College Basketball As We Know and Love It This Monday Morning.

Two weeks ago,  The University of Michigan,  cheered on by fans in East Lansing, Columbus Ohio, and of course  Ann Arbor, played the University of Indiana in a  Basketball game that would decide the Big Ten (Regular Season) Championship.  

If  Michigan won its last game of the season against Indiana the Big Ten championship  would be shared amongst the four schools with four identical trophies being  awarded.

Michigan, playing at home, and once ranked number one in the nation, blew a lead that looked  certain until snatched away at the very end. Indiana won and kept the regular season title to itself much to the disappointment of fans at Crisler arena and in capitol cities elsewhere. If it is any consolation to the elsewhere crowd, Michigan didn't do it on purpose or even out of spite.

The loss gave Michigan a lousy position  in the  Big Ten Tournament. As a number five seed (or draw) Michigan wasted no time in losing to surprising Wisconsin which then surprised  Indiana, to play Ohio State in the Championship game. Ohio State, a number two seed got there by beating Michigan State. That too was surprising. So much so that a Detroit newspaper rather rudely singled out a Michigan State player for chastisement in a banner headline.

Ohio  State which did not have a basketball team (in the true sense of the word) until three days after Valentine’s Day was crowned the Big Ten (Tournament) Champion.

Almost immediately after the Big Ten Title game  the  NCAA  Men’s Basketball  Tournament Selection show began. 68 teams were selected to play in a whopping 48 basketball games in less than a week. Four would be played on Tuesday and Wednesday. 32 would be played in on Thursday and Friday and 16 more on the weekend in eight locations coast to coast.

The Palace of Auburn Hills was one of the eight locations chosen.

 The NCAA  Basketball Tournament and the Motor City  have had  a nice working relationship  for decades. 

• In 1988 The Pontiac Silverdome hosted a NCAA Regional Tournament featuring four of the so-called  Sweet Sixteen Teams.   That’s the 16 teams who survived the Basketball Marathon the week prior to play for the four spots in the tournament's prestigious Final Four. Kansas was in the Detroit regional that year  and the Jay Hawks went on to win the National Title. Kansas folk often refer to the 1988 tournament run as "Danny and the Miracles." Not being Rock and Roll  or Biblical savvy  this writer has no idea of what that means. 
• In 1990 another NCAA regional was played at the Silverdome. This time Duke was the winner and the eventual National Title runner up  to the University of  Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV).
• In 2008 the City hosted an  regional NCAA regional at Ford Ford Field. Kansas, Davison, Villanova and Wisconsin competed. Kansas fans liked playing in  Detroit. Not only did it remind them of 1988, the location of all their 2008 Tournament games that year was identical the the road taken by Danny and the Miracles of twenty years prior.True to form the Jay Hawks won the regional title in a last second nail biter, and the National championship in a come from behind overtime victory.

The Detroit 2008 regional  arguably was one of most significant regional tournaments in the history of college basketball. The NCAA had long toyed with the idea of a National Championship played in a big arena where  80,000 instead of 20,000 could  attend the game  and enjoy the spirit of the Final Four, which some say is the greatest spectacle in sports. In 1968 in a regular season game,  some called the  Game of the Century, the University of Houston upset UCLA in the Astrodome.  Unfortunately the basketball court in the put in the middle of the arena seemed tiny and the players running around even smaller. In the years that followed College Basketball in the big arena meant cutting seating area in half with a giant curtain. That is how it was at NCAA  games played at the Silverdome and the Georgia Dome in 2007 which is the site of this year’s final four.The Ford Field Regional in 2008, considered a dress rehearsal for the 2009  Final Four National  Championship also played at Ford Field changed that. 

In both cases it was demonstrated that record breaking crowds could enjoy basketball in the big arena. After 2008 the NCAA Final Four moved to venues like the  Lucas Oil  Stadium in Indianapolis (2010) and Reliant Stadium in Houston (2011). Last year the New Orleans Superdome hosted the Final Four where the event  played before but in 2012, for the first time, it played before a full house. 

• In 2006 and 2013 the Place of Auburn Hills  hosted first rounds of  NCAA Tournament. That is a four game (approximately a noon to midnight extravaganza) followed a day later by a 2 game championship conclusion that sends two teams to the sweet sixteen.

This year as luck would have it, Michigan and Michigan State played the Palace most  impressively and won spots in the sweet sixteen. So  at other locations did Indiana and Ohio State. 

All four play in separate regions  which means they won't play each other until the Final Four. It also means that all four could wind up in the Final  Four which boggles the mind.  Two teams from a single conference is not uncommon. In recent Big Ten history it has happened five times  in four decades.

• In 1976 Indiana and Michigan met the title game with Indiana winning.
• In 1989 Illinois lost to Seton Hall who lost in the championship game to Michigan
• In 1999 Ohio State and Michigan State lost to UConn and  Duke before UConn won the title game.
• In 2000 Michigan State defeated Wisconsin and then Florida to win the National Championship.
• In 2005  Illinois lost to North Carolina in the final.  UNC had beaten Michigan State in the semifinals.

But four in the Final Four from  a single 

conference ?  Never. Even Big Ten enthusiast par excel lance, Dick Vitale predicts only three.

What is interesting is that two weeks ago, riding on the outcome of a single game, was the Big Ten regular season title for four schools. This week Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State, control their own destiny. A national title requires for straight wins.  A final four visit, a very worthy consolation prize requires only two. This Sunday before 60 Minutes we will know how many if any, are still dancing at the big dance.