The 5 best men's college basketball championship games *ever*

Tonight's the night!

On paper, tonight’s NCAA men’s championship games between #1 seed UCONN and #1 seed Purdue has the makings of an all-time great one.

You have two giants — Purdue’s 7’4” Zach Edey vs UCONN’s 7’2” Donovan Clingan. You have two well known coaches — UCONN’s Danny Hurley and Purdue’s Matt Painter. (Both, by the way, were very good college hoops players in their own right!) You have the two best teams all year facing off for the title.

So, it should be a good game. Emphasis on “should.” Because, like the Super Bowl, a lot of times the NCAA Championship game has been, well, a dud. Last year, for example UCONN crushed San Diego State by 17 points. In 2021, Baylor beat Gonzaga by 16.

There are at least as many blowouts as there have been close games in the history of the men’s tournament.

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But, there is NOTHING better than a close game for the national championship. And over the eight decades of men’s NCAA tournaments, we’ve had a few legendary games.

So, I thought in advance of tonight’s game, I would go through the best championship games in the history of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. My picks are below! What did I miss? Tell me in the comments section!

(Sidebar: The history of the women’s tournament is FAR shorter — it only started in 1982. This is a good list of the best women’s championship games.)

5. Texas Western vs Kentucky (1966). Unlike the other games on this list, there was no buzzer beater to end this one. No major gaffe was made. But, this was history as the all-black starting lineup for Texas Western beat the all-white Kentucky Wildcats for the national championship. (It was the first time 5 black players had all started in a championship game.) The game has widely been cited by historians as a major moment in the fight for civil rights in America. A movie — “Glory Road” — has been made about it. Two fun facts: 1) The game was played at Cole Fieldhouse at the University of Maryland 2) It was not televised.

4. Georgetown vs Villanova (1985): To my mind, this is the biggest upset in the history of the men’s tournament. (And, as a Georgetown fan, the memory still pains me!) Georgetown was ridiculously dominant through the year. They were 35-2 entering the championship game — led by a who’s who of college basketball royalty: Patrick Ewing, David Wingate and Reggie Williams to name three. They had stomped on St. John’s, another top ranked team, in the national semifinals by 18 points. Villanova, on the other hand, was a lightly regard #8 seed who, seemingly, was happy just to make it to the championship game. For Villanova to win, most people believed they would have to play a perfect game. Which is, basically what they did. Milking the clock to keep the ball away from Georgetown’s offensive firepower, the Wildcats shot 22 of 28 from the floor — a stunning 78.6% In the 2nd half, Villanova took 10 shots — and made 9 of them. Final score: Villanova 66, Georgetown 64. (The game took on even more weight when Nova guard Gary McLain wrote in a cover story in Sports Illustrated that he had used cocaine during the Final Four games that year.)

3. Villanova vs North Carolina (2016): I am always wary about recency bias when writing about the “best” or “greatest” in sports. But, objectively, this game was INCREDIBLE. With 90 seconds left in the game, UNC was down 6. Then Marcus Paige, the Tarheels lefty guard, nailed a three from the corner to cut the lead in half. With Nova up three with 13 seconds left, UNC brought the ball up court and found Paige, again, on the right side of the court. A Villanova player went for the steal and slipped. Paige turned, double clutched and scissor legged his shot off from 5 feet behind the 3 point arc. He rattled it in to tie the game at 74 apiece with 4 seconds left. It’s a shot that has to be seen to be believed (also Bill Raftery screaming “ONIONS” is amazing):

I, like everyone watching the game live assumed we were headed to OT. Villanova inbounded the ball. Point guard Ryan Arcidiacono brought the ball up. He stopped and flipped the ball to his right to Kris Jenkins who had inbounded the ball and was trailing the play. And this happened:

Villanova 77, UNC 74.

2. North Carolina vs Georgetown (1982). Take a minute to consider the talent on both sides of the court. The UNC starting five included James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty and a freshman guard named Michael Jordan. Georgetown countered with Eric “Sleepy” Floyd and Ewing, one of the most dominant players in college basketball history. As befitting that insane level of talent, it was a back and forth game throughout. Floyd hit a foul line jumper with just under a minute to play that gave Georgetown a 62-61 lead. Then, with 15 seconds left, the ball is kicked at the left elbow to Jordan, who rises up and nails the jumper to put the Tarheels up 1. (Which, I would argue, is where the legend of Jordan began.) But, that isn’t even the most famous play of the game. Because Georgetown grabbed the ball out of the net, inbounded it and rushed it up court. Which is when Hoya guard Fred Brown did this:

Yes, he threw the ball directly to Worthy. Hell, they made a whole documentary about it!

1. NC State vs Houston (1983). Cinderellas almost never wind up winning. This year was an exception as NC State, who was the first 10-loss team ever to win the national championship, managed to beat the Houston Cougars, who boasted not one but two future NBA Hall of Famers: Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. After leading for much of the first half, NC State found itself behind in the latter stages of the 2nd half as Houston reeled off a 17-2 run. But, down the stretch, Houston missed a bunch of free throws — opening the door for NC State. Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano called timeout with 44 seconds left and the score tied. The team drained the clock — there was no shot clock back then! — until this happened:

NC State 54, Houston 52. Game over. Cue Valvano’s wild sprint around the court — the image that remains, for me, the lasting one of the NCAA tournament.