Author : our esteemed friend and college football/basketball writer @MattZemek, Editor at @TrojansWire .
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Every sport has a handful of games which never leave the public memory and never exit the national conversation. You remember where you were when those games happened. The arrival of a new season or postseason recalls those memories more than other memories for the national community of fans, pundits and journalists. The game becomes a constant reference point, a marker in time, a part of history which will never die for generations of people who are connected to sports.
In the NFL, the Ice Bowl, Super Bowl III, the Dolphins’ perfect season (completed in Super Bowl VII), the Steelers-Cowboys Super Bowls of the 1970s, and The Catch were the immortal moments I learned about as a little boy. I consciously remember seeing The Catch as a six-year-old kid in January of 1982. Younger NFL fans who were at least 10-12 years old in February of 2008 remember David Tyree’s helmet catch and the denial of the New England Patriots’ perfect season. They remember Malcolm Butler’s interception of Russell Wilson on the goal line at the end of Super Bowl XLIX. They remember 28-3, and how Tom Brady and the Patriots came back from that deficit against the Atlanta Falcons. They remember Nick Foles upsetting an in-form Brady in Super Bowl LII, complete with the “Philly Special.”
In the NBA, the Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals of the 1980s represented — as a group — the iconic basketball experience for legions of new professional hoops fans. Michael Jordan’s 1990s run with the Chicago Bulls falls into a similar category, his 1998 walk-off in Salt Lake City probably being the most indelible memory of all. LeBron James bringing a world title to Cleveland and overcoming a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors is easily the defining mountaintop moment of NBA basketball from the past 10 years. We will talk about that series 50 years from now, when LeBron is a great-grandfather.
In Major League Baseball, a sport drenched in history at a level other sports aren’t, the iconic and seminal moments stand out very, very easily from the past 50 years:
- Game 6 of the 1975 World Series
- Reggie Jackson’s three home runs in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series against the Dodgers
- The 1986 playoffs, capped by the Bill Buckner error and the Mets extending the Red Sox’ “Curse of the Bambino”
- Kirk Gibson off Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series
- The late 1990s Yankee dynasty
- The 2001 World Series which went into November and had Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson push the Diamondbacks past the Yankees in an unforgettable seven-game duel, with Mariano Rivera giving up the deciding run on a bloop hit
- The Cubs’ spectacular collapse against the Marlins in 2003
- The Red Sox coming back from a 3-0 series deficit against the Yankees to win it all in 2004
- Game 6 of the 2011 World Series
- The Cubs winning the World Series in 2016
There are certain moments or games you will never forget — and which you will never stop talking about — as a sports fan or observer. They will constantly re-enter your conversations, your recollections.
You will ask your friends, “Does this game compare with X?”
For example, after Gonzaga’s remarkable 93-90 win over UCLA on Saturday, anyone who has closely followed college basketball immediately asked, “Does this game compare with 1992 Duke-Kentucky?”
Generations of college basketball fans and journalists know that 1992 Duke-Kentucky is and has been the gold standard. It is that touchstone game we always call forth when another great game emerges, such as 2019 Virginia-Purdue or 2016 Villanova-North Carolina. The simple act of asking that question — “Does this compare to 1992 Duke-Kentucky?” — is itself the answer.
Is it better? Is it almost as good? Those answers might be worth exploring, but the larger point is that everyone in the room knows it belongs in the conversation. Do you really need to know anything else?
In 2031, we’ll be talking about this game. In 2041, 2051, 2061, we’ll be talking about this game.
The UCLA Bruins shot the ball the way 1985 Villanova shot the ball against Georgetown, and they received the free throw luck of 1983 North Carolina State in this game and this whole NCAA Tournament. UCLA contained the ingredients of two all-time Cinderella national champions in college basketball. You could say the Bruins also had the ingredient of a third unlikely champ: Johnny Juzang carried them the way Danny Manning carried the Kansas Jayhawks all the way in 1988.
UCLA had EVERY POSSIBLE CINDERELLA INGREDIENT working in its favor. The 1985 Villanova comparison is magnified by Cody Riley, a big man who just kept pumping in 17-foot jumpers. I followed the Pac-12 this year. Cody Riley was nowhere near that good as a jump shooter. It was ridiculous. He and the other Bruins played out of their freaking MINDS on offense. Cody Riley was to this UCLA team and this game what Villanova’s Harold Jensen was in that 1985 upset of Georgetown: the unlikely offensive cog who has the game he will never forget. Jensen was 5 of 5 from the field and 4 of 5 at the foul line — 10 shots taken, nine made. Riley was 7 of 14, but he made every key shot late in the game. He had five assists with no turnovers. He grabbed 10 boards and clogged the lane for Gonzaga’s cutters. He played his best game of the whole season.
Everything — EVERYTHING — UCLA hoped to achieve in this game, it did… except winning.
Gonzaga was resilient. Gonzaga wasn’t scared, the way 1991 UNLV and 2015 Kentucky were when they lost perfect seasons at a Final Four semifinal in Indianapolis. UCLA played the quintessential perfect game (not technically perfect, but perfect in the sense that one can’t imagine any team in a similar position doing any better), and still lost.
We will talk about this game the rest of our lives.
When younger fans grow into college basketball in 2025 or 2030, and they ask us older folks, “What’s the greatest game ever?”, we might still say 1992 Duke-Kentucky, but we will tell them, “The most recent great game of all time was 2021 UCLA-Gonzaga.” Younger fans will learn to use this game as a reference point for whatever comes along in the 2030s or 2040s.
This is a game which will never die.
What an appropriate way to end on this Easter Sunday.
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