NCAA Basketball Teams

by MattCC716

Article by Karan Naidoo

I grew up with NCAA basketball on the brain. Bar none it was my favorite sport to watch growing up. I loved the pace, the intensity of the crowds – nothing in the united states could match it – the colors and, of course, the game itself. It helped that I grew up in a golden age of college basketball, with the advent of the Big East Conference and the 64 team NCAA tournament, there was no shortage of NCAA basketball teams making their mark on sporting history in the states.

From my youth, the best NCAA basketball teams were Indiana, Syracuse, Georgetown and The University of North Carolina. It seemed like at least one of those four teams were competing for the NCAA title every season, and every other season it seemed like one of those teams would win it.

Of course there were other great NCAA basketball teams of the time. Kansas University was one, led by the great Danny Manning. Duke was another, though they were comical in their ability to get to the final four every year, but inability to win the whole thing (until, of course, they won it all back-to-back in 1991 and 1992). The foil for Duke – a team that was predominantly white yuppies – was the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, a team that started five African Americans and cultivated an image of barely contained wildness. It was a great contrast in terms of not only sports, but politics and social constructs.

Of course out of all the NCAA basketball teams to leave an impression, my favorite were my hometown University of Connecticut Huskies. They were an afterthought throughout most of the 1970s and 1980s, putting together a decent run only every now and then, but then the 1989/90 season happened. It’s a season that UConn fans still recall fondly as “The Dream Season,” and now, 20 years later, it still does feel like a dream.

Tiny, unheralded UConn made it all the way to the final eight that year, winning dramatically at various times against the storied programs of Syracuse, Georgetown and others. In the game against Clemson in the sweet 16, Tate George hit a turnaround jumper at the buzzer after an 80 foot pass from Scott Burrell to win the game. It was a dream season, ruined only when Duke’s Christian Laettner hit a buzzer beater of his own in the final eight game.

To this day, that is why Duke is my least favorite of all NCAA basketball teams. I will never get over the pain Laettner caused me as a 13 year old, and when UConn beat Duke in the 1999 national championship game, there was no one in the world happier than me. It took nearly a decade, but revenge was sweet.

Karan has been involved with internet marketing for nearly 4 years and is an avid writer who writes on various subjects. Come visit his latest website at www.propanewallheaters.net/ which helps home owners find and review the best Propane Wall Heaters at the best prices.