No. 1: North Carolina State vs. Houston, 1983

One Great Season has spent the last couple of months counting down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. Today's No. 1 is the 1983 thriller between upstart North Carolina State and heavyweight Houston at The Pit in Albuquerque.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

If you've seen one NCAA Tournament highlight more than Christian Laettner's buzzer-beating dagger to beat Kentucky in 1992, it's no doubt the Dereck Whittenburg airball slammed home by North Carolina State's Lorenzo Charles, also at the buzzer, to give the Wolfpack the 1983 national championship.

In most circles, this game or the 1985 championship matchup between Villanova and Georgetown are regarded as the two best title games in modern college basketball history. In both cases, a heavy favorite was upended by a team that seemingly had no chance to win. N.C. State's triumph, however, is more memorable because it ended on such a miraculous shot.

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COUNTING DOWN THE TOP GAMES + No. 2: Villanova vs. Georgetown, 1985
+ No. 3: Kentucky vs Arizona, 1997
+ No. 4: Syracuse vs. Indiana, 1987
+ No. 5: Kansas vs. Memphis, 2008
+ No. 6: Michigan vs. Seton Hall, 1989
+ No. 7: Syracuse vs. Kansas, 2003
+ No. 8: Georgetown vs. North Carolina, 1982
+ No. 9: Duke vs. Connecticut, 1999
+ No. 10: Indiana State vs. Michigan State, 1979

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Also making the Wolfpack's run exciting was the dramatic fashion in which most of the team's tournament games ended. Not only was that Houston finish a nailbiter that kept this seventh-grader up long past bedtime, but Jim Valvano's bunch won three of its first four tournament games by a grand total of four points, including a 63-62 defeat of the West Region No. 1 seed Virginia and All-American center Ralph Sampson in the Elite Eight.

Meanwhile, Houston and its fraternity of high-flying dunk artists known as Phi Slamma Jamma, won its first four tournament games by a total of 48 games, reaching the 89-point mark in each of its last two outings before Valvano would instruct his team to slow the pace in the title game.

Whittenburg and point guard Sidney Lowe ran an efficient backcourt so impressive that I went to the local sporting goods store to get my very own knee brace to match Whittenburg's. The next few months when I played ball in the neighborhood, I hung out on the perimeter and banged home threes, announcing to my playmates something like, "Whittenburg does it again" or "Whittenburg cannot be stopped" or "Wise is taking over this game ... bum knee and all."

If the visual of the Whittenburg-to-Charles game-winner is forever etched in your memory, then so too must be the image of Valvano scrambling around in the frantic next moments, looking desperately for someone to hug.

And when the dust had settled, North Carolina State had shocked the college basketball world and given broadcasters an extension on the license to make frequent references to Cinderella or David and Goliath.

No. 2: Villanova vs. Georgetown, 1985

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. Today's No. 2 is the 1985 classic between Big East rivals Villanova and Georgetown in Lexington.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

This game was so significant in the recent history of college basketball that HBO made one of its excellent sports documentaries about Villanova's remarkable upset.

Thanks to the growing popularity of ESPN and its college hoops pet project -- the Big East