On March 15, the NCAA "March Madness" for the 1992-93 season officially started.
At this time, when the American basketball atmosphere is at its strongest, everyone from the president to ordinary people will participate in the championship discussion. It's like a tiger cub that has come to spring after hibernation, and has just had a nap of toothpaste to wake up.
It can be called a "national carnival".
The popularity is so high that the NBA is not enough to watch. You must know that the day of the NCAA Finals is a "no game day" in the NBA. ——Generally, only on important holidays such as Thanksgiving, the NBA will not arrange any games.
This shows the intensity of "March Madness".
This is a sporting event that surpasses the Super Bowl!
Meng Lang could feel that the fans were getting more restless. When the bus drove to the neutral venue, as soon as it stopped, a group of fans came up in an anguished manner. He only saw this scene during the Spring Festival Transport and the movie " Saw it in "Train to Busan".
But what he feels most deeply is the contingency of "March Madness" and the overturn rate with strong teams!
On the first day of the "Top 64 advancing to the Top 32" competition, many high-seeded teams were upset one after another, and were defeated by lower-seeded teams.
Among them is the University of Memphis where Hardaway is located.
They are in the same conference as Duke and are the No. 4 seed in the South Region.
In the media prediction session before the start of the knockout rounds, they, like Duke, are a strong team that can definitely enter the next round.
But just after the Duke game ended, Meng Lang learned about Memphis being eliminated from the reporter who interviewed him.
The team that eliminated them was the Iowa Hawkeyes from the Big Ten Conference.
Purinton, the team's strongest player as a senior, briefly appeared on ESPN's predicted list of second-round picks in the 1993 draft. He was quickly pushed out of the list by rising stars and has never appeared on these lists again. .
Like Hardaway, he is a No. 1 player.
The media believes that this is the reason why Memphis can advance to the next round. The strongest point is taken care of by the University of Memphis. How can we win this game?
However, this guy who was not favored by the outside world came to the first game of "March Madness" and made 8 of 13 shots, 4 of 4 from beyond the three-point line, and 6 of 6 free throws, scoring 26 points. In addition, he also had 5 rebounds and 5 assists. In terms of performance, he surpassed Hardaway's 17 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, and led the team to a moderate upset.
This may not change his current situation. He still only has the prospect of being drafted at the end of the second round or even losing the draft. Hardaway is still the "proud one of heaven" and the favorite who will definitely be selected in the top three once he declares for the 1993 draft.
But at least at this moment, he won, and his "March Madness" journey continues. If Hardaway goes to the NBA, his NCAA story will end with this ending.
A few years later, even if he did not enter the NBA, Plimpton could still point to the already famous Hardaway on TV and say:
"This kid is no good. He was beaten by me in the first round of 'Crazy Three'!"
Another crazy thing about "March Madness" is that some little people are constantly putting on "big scenes".
Everyone is Jordan in his story.
This sentence can be best interpreted in the NCAA national competition.
The top 16 advance to the top 8, which is the semi-finals of the four major divisions.
Kentucky, the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference where Houston and Mashburn are located, also suffered an upset and were eliminated by the University of Connecticut Huskies, the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference.
It is worth mentioning that the Huskies, like the Duke Blue Devils, were also a team that officially emerged in 1990.
That year, as an unseeded team, they fought back to become the Big East regular season champion, and eventually won the Big East tournament championship. These were the first times in team history.
What many people don't know is that after entering the national competition, in the round of 16 against the Clemson University Tigers, UConn fell behind by one point, 69-70, one second before the end of the game. Scott Breer's pass across the court accurately found Tate George. George caught the ball, turned and shot, completing a miraculous kill before the buzzer sounded.
Does this scene look familiar?
That's right, it's a replica of Hill and Laettner.
No, that's wrong. It should be said that Hill and Laettner copied them.
Before the two of them did this, Scott Blair and George had already done this.
It's just that the cooperation between Hill and Laettner eventually became the most classic scene in the NCAA. However, their cooperation this time with the same purpose is only remembered by UConn fans, and it was gradually forgotten in the torrent of history.
It can be seen that the stage is really important. The stage of the top 16 is not as good as the stage of the NCAA finals.
The players who complete these frames are also important.
Jordan's buzzer-beater against Ewing in his freshman year is considered the beginning of a legend. If he had not made such a splash in the NBA, these stories might only be remembered by North Carolina students for a few more years. And then, like Scott Breer, he was forgotten.
Don't think that Blair is some unknown person.
Last year, he was selected as a first-round pick in the draft predictions of the two major professional sports leagues, NBA and NFL. But he finally chose the NBA and failed to make a name for himself on this stage.
What's interesting is that the two men who completed the entire court in advance and cooperated with the mid-range shot to kill their opponents were killed by Duke in overtime in the next round. Duke also won the final championship that year. This is the first NCAA championship in Duke team history.
That year, Scott Breer was 19 years old, and now he is 22 years old. At that time, he never imagined that he would have the opportunity to challenge Duke in his last year of college.
Although he doesn't have George by his side this time, that's probably a good thing. ——After Meng Lang completed the buzzer-beater against North Carolina George, Blair's nerves became tense when he heard the name.
Give it a try!
Pick off this year's "biggest favorite", just like Cornell University did back then...
He has been waiting for this opportunity for three years!
It's not to prove how great he is, but to prove that what he lost must be taken back with his own hands.
Then……
There is no more.
In the last game to break out of the Eastern Conference, facing the Florida State University Seminoles, who also came out of the Atlantic League, UConn lost the game 67-75 and stopped in the top 8 in the country!
Scott Breer wants to make history again. This is Florida State University's first season in the Atlantic League. With three quasi-NBA players in Doug Edwards, Sam Cassel and Charlie Walker, why don't they think so?
And now, they have done it. Defeating UConn and joining Duke in the top four, they have already achieved the best results in team history!
With this series of upsets and games to prove himself, the time has come to April.
Meng Lang witnessed another upset.
In fact, it’s not an upset.
Michigan, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and home to the "Five Tigers", and North Carolina, the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, were both championship favorites in the eyes of the media before the start of the season.
This time the two strong men met, the fight was particularly intense.
With 11 seconds left before the end, Michigan trailed 71 to 73. Webb grabbed a defensive rebound and called a timeout. However, the University of Michigan's timeout had been used up at this time. Chris Webber was sentenced to a technical foul. North Carolina won a free throw opportunity and finally won. Won this "8-in-4" game 77 to 71.
Even if it wasn't the finals, Weber still staged his "famous death scene" in the NCAA.
This guy's psychological quality is really not up to par!
But this did not affect his market performance at all. In the end, he became the "number one pick", which shows his high talent.
Is this March Madness?
After experiencing it himself, Meng Lang knew how crazy this was...
The bunch of hangers-on who had an "arrangement" with him actually didn't wait for any of them in the end, and they were all eliminated early!
