DAILY DIRT: NCAA Tournament a masterful mishmash of memories and expectations

Daily Dirt for Friday, March 21, 2025

Pitino, the graybeard, may not have received the credit he is due … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,234 of The Daily Dirt

1. Here are 10 things to consider as the NCAA Tournament enters day two on Friday.

1. I know Rick Pitino has rubbed some people the wrong way over the years, but college basketball seems a little better with him once more in the NCAA Tournament spotlight. Let’s not forget that Pitino is the only coach to take six different schools to the Big Dance. He’s also the lone coach to win national championships at two different schools. In his second year at St. John’s, Pitino has led the school to a level of success it has not enjoyed since the mid-1980s. Most importantly, Pitino, who has also coached in the NBA, is one year older than me at 72. Us graybeards have to stick together.

2. Does anyone else ever wonder what CBS studio analysts Clark Kellogg and Wally Szczerbiak do the rest of the year? The only time we see them is during the NCAA Tournament. And yes, I had to look up how to spell Szczerbiak.

3. What Cinderella story has been your NCAA favorite over the years? I may lean toward the back-to-back performances by unheralded Butler, which reached back-to-back Final Fours in 2011 and 2012.

4. My favorite individual performance in the tournament, at least since the turn of the century, is probably Steph Curry’s memorable showing against Gonzaga in 2008. The future NBA star scored 30 points in the second half of Davidson’s 82-76 first-round upset of the Zags. He had 40 for the game.

5. If we’re talking old school, I’ll always remember Bill Bradley of Princeton dropping 58 in a 1965 third-place game (they don’t even have those anymore) against Wichita State. And yes, I saw Austin Carr score 61 against an overmatched Ohio University team in 1970.

6. I think the most memorable (or at least the most-hyped) NCAA Tournament TV game will always be the Indiana State-Michigan State championship matchup on a Monday night in 1979. Michigan State won the game 75-64, but I think we’ll always look at that game as Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird. Magic had 24 and Bird 19.

7. The best network announcer/analyst in the history of the NCAA Tournament? Hands down, it was Al McGuire. Ahhh … the days of “aircraft carriers,” “cupcakes” and “French pastry”. McGuire served as an analyst for 23 years. He died in 2001 at age 72.

8. I don’t intend to try and place a black mark on the legacy of the late, great John Wooden, who led UCLA to 10 national championships in 27 years at the school, but I think it’s important to point out one thing. In those years (1964-75), the NCAA regionals were based far more on geography than they are today. UCLA, which had a tremendous program, always emerged from a much weaker West Region. There were years when UCLA was never truly tested until the Final Four.

9. The greatest single NCAA Tournament game ever? It will always be hard to beat the 1992 regional final between bluebloods Duke and Kentucky. That was the game Christian Laettner nailed the long-range jumper with 2.1 seconds remaining, lifting Duke to a 104-103 victory. It’s also one of the most replayed moments in NCAA history this time of the year.

10. If you felt like something was missing from Thursday’s first round of games, you were like me. There was no Greg Gumble coordinating the CBS broadcast. Gumble died in late December from pancreatic cancer, and his calming influence atop an always hectic tournament backdrop was sorely absent. Gumble was 78 when he passed.

2. Did you know that (Part 309)

• That there is a toilet museum in New Delhi, India.
• That the letter “q” is the only letter that does not appear in any U.S. state name.
• That the word “strength” is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel.
• That there is only one jail in the country of Liechtenstein.
• That the filling of KitKat candy bars is made from the remains of damaged KitKats.

3. This week’s celebrity birthday tips o’ the hat go to:

• Actor Timothy Dalton turns 81 on Friday. Arguably the worst James Bond ever.
• Actor Matthew Broderick will be 63, also on Friday. He’ll always be remembered as Ferris Bueller.
• Entertainer Rosie O’Donnell will also be 63 on Friday. She moved to Ireland not long ago in protest to the political climate in the U.S.
• Sportscaster Bob Costas turns 73 on Saturday. In his prime, Costas was one of the best ever.
• Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning turns 49 on Monday. He’s the funnier of the Manning brothers.

Steve Thought O’ The Day – Liechtenstein may have just one jail, but it does have a lot of vowels.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. If Liechtenstein had a sports team, would it be called the Lickers?