NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship

Also known as March Madness or The Big Dance or My Favorite Time of the Year By Carol Heath

IN 1939, OHIO STATE University basketball coach Harold Olsen, along with the National Association of Basketball Coaches, came up with the idea of a single-elimination tournament to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men’s Division 1 Basketball Champions. Since these games are typically played in March, this tournament is referred to as March Madness. Some devotees also call it the Big Dance, as this is for the whole enchilada. The beauty of this tournament is anybody can win, you can be ranked 16th , and if you win all the games in your bracket and go to the final four and win again, you could actually be in the championship game and win. It has become one of the most famous sporting events in the United States and watched by millions of viewers all over the world.

Currently this tournament consists of 68 college basketball teams, including champions for 32 Division 1 conferences, which receive automatic bids. The remaining 36 teams are awarded at-large berths and they are chosen by the NCAA selection committee. The 68 teams are divided into four regions and organized into a single elimination bracket which pre-determines when a team wins a game who their next opponent will be. Each team is ranked within a region from 1-16. The first round consists of 64 teams all playing in their regions, these winners become the “Sweet Sixteen” and then out of these teams you get the Final Four which represents the top team of each region, East, South, Midwest and West. The Final Four play and then you have 2 teams left and they play for the National Title. This game is usually played the first week end in April, but is still considered part of March Madness.

I worked for the Golden State Warriors as a stat crew member from 1984-2002. I witnessed a lot of exciting games in that time, but one of the most emotional games I ever watched on the floor of the Oakland Coliseum, was the Sweet Sixteen games representing the western region in March of 1990. When we learned in mid-1988, that we were to host the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Champion Sweet Sixteen games, I was ecstatic. I love college sports of any kind, and followed college basketball religiously for over 20 years. My team was Duke and I admired Coach K as a man and a coach. I was pretty confident that I was going to be able to meet him in person as Duke usually went to the final four and won many titles.

It was a long 2 years waiting for that tournament and I followed Duke and several other teams that I thought might make it to the Sweet Sixteen. Duke was a given as they were playing some of the best ball in 3 seasons and they were ranked #1 most of the year. I started watching Loyola Mary-

mount as they were an up and coming power house with one of the best forwards in the country, Hank Gathers and his teammate and best friend Bo Kimble leading the way as point guard, they seemed to be a shoe in for the tournament. Gathers was the 2nd player in the history of the NCAA Division 1 to lead the nation in scoring and rebounding in the same season, with an average of 32.7 points and 13.7 rebounds a game. Also in the 1988 season, Hank scored a career-high 49 points along with 26 rebounds to lead his team to a 130-125 win over Nevada.

He won awards and was the West Coast Conference player of the year and was also named the MVP of the WCC tournament that same year. All this while he was just a junior in college.

In his senior year, Loyola, coached by Paul Westhead, instituted what some would call an extraordinarily faced-paced game, which meant that the Lions ran up and down the court in a frenzy causing their opponents to become disorientated and out of their game plan. This fast-paced game lead the Lions of Loyola to lead in Division 1 in scoring in 1988, with averaging 110.3 points a game; in 1989 averaging 112.5 a game; and in 1990, 122.4 points per game. These stats, some still in the record books, brought Loyola Marymount to the forefront of college basketball and highlighted their talented 6’ 7’’, 210 pound inside player, Eric “Hank” Gathers.

On December 9, 1989, while playing a home game against UC Santa Barbara, Gathers collapsed on the court. Two days later he was diagnosed with exercise-induced ventricular tachycardia and was prescribed beta blockers. He was cleared to continue playing basketball as long as he took the Inderal. Gathers became hesitant about taking the beta blocker, as it slowed down his play and his ability to become relevant in the fastpaced Westhead game plan. He continued to play and was the star of the LMU Lions. He was interviewed by all the networks and it was common knowledge that Bo Kimble, his teammate and childhood friend, was not only his roommate, but also his best friend. Hank’s mother was Kimble’s mom, Kimble’s mom was Gather’s mom, the two families became intertwined through the years.

All this hype was leading up to another memorable March Madness, and I was going to work the Sweet Sixteen. LMU, although respected as a force to be reckoned with was still the Cinderella team. I watched as many games as I could between Duke, LMU and UCLA, to become familiar with the players and their style of play. Number 44 was clearly going to be the player of the 1990 NCAA Men’s Division 1 Championship and I was looking forward to seeing him tear up the boards in Oakland. ,

On Sunday, March 4, 1990, I was watching Loyola play the Portland Pilots in the WCC tournament semifinals on tv. Before the game, Gather’s mom was interviewed with Kimble’s mom and they talked about the closeness of the families. Every time Hank would make a dunk, the cameras would search the crowd for his mom’s reaction. I remember Gathers had just mad a monster dunk when on the way down the court to defend the LMU basket he collapsed. There was 13:34 left in the first half and the star of the LMU Lions was on the floor struggling to get up and telling the team doctor he didn’t want to lie down. When it became apparent he was unable to get up his mother followed closely by Kimble’s mom made their way to the basketball floor. ESPN stopped broadcasting the game when Hank’s mom collapsed on the floor wailing in pain. The WCC suspended play and awarded LMU an automatic bid to the Big Dance. And, at 6:55 PM, PST, Hank Gathers was pronounced dead at the age of 23.

This story dominated the championship that year and as the games continued, the emotions grew deeper and deeper. Everyone connected with the NCAA, everyone who worked on the tournament, media, fans we all felt the loss of a 23-year-old super star. Hank’s best friend, Bo Kimble, chose to honor Gathers in a very special way. Bo, a right-handed player announced he would shoot the first free throws left handed in memory of Gathers, who was a poor freethrow shooter, tried shooting with his left hand in hopes that would improve his performance from the free throw line. A soldout Oakland coliseum was waiting to see Bo Kimble make the first free throw left handed,

Bo never got to the line in the Sweet Sixteen win over Alabama. From this point, onward and into his professional career, Bo continued to honor his best friend by taking his first free throw shot left handed.

Loyola played Alabama on Saturday and won, pitting them against UNLV for Sunday’s game, they lost to the eventual winners of the championship UNLV coached by Jerry Tarkanian. That was the end of the LMU Cinderella season and everyone wondered how things would have turned out if #44 was on the court.

A caveat to this whole weekend of emotional basketball was that I did get a chance to meet Mike Krzyzewski or Coach K. I wasn’t disappointed, he was a very humble and soft spoken man even though he was one of the most decorated college basketball coaches in history.

Results for the 2018 NCAA Men’s Championship are in; Monday, April 2, 2018, in San Antonio, Michigan vs. Villanova. Michigan came out strong with aggressive defense and it looked like they were taking charge. However, Villanova’s guard and sixth man, Donte DiVincenzo, entered the game and “that’s all she wrote.” DiVincenzo scored a total of 31 points and led Villanova to its’ second title in three years. When the game was over, the buzzer rang, the scoreboard read 79-62, and the Wildcats mobbed number 10, Donte DiVincenzo.