Top 25 Stories of the Past 25 Years, Ep. 4: George Mason; UMBC over Virginia>>UVA 2019 title; UNC ends Coach K’s career

Summary

Podcast Summary: Eye On College Basketball – Top 25 Stories of the Past 25 Years, Ep. 4

Episode Overview: In this engaging episode of CBS Sports' "Eye On College Basketball," hosts Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander delve into the top 25 stories that have shaped college basketball over the past quarter-century. Focusing on pivotal moments such as George Mason's Cinderella run, UMBC's historic upset over Virginia, and the conclusion of Coach K's illustrious career at UNC, the hosts provide in-depth analysis, memorable quotes, and insightful commentary that both seasoned fans and newcomers will find enlightening.

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1. Number 10: Villanova’s Chris Jenkins’ Championship Miracle

Timestamp: [02:31] – [08:06]

The episode opens with a thrilling recount of Villanova's unforgettable 2016 NCAA Championship game against North Carolina. Matt Norlander vividly describes the final moments when Chris Jenkins delivered the game-winning shot:

"Jenkins calmly tossed the ball to Ryan Archdiocono. 4.7 seconds and approximately 70ft away from the first true buzzer beater and greatest ending in college basketball title game history." ([04:09])

Gary Parish adds his admiration for Jenkins' legacy:

"Chris Jenkins was a very good college basketball player, but he'll be remembered forever by casual college basketball fans. It’s just in." ([06:44])

They compare this moment to historical finishes like NC State's 1983 championship run, emphasizing the perfection and execution that defined Villanova's victory. The hosts highlight Jay Wright's exemplary reaction, showcasing his composure and strategic genius:

"Jay's reaction, like, the best. Like, if you were just ever trying to look cool, which is this is perfect K moment. If you were ever just trying to look cool in a moment where most people are incapable of looking cool. Like, he nailed it." ([08:06])

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2. Number 9: The 2010-2013 Conference Realignment

Timestamp: [17:32] – [31:34]

Matt Norlander and Gary Parish delve into one of the most transformative periods in college sports history—the massive conference realignment between 2010 and 2013. They discuss how the movement of schools like Memphis, Nebraska, and West Virginia contributed to the dissolution of the traditional Big East and the formation of the American Athletic Conference (AAC).

Norlander explains the domino effect initiated by Colorado's tentative move to the PAC-12 and Nebraska's shift to the Big Ten:

"Colorado left the Big 12 for the PAC, and then the next day, Nebraska left the Big 12 for the Big Ten." ([21:01])

Gary Parish reflects on the long-term impacts:

"This story is probably among the three or four longest stories... you cannot overstate the different places so many different athletic departments are in right now." ([24:50])

They analyze how these changes reshaped college athletics, highlighting the strategic decisions driven by television revenue and the resulting geographic dispersal of teams. The discussion underscores the enduring legacy of this realignment, noting its pivotal role in shaping today's conference landscapes.

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3. Number 8: George Mason's 2006 Final Four Cinderella Run

Timestamp: [34:37] – [54:16]

One of the standout stories discussed is George Mason University's unprecedented journey to the Final Four in 2006. As the first mid-major team to achieve such a feat, George Mason's rise captured the nation's attention. Matt Norlander provides a detailed narrative of their tournament run, highlighting key moments and challenges:

"George Mason became the first mid-major to ever make the Final Four. They were a 7 and 4 team that turned into a 27-8 crew..." ([35:02])

Gary Parish shares personal reflections on the emotional and technical aspects of their games, particularly focusing on pivotal plays like Chris Jenkins' shot and the team's resilience:

"It's a play that was executed as designed and it's just rhythmically perfect." ([10:12])

They also touch upon the controversy surrounding coach Tony Skinn's suspension during the tournament, pondering its impact on the team's momentum and legacy:

"If Mason had never made the Final Four with Tony Skinn as the coach, I don't know..." ([49:07])

Norlander and Parish celebrate George Mason's legacy, acknowledging its inspiration for future mid-major teams striving for similar success, while also contemplating the what-ifs that surround their historic run.

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4. Number 7: UNC Ends Coach K’s Career

Timestamp: [55:47] – [68:39]

The discussion shifts to the poignant end of Mike Krzyzewski's (Coach K) illustrious career at the University of North Carolina. Matt Norlander recounts the emotional final games and the broader implications for the Duke-UNC rivalry:

"North Carolina ends Coach K’s career twice with the last game at Cameron being a UNC win and then obviously the win in the 2022 Final Four." ([55:47])

Gary Parish reflects on the significance of these moments, questioning how they fit into Coach K's legacy and the broader narrative of college basketball:

"Legends are often fired. But Bob Knight's got to be sad. Seven." ([92:00])

The hosts delve into the emotional weight of Coach K's departure, exploring how a storied career can be both celebrated and overshadowed by its final chapters. They compare it to other legendary coaches, contemplating the lasting impact of such endings on their legacies.

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5. Number 6: UMBC’s Historic Upset Over Virginia and Virginia’s 2019 Championship Redemption

Timestamp: [68:39] – [91:22]

UMBC's groundbreaking victory over Virginia in the 2018 NCAA Tournament stands as one of the most significant upsets in sports history. Matt Norlander and Gary Parish discuss the sheer improbability of a 16-seed defeating a 1-seed, emphasizing its unprecedented nature:

"Virginia was number one overall seed and the most talented team, everything about it. And they lost to UMBC, a completely unknown program." ([74:04])

Norlander provides a play-by-play of the game, capturing the shock and disbelief that reverberated through the sports world. He highlights key moments, such as the pivotal plays leading to UMBC’s victory:

"The final score was 74-54. It was a historic moment that changed the landscape of the tournament." ([73:00])

Parish analyzes Virginia's remarkable turnaround the following year, culminating in their national championship in 2019. They explore the redemption arc, discussing how Virginia rebuilt and overcame the stigma of their previous loss:

"Virginia was 66 and 6 over a two-year span, culminating with a national title. It's an awesome story deserving its place on this list." ([90:35])

The hosts commend Virginia’s resilience and strategic excellence under Coach Tony Bennett, drawing parallels to other redemption stories in sports.

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Conclusion: The Enduring Impact of Landmark Stories

Throughout the episode, Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander offer insightful commentary on how these landmark stories have not only defined the past 25 years of college basketball but continue to influence the sport's present and future. By highlighting moments of triumph, heartbreak, and transformation, they underscore the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of college basketball.

The hosts also tease upcoming episodes, promising deeper dives into the remaining top five stories, ensuring listeners stay engaged and informed about the rich history and exciting future of college basketball.

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Notable Quotes:

• “Chris Jenkins calmly tossed the ball to Ryan Archdiocono. 4.7 seconds and approximately 70ft away from the first true buzzer beater and greatest ending in college basketball title game history.” – Matt Norlander [04:09]

• “George Mason was not subject to any more or less scrutiny than any at-large teams.” – Craig Littlepage [06:44]

• “They were the first mid-major to ever make the Final Four. That's why they matter.” – Gary Parish [54:16]

• “Virginia was 66 and 6 over a two-year span, culminating with a national title. It’s an awesome story deserving its place on this list.” – Gary Parish [90:35]

Final Thoughts: This episode masterfully captures the essence of pivotal college basketball moments, blending historical analysis with personal anecdotes. Parrish and Norlander provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of why these stories are etched in the annals of college basketball, making it a must-listen for enthusiasts eager to explore the sport's most defining tales.

Transcript

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[Gary Parish]

Hey there Gary Parish. Welcome back CBS Sports. I own College basketball podcast where we sometimes discuss camel fighting, dodo birds and leaky black. Matt Norlander is here with me. If you're watching on YouTube, you know what to do to the like button shouts to Brandon Davies. And if you haven't yet, subscribe to the CBS Sports college basketball YouTube channel. It'd be awesome if you did that while you're here. Let's get into it. Today we are continuing our series on the top 25 college basketball stories of the past 25 years, which is really just Norlander's top 25 college basketball stories of the Past 25 years. Obviously, with the exception of Bob Knight's termination at Indiana on September 10, 2000, we're just going to omit that one.

[Matt Norlander]

Hold on, hold on, hold on. I knew you're going to say this. This is going to be in the written portion that publishes later this month. In all seriousness, I'm giving you the autonomy here. When the written portion goes up, the Bob Knight retirement will be in the list and it will be in the top 10. Just off the top of your dome, where do you think that story should be? It's obviously not number one or two, but as high as three, as low as 10. Just broadly, where would you place that one? It's all you.

[Gary Parish]

I'd like to place at six, if you don't mind.

[Matt Norlander]

You want it?

[Gary Parish]

Six, I think six.

[Matt Norlander]

It won't be six on this episode. It'll be six when the story publishes in full later this month on your CBS Sports app.

[Gary Parish]

Oh, man, I can't wait for that. That's exciting to hear. That's exciting to hear. So we've made it to the top 10. We've already done numbers 25 through 11. We're in the top 10. Are you ready right now, Matt Norlander, to unveil the next five of the top 25 college basketball stories of the past 25 years, with the exception of of Indiana firing Bob Knight, September 2000.

[Matt Norlander]

Let's go right now. Let's hop into the time machine. I'm going to read you directly. I won't even say what the 10th one is. You're going to know it within the first sentence that I read here. But I'm going to take you back to what I wrote that night when our number 10 story, which is also an elite moment. Those are two separate things. We can get to that in a second. This is what I wrote on an early, early Tuesday morning in April with Archie Diacono.

[Gary Parish]

Three seconds at mid court. Jenkins gives it to Jenkins for the champions. The national champions, with Jenkins hitting the winner at the buzzer. Jim, they're gonna check it.

[Matt Norlander]

I thought it was good nine years ago.

[Gary Parish]

Wow.

[Matt Norlander]

It's been nine years. De Nova's Chris Jenkins calmly tossed the ball to Ryan Archdiocono. 4.7 seconds and approximately 70ft away from the first true buzzer beater and greatest ending in college basketball title game history. Archidiacono took six dribbles as he snaked his way up the floor. Jenkins was playing possum by trailing but not rushing too fast. He didn't want to scare the defense and he knew he'd have the space. Jenkins's defender, Isaiah Hicks followed the ball, not the man the double team inevitably came in Archie Diacono when Joel Berry II and then Hicks picked him up. Right then the Villanova senior heard a voice. He heard Jenkins bark.

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Arch.

