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As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > April > 03
Thursday, April 3, 2008
There’s nothing like the Final Four
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The first Final Four I covered was in 1983. It was my first really big event, and I was convinced I was the worst writer there.
And then the first semifinal began on Saturday, and the guy sitting next to me at the press table (from Iowa, as I recall) looked toward the teams playing and said, “Georgia - are they in the SEC?” And I thought to myself: “OK, second-worst.”
That game - Georgia versus North Carolina State - wasn’t very good. The second semifinal - the Houston-Louisville dunkathon - was spectacular. The final two nights later was historic. I’ve been to 18 Final Fours since, and nothing has surpassed my first.
But I’m always hoping. This one looks delicious on paper - four No. 1 seeds, four teams who together have lost only nine games - and I head for San Antonio with the wide-eyed optimism of a first-timer. Because, to be frank, the best continuing event in North American sports could stand a pick-me-up.
The last great Final Four - and by this I mean one including three fight-to-the-finish games - was in 1998. The last great pair of semifinals was in 2004: Georgia Tech over Oklahoma State and UConn over Duke. The last great championship game was UConn-Duke in 1999. (Syracuse-Kansas in 2003 and North Carolina-Illinois in 2005 got close at the end, but both saw the winner seize huge early leads.)
Throughout the ’80s and into the ’90s, the Final Four almost never disappointed. From Lorenzo Charles to Villanova shooting 78.6 percent to Pervis Ellison to Keith Smart to Chris Webber (oops!) to Scotty Thurman, the great event offered up a virtually unbroken run of Great Moments.
But I think back over the last half-dozen Final Fours and only two memories jump out: Hakim Warrick’s block-from-nowhere in the 2003 title game and Will Bynum’s twisting layup to beat OSU in the semis the next year.
I had great expectations last year, but Florida proved too good for everybody else. I really don’t see any of these four lapping the field because the field appears too strong, but you never know.
Still, I hold out hope. The Final Four is, as you probably know, my favorite event, and over the last quarter-century I’ve come to believe I might not be the worst writer in attendance. See, I’ve done my homework, and I know for a fact that North Carolina plays in the Atlantic 10.
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