March Sadness and The List

I have documented in this space my love of college basketball and my annual trip to the Final Four with a great group of friends. Over the past thirty-eight years, I have been fortunate to attend 115 Final Four basketball games (semifinals and finals) since my first one in 1982. Needless to say, some of those games have been blowouts, some have been very competitive and some have been classics. 

Since there aren't any games this year, a lot of lists are being created. Twitter is full of them.  This is MY list. A list of the best games I've seen. 

When I think about what makes a classic college basketball game, I think of story lines, buzzer beaters, stakes and upsets. The stakes for all of these games couldn't be higher. All of these games are for a berth in the National Championship game or for the title so that almost eliminates that factor. But I have broken these down into semifinal games and championship tilts. While there have been some great semifinal games, there is a special place for games played with a title on the line.

A few years ago, I wrote a post about some of the great title games that we have been able to witness. That was an "off the top of my head" ranking and there have been a few great games since then. The list below includes a bit deeper look with the above considerations factored in.

Here is the pool of games that I have witnessed and from which these lists are compiled. The games in red were one possession games. Click on year and date for full tournament bracket.