If the trend of this tournament continues, tonight’s Memphis/Kansas game will be a blowout. Of course, if the trend for this decade continues, the game will not only be a blowout, but be utterly bland and boring (and create a winner that’s anything but memorable).
So it’s come to this: Tigers and Jayhawks, we BEG you for a good final. Because, well, the ones preceding you have sucked big time.
For instance:
- 2000 Michigan State 89, Florida 76: Mateen Cleaves injury could have changed this into a good game. Instead MSU had it locked the whole night.
- 2001 Duke 82, Arizona 72: I remember nothing of this game and, by talking to so many others, no one else does either. The most forgettable of Duke’s three titles.
- 2002 Maryland 64, Indiana 52: A terribly played game: IU was awful, Maryland above average. And neither has done a thing since.
- 2003 Syracuse 81, Kansas 78: The decade’s only exciting finish, solely because Syracuse blew a huge lead.
- 2004 Connecticut 82, Georgia Tech 73: Did anyone actually watch this game? I couldn’t tell you one part of it, and I’m pretty sure Tech discontinued basketball after.
- 2005 North Carolina 75, Illinois 70: Not a bad game: Both teams played good, UNC had a nice lead and let Illinois back in.
- 2006 Florida 73, UCLA 57: From the most chaotic tourney ever came the most disorganized final since 1990. Outcome was never in doubt.
- 2007 Florida 84, Ohio State 75: And from the least chaotic tourney ever came another boring, predictable game.
You see, coach Cal and Bill, you don’t have much to live up to. For as great as the 80’s finishes were, and the handful of interesting finals of the 90’s, the past eight finals have been, well, crappy, and produced some of the most forgettable champions of the past half century.
So we put the pressure on you … well, we put anything on you. PLEASE give us something to watch! There’s candy if you do!
I registered just to say that this post is awful. 2005 was one of the better finals ever. It went back and forth all game until Felton got a steal at the end to ice it. 2003, how can you forget Hakim Warrick with the best block in college hoops history? And how does Kansas making a comeback on Cuse make the game less exciting? Since you probably didn’t even watch 2001 it was plenty entertaining and Duke didn’t pull away until Dunleavy started hitting 3’s in the 2nd half. I blame Florida for the last two years cause that team just ruined college hoops. 2004 was screwed up by the bracket and had Duke play UConn in the final four and that was a great game. I’ll give you the other two. Sorry not every game can be back and forth and won on a buzzer beater. Most of the recent games have been entertaining if you watched them or knew anything about basketball. How did this get linked on SI.com?
you’re absolutely right now that i think of it. kind of reminds me of the NBA finals in recent years passed. However, I thought that last year’s title game starring the legend that is Greg Oden and the talented Mike Conley Jr. versus the Big 3 of Florida was a nice storyline and the second half had a bit of drama as Oden was seemingly carrying them and it really proved that all of them were on the same level in terms of readiness to leave college for the draft (not necessarily NBA ready of course).
Sven –
This got linked because you demanded the Olympics be in Beijing. Why you did that, I do not know.
The 2005 final was not one of the greatest ever. It was good, but didn’t compare to the ‘82, ‘83, ‘85, ‘87, or ‘89 finals, just to name a few. The ‘01 game was never in doubt - Arizona might have made it close, but never did I think it they could win. ‘03 was mildly entertaining, but only from the sense of watching Syracuse dominate half one and Kansas dominate half two.
Compare this decade to the two previous? Nowhere close. Did you watch those before?