College basketball may have ended, but reliving the 2010 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Tournaments will never get old. This year was absolutely outstanding on many levels.The men’s tournament was full of upsets. Most notably was the victory of Northern Iowa (UNI) over Kansas. Many people, including myself, predicted Kansas to win it all. But when UNI’s Ali Farokhmanesh clinched the game with a 3-point basket, it was all over for Kansas. They became just another one of the disappointments of the tourney.
Other major upsets included the thrashing that 14-seeded Ohio gave three-seeded Georgetown with a 97-83 win, and 13-seeded Murray State beating fourth-seeded Vanderbilt 66-65 at the buzzer.
Also in this tournament were games that teenagers today would call “epic.” In the first game of the tournament, Jimmer Fredette, point guard for BYU, led his team to a double overtime 99-92 win over Florida after giving up a 13-point lead. In the Sweet 16, in what was probably the best overall game of the tourney, Xavier battled with Kansas State. The game went into overtime. Then Jordan Crawford, who had been outstanding for Xavier all tournament, hit a 35-foot shot to force a second overtime. However, Kansas State held on to win 101-96 in double overtime.
Butler was probably the most surprising team in the tournament, as they ran through the tournament while beating teams such as Syracuse, Kansas State, and Michigan State. In the championship game, they faced Duke.
The game lived up to the hype; it was close for the whole forty minutes. However, Butler could not hit any shots at the end of the game, and Duke held on for the win. Gordon Hayward had two chances to make the game winning shot and almost made a half-court shot to win it, but the ball hit the backboard and bounced off the rim. Thus, it ended Butler’s “Cinderella” run and gave Duke the championship.
On the women’s side, the tournament just didn’t measure up to the men’s side. However, a display of dominance showed that is rare in either men’s or women’s college basketball. The Connecticut Huskies, led by Maya Moore, won the national championship for the second straight year and now hold a 78-game winning streak. To put that into perspective, it is almost as long as the UCLA record men’s winning streak, which stands at 88 games. Regardless whether a person loves or hates women’s college basketball, they have to admit that Connecticut’s accomplishment is downright impressive.
NCAA college basketball tournaments have always had those exciting moments, but this year was just spectacular. Consider this: one-third of all the games in the NCAA men’s tournament were decided by five points or less. It had a little bit of everything right from the start. Upset wins, exciting down-to-the-wire games, athletic basketball players, heartbreaking moments for injured players such as Kalin Lucas of Michigan State and Dasean Butler of West Virginia, drama, and a near-perfect ending all add up to one fantastic tournament.