In his new book, “Dick Vitale’s Fabulous 50 Players & Moments in College Basketball,” the ESPN analyst, with co-author Dick Weiss of the New York Daily News, rated the top March Madness players and moments. But I had not seen an interesting little book, "The Enlightened Bracketologist; The Final Four of Everything," published last year, that showed up today in the Sports department.
And by "everything," editors Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir meant everything from marital arguments to Shakespeare insults, with contributions from different experts and journalists..
First up: March Madness Moments, written by CBS Sportsline.com columnist Gary Parrish. Talk about a debate starter. Each of these is done as an NCAA-like bracket, so in round one, Jim Valvano's frantic jog after Lorenzo Charles' title-winning dunk in the 1983 title game beats out the dunk itself. UNC's Sean May winning the title on his birthday beats Elvin Hayes being eliminated from the 1968 all-tournament team but loses in the second round to Texas Western's 1966 championship.
Michael Jordan's 1982 shot against Georgetown beats Scotty Thurman's to beat Duke in 1994 but somehow loses to Rumeal Robinson's title-winning free throws for Michigan in 1989.
Christian Laettner's 1992 shot to beat Kentucky in the regional finals eventually knocks off the Magic-Bird final in 1979, Villanova's "perfect" title game in 1985 and Texas Western to emerge as the most memorable moment. Jimmy V was ousted by Chris Webber's blown timeout call of 1993, with this explanation from Parrish: "At the time, we thought Valvano was looking for someone to hug. Years later, though, we learned he was simply running from accusations of NCAA rules violations. But Webber's brain-locked call for a timeout he didn't have with 11 ticks left in the title game doomed Michigan and turned the Wolverines into the Fab Five Minus a Dumb One."
Vitale's top five moments: N.C. State’s 1983 national championship, Laettner’s shot against Kentucky, Villanova’s “perfect game," Keith Smart’s jump shot that gave Indiana the 1987 title over Syracuse and Jordan’s jumper.
