SAN ANTONIO — Brace for something screwy out of this Final Four. Why? Habit.
Not a lot of normal goes on whenever the NCAA tournament comes to this town.
The first tournament game in the history of San Antonio went double overtime. Minnesota over Clemson 90-84 in the 1997 Midwest regional, a battle so chaotic that an excited Gophers fan interviewed by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune afterward had lost track and kept talking about a third overtime that never happened. He was the governor of Minnesota, Arne Carlson.
The second tournament game in the history of San Antonio was immediately after that one. It went overtime, too. UCLA over Iowa State 74-73 when the Bruins rallied from 16 points back and won it in the final seconds on a coast-to-coast play by Cameron Dollar.
Yep, San Antonio took to March Madness like the ducks to water along the River Walk.
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The Final Four came the next year in 1998. The first game… sure, went overtime. Kentucky beat Stanford 86-85 — the only Final Four game the Cardinal have played in the past 83 years. It was a contest played with such effort that when it was over, those sitting in the coaches’ section of the Alamodome rose and applauded.
There would be more intrigue in that Final Four. Utah beat North Carolina in the second game, after which the Tar Heels’ Makhtar N’Diaye accused the Utes’ Britton Johnsen of using a racial slur. Utah coach Rick Majerus was so upset at the charge, he and Johnsen appeared in a media conference where Johnsen strenuously denied the accusation and Majerus stood behind his player and said, “If in fact that happened, I will resign.” Surely one of the most surreal Sunday press conferences ever at a Final Four. The next day, N’Diaye recanted his accusation and apologized.
That Monday night, Tubby Smith — the sixth of 17 children born to Maryland sharecroppers — coached Kentucky to the national championship. “This program is more than just a basketball program,” he said then. “It is really a way of life, and people to live and breathe Kentucky basketball. I’m just happy to be a small part of it.”
With that, San Antonio became a Final Four city. More would come.
There was 2004, when UConn scored 12 consecutive points to wipe out an eight-point Duke lead in the last four minutes and stun the Blue Devils 79-78 in the semifinals. “It’s hard to explain this kind of loss,” Duke’s Daniel Ewing said.
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Or the championship game in 2008. Memphis, with a young coach named John Calipari, was ahead by nine points with two minutes left, but then started missing free throws. Mario Chalmers’ nerveless 3-pointer tied the game with 2.1 seconds left and sent the issue into overtime, where Kansas would win it. “It will probably be the biggest shot ever made in Kansas history,” KU coach Bill Self called Chalmers’ basket it that night.
There was the packed press conference at the 2018 Final Four, because of a celebrity in town for the event.
A movie star? The President? Nah. A 98-year-old nun. Loyola Chicago had brought its Cinderella story to San Antonio and team chaplain Sister Jean had come along, as the new superstar of March. The NCAA scheduled her own media session and the cameras were wall-to-wall. Alas, she didn’t have enough pull to get the Ramblers past Michigan in the semifinals. Villanova ended up the champion, beating Michigan with 31 points from Donte DiVincenzo. And he didn’t even start.
Notice all the quirks in San Antonio’s Final Four history? So this weekend is not their first rodeo here. Late Monday night, the champions will get a boat parade along the River Walk. The assignment is to find which team has a unique enough story to fit the peculiar motif of San Antonio tournaments.
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Houston, maybe. Only 200 miles away and hoping for a breakthrough in the Final Four in its seventh attempt. The Cougars could join Baylor as the only Lone Star State teams to win the title in 59 years. Kelvin Sampson, at 69, could become the oldest national champion coach in history. Plenty to choose from that. Then again, the Alamo is just down the street, and that didn’t go so well for the Texans.
Auburn or Florida, then. For all the hubbub about the power of the SEC this season, it seems rather odd to think the league hasn’t won the championship in 13 years. Hasn’t put a team in the final game in 11 years, though that is certain to change Saturday after Auburn and Florida play. Anyway, if the SEC doesn’t win it all after all the hubbub, people will talk.
Or Duke. Jon Scheyer, at 37, could be the youngest championship coach in 42 years. He could also become the second man to both play and coach at the same school for the title. Duke has five national championships. The first, fourth and fifth came in Indianapolis, the second and third were in Minneapolis. If the Blue Devils win Monday night, maybe they change the town’s name to San Antoniopolis. At least until the boat cruise gets back.
