I men’s basketball to finish the season with an unbeaten record. That Indiana team, led by future NBA players like Scott May, Kent Benson, and Quinn Buckner, was the last team Div. It was the first national championship game played by teams from the same conference. The unbeaten Indiana Hoosiers, coached by legendary coach Bobby Knight, defeated Big-Ten rival Michigan. The 1976 Final Four was played at the Spectrum. That epic 1992 Duke-Kentucky is considered the greatest college basketball game of all time. Laettner finished that game without missing a shot going 10-for-10 from the field. The Blue Devils would eventually win the national championship. Hill loft a long pass to Laettner who caught it at the foul line, turned, and sank the basket at the buzzer to give Duke the win. With Duke needing to go the length of the floor, Kentucky inexplicably had no one guarding Grant Hill on the inbounds pass. With Duke leading by one, Kentucky’s six-foot-2 senior point guard Sean Woods lofted a one-handed 14-foot shot over the 6-11 Laettner to give the Wildcats a 103-102 lead with 2.1 seconds left. Both teams shot 50 percent from the three-point range and 61 percent from the field overall.Įvery time it looked like Duke was going to pull away, Kentucky, led by Mashburn’s 28 points, kept the game close and it eventually went into overtime. Playing under Pitino’s up-tempo, three-point shooting style, the Wildcats played even with Duke. The Wildcats were led by sophomore forward Jamal Mashburn and four seniors. The Blue Devils came into that regional final at the Spectrum as the defending national champions and were on a mission to be the first team to win back-to-back national championships since UCLA did it in 19.ĭuke had a team of bonafide superstars in Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, and Grant Hill and they were heavy favorites to get past an underdog Kentucky squad that was playing in its first NCAA Tournament in four years after they were on probation from 1989 to 1991 because of recruiting violations that occurred under former coach Eddie Sutton. On March 28, 1992, the Duke Blue Devils and the Kentucky Wildcats battled each other in an epic back and forth game that ended on a last-second shot in overtime. It was played at the old Spectrum a few yards away from the Wells Fargo Center It is fitting and perhaps ironic that the East Regional is being held in Philadelphia because this is the 30 th anniversary of one of the greatest games in the history of college basketball. The winners of Friday’s games will meet in Sunday’s East Regional Final for a berth in the Final Four in New Orleans on Saturday, April 2.

The Bruins (11) and the Tarheels (six) have a combined 17 national championships and 236 wins in the NCAA Tournament 4 seed UCLA Bruins (27-7), who went to the Final Four last season. The second regional semi-final game (9:40 p.m.) will feature two college basketball blue bloods-No.8 seed North Carolina Tar Heels (26-9), who upset defending national champion Baylor, going up against No. 2 seed Kentucky in the first round and No. March Madness returns to the Wells Fargo Center this weekend and the four teams vying for the East Regional crown and a trip to the Final Four are hoping to add their names to Philadelphia’s storied NCAA Tournament legacy.įriday’s first East Regional semi-final game (7:09 p.m.) features the Cinderella team of the tournament No. From Wilt Chamberlain, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, and Sonny Hill to Julius Erving, Allen Iverson, John Chaney, and Dawn Staley, you can’t have a true discussion of the game that doesn’t involve Philly.īut while Philadelphia has been the home of many of the game’s legends, it’s also played host to some of the most iconic games ever played as part of the NCAA’s Men’s Basketball Tournament, or as it’s better known, March Madness. The number of basketball icons that have called the City of Brotherly Love home grows longer every day. Whether you are a native-born Philadelphian or someone who has covered sports here for the last 15 years as a sportswriter, there’s no way to be anything other than impressed with the part that Philadelphia has played in the history of basketball. It’s already been the scene of some of the tournament’s most iconic moments. Philadelphia is playing host to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament this weekend.

One shining moment history