It is probably safe to say that I have been watching the Final Four, if not the entire NCAA tournament, on television for about 30 years. My earliest memories are of watching the championship game with my step-father and perennial entrant in our contest, Ron "Hotrod" Marshall. I remember watching with him in 1981 as Indiana defeated North Carolina the evening after President Reagan was shot. I remember watching with Ron (Marshall, not Reagan – let’s not get confused, here) the following year when a freshman you might have heard of named Michael Jordan hit the shot that proved to be the game winner as North Carolina defeated Georgetown. If I had been doing the contest at age 11 in 1982, I would have awarded the Boneheaded Play Of The Decade award to Georgetown’s Fred Brown, who infamously passed the ball right to North Carolina’s James Worthy, mistaking him for at teammate. Worthy would have received the You’re Not So Worthy After All award for missing both of his free throws after being fouled, but the What Were You Thinking? award goes to Georgetown coach John Thompson for using his last timeout before Worthy’s free throw attempts, thus ultimately denying the Hoyas a chance to setup a play for the winning the shot.
Since then I’ve been a faithful observer of all the best highlights you see every year in CBS’s promotional montage, from Jimmy Valvano’s NC State Miracle, to Villanova’s 89% field goal shooting second half and savvy swat of the ball out of bounds to stop the clock that sunk Patrick Ewing’s shot at back to back championships with Georgetown, to Christian Laettner’s shot heard around the world, to Chris Webber’s infamous time out, to Kansas’ recent comeback for the ages, and so many other memories too numerous to recount. But in all those years, I have always watched on television, and never in person…until now!
Mr. Little Goes To Bracket Town
By the favor of God, tomorrow I have the privilege of attending my first ever Final Four with my brother and couple of our friends. Amusingly, those other two friends are both named Jeff (although the younger, a teen, goes by Jeffery). I told my brother, Josh Marshall, we should get four souvenir T-Shirts and have "Jeff #1", "Jeff #2", "Jeff #3", "…and Josh" emblazoned on the back of them. Ok, maybe not.
There are simply no words to express how excited I am to attend what is already an historic Final Four by simple virtue of the participants. Hopefully it will prove to be just as historic as the games are played. Sadly, it may prove to be historic in that it will be the last Final Four of the 64 (65?) team era, as the talk of expanding the field to a mind-numbing 96 teams next year grows louder and louder.
Nevertheless, I intend to enjoy every shining moment. If you are one of my Facebook friends, watch for a mobile pic upload or two, as I’m sure I’ll be snapping a few with the Crackberry. Please do not hold me to a Saturday night edition of the commentary, as we will be getting home rather late, and this Sunday is pretty much the most important day of the year for us followers of Jesus Christ. Have no fear, though, as the game winners and standings will be updated as the games conclude, as always (thanks to the aforementioned Crackberry – no iPhone quips, please). Follow me on Twitter for up-to-the-minute tweets of the experience inside Lucas Oil Stadium, and watch for me on TV. I’ll be the guy wearing the creamsicle-orange Butler shirt.
Oh Yeah, The Contest
312 contestants have scored their last point in the contest, some echoing the fact in their amusing aliases. That leaves 175 of us with games to win, points to score, and glory to obtain. There have never been more points on the line in the final three games than this year, so pop some popcorn, grab a soda, and plop down in the front of the tube on Saturday evening and root for your teams, and don’t forget to check your computer for the contest standings before you go to bed.
I’ll see you in Bracket Town.
The Humble Wizard of Whiteland