[Matt Norlander]

Arch. Arch. Game on the line. Archer Diacono gave the ball up. Villanova's most defining trait is a team of trust. So Arch went instinctive and Cooley casually passed to a trotting and trailing Jenkins. He's one of the smartest basketball players we've had, villanova coach Jay Wright said of Jenkins. Get the feet, set, shot up, takes his hand in his face, but not there in time to alter the shot. So when Arch threw me the ball, Jenkins said, one two step, shoot him up. Sleep in the streets. Stand, then crouch, pray and wait. Wait for overtime or for history and the greatest ending to an NCAA Championship game. The winning play, dripping in symbolism, is named Nova. It's run in every Villanova practice. It is their go to with less than 8 seconds remaining in a game. It is the place Scotty Reynolds scored on in 2009 to vault Villanova to the Final Four. It will now be known, even more so for blasting Villanova into history and highlight reels forever. Jenkins was the play's last but also best option. This, by the way, coming after one of the all time are you kidding me right now? Shots by Marcus Page, the final make of his career, an absolute stunner. Quote the shot Marcus Page made was an unbelievable shot, End quote Jenkins said the shot that made popcorn out of seat cushions would be topped. Quote if we didn't have a timeout, the guys would have known to run that play. End quote Villanova assistant Baker Dunleavy said. So Jenkins is bent down and then with a kaboom, the ball gently cradles through the net. Villanova 77, North Carolina 74. Pandemonium. Confusion, bolts from the blue. Quote I don't know what I did, but it went in and quote Jenkins said, I just stood there. One seconds, two seconds. Bang. End quote Streamer Shotgun out from above, diving and cascading to the floor as Villanova celebrates its second title in program history. And here comes Melody Britt, like a contestant on the Price is right, barreling down 67 steps between sections 125 and 126, bussing through people to get to her husband, Nate Britt Sr. Who is in tears over what he's just seen his son do. What was Jenkins believing when the shot went up? Ball game, he said just to first.

[Gary Parish]

Off, well done by you. Beyond that, just an awesome sports moment and I kind of like that Chris Jenkins hit the shot as opposed to, you know, Mikhail Bridges or something like. Because it's just like it's his moment. He didn't go on to have this, you know, he's not going to be switching ball screens in the Eastern Conference finals for the New York Knicks. Chris Jenkins was a very good college basketball player, but. College basketball player. And you'll remember that guy forever. I'll remember that guy forever. Casual college basketball fans will remember that name forever. It's just in. You called it the greatest ending in NCAA tournament history. I co signed that because like you can go back to NC State, but that was like a botched play.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, I mean it's also all time memorable stuff, but on a technicality that's not a buzzer beater. The ball went through the net and the rule back then was the clock continued to run out. If that was modern rules, you know, theoretically, Houston still has enough time to get off a prayer. This was. Ball is in the air.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah.

[Matt Norlander]

Buzzer with the title on the line goes through. It's the only time that's ever happened in the history of the men's tournament.

[Gary Parish]

So NC State, like, whether it was a buzzer beat or not, it was the ending of a tournament. And it was an awesome moment. But it was like it didn't go as planned. It just turned into an awesome moment. This went exactly as planned and everything about it was just perfect. I went back and watched.

[Matt Norlander]

How could you not? Right when you're doing, I mean, just an unbelievable moment. Go ahead.

[Gary Parish]

It's almost like you're sending me little Christmas presents. Like you say, hey, the next five are in the document. And I go look and I go, ooh, all right, let's just relive because I just want to. I am not capable of just recalling all of this stuff off the top of my head. You probably assume as much. But I can go back and watch it and then like, I don't know, feel like relive it and, and remember things from it that I may have forgotten and just I, I've had fun doing that. And so I dove into this last night. Lots of interesting stuff there. First off, Grant Hill, to his credit, who's on the call with Jim Nance, Bill Rafferty, Tracy, like in the timeout leading into this moment, actually says, you know, you, you, you've gotta, you know, watch Jenkins coming up the court. You know, they could have a little trailer like he mentioned, something along those lines. And then as the play is unfolding, Grant again says, watch Jenkins. He says, yes. Even before Jenkins gets the ball, he says, watch Jenkins. So that's all interesting. You look at how UNC guarded it. They just left Jenkins come up the court all alone, and at the time he catches the ball from Archie Diacono, there are three UNC players below the free throw line. They just let him run free or jog free, trot free up the court, and then pitched it back. And then the shot is beautiful. Jay's reaction, like, the best. Like, if you were just ever trying to look cool, which is this is perfect J moment. If you were ever just trying to look cool in a moment where most people are incapable of looking cool. Like, he nailed it. Contrast it. I'll just go back to the NC State thing. There's Valvano running around the court. Crazy.

[Matt Norlander]

Couldn't be more juxtaposed.

[Gary Parish]

Could not be more different, right? Both are awesome. Both are awesome. I love them both. I think I would like to be more like Jay in that moment. I might be more like Jim in that moment, but I think I'd like to be more like Jay.

[Matt Norlander]

They're both legendary. Like, they're in the all time Sizzle reel and Silblade tournament regardless because of how different they are.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah. So that's an incredible. Just every aspect of that moment is awesome. Unless you're a North Carolina fan, of course. And then it. It does completely overshadow something you've already mentioned, which is, if not for that moment, one of the greatest shots in NCAA tournament history is made by Marcus Page like six seconds earlier.

[Matt Norlander]

Crazy. You can actually see it. So this is back. I'm in view of the shot. This is where I was sitting. So I'm facing the camera and it's insane. I was actually. It's me. And then Nicole Auerbach was sitting next to me. And the shot is so unlikely by Paige, like just instinctually, just we pop up out of our seats because so many other people are just like standing up. It's a crazy, crazy. Like Paige could take that shot in that way 40 times and might make it twice. Like, just in addition to the. The pressure of the moment. I. I would like to believe that because of the outrageous nature of the shot, at least like, you know, not in addition to us talking literally right here on the podcast. But people do remember it. It's become one of the all time plays that gets overshadowed by a bigger play kind of deal. You know, Larry Fitzgerald had one of these in the Super Bowl. There's any number of them. But yeah, it was just, it was just wild, wild, wild. And as for the. The game winner, from my perspective, I mean, this is just one of the all time, you know, just so lucky to be in the building kind of moments in general. There's actually another game that we're going to get to here. It's not the game isn't the story, but the story includes the game. A few of these that just, you know, to have been in the building for this kind of stuff is wild. But when the, when the shot, when Jenkins shot, when it like Paige's shot, it's in front of me, I see the whole thing. When Jenkins, the shot happens, people are standing up and so I see him release. And I can still see it in my mind's eye. I see Jenkins crouch down, but the ball, I can't remember what was something obstructed in that moment. So all I hear is this is, is the confetti cannons going off and Villanova's bench in front of absolutely nuts. But I never actually saw, I never saw ball cradle into net. There kind of a surreal way to experience a moment like that when everyone's eyes are watching it. And then by pure chance, it's just like, wait, did it okay, yeah, it did. And a very, very amazing, amazing just sequence. Again, this is a moment. So we're doing the top 25 stories. If this, if we were doing top 25 moments. This is one of the three biggest moments in college basketball over the past 25 years. The moment is so big that it rises to occasion of being a top 10 story. It's Villanova's second title. It's the championship that basically gives Jay Wright the Hall of Fame credentials that were finalized once they won a second championship in 2018. But I want to just hit back on something you said at the top. Jenkins getting this like it's his. He deserves it. His name is forever. That shot will play until the sun swallows the earth. It just, it was a privilege to be in the building. And the way that it just, it is such a cosmetic un. You're a Carolina fan and guess what, Tar Heel fans, You won a national championship the next year. But the way the play actually unfolds is so appealing to watch. It's a play that, that was executed as designed and it's just rhythmically perfect. Bada bing, bada bang, bada boom bang. Literally, Nova wins it. Jay Wright delivers one of the all time reactions we've ever seen in any sport ever in a championship moment.

[Gary Parish]

And now we see that play all the Time in basketball. Yeah, I mean, we saw it before then as well, but like, it. Everybody's got some version of that now and yeah, it just, It. It gives Villanova that championship, gives Jay his first of two, because North Carolina, like you said, wins it the next year. Then Villanova comes back, wins it the year after that. Carolina, by the way, loses the title game and in a heartbreaking way, and then bounces back and wins the whole thing next year.

[Matt Norlander]

Mm.

[Gary Parish]

We might end up revisiting that because Houston could do something very similar.

[Matt Norlander]

Good point.

[Gary Parish]

They're just among the teams that could do something very similar.

[Matt Norlander]

Yep.

[Gary Parish]

So it. It gives Villanova all of that stuff and then erases what? Not erases, but diminishes what would have been an incredible NCAA tournament moment forever. Like Marcus Page's shot is the equivalent of Chalmers for the tie just like six seconds earlier if it actually forces overtime. But we never get to overtime. Because you did hear Jim. I went back and watched it. I just sort of chuckled to myself because just like Dozier for the championship. He does say Jenkins for the championship.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, he does.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, he says Jenkins for the championship. But Paige, that play, I didn't remember it quite like this. It almost went badly so many different times before Marcus actually got the shot off. First off, Villanova switches the ball screen. It's not a ball screen. It. Marcus is trying to pop out and get free. There's a screen set for him. They switch it. Ochefu goes with him, and then he almost steals a bounce pass.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

And then Paige sort of gets a look, but archdiako is then closing and it's a double pump. That's. That falls with 6.7 seconds left Thai game. And then of course, you know what happens next. But that's the. We may live forever. Probably not, but we won't watch a final seven seconds of a national championship game like that probably ever again if we do.

[Matt Norlander]

How lucky we would be. Villanova fans probably remember this, but something that I can't remember if it's in my full on column from that night, but other people did note it. Ochefu, I think as a result of play just described, he wound up on the floor. He had a huge sweat spot there and no one correct knowing what play was going to come. I actually think the broadcast gets this as well, knowing what play was going to come next. He just didn't want to take a chance like, you know, games on the line here, and I'm going to make sure that this damn stem wet spot is taken care of here, so we don't even chance it. So yeah, just a lot of stuff surrounding that. An incredible moment. It's number 10 on the podcast, but GP just bumped it out. It'll be number 11 as a result of Bob Knight getting there when when the list publishes later in July.

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[Gary Parish]

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[Gary Parish]

Bye bye Truckee.

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[Gary Parish]

Hello other Truckee.

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[Matt Norlander]

Let's get to number nine and this is a story that I I jostled with where to put it, because I actually think you could bring it. And in prepping for this particular episode, GP this was the one that I spent the most time going back and looking at and I've got a lot of stuff here. I might not get to all of it, but I really debated putting this as high as 6 or 7 or as low as 15 or 16. And it is the massive, widespread conference realignment that primarily materialized in 2012 and 13, but really functionally started taking place in 2010 and then went on subsequently for about three years that led to the Catholic 7 breakaway, the near death and ultimate restructuring of the Big East. And although most of this was college football initiated, we understand all that. It redrew the map of college athletics and college basketball forever, just as part of the Biggie. So I've got a whole bunch of stuff here, but I don't want to just take the mic right away. So it's all you. Before I lay out some of the timeline and all this stuff, I will just start with this and take it wherever you want. For anyone listening that didn't follow much then, or is too young to have followed or just didn't care much. The whole conference realignment thing in our industry was a practically Every week and certainly every month. What's going to happen next story that was updated constantly. I mean, this was never ending. And there are other directions this could have gone that I'll get into, but it was a. This story is probably among the three or four longest stories in terms of a timeline as any that I have here on my list. What do you remember from a gp? What are your takeaways?

[Gary Parish]

So like, I do hesitate to like, just talk about these from my perspective all the time because I'm just aware that I don't know, I hesitate to do it. But like I, I remember this through my perspective, like based on where I live. Memphis accepted an invitation to the Big east in February 2012. It was supposed to go into effect July 2013. And then the Catholic seven voted to leave in December 2012. So there was this moment and we touched on this throughout the series, but like, I think it starts in 2003 where like conference realignment is like a thing that we're going to be talking about for the next 20 plus years, right? And the University, Memphis is just dying to get anywhere other than what it is. And then it finally happens. Like, here's a quote from the president of the University of Memphis at the press conference. You know what she said? Dr. Shirley Ranch, she said, by golly, we did it.

[Matt Norlander]

Did you?

[Gary Parish]

John Marinada was the Big east commissioner at the time.

[Matt Norlander]

Yes. Forced to eventually resign, by the way.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah. Here's a quote from him. It was our goal to get to 12 football playing members and we've done that. So we're obviously pleased that we filled our primary objective. That was after adding the University of Memphis and. And again roughly 10 months after that. The Big east as we knew it, which was supposed to be football, like an all sports league, is no more. Big east becomes a non football league. That's the creation of the American Athletic Conference. Think of how many schools would be in different leagues right now if that thing didn't happen, if that vote didn't go down the way it went down in December 2012. To your point. That's why this is a big story. You cannot overstate the different places so many different athletic departments are in right now.

[Matt Norlander]

So many. I've got that in my notes. So it is a total redrawing of the conference map. Now, in my opinion, the actions from 2010 to 2013 are what laid the groundwork for like a story that's not going to be in my top 25, but is obviously very big. The 16 and 18 super conference, realignments that took place in 23 and 24. Very, very big stories. But and the stuff that we talked about that was in the early part of this, in the, in the 21 to 25 section of this, of this ranking when you had Boston College defecting and all the Big east and ACC stuff, they're also very important. This one's the most important to me because this one led to, these were the tectonic shifts that led to truly like the, the earthquake, major, major rumblings from 23 and 24. So let me just, let me walk our listeners through what exactly happened here. And this is, this is even an abridged version, but I want to give people a real understanding of the domino effects that took place within about 24 hours of each other in the summer of 2010. Colorado left the Big 12 for the PA and that move wouldn't take place. A lot of these, when they happen, they don't take place material. They don't join till a year later. As we understand, the next day, Nebraska left the Big 12 for the Big Ten. Okay, those are the first dominoes that take place. Now we're not going to go all the way down this rabbit hole. But the PAC12 or the PAC10, which will become the PAC12, tried to convince Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State all to leave the Big 12 and be and make the first Super Conference 16 team league. You know, more than a decade ago, it got really close. Texas wouldn't pull the trigger. The Big 12 almost died there. The Big 12 like lived and died a dozen deaths over the course of two and a half, three years here and somehow has managed as we speak today it's going through its football media days. Congrats to the Big 12 Conference. College athletics are better for, for having you here. So they don't get those schools. So Utah joins instead and that's when the PAC 10 becomes a PAC 12 because Colorado joins. Okay, so that's one part. Then the rumblings are constant and never ending for about a year after that. What's the Big Ten going to do? What's the Big 12 going to do? A and M and Missouri ultimately leave the Big 12 soon thereafter and then the Big 12 salvage itself by bringing in TCU in West Virginia. TCU, we'll get back to you in just a second. Okay, so ironically enough, and this is all tied in like the Biggie stuff to me is as meaningful as anything else. But with what happened with the Big 12, their GP and we can just pause it here before I continue the timeline, getting TCU in West Virginia, but losing the schools you lost, you know, losing Mizzou and losing A and M and all the fluctuation there, that was a problem for the Big 12's reputation. And kind of like football might, but it actually aligned the stars parish for the Big 12 and men's basketball for the majority of the next decade to wind up being the top rated league in the sport.

[Gary Parish]

You know, how about this? I'm just reading through more quotes from John Marinado. With the addition of Memphis, I think we just solidified our position as being the best conference in the country in men's basketball. So just the way we were talking about all of these things and then the carryover from all of it like still exist. As you know, we've just entered the era of revenue sharing in college athletics that went into effect July 1. A big topic of conversation has been about the inherent advantages schools without football. And you know, don't you know that they, they, they have advantages in terms of they don't have to pay football players. They can just focus on other things. Like if Yukon was in an the Big east and playing Division one football, they would be probably committing more money to football than they otherwise would like. All of this stuff is just the trickle down and everything else is just interesting to think about because there are programs that in our are in a position right now to flourish and they might not have been if all of this stuff more than a decade ago just goes down different ways.

[Matt Norlander]

Agreed. So let's continue it. November of 2012, Maryland, Rutgers announced they're leaving leagues for the Big Ten. Random personal note. I remember when this happened with Maryland because I was in a hotel interviewing Nate Walters. Remember I got Nate Walters interviewing him for a feature that South Dakota State played a game against. I guess it was Hofstra who will make another appearance on this, on this show in just a little bit. Stick around for more Hofstra talk. And I remember in that moment being like, because there was rumblings like 24, 48, 72 hours before it happened. It's like Maryland's really going to leave the acc. Like this is going to happen. Sure enough, sure as hell it happened on a November Saturday night, maybe when the news broke. So Maryland, Rutgers, they're leaving. They go to the Big Ten. The move is done for TV money. Rutgers somehow being linked to the quote New York City market.

[Gary Parish]

That's the best. The best ever.

[Matt Norlander]

It's the best ever.

[Gary Parish]

Somebody decided that by getting Rutgers, you own New York's television market. That's what somebody actually determined.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, well, and that's the other thing, Paris, is all of this is being done. Here's the wild part to what you just mentioned. Like, if this doesn't happen, what, what schools are in, what conferences, what doesn't change. Remember at this time, this is all being done for cable television money. This is why things like the Big Ten Network and Jim Delaney, as much if not more than any other single person in college athletics was. And I don't say this as a pejorative, it's just recognizing the industry that he was the primary person that really got the dominoes moving. The Big Ten Network, who and Delaney was obviously the former Big Ten commissioner. The ACC Network, SEC Network, the ill fated PAC 12 Network, which you might have one time, once upon a time, been able to find on a, on a refrigerator at your local retailer. They came to exist because of all of this. They were chasing television money. And how much, you know, $0.82 on the dollar could you make? It's crazy. The sobering thought is this. If conference commissioners and university presidents had an easier said than done. But if they had waited three more years to see what the future of television would become with streaming and all that, we probably still have the old Big East. Maryland may well still be in the acc. Rutgers in that New York City market, wouldn't be in the Big Ten.

[Gary Parish]

Never take Rutgers under these circumstances.

[Matt Norlander]

Correct. The American Athletic Conference conceivably never even ex exists. So for the people that have real. And we're going to circle back to the Big east in just a minute here, but the people that have never been able to resolve themselves around the idea of the new Big Ace and they just, they wished, they wish Syracuse and Yukon and Georgetown were all in the same conference. They wish Pitt was not in the ACC back in the Big East. I'm telling you, if there, if there had been more patience and not chasing this cable TV money in 2010, 2011, 2012, we could conceivably maybe be living in that reality now while still understanding that conference realignment on some level is always going to be inevitable. But it is a, it is a very interesting. What could it have been? But it's just if you go back to, you know, November of 2012, just the, the gears and in motion with college athletics, there was no slowing the stuff down as, I don't know, ill conceived as it could have been because I also maintain Parrish, as we transition to some of the, the Biggie stuff here, this was also the period where geography as like a central tenant of constructing a conference started to get pushed to the side. Like up until this point that was always a major, major part of what, what builds a conference and all of this stuff is when that, that went out the window. Okay, now to the Big east. This is almost lost to the sands of time. I know you're aware of this, but for audiences sake, the Big east as you mean they were planning to morph into a big time football conference. They invited TCU in November of 2010. So this is before the Maryland, Rutgers stuff that we mentioned before most of this stuff. In November of 2010 the Big east announced, announced and TCU confirmed it that TCU would be joining the league. Why did this happen? Because Jamie Dixon, then the coach at Pitt went to go see his alma mater tcu, which he where he obviously coaches now. He goes and he speaks to then TCU athletic actor Chris Del Conti and basically floats the idea. It gets incepted into Del Conti's brain. It becomes this idea and it, it blows up into something that has real potential. There's an, there's a plan to have UCF join the Big east. Obviously Memphis, a lot of this stuff eventually caves in and falls in on itself. The reason why the biggies wind up even splitting is because Biggie's presidents, after initially approving a plan, saw how much money the PAC 12 was poised to get with its cable television network and said wait a second, second, we're not getting as much as we can here. Let's, let's just poo poo this idea. The brutal irony to all of this is that exact thinking with the biggies that caused the biggies to cave in on itself would infect PAC 12 presidents a little more than a decade later and lead to the dissolvement and almost near eradication of the PAC 12 under Commissioner Larry Scott. Just wild how those things kind of attached to each other and, and came and bent back around there. So in 2012 West Virginia leaves for the Big 12, leaves the Biggies in 2013. That's when the calving really happens. Syracuse ND pit to the ACC football playing Biggie schools rebrand as the Americans. That's Yukon, Louisville, Cincinnati, Rutgers, Rutgers for only one year. Yes, they were in the American. Man, oh man. And by the way, I got a little more here. GP I assume you went into the Wikipedia stuff on this as well. All of these conferences have chunky Wikipedia pages just about the realignment from like 2010 to 2013. It's wild. South Florida's there also in 2013, the Biggies survives and gets its branding with the Catholic 7 and they hope to keep the legacy alive. They ultimately went out with that because they keep the branding name. So Providence, St. John, Seton Hall, Nova, Georgetown, Market, DePaul. They recruit Creighton, Butler, Xavier into the league. They stabilize the only or the best basketball first conference in college basketball, the American is formed and it's viewed as like a near power conference, but viewed by many schools as like a halfway house. Which explains why the league is where it is today. From a basketball sense, ACC gets Notre Dame, pit Syracuse. It maneuvers to take Louisville a year later after they lost Maryland to the Big Ten. And as for the Big east, all in all it's done pretty well for itself. It loses Yukon in the short term, but gets it back. The league has had four teams in its ranks win a national title, earned an average of five NCAA tournament bids since it rebranded and reformed as the 10 and then 11 team league and it has ranked either second or third in Ken Palm in seven of the 12 seasons since this reformation happened there. There were other downstream effects with Mountain west, etc. Etc. We won't get into those. But yeah, man, this was a huge, huge story. Even though I initially struggled with where to put it, I landed on it here because I don't think you can make the case convincingly that this isn't one of the 10 most important stories in college sports, let alone college basketball for the past 25 years.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, it like it. It literally led to the creation of new leagues, led to the diminishment of other leagues, led to all sorts of movement. The American Athletic Conference, by the way, it starts in 2014. The members.

[Matt Norlander]

Give me the, Give me the roster right now. Let's blow some minds.

[Gary Parish]

Louisville, Cincinnati, Connecticut, smu, Memphis, Houston, Rutgers, Temple, ucf, South Florida. If that were still the league. Solid league, dude. It's a solid, solid league. Okay, so right now Louisville's going to be preseason ranked. Connecticut, we know that story. Houston, we know that story. You know Memphis. Is Memphis like that? That's a Rutgers. We did. We would have just had Ace Bailey and Dylan harper in the AAC along with Liam McNeely. Liam McNeely, Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper could have all played in the AAC last year if we just kept this thing together. Now, of those 10 schools, only three remain. Seven have moved on to bigger and better things. The only three left in this neighborhood, that was never the best neighborhood, but was like a much better neighborhood then than it is now. Like you, we all know these neighborhoods. You're like, oh, yeah, this is a nice neighborhood. You look up 15 years later, you're like, man, this neighborhood has run down. All the people that got promotions at work, moved out.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

And now it's just us. It's still making what we were making 15 years ago. That's what the AAC is. The only three schools left in it, Memphis, Temple and USF. Every other school in that league has moved on to something bigger.

[Matt Norlander]

Those are natural bedfellows, by the way. Memphis, Temple and usf.

[Gary Parish]

If you ever want to understand why Memphis fans are like, bordering on suicide down here, it's because all of this should have been different. All of this could have been different. And it just, it, it just is it stuck in the ac.

[Matt Norlander]

What a, what a, what a saga. And, yeah. And the effects are still felt to say so many ways this could have gone. It went the way it went. We are where we are. We got to move on to number eight. But first, I think we need a break. Here's a word from our partners. DSW's semi annual sale is fast.

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[Gary Parish]

Okay, Norlander, give me number eight. And this is one. I know you've. You've previously written like 40,000 words on this, so unload. Rebound Yukon. Denim Brown 3 to go. Denim Brown 43 no good. By George, the dream is alive.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, I think this is either the longest or second. It's. It's definitely one of the three longest stories I've ever written for. For CBS Sports. It's George Mason becoming the first mid major to ever make the final four. George Mason was a 7 and 4 team that turned into a 278 crew that went to the national semis, lost to Florida and pulled off an all time cinderella season. I. Yeah, please. If you're, if you're at all remotely interested, very proud of the story I did there and I interviewed I think a dozen plus people for this thing. I wrote on the, on the occasion of the 10 year anniversary in 2016, did a huge, huge takeout and look back and it was just. There are so many fun details about the entire season. I'll mention a few of them here, but there's a lot that I'm not going to mention. And if you're remotely interested in March Madness, Laura, we want to go relive that Mason. Mason team set aside 40 minutes and, and pull it up. A read here on a summer night. How about this? A 237 team gets in as an at large. Not just that, it's 2006. The 11th ranked team at Ken Palm sent two teams with 14 combined losses to the NCAA tournament. Parish, that is unfortunately but understandably inconceivable today.

[Gary Parish]

Would George Mason or a school like George Mason get an at large bid today with or without tournament expansion?

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, let's just go into the eyes of, of 68 teams and randomly on that note, if you're listening to this in real time, whenever we have an update on that, which we should by the end of the week, we will hop on and we will give you, we will give you an episode on that. So we have been slow on news, but we will, we will give you that, that news as it, as it develops here later this week. I don't, I don't believe so in 2006. Just to run it down here, the things that got Mason into the tournament, broadly speaking, one, we were not in the NET era. We were in kind of the nascent RPI era. Even like RPI for as flawed of a metric as that was even then, to a certain extent it was being gamed and not really fully understood. Like the selection committee in 2006. Certainly two or three stages of evolution away from where it is now. I'm looking at the schedule. What George, George Mason's best wins that season were at Wichita State in bracket buster, something that no longer exists. But if it didn't exist in 2006, George Mason is not getting into the tournament because it needed that road win against a high level team. At that point Wichita State was like a top 30 team in the country. It had that. And in terms of other high level wins, there's nothing, there are some good wins in league play like they won at vcu. That's solid. They beat a good unc. UNC Wilmington was good that season. Hofstra was at the top of the league. It did not win against Hofstra. In fact, I remember listening to Mike and the Mad Dog and good afternoon everybody. I remember them now. Part of this is being New York City radio guys. I remember them the Monday after Selection Sunday. Just going for two hours on why Hofstra deserved to be in over George Mason. Because, you know, Hofstra beat Mason twice in the weeks leading up to Selection Sunday. So to your point, no, I don't think they would have gotten in. And this is a quick little clip from my my article actually, particularly I pulled this from Mason even getting in. They get in and they apparently were not the last team in. So this is what I reported on almost a decade ago. Quote Packer and Nance ran through our non conference schedule on the air basically saying we shouldn't be end quote. Assistant Chris Caputo said what made matters more interesting and controversial was who served on the selection committee that year. George Mason's athletic director, Tom o' Connor was part of the process, as was Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage, a longtime friend of Jim Larnega is dating back to their time as assistants at Virginia in the mid-1980s. Little page was chair of the committee that season. Little Page told me then, quote, it was fair. It was a fairly unremarkable selection weekend in that regard. George Mason was not subject to any more or less scrutiny than any at large teams. And quote, Little Page said he wasn't certain whether or not Mason was the last team included, but according to his memory, the Patriots were not the final at large team above the cut. Quote There were some that did not vote Mason to get in. A Little Page added end quote and then Gabe Norwood, who was on that team, remembers four stages of reaction, joy, relief, celebration, and then the excitement when we saw the bracket. We saw that these were winnable games for us. It wasn't like we were in and that was good enough. End quote. So before we get to the run here, just the very nature of Mason even getting into the tournament and there being a little bit of controversy there and then they're staring down Michigan State in their first game and then okay, if you pull that off, it's North Carolina coming off a national championship the year before, a really, really good team. They were not one of these trendy chic, okay, this is an 11 seed. That's a trendy pick to beat a six seed. That was not the case whatsoever. They were largely an unknown team with their one big moment happening with the win at Wichita State and bracket Busters which true to form like that was a very, very, very important win.

[Gary Parish]

There's nothing about them that made you go keep an eye on them. They look like the type of team that can make a run in the tournament. They hadn't beaten many good teams, even multiple good teams. And good is subjective but you understand what I mean. It wasn't like they were on some long winning streak. We had just watched them cut nets during championship week. They got eliminated from a mid major tournament. They were 237 on Selection Sunday but they were 25th at Ken Bomb pre tournament. And that in this era that might have helped them.

[Matt Norlander]

Good now but, but think Ken Palm doesn't. Well it exists but almost no one knows what Ken Palm is in 2006. So that like this was not entering into the selection committee thought process whatsoever.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, so they get in, they get the 11 seed and then it's just a magical run that culminates with that victory over Yukon. I mean that's a, that's a Yukon team that's got. You'll recognize some of these names. Rudy Gay, Hilton Armstrong, Marcus Williams, Josh Boone, Denim Brown. And you know this comes after they had already beaten. They beat Michigan State in the opener, then North Carolina.

[Matt Norlander]

Well they beat Michigan by 10 and they didn't have Tony Skin now the coach by the way, Skin punched a hoster player in the groin. Real quick on this because this was like if you were go read the story you kind of get a little more layers into like sort of how unlike the whole thing was. Skin punched a Hofstra player in the groin. No one really knew that he did it but it got caught by a local camera guy and then Skin admitted it and he could have easily. He could have skated, never said a thing and played in the Michigan State game. But he owned up to it. He was a senior. Laranega suspends him for the Michigan State game. In effect like get. It's a move that I even have in the I link back in the story like Mike Shashevsky said in 2006 I wouldn't have done that. Like this is a senior. It's very likely the last game of his career here in the CAA tournament where they lose like, like are you going to win your first NCAA tournament game? He suspends them. They beat Michigan State by 10 anyway GP and then they play 3 seed Roy Williams again. I Mentioned before, they had won the Natty the year before. They beat him by five and they do that after fall. This is the things that are forgotten all this time later, Carolina was up on George Mason 16 2, 162 to start that game. Jai Lewis, let's remember a dude, he said that was a scare. I believe in the first four minutes of that game, our season was over, end quote. It wasn't. They pulled it off. Then they beat Wichita State in the sweet 16. One quick quote from that and then I want to dive into the Yukon stuff. Consider two things. One, consider the unlikely coincidence and which benefited Mason. They had beaten Wichita State five weeks earlier in bracket busters. This kind of matchup is really not supposed to happen. So they were benefited by getting that team again. And now after winning at Wichita State, where are they playing? They're in Washington D.C. they're a short drive away from Fairfax where George Mason is based. And so Scott Cherry, who was an assistant on that squad told me back then, he said that game was over before it even started. We didn't even have to tell them anything. Wichita State walked into that building and you could see the looks on their faces. They knew they were in trouble, end quote. And then we get to the Elite Eight win over UConn in overtime, which I maintain is one of the three or four best Elite Eight games in history. In part, it's not just the David and Goliath. It's not just that. It is the fact that when you watch the game go back and watch in, you know, in a, an abridged version of it, like, you know, YouTube has these amazing compilations where, you know, they boil it down to 28 minutes, they get rid of all the riff raff and all that. It is extremely well played. It's actually, it's a lot like the Kentucky Wichita State game that would wind up happening, what, eight years later in the second round with undefeated Wichita State. This, the Yukon versus Mason game is, is beautifully played. And, and yeah, I don't know. Gp, what were your thoughts? What do you remember? I got a couple notes, but I want to send it back to you. I was at home watching with my parents and my brothers. And yeah, one of the last memories for me of just following the sport and not covering it. This is, this is, is March of 2006. I would start my independent college basketball website in November of 07. So yeah, this is one of the, the last memories I have of, of purely enjoying the sport of college basketball from a removed standpoint. Not being a, you know, Aspiring writer or anything like that? I. I hesitate to ask, but I have to ask nonetheless. Do you remember where you were? What. What's that? Do you remember what this circumstances around you either watching this game, the lead up to it, anything of it about it?

[Gary Parish]

I was on a plane, didn't see any of it.

[Matt Norlander]

Oh, my God.

[Gary Parish]

This was March.

[Matt Norlander]

That's. That's terrible. This is one of the best tournament games ever. And you were on a plane and.

[Gary Parish]

It was March 2006. So, like, you ain't streaming it and you're not even twittering it?

[Matt Norlander]

Nope, Twitter didn't. I don't believe Twitter existed. Twitter was invented in 06. I don't know if it was online when this game happened and sure as hell wasn't. Yeah, this.

[Gary Parish]

I think sometimes when I look at my Twitter account, it'll say, joined in 2009. I think I joined in 2009.

[Matt Norlander]

That's when it started to, like, really catch on. For the first, like two years of Twitter's existence, basically no one was.

[Gary Parish]

I remember, like, we're just so stupid. We have no vision whatsoever. Like us normal humans. We have no vision. Because this is what I remember thinking. Why am I just going to jump on a website and tell people I just had pizza for lunch? What's the point? That was my concept of Twitter.

[Matt Norlander]

Well, that was the conceit with Twitter for a good, like, year after it caught fire.

[Gary Parish]

I just remember people going like, okay, like, hey, I had a strawberry shortcake today. Yeah, thanks for checking in. Unlimited characters. I was like, what is this, dude?

[Matt Norlander]

Who knew what it could become?

[Gary Parish]

Like, seriously, who knew?

[Matt Norlander]

I know.

[Gary Parish]

Who knew what it would become? So this is 2000, March 2006. I get hired at CBS in July 2006. I'm still at the Commercial Appeal. I am flying home from San Francisco because the day prior is when UCLA beat Memphis. And there we go, you know, to. To. To advance to the Final Four. And that happened on a Saturday. So I guess Adam Morrison's career ends on that Thursday. We get Memphis, UCLA on that Saturday. I'm flying home on Sunday. I just remember. I do remember having WI Fi. I remember following this on the plane.

[Matt Norlander]

Really?

[Gary Parish]

To the. I remember being aware of it on the plane somehow. Whether it was. Why?

[Matt Norlander]

I'm not saying you're lying. I'm just someone. I'm gonna Google it. Was WI Fi available on airplanes?

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, look it up. And like, I promise you I'm not lying.

[Matt Norlander]

I might just be missing if you would have asked me to, like, broadly guess what Year was WI fi first available on an airplane? I would say, like, I don't know, 2009, but.

[Gary Parish]

Right. Yeah, and you might be right. I don't know. I. There was a. I have a memory, and it could be the memory could be we're starting to land. And so now I'm starting to hit a, you know, a spot where I can pick up stuff. I just remember going, oh, wow, is George Mason going to win this game? Like, oh, my God, what's going. And. But I had to. I didn't see any of it. I just was finally, I refreshed something, and it was like, final score, George Mason beats UConn. I guess it was 86, 84 in overtime, but live. I didn't see a single second of it. I was on an airplane.

[Matt Norlander]

There's a passenger WI Fi on airplanes. Wikipedia entry. This is insane. As of January 2003, Lufthansa, the German airline, became the first airline globally to provide in flight Internet service. I think scrolling through here, generally speaking, it was. It caught on in the year or two after that. So, yes, very conceivable your memory is. Is. Is abiding by you here. And you did follow this on WI Fi in March of 06.

[Gary Parish]

I remember finding out the who won this game either on my phone or on my computer while sitting in a plane seat. That's a fact. However I did it, that part's true. I went back and watched it last night. And you mentioned Jai Lewis earlier. Oh, buddy.

[Matt Norlander]

Oh, he was a problem.

[Gary Parish]

Oh, my God. So think about. And I had. No. I totally forgot about the Tony Skin Hofstra stuff in the suspension, but that is crazy. Like, that could have ended his career.

[Matt Norlander]

Yes. This doesn't. I mean, it's very conceivable. And they won by 10 against Michigan State, but. Okay.

[Gary Parish]

And keep in mind, this isn't like John Shire suspends some Duke player for.

[Matt Norlander]

The round of 60 like last season's team. Like, Caleb fought. It's not that. Like Tony Skin, starting point guard, man, suspended that dude.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, but what I even mean is, like, if you are Duke and you feel like you got to suspend somebody for your Round one game, you're probably playing in the second round also.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, right. Yes.

[Gary Parish]

You know, unless you run into.

[Matt Norlander]

Unless you're playing like, VCU or. Yeah. Or, you know, Lehigh or something like.

[Gary Parish]

That, at least high. Right. One of those. But, like, you can reasonably assume we're going to the next round. Your college career does not end here. For all intents and purposes, the most reasonable Thing to assume is that Tony Skins college career ended prior to the NCAA tournament. Like does. Like, where does his life go? He's the head coach of George Mason right now.

[Matt Norlander]

And. And you. Tony Skin has earned every bit of it. But it is not a. It's not an unfair thing to speculate. Like if Mason had never made the Final Four with Tony Skin be the coach George Mason. I don't know.

[Gary Parish]

Let me take it back a week or two. Whatever. You'll get the point.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

If the committee doesn't controversially put them in the field.

[Matt Norlander]

I know.

[Gary Parish]

Where is Tony Skin's life today? If he is suspended for the opening game and they lose to Michigan State, where is his life today? Because I am not insisting or even implying the only reason he's a George Basin coach is because he played on a final 14. But that's a part of his story. I mean, that's definitely a part of like I've seen the Tony Skin CBS Sports Network profile like seven times. That's a part of the story. All right, so you just with him, you go, okay, man. If they don't go on this run or even win that first game, we are looking like think about the way we look back at. To the extent that we do. But like, I don't like the way R.J. lewis's career ended. You know, like it ain't up to me and I'll sleep okay at night. But I just didn't like that. Just buried on the bench. And I'm not even saying it was wrong.

[Matt Norlander]

Wrong.

[Gary Parish]

Although I would have never done it. But I'm not saying it's wrong.

[Matt Norlander]

You're saying is R.J. lewis will never one day become the head coach Saint John's and that's fair.

[Gary Parish]

I think it is probably fair to assume RJ Lewis will never be. Will never be a head coach at St. John's but like, that was bad. That was just on the bench. Star player on the bench, career over. I just didn't like that visual. This would have been even worse. You don't even get to play. So you can do that with Tony Skin and then go to Jai Lewis. He's at the free throw line, two point lead, 6.1 seconds left. He's got two free throws. He misses both of them at the other end. Denim brown got a clean look at.

[Matt Norlander]

A thrill waiting for that shot to go in. The most surprising non make I think I've ever watched as he just skipped off the.

[Gary Parish]

He just a little too strong and skipped off the rim.

[Matt Norlander]

Every fiber of my being told me that Yukon would not be losing this game and that that shot was going in this. The Cinderella story was going to end. And keep in mind, although duke was number one overall seed in this tournament, UConn was the most popular pick to win the national title. It was considered the most talented team, the scariest team, everything about it. Even though Mason had the game in his backyard, UConn was expected to show up and dominate and run it. In fact, again, go read the story if you have time. All these players recall about how dismissive UConn was collectively as a team of Mason. Some of that might have been invented, but certainly some of it felt real to them. And the most surprising thing about it all is as you run through the end of this game, GP mvp, you wouldn't know unless. I didn't know until they told me. And if. Unless you're like really locked in on the game. Mason played at starters for the final 15 and a half minutes of game time in this game, man, the fight. And they kept running the same play. It was called Three. They just kept running it because. Because UConn didn't want to double team Lewis because they did it once and then someone came off the play, hit a three, and then Calhoun said, we're not doing that anymore because Jai Lewis. Lewis was a problem, man. And that mystery is just, just an amazing, amazing game. An amazing moment. An amazing run.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, like if, if Denim Brown makes that shot, like we remember all of this differently.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, it's still an amazing all time run.

[Gary Parish]

Still an amazing run. But like Jai Lewis is the guy who missed the free. How about this? I didn't even remember that there was two free missed free throws with like 6.1 seconds left in that moment. But, but had Denim Brown made that shot? That is something you would remember for a long time. Well, you remember Mason like they had it and then they missed the two free throws. What was the guy's name? Lewis. Yeah, Jai Lewis missed the two free throws and then dinner Brown buried it at the buzzer. Game over. Fun run. But my God, make one free throw, bro. When you're in overtime, make both of them and you're in the final four. It would be that type of story. Instead, he gets to go back and celebrate a banner. It's just like, that's life, man. Life is just like that.

[Matt Norlander]

It is. It is just the type of story that we cherish. And yeah, again, it's, it's high on this list because it was the first time a school at this level proved that you could win four in March. It just had not been done. We had had Cinderella runs, had some amazing stuff. Amazing stuff was still to come. You know, Steph Curry's team, they didn't win four, but they won three. And we would obviously see what would come with Butler, with Wichita State, with Loyola, Chicago, you know, go on down the list. Vcu, fau, we've seen this. Mason was the team. I thought it was possible. There's some great stuff in the story about how Laranaga would fire up the team with this corny stuff, these locker room speeches, just a ton of fun and really, really cool to go back and, and relive on that. So yeah, it was a, it was a joy. You got anything else? We still got two.

[Gary Parish]

I would just. And you touched on this. But to me that's their lasting legacy. That's why they'll be remembered forever by people who talk about this stuff subsequently. We have had Loyola, Chicago, Butler twice, vcu like a quote unquote mid major. Getting to the Final Four is like it. It's not that crazy of us. I mean it's always a crazy story, but like we've seen it, but we had never seen it before this one. They're the first and that's why they matter. Perhaps not more than any of the others, but they'll always have their place in history.

[E]

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[Matt Norlander]

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[Gary Parish]

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[Matt Norlander]

Free delivery on appliances. Purchases of $396 or more. Offer valid June 18 through July 9, US only. See store or online for details. Number seven on the list might take a while.

[Gary Parish]

They're going down the stretch.

[Matt Norlander]

They're going to run after 10.

[Gary Parish]

Inside 30 overall love. Top of the key. Oh, big time. The lootry.

[Matt Norlander]

North Carolina ends. Coach K kind of kills his career twice with the last game at Cameron being a UNC win and then obviously the win in the 2022 Final Four. I was in the building for both of these results. The reason why I'm putting it this high on the list reasons one, you have a coach who does like, you know, John Wood, in all due respect, second best coach in UCLA history. Like, he's got a really, really strong claim, but you can make a convincing case that Mike Shasheski is the greatest coach in the history of Men's Division 1 college basketball. And so it's the end of his career and everything that was attached to it and this farewell tour we knew for the entire season, all of this stuff. So let's, let's go do game by game here. First, it's Cameron on this podcast.

[Gary Parish]

That's that like that is so funny to me. I meant to go back and listen to that episode or at least parts of it. A part of it. Because I remember we. The way I remembered at least we talked about this.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

And we're just talking. It's like it's gonna be a cool scene and like Christian, but it won't.

[Matt Norlander]

Be a good game. I'm going. I'm going. I was, I was going because it was Coach Case last game at Cameron, like, you gotta go. You got to see that scene. We weren't expecting a good game.

[Gary Parish]

No. Like UNC was 22 and 8. Duke was awesome. Duke was an 11 point favorite. And then at some point, I think it was, you were just sort of like wondering aloud like, like, what if they went in there and won the game? And we're like, well, that'd be hilarious. But like, come on, man. You've been. Watch, you've been paying attention. Like, ain't going anything. They're not going in there and winning a game. Duke was 26 and 4 heading into that game with a 20 point victory at North Carolina.

[Matt Norlander]

To me, that's also. I believe I also asked you, I said what would. What would K have to do to get thrown out of this.

[Gary Parish]

Piss on her.

[Matt Norlander]

What would it actually take. What would it actually take for Mike Shashevsky to be ejected from the game? Has he ever even been tossed from a game? I don't think so. I don't think Mike's ever gotten the hook.

[Gary Parish]

He'd have to piss on a referee. Like, actually urinate on an official. And even then they just warn him probably. What if he urinated on an official tomorrow? Wouldn't that be something?

[Matt Norlander]

Why are you conjuring these images in my mind? Why am I. Why am I thinking about that happening?

[Gary Parish]

Everybody right now. Everybody right now, stop what you're doing. Close your eyes and picture Mike Jajewski pissing on an official.

[Matt Norlander]

We weren't even sure that would. We weren't even sure that was. That would prompt it, to be honest. That's where the pod drifted off to.

[Gary Parish]

Looking back on it, and we've touched on this before, but I think they just made it. They made it too big. They made it too big.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

I mean, the players felt the weight of it, and the North Carolina players felt nothing but a. But a free shot at history. Like a. Nobody think. You know, it was the. You hear this kind of nonsense from players all the time. But, like, in this case, it was actually true. Nobody believed we could do it. So. Yeah, you're right. We really didn't, you know, we really didn't believe you were going to do that. It didn't even occur to us to spend five minutes on it on the podcast up until, like, it just sort of randomly got brought up.

[Matt Norlander]

Up.

[Gary Parish]

And then they went and did it. And the whole. Then the postgame scene was just. Everything about it was awkward and strange.

[Matt Norlander]

Gosh, that. Yeah, they. Everyone wanted to cheer. K was pissed. Everyone be quiet. It's unacceptable. Today was unacceptable. His exact quote was, everyone be quiet. Let me just say it's unacceptable. Today was unacceptable. But the season has been very acceptable. And I'll tell you, the season isn't over. End quote. No, it was not. But there was more to come. But, yes, there were like. Like, I think close to 90 former Duke players that were in the building. And it had, like, this homecoming, basketball, high school gym feel to it. And I remember looking over near the end of that game and seeing those faces. I just remember, like, seeing Redick over there and being like, this is the strangest scene ever. Man, Carolina is going to do this. Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Silver, Dirk Nowitzki. I remember bumping into Dirk, like, in the greater Duke hall of Fame area. That's adjacent to Cameron, but just Kyler Murray just a very. They did make it too big. How could you not make it big? But yeah, Carolina just. They played without any kind of pressure and they romped him 94, 81. Man. Just one of the all time, one of the all time moments in the history of the rivalry. And then what makes the story rank so high is the fact that they played each other again for the first time in the tournament at the Final four on the biggest stage in New Orleans. Everything that's just attached to this. I think there's reports of someone with the guster sticker on a laptop might have also played a part in the first half of that game. We can move on.

[Gary Parish]

Is that. Is that the first time and last time you were told we got to do something with your computer?

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, that's. Yeah, pretty much. Yes. It just reached. It just. It reached fever pitch. Like it was. That was, that was, was. That was surreal. And it truly did reach a point like near the end of the first half where I was like, I think I need to do something about this because you know, I have my text messages linked to my laptop and I'm getting like texts like every like three seconds. I'm like, I gotta, I gotta lock in on the game here. Anyway.

[Gary Parish]

They gotta win a Diddy sticker. You know that have been something.

[Matt Norlander]

Let's keep it moving. So you dodged a bullet there North Carolina. It pulls off this upset and it does it with Caleb Love 28 points. You know he hits this all timer of a shot in the final minute of the game. I wrote in the final 44 seconds. The point guard sees the game in his hands. 2 rebound 6 points and delivered a closing performance that will fit alongside another Tar Heel Michael Jordan who became a legend in this building 40 years ago. I guess that's not accurate by the way because. No, what it was. They have same building. It was. It was same building. I'm thinking Houston, which it had two different buildings there. Love three pointer with 24.8 to go from the top of the key put UNC up 78, 74. I also another reason why this was such a big deal and it wasn't. It was lower on the list. And this is probably somewhat forgotten now three years later. This was our first final four that was proper since 2019. There was no 20 tournament. 21 was the bubble. So 2022 was like the return to everything. And we got, we got this, we got the blue blood final Four. These two Kansas and Nova. And for Mike Krzyzewski to have this all time incredible career. Make it like to even get to your final year and have your, your, your career end in this final four which oh by the way we didn't know it at the time, but so did Jay Wright's two Hall of Famers saw their careers end in that stage in the national semifinals on that same night. You are face to face up against your blood rival. The greatest rivalry. You know I would say in college athletics I give full, I give you know, full room for the Ohio State, Michigan's and Auburn Alabama. So I get all that. But Duke Carolina have played more frequently, are closer to each other geographically, have produced more pros like the number of championships, the final fours, all of it. It still is amazing to me Parrish that the universe winked at us in this kind of way and gave us this matchup again. And then when you would think that a top seeded Duke team going against the Carolina team that solidified its ensignable tournament bona fides by winning at Cameron not it was a bubble team going into that game, gets an eight seed, plays its way into the title game and we've gone over why some of that was. You know they got the benefit of playing in that, in that region and knocked off Saint Peter's to get there. They do it again. It's a really good game. It's an all timer and yeah the, the rivalry will never be the same because of it. It was an all time classic and just. It's incredible that we were, we were given this. This is just an all time treat and I know it's, it's a sore spot for obviously Duke fans but Carolina fans started this episode with, with a not so good memory. I know you didn't win the title in 22, but it was a house money situation. We give you a little love on the same show here.

[Gary Parish]

Obviously big story worthy of the top 10 of this list. Particularly if we're not even going to include the time Bob Knight was terminated at Indiana. But I asked this from an honest place.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

Looking back on it and it's only been a few years but it's in our rearview mirror now. It felt like the bit like oh my God, poor K. Lose your last game in Cameron. Have your career ended by North Carolina? How are you gonna live with this? Looking back on it, how big of a deal is it?

[Matt Norlander]

It like I'm. I still think it's a pretty damn big deal.

[Gary Parish]

Do you think he thinks about it every day just for a second, but it pops into his head.

[Matt Norlander]

Oh, that's a good question. Does. Does losing one of these two games pop into Mike Shasheski's mind every day? I would not say every day, every week. Absolutely.

[Gary Parish]

Because I think. I think about this sometimes in my own life. There are things, like, not bad memories, but just like, things, like, not great things that have happened in my life. I'm not trying to get over dramatic or anything, but, like, they just. I noticed they just pop in them. I'm like, why am I thinking about that today? Like, it could just be like some. Somebody close to you died, and you're just like, ah. And it's just like, hits you and it's just like every day. And then you just notice after some point is like, wow, I don't remember thinking about that yesterday. That's interesting. It's starting to slip a little bit. I just wonder if this is the type of thing that just. It just bothers him or if it's the type of thing that feels massive and disappointing and deflating. And I'll never get over this in the moment. But then you look up and you're able to look at your career more broadly and recognize I. I had arguably the greatest college coaching career of all time. It didn't end the way I wanted, but that. That hurt is overwhelmed by all the success for decades. Or does it still. That hurt just like, I cannot believe it ended some of that. I mean, I think there's a mix probably because. But here's my larger point. We all, like, we as people are always so consumed with how something's supposed to end. Oh, he needs to win it all and then walk away. Or he needs to walk away now before he comes back and ruins his legacy. And yet we. We rarely remember how anything ends. We. We think we'll remember it forever. Trivia time.

[Matt Norlander]

Depends. Like, with the stuff that doesn't end well, we remember, like, oh, yeah, okay.

[Gary Parish]

But, like, here's my point.

[Matt Norlander]

Game of Thrones and Seinfeld had terrible finales and, you know.

[Gary Parish]

Yeah, no, no, I get that. Here's my point. Like, what was John Thompson's last game at Georgetown?

[Matt Norlander]

Good call.

[Gary Parish]

Here's the thing. I'm not even trying to catch you off guard. I have no idea.

[Matt Norlander]

The year. I think the year was 99 maybe. Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

I'm just saying, does anybody outside of.

[Matt Norlander]

Right.

[Gary Parish]

Georgetown people remember anything about it? Like, do you remember. And this one was pretty recent, but, like, Jim Behan's final game, just because.

[Matt Norlander]

The search, the circumstances around it were very weird in The SEC tournament when he didn't even acknowledge the retirement. But yeah, I know what you're saying, but yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Gary Parish]

We rarely remember Michael Jordan's career. I mean I know it was with the Wizards, but I don't remember the. The final shot he took.

[Matt Norlander]

Thompson was 99 by the way. Georgetown was 14 and 16 that year. Lost in what I'm presuming was the NIT to Princeton. If you're.

[Gary Parish]

When I think of John Thompson, that has never popped into mine. Never. I had. I had no idea his last season was below.500. And it has never popped into my.

[Matt Norlander]

Head who succeeded John Thompson?

[Gary Parish]

Craig Escher.

[Matt Norlander]

There we go. And you remember why? Because the mustache. That's right.

[Gary Parish]

And he was a long time assistant.

[Matt Norlander]

Right? Yeah, of course.

[Gary Parish]

But. But yes the mustache. I do remember the mustache. I just I think think we. We get caught up on how things end and once you get a few years away from it you don't really remember it. With few exceptions. I know there are some exceptions but. But, but they're not as many as we think. And we will. This is a perfect split in the middle of it what we're talking about because you will remember this. You will always remember how case career ended and you. But my point is you don't usually remember how things end because once you get to a place where you can look back on the totality of it it you tend to remember the good more than the bad. Think of it as a vacation. Vacations are roller coasters, ups and downs. Particularly with little kids. You get two years removed from it. There has never been a vacation where I didn't say. I don't know if I'll ever do this again. I don't know if they'll ever do this again. Get me a month removed from it and bump into me at the coffee shop. GP saw you your family in the Bahamas. What did man, we had a blast. What are you talking about? Oh my God. It was beautiful. I can't wait to go back back. You did remember the good parts and I think looking back on Kay's career we will mostly remember the good parts and not necessarily how it ended but we will remember on some level how it ended forever.

[Matt Norlander]

And it let's move on. But it is objectively hilarious that for the first half of that game his face was planted directly in front of a huge gusterous for lever sticking. That's just objectively.

[Gary Parish]

You better be glad you're not a. You weren't in 2022 a die hard diddy Fan. Because if you like that have been so something.

[Matt Norlander]

Time for number six.

[Gary Parish]

Replace the Guster sticker with a Diddy sticker and you got a lot, you got a lot of things to answer for these days.

[Matt Norlander]

All right, number six.

[Gary Parish]

Explain yourself.

[Matt Norlander]

Number six.

[Gary Parish]

Final seconds playing out. End of a fabulous tournament. Rebound into the hands of Hunter.

[Matt Norlander]

And.

[Gary Parish]

Virginia with the all, all time turnaround title.

[Matt Norlander]

The history making element of this one is why it is number six on the list. And it is the ultimate NCAA tournament redemption story. We waited years and years and years and years for a 16C to be to 1. In 2018, it finally happened. Virginia fell to UMBC. And the next year Virginia came back and won the damn national championship. This is in some way, like in some ways connected to what you mentioned with, with Carolina doing it with Villanova, but this is even more extreme. Obviously Virginia was 31 and 2 and the overall number one seed with by far the best defense in the sport in 2018. UMBC had one previous NCAA tournament appearance, was obviously a completely unknown program. People couldn't have told you what UMBC stood for then. They probably can't even tell you most, for the most part, if you're not in the Maryland, Baltimore county area right now, they can't even give you what the acronym stands for. It was Friday, March 16. It was the 7pm window. I was in Pittsburgh covering the likes of Duke, Trae Young in Oklahoma, Dan Hurley's last season with Rhode Island. All of that, I'll never forget the final score. It was 7,454. Before we get to the other half of the story, Virginia winning the national title. Let's just go into this real quick here because I was at the media hotel, one of those deals where this was an off day. So my games were Thursday, Saturday, Virginia was. UMBC was a Friday night. So there was media stuff done earlier in the day and I guess I must have, I think I went out for an earliest dinner, got back and it was halftime of this game and then I'm in the lobby, some media luminaries, Eamon Brennan, Pat40, Jeff Goodman was there, Dana O', Neill, a bunch of us were there watching and like UMBC has the lead. And it goes from like, all right, when's Virginia going to get this act together? To, I want to say with like 10 minutes to go, it was, oh, this is, this is going to happen and it's going to be the biggest story in sports for the next 24 hours at least. So I remember before the game even ended, I went Upstairs. Parrish, I want to say that I recorded the podcast by myself on this episode. Maybe you hopped on, but I want to say I did. To anyone who is a super diehard hard and can remember this stuff specifically, hit us and let us know. But I want to say I maybe, maybe you were on it. I don't know. I, I remember.

[Gary Parish]

I know I was in studio that night at CBS Sports Network.

[Matt Norlander]

I boom. So I think you were in studio too late. This game ends at like call it 915 Eastern. And then this might have been the first instance of the podcast doing like a true. We probably had emergency episodes before this, but definitely like this has got to go out as soon as possible because we just had a 16 over one for the first time ever. And it was the number one overall seed and it was Virginia, which was highly criticized for the way that it played its style of ball. I mentioned Pat 40. He write if he wasn't in the, if he wasn't, maybe he's jumping into my mind because if he wasn't in the hotel, he wrote a devastating column about Tony Bennett after this happened and they blew him out, man. Virginia was 4 of 22 from 3. Only 4 of 8 from the line. Crucially, did not have DeAndre Hunter in this game due to injury. UMBC was 12 of 24 from the field. Jerry's Lyles, KJ Morrow shouts to you, the two big standout players from the this. It was, it was world rattling. I remember writing a column that night and the story is number six on the list because how it's, it's the setup for the payoff a year later. But before we get to that, you were in studio. So obviously most of your memory is going to be tied to watching this in the bullpen there in midtown Manhattan. But any takeaways or just remembrances of UMBC making history that night in 2018?

[Gary Parish]

I do think the point Pat made is right, which is if you're trying to look for the most obvious explanation for how something like this could happen, weapon number one defense in America, number one team in America becomes the first team in the history of the sport to lose to a 16 seed, at least the first one seed in the history of sport to learn lose to a 16 seed. I guess another 16 seed is lost to a 16 in the first four, but you get the point.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, yeah.

[Gary Parish]

It's the, it's the pace at which they played. Think about this in terms of a series. If you are the inferior team in a series series, you don't even Want a series? Let's just play one game and see if I can get lucky. You'd rather play a best of three than a best of five? You'd rather play a best of five than a best of seven? The longer this thing drags out, that's where talent should take over. The. The think of it in golf, anything. The longer we play, the better players should win. Shorten it, you know, now I got a shot. You put me on a golf course with somebody who is obviously better at golf than me. I can't beat them over 18 holes.

[Matt Norlander]

Holes.

[Gary Parish]

Could I beat him on one? Yeah, I could beat him on one. Could I beat him best, you know, at the first three holes? Maybe. But over 18? No. It's too much time. When you play at that pace, you limit possessions. You make the game tighter than it otherwise would be based on the talent discrepancy between the two rosters. I buy that that that is among the things that happen to them. But don't ever forget this is not like this. And you know, they did just get, like edged at the boss room tied at the half, and then they got blown out. It was tied at the half. And then UMBC opens on a 173 run and never really slowed down. They outscore them 53 to 33 in the final 20 minutes. Virginia was the number one defense in the country at Ken Palm, and coming into that game was averaging giving up 53 points per game. And they gave up 53 points in the second half to a team ranked 188. That can pump insane. That's my main memory. We're sitting in studio and it wasn't like with UConn George Mason, we just talked about that. It was like, oh, don't leave, don't leave. You don't know how this is going to end. And you still just consistently think I say this with having it.

[Matt Norlander]

You didn't experience this. You're on a plane with WI fi. Continue.

[Gary Parish]

I. I say, oh, there's acknowledging. I didn't watch it live, but I was remember following it. And you just assume because this is the way you. You kind of pull it up out. Yukon will pull it out. Yukon will pull it out. Up until Yukon didn't pull it out, you kind of assumed Yukon would. We didn't even get to experience this that way because it was like, oh, my God, history is really about to happen. And it was like we had 15 minutes of 20 minutes of like, real time to just sort of prepare for at the buzzer. History will be made. This is not going to be a buzzer beater. This is not gonna, you know. And Tony Bennett takes a timeout with 14 seconds to play, and Virginia's gonna have a shot. They are getting run off the court by a 16 seed. History is going to be made. And so I remember that. And then I remember at the Final Four, Tony was voted, like, national Coach of the Year, and there was a ceremony for that. So he was there. And we were live on CBS Sports HQ at the time, and a producer or somebody politely went over and was like, hey, congratulations on the award, and we'd love to get you to pop on set if you can. And he was. He very respectfully was just like, I don't think so, and I don't want to speak for him, but it was almost like he felt. This is the way it played to me, like he felt almost embarrassed, like I'm collecting a Coach of the year award after I just lost to a 16 seed. And if anybody was wired to, like, handle that, it's Tony. Just because he's so comfortable with himself. And, you know, he, he was. I'm glad if that had to happen to somebody, it happened to somebody like him because not every coach we know could handle that the way he gracefully handled it. And then he, I don't want to say got rewarded for it the next year, but, buddy, they bounced back the next year. And I don't want to say they erased that, but they turned what was a devastating story into. It can be a Disney movie if you wanted to. Let's start it. Opening scene is Virginia umbc. Let's take the movie from there. We'll conclude it with that national championship. That could be a. It could be a great. It went from an awful story to something that could be a wonderful movie.

[Matt Norlander]

Yeah, that's why it's so high on the list. I. I don't. I mean, the history of American sports. Do we have anything that you place beside this where you have a very, very good team suffer an immediate historic, embarrassing defeat in literally the next year, come back and win a championship? What. What compares to this? I don't think we've ever seen anything like it. That's why I put it so high on the list. Virginia was 29 and three going into the. The NCAA tournament the next year. Again, most of the cast back from the group that, that suffered this loss. They took a loss to Florida State in the ACC tournament, but they were still a number one seed. Tony Bennett, still, he doesn't really change anything. He sticks with what he believes in. At the time, I wrote a story or two about, you know, just. And there were plenty of stories written about just like the perseverance of this and his mindset with all of that. And he was perfectly wired for it. They had a quick trouble against Gardner Webb. This is. If you look at the box score, you don't think much of it, but early there was a little bit of a scare from Gardner Webb to get out of there. They bounce Oklahoma in the second round with typical, you know, wahoo ruggedness. No issues there. I was. Then I was there in Louisville for the Sweet 16. In the Elite Eight, they beat Oregon 53, 49. It was a rough game. They kind of elbow the Ducks out of the tournament, but they. They were truly threatened. Oregon had the lead. Lead. We're gonna have to lead maybe five minutes to go or something like that. GP and then this is what I referenced earlier on the show. The Elite Eight against Purdue. I do think it's one of the five best games I've ever seen in person. And then I've been fortunate enough to see some pretty amazing games. Carson Edwards was NBA jam. He's on fire. 42. Not another Purdue player got double digits. 42. And. And I. The. The media scenes right there on the court. He's hit. He hits at least three or four of these shots, like right in front of me. It's insane. He almost pulled Purdue to the Final Four in historic fashion, but he didn't. And that's because with Virginia down by 270 to 68, this is the play of the tournament with five point. And by the way, as we're going through all this, the Oregon and then this game and then the next two, Virginia path to win the championship is insane. The things they overcome, the odds they beat is. It feels starkist, it feels faded, it feels touched from the heavens because of what happened the year before. Because there are so many ways in which just one thing happens differently and they don't do it, but they freaking did it, man. So Ty Jerome misses a foul shot. Mama Dakite gets his paw on it and just volleyball taps it back, back into the back court. It's a freshman, Kihei Clark. He tracks it down. And I remember us podcasting about this, like, in the aftermath of when the game happened or whenever we talked about it. The thing that's still so amazing to me about this moment and Kia Clark's got this weird book into his career. Like he has this place through the ball way. Correct. It's. It's it's, it's, there's just, there's just odd vibes around Virginia in general. But he's got some good stuff and this is some of the good stuff with Kia Clark. It tracks it down, down. He doesn't rush, he's aware of the clock, but he doesn't, he doesn't over hurry. Like it would be completely understandable in this moment for Kia Clark to suddenly like lose his mind and then chuck up a shot from half court. It would be completely understandable if that's what happened. That's not what happened. He tracks it down, just one arm, passes it up to Diaquite and it's just in enough time. Diaquite has the wherewithal, he has the awareness to catch it. Bunny hop, get the shot up just before the buzzer goes off. It sinks, it goes in, they go to overtime, they beat Purdue. It is just an all time March Madness play. And before we get to the final Four and title game. GP yeah that, that Purdue, Virginia game. It. As we go through this like we're giving you plenty of stuff to go back and read and watch. Go back and watch the Purdue Virginia game. Elite Eight from 2019. It is an all time stunner classic.

[Gary Parish]

So I've never even thought about this before. Which is what's the greatest assist in NCAA tournament history?

[Matt Norlander]

Well, Archie Diacono kind of has one and now so does Kihei Clark. Yeah.

[Gary Parish]

Okay. Okay. So Archie Diacono has one. The past to Christian Leitner is going to be on the list somewhere.

[Matt Norlander]

I don't know if Wittenberg is technically considered an assist. It was definitely a shot.

[Gary Parish]

I'm not calling that an assist. That's a, that's an offensive rebound and a put back. That's. That, that's not gonna. I, I believe so anyway. But I would put this on the list and maybe I, maybe it's you know, recency bias. But for Ki Clark to, as a freshman, and I would say this as a 22 year old, but as a true freshman in college basketball to have the wherewithal to stay composed and realize there's time to make a play here, not just heave a ball at the rim. I, there's no way to prove this. Here's what I believe. Four out of five players in that same position, maybe more just grab it and throw it at the rim and he, and then lose the game. And he understood that he had time to do what I don't think most people would have understood in that moment, you have time to do because It's. I've talked to players about this. It's just a weird. The clock is. It's either moving faster than you think or not as fast as you think, but you can get disoriented in the moment.

[Matt Norlander]

It.

[Gary Parish]

And he never did. And he, he got the ball, he stayed composed. He got it where it needed to be, got it to overtime, then they win the game and that is obviously without that, they don't win the national championship. That, that's an all try time great NCAA tournament play. Yeah, that probably won't show up on the list when you see that, but it's, it's on there. That is an incredible basketball play and not by the guy who made the shot, although the shot was incredible. Shot was great. Yeah, it's. It's everything Ki Clark did.

[Matt Norlander]

And I connected to GP though. Like DK takes it. He makes the shot possible by getting. He's the one who flicks it back. And then he doesn't know it in the moment, but the ball's coming right back to him in about 4.2 seconds. He gets a shot off. Just, just a wild sequence. We felt. Coincidentally enough. I didn't plan it this way. Just like we talked about two Elite 8 games that I, I mean those got to be two of the five or six best Elite 8 games ever. And if you made a list of top Elite 8 games, which I actually have done in the past, like easily get to 30 without breaking a sweat, there just wild stuff.

[Gary Parish]

There are great elite games in the history of the tournament that we talk, that we, that get referenced all the time. That Adam Morrison game, the, the Yukon George Mason game. Here we are here.

[Matt Norlander]

Morrison was sweet 16, but I know what you mean. There's been Illinois, Arizona, there's been plenty, plenty over the years. Don't, don't even get me rolling here. Let's get to the final two games and we can call it a, call it a show. So then they play Auburn in the, in the semis. They're down 61:57 with under 8 seconds to go. See this stuff. I do feel like unless you're a Virginia fan or a true Die Hard again, the probability of Virginia pulling this off, some of this gets lost a little bit later because of frankly what we're talking about here. The, the massiveness of losing to a 16 and then winning it all the next year, like that becomes the story that people remember more than the details that enabled it to happen. Happened. Kyle guy hits a corner three with 6.5 to go. And then this is certainly remembered and it's very much remembered down in the state next year's gp when Guy then gets fouled.

[Gary Parish]

Yes.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay, one more time. Relitigated. I actually do think he was fouled. Agree or disagree? Because reasonable minds can absolutely differ on this. Samir Dowdy was the one that fouled him with 0.6 seconds to go. Sent Guy to the line. He hits the bat, he hits the shot. Shots. Auburn winds up losing. Virginia wins to go on to the national championship. Was it a foul?

[Gary Parish]

I don't want to say one way or another because I did not go back and watch it and I don't have a great memory over it, but I should have gone back and watched it here.

[Matt Norlander]

You're good. I want to say when we podcasted on this that you were of the opinion that it was, that it was a foul, But Virginia win 63, 62 in the national semi. I remember talking to Bruce for HQ after that game and him handling it extremely well, which is no huge surprise. But it's just. And he has since made another Final Four. But you just as, as any coach will tell you, and understandably so when you get to a Final Four, no matter where you are in your life, there's no assurance you'll ever get back there. It is such coveted territory that I just remember for all of the, the just gleefulness of Virginia, the way that Pearl handled that loss that night, it just, it stuck with me all these years later. He really composed himself well because he had every right to be. And it's not like he was, you know, just sitting there taking it just. He was very composed at least when, when I wound up spoken to him. I don't. And why would I have been. I don't remember being at his press conference and what he would have said after that, but a tough way to. A tough way to go out. And then we get to the title game, the rare title game, by the way, that went to overtime. Virginia wins 85, 77. But. And they kind of edged away in overtime. And this is. And I remember there being a lot of stuff with this title game. Like some people writing that it's the most boring title game matchup ever and this isn't interesting and all this stuff. And meanwhile, like it happens in the context of Virginia having one of the most dramatic six game runs to win a title ever. And I think the ratings act. Not that I really, you know, television ratings aren't going to affect how I feel about a college basketball game one way or another, but I think they actually wound up being way better after the fact than people real thought going in because it was Texas Tech which never makes it to the stage in Virginia which plays the way that it plays. And then you have DeAndre Hunter who was not in the game here before when they lose to umbc. He's hurt, he can't play. And on this night here he is corner three, 12 and a half seconds to go puts Virginia into, into a tie game that enables the game to get into overtime and they eventually wind up pulling away. No T. But it was also a very, very good, very dramatic game. The Texas Tech team of course coached by Chris Beard had Jarrett Culver. Here's one for you. Jared Culver was number one in player of the year at Ken Palm that year and, and then he wound up going into the the NBA. And yeah that was, that was you know conceivably probably going to be the high point of his, of his basketball, of his basketball life. But Matt Mooney, man, Tariq Owens, I remember Old Town Road being huge and getting played in both of the Texas Tech's final four games down when this was happening there. An awesome national championship game, an awesome all time run. Virginia has a story that I don't. I wrote this at the time. I just. We're not gonna one, we can't ever see anything like this again because there can't ever be a first time a 16 beats a 1. But I just don't even. Even if we, you know, we've seen a 16 beat a one since Purdue got really, really really close. Really really really close. And then it ran into the behemoth that was Yukon. I just don't think we'll see this again. What Virginia did was a one of one and an incredible thing to document and see up close as it happened over a two year period.

[Gary Parish]

So Texas Tech's on the wrong side of that. Chris Beard, the head coach there that year gets eliminated by the eventual national champion obviously because it was in the title game year before also eliminated by the eventual national champion Villanova. So he in back to back years got eliminated by the best team in the country for Virginia. Everybody remembers they lost to UMBC then come back and win the tournament. They were 66 and 6 over a two year span. I mean 31 three before in the year that they lost UMBC and then backed it with 35 three national championship like will a power. I know we just say things like this all the time. The honest answer is who knows? I don't know. You know I can't tell the future but like think about this Power conference school goes 66 and 6 over a two year period. When's that happening again?

[Matt Norlander]

It's not that I can't actually could see it happening but it's just such a, that's just especially in this age, very, very tough to pull off. And I when Tony retired last fall, I don't know if I made the column or not but one thing he talked about and I think actually he told me in the one on one but he's. I think he said at the press conference as well, like he had immense pride and you can consider this a little bit old fashioned, that's fine. Tony wouldn't even blame you for thinking it that way. But it's just how he's wired, man. He had immense pride that they won it. Not just having done it the year after, like he would have taken the title no matter how it came, but that everyone came back because transfers did happen with regularity in 2018-19. It's not like this has only been a thing in the past four years. It's obviously grown significantly more, but they still happen. So no one, no one balked and bounced on that and that they did it before a time when you could theoretically like buy a Final four roster or buy a national championship roster. He's not again he's not anti this stuff but he had a certain sense of pride with how he grew up in the game. The reasons he got into coaching as the son of obviously Dick Bennett. It really meant something to him because effectively like Baylor was probably the last, Baylor really was the last national championship team to win a championship before. I mean don't get me wrong, it happened 15, 20, 30, 50 years too late with players rightfully earning money off playing this game. But the way that Virginia did it, that formula cannot be duplicated again for.

[Gary Parish]

Some context in those two years Virginia 66 and 6 when UConn just won back to back national championships in those two years 68 and 11 so lost five more and those Yukon teams were great. They lost five more times over that two year span while winning back to back titles. Then Virginia lost in those two years. So 66 and 6 two year span culminates with a national title. Just an awesome story and obviously deserves its place where it is on this list. I think think we got to decide this right now. What is does this go ahead or below Bob Knight being terminated in September?

[Matt Norlander]

Your call if it's your call. This goes below Bob Knight. I think this should Be ahead of it. But I did say you have the choice of picking when the written stuff.

[Gary Parish]

Okay, okay, then let me, let me, let me.

[Matt Norlander]

Is Bob Knight being fired a bigger story than the end of Mike Shashevsky's career?

[Gary Parish]

Okay, let me frame it this way. I'm going to argue against myself. Lots of coaches get fired, even legendary coaches. It happens. Nolan Richardson got fired. Legendary coaches get fired all the time. It's wild story connected to Bob Knight. But let me tell you something that doesn't happen all the time. Lose to a 16 seed comeback, win the whole thing the next year, go 66 and 6 over two year span. I submit Virginia doing what it did in 2018 and 19 is a bigger story than Bob Knight being fired. Because legends are often fired. I say. But Bob Knight's got to be sad. Seven.

[Matt Norlander]

All right, so he's seven and then Coach K losing to Carolina's eight.

[Gary Parish]

I think that's right.

[Matt Norlander]

Okay. And that's. We'll, that's where, that's where we'll.

[Gary Parish]

About time. I had to say in this thing.

[Matt Norlander]

We have five more stories to go. That episode will come.

[Gary Parish]

I haven't even done the figuring on. Okay, okay. What else is out there? I haven't even thought about what else is out there.

[Matt Norlander]

You know, what if, if you can't avoid it, don't try. I wanna, I want you to not know it till, till I drop it in the Google Doc when that time comes. Try not to think about it, all right? Because I think if you think about it, you can probably get the five. I know people as they're listening have probably they're deducing and plenty of folks are going to be able to figure out the five. Some of it will be how I frame it, how I word it, but it's, it should be something that you can figure out. We will have the top five episode coming later in July. You got back to back episodes here because of the slowness of the news cycle. But as we said earlier in the show, we do expect significant updates from the selection committee later this week. So I will be on the road this week week for recruiting to see the Adidas event and Nike GP will be at Peach Jam next week. Nike is actually spreading this out over two weeks so we are giving you the maximum coverage possible. So that will lead to me being on the road later this week when we will podcast depending on where I'm at when that news breaks and then next week when GP's on the road, we'll, we'll get you covered, but our next few episodes will be more recruiting based, news cycle based and then we'll finish this up sometime before we get out of July with the top five stories of the past 20, 25 years.

[Gary Parish]

Shouts to Devin Downey Shouts to Chester, S.C. shouts to Terry Teagle. He's a legend. Huck Larnell thank you guys once again for watching and listening to the I Own College Basketball Podcast. If you're not subscribed anywhere you subscribe to podcast, please go do so Apple and Spotify. There's more of us than there are of them. That's got to be reflected in the comments. So please do that. And we're going to talk to you again real soon, 90 minutes in advance. Till then, take care of.

[Kristen Bell]

Paramount Podcasts.

[Gary Parish]

What's up everyone? It's Sia Nijad, host of the Early Edge, part of the CBS Sports Podcast Network. Be sure to lock in with me and our team of Sportsline betting experts experts every single day as we deliver our best bets across all the summer sports. We'll have you covered every day and all summer long in mlb, wnba, soccer, tennis, golf and much more. If you want the early look on the betting plays of the day, you've got a home at the Early Edge. Download and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and anywhere podcasts are found.