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For those who missed it last night's NCAA title game turned out to be one of the most dramatic games ever in the history of the sport. Being a Carolina fan naturally I am completely bummed about the end result, though to be honest the amount of times I have had my proverbial sports heart ripped out of my gut out here kind of conditioned me.

In BB parlance 'Nova had the Heels GDP'd perfectly, and with five minutes to go I had declared the Wildcats winners. It was just their night. For those who understand history the ghosts of 1985 were everywhere for Nova, hell I thought Rollie Massimino had died years ago. Even the end of the first half eerily reminded me of the game these two schools played in the regional finals in 1985 where a blown opportunity by Carolina coupled with a clutch Nova play to end the half signaled a swing in momentum, on that afternoon Nova won going away,

But on this night Marcus Paige (who has a very BB look to him I must say) single handily took over and that circus three to tie will be remembered by Carolina fans as one of the great shots ever. But destiny and Kris Jenkins had other ideas, and the execution was flawless, one can give up nothing but props.

Damn that was a good game earlier...

Not much of a fan of American college basketball but that game was great. Legendary really.

In the last 5 minutes of the game I was already honestly expecting the game to end with a buzzer-beater. That's how close the game was....

I love this game... this game of basketball..

#ballislife hahahaha

I had a feeling that the final 2 plays before the half might matter in the outcome of the game. Unfortunately I was right (I had UNC winning the whole thing in one of my brackets). I noticed that there were plenty of fouls called on UNC at one point (second half, I believe) that I thought were questionable. Along with that, it seemed like Villanova got away with a few travels. However, it could just be that the Nova player(s) legally pivoted their foot.

I have to wonder why Coach Williams decided to play zone on the final play, and if he didn't, whether the game would have gone into OT. Hope y'all come back strong in next year's tournament!

IF your going to go down, better like that then if one of the bigs had come out leaving some dude with a chippie that would have felt worse.

That sequence at the end of the half did turn out to have huge implications, will go down as a great sports what if. What the entire evening left me with was a feeling of Deja Vu as the signs of 1985 were so prevalent that I halfway expect to see New Coke turning back up on the shelves.

On the anniversary of the 1983 final https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICZ8HO8c9bw, the last time the final was decided on a true buzzer beater, I found it somewhat ironic that UNC would suffer the same fate in the CITY of Houston.

Ugh, don't remind us folk down here in Houston about that game. I have a strong feeling that if the shot clock were in the college game back then, UH would've beaten NC State by double digits.

And about it being a true buzzerbeater, there was still a couple of seconds left on the clock, but since there was no shot clock, they let it run out. Oh well. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas.

In the words of Warner Wolff...let's go to the videotape..#42 Young DOES signal a timeout, and that was completely ignored in the insanity of the moment. but there would have been maybe one second left if the timeout had been acknowledged.


It would not be until 1986 that the NCAA would adopt a 45 second clock, the next year the 3 point shot would be introduced. But the movement for the shot clock in college basketball truly started in earnest during the 1982-83 season. The year before in the ACC title game Carolina went to the four corners to protect a slim lead against Ralph Sampson led UVA, the Cavs stayed in the zone, and UNC for all intents and purposes were able to run out the clock. But back then there was an allowance for special rules for each conference which the entire college basketball world pretty much took advantage of in some way shape or form that following year. The ACC's solution??? A 30 second clock that went off for the last four minutes and a ludicrously short three point line measuring 17'9", and State had outside shooters galore back then. So if the NCAA had something resembling the current rules back then I think State may have still made their run. One thing that was different back then was no double bonus after 10 fouls, all non shooting fouls in the bonus were 1and1. State practically invented the hack a Shaq concept, and it came in handy against teams they faced in that run like UH and UNLV who had teams with insane athleticism but who were notorious for being horrendous from the line.

State practically invented the hack a Shaq concept, and it came in handy against teams they faced in that run like UH and UNLV who had teams with insane athleticism but who were notorious for being horrendous from the line.

They should have trained FT during the All Star break.

Actually somewhat related, you may very well remember the 1994 tournament. NC was a #1 seed and got knocked out early by BC, who ended up losing to Florida in the regional finals, giving the Gators their first Final Four appearance. That game only happened because with a few seconds left in the Sweet 16 game, Donyell Marshall of UConn missed two FTs, sending the game to OT where Florida pulled away.

That Florida coach was Lon Kruger, who was in the final four this season with his eleventy-gajillionth team.

I was also cheering for UNC, but it was still a spectacular game. I was a bit nervous, after the final four games, that the blow-out trend would continue. I am very glad that it didn't.

State practically invented the hack a Shaq concept, and it came in handy against teams they faced in that run like UH and UNLV who had teams with insane athleticism but who were notorious for being horrendous from the line.

They should have trained FT during the All Star break. :)

Actually somewhat related, you may very well remember the 1994 tournament. NC was a #1 seed and got knocked out early by BC, who ended up losing to Florida in the regional finals, giving the Gators their first Final Four appearance. That game only happened because with a few seconds left in the Sweet 16 game, Donyell Marshall of UConn missed two FTs, sending the game to OT where Florida pulled away.

That Florida coach was Lon Kruger, who was in the final four this season with his eleventy-gajillionth team.

1994 is a bitter memory, year after the title run of 1993, and we thought going into the season this team could be even BETTER, Stackhouse and Wallace were freshmen. Depth like you could not believe, and they seemed to be coming into form, beat Dook in Durham, won the ACC tourney, then laid a big old turd against BC, broke the string of 14 straight appearances in the sweet 16.