With No N.C.A.A. Tournament, Here Are Past Games Coaches Say You Should Watch

“My mouth is open in total shock,” she said.

Bill Self, No. 1 Kansas

National champion, 2008, and Big 12 regular-season champion for 2020

What he’d watch: The 1985 men’s national title game, which featured Georgetown and Villanova, and the 2008 national championship game between Kansas and Memphis.

Why he’d watch them: Self, like many coaches and fans, usually favors games decided by “the shot.”

Forget the rebounding, the defense or whatever happened on some possession in the first half. For Self, all of it is a mere prelude to a grand moment that might not even come.

“That’s what I remember when I think of games: I think of the shot in the biggest games,” said Self, who had Kansas in position for the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s tournament.

But he remains taken by the 1984-85 Georgetown team that rose out of Washington when he was 22 years old. The Hoyas seemed an unbeatable behemoth: Patrick Ewing was the center, and John Thompson was leading a program trying to repeat as national champion.

Enter Villanova, a team that had not cracked the top 20 in any poll that season, in a showdown with the national title on the line.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/sports/best-ncaa-tournament-games.html