NCAA musings

SPORTING GOODS

This comment made me think of perhaps the only game I still rue not having found a bookie for: the first round game of twenty years ago between the Alonzo Mourning-led Georgetown Hoyas and the Pete Carrill-led Princeton Tigers.

The line was outrageous. Was it thirty? It didn't matter, but those who knew Ivy League basketball knew better. There was absolutely no way the Hoyas could win in a rout, because Princeton would never allow them that many shots. Final score: G'town 50, Princeton 49.

How was this possible? you might ask. There was no shot clock in those days, so Princeton could take its sweet time before it took a shot—which was invariably a layup after dozens of screens, cuts, and passes.

Once the solons of the NCAA instituted the shot clock, games like this classic became impossible, and, I might add, marginal teams (i.e., those with an 12th or lower seed) never again had a chance to advance very far.