for the first time since UCLA won back-to-back in 1972 and 1973. Duke’s accomplishment would not be matched until Florida won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007 against UCLA and Ohio State, respectively.
And finally, click here for the One Shining Moment montage.
News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Thursday, Jan 7th
NEWS AND NOTES
-We’ve got all kinds of important links for you! Make sure you read all of them!!
-For the latest in John Stalica’s Throwback Thursday feature, which focuses on the 1992 NCAA Tournament this week – CLICK HERE. The 1992 Tournament was a huge deal as it featured one of the greatest games ever played between Kentucky and Duke, as well as one of the most popular teams in college sports history (not just basketball, but all college sports) with Michigan’s Fab Five.
-For our latest Under the Radar Video Podcast – CLICK HERE
-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day between Hofstra and College of Charleston – CLICK HERE
-We will be recording our first Bracket Rundown Podcast of the season tonight, where we will collectively build a seed list. If you read this site, you know that there are a lot of things that we don’t agree on, so it should be a lively debate.
-As far as last night’s games go, we had a lot of excitement, but nothing too crazy happened. After seeing Texas Tech fall way behind at Iowa State and then claw their way back into the game, I’m starting to believe in them. It just really sucks that Chad was the first one to argue that he thought they were good because I just don’t like it when Chad is right about things.
HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-UTRGV AT GRAND CANYON (WAC). To say that the Lopes are the best team in the WAC, at this point, is kind of like saying out of the months of January, May, June, and August, January is the coldest. No one else has looked even remotely good in this league, and it really is a shame that the Lopes aren’t eligible. But, keep believing!! Keep the movement going!! #LopesWaiver
-WILLIAM & MARY AT DREXEL (Colonial). At this point, saying that it’s a longshot for William & Mary to land inside the bubble is being kind. They’d have to absolutely run away from the league from this point on.
-CINCINNATI AT SMU (American). SMU is still unbeaten, and Cincinnati is still in decent shape, but this is one of their last chances to boost themselves back up to being in terrific shape. This is their toughest remaining test. It’s a road game against an unbeaten team that they won’t see again in the conference tournament due to SMU being ineligible. They do face each other again in the regular season finale, however – could SMU be unbeaten at that point in time?
-NOTRE DAME AT BOSTON COLLEGE (ACC). Notre Dame needs to pick up the winnable conference road games.
-MICHIGAN AT PURDUE (Big Ten). People still aren’t as excited about Michigan as they were at the beginning of the year, but the Wolverines are 12-3. If they’re able to pull off this win tonight it would completely change the complexion of their profile and their season.
-LOUISVILLE AT NC STATE (ACC). Louisville had a big win this past Sunday when they beat Wake Forest, which is the first team they’ve beaten that appears to be anywhere close to the NCAA Tournament. Tonight they’re going after their first true road win of the season, which adds something else to their profile that they need to have.
-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE AT IUPUI (Summit league). If South Dakota State can win out then they’ll be considered for an at-large. Anything short of that and they’ll probably need the automatic bid.
-UT ARLINGTON AT APPALACHIAN STATE (Sun Belt). We are currently projecting UT Arlington as being right on the bubble. If they can blow through the conference they can should be in shape to get an at-large bid if they need it.
-LOUISIANA LAFAYETTE AT LITTLE ROCK (Sun Belt). Like UT Arlington, we are projecting Little Rock to be just inside the bubble. If they avoid losses to teams that are outside the tournament picture, which is pretty much the entire conference, they should be inside the bubble come March.
-ALABAMA AT OLE MISS (SEC). Both teams have shown signs of being good this year, and Alabama has been somewhat surprising, but both still have a ton of work to do. Like we say, when a team looks like they’re near the bubble, every game has a pivotal feel to it, and that’s where both these teams appear to be.
-ILLINOIS AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten). Michigan State is still in strong contention for a #1 seed and even if they’re shorthanded should take care of Illinois at home. Valentine is expected to return this weekend, but will not play tonight.
-ARIZONA AT UCLA (Pac Twelve). UCLA has lost just one home game, but their profile has taken a huge hit with how poor they’ve played away from home. Beating Arizona would certainly help, but they need to win some games on the road if they really want to feel safe. Having said that, they are a strong team at home and if Arizona pulls off the win they’ll get quite a bit of credit for it.
-OLD DOMINION AT LOUISIANA TECH (Conference USA). If LA Tech can run the table or come close to doing so, which they’re good enough to do, they should be inside the bubble come March. Old Dominion has been disappointing out of conference and still hasn’t won a true road game yet.
-SAINT MARY’S AT LMU (West Coast). When a team beats non tournament teams at home, that doesn’t indicate that they’re a tournament team themselves no matter how many times they do it. That’s how I feel about SMC. We’re watching them, but I won’t actually be taking them seriously until they pass a true road test. LMU is unbeaten at home, so if they get this one I may sit up and take a little bit of notice.
-ARIZONA STATE AT USC (Pac Twelve). Both teams are good, but both teams still have work to do. It’s one of those games that has a somewhat pivotal feel for both teams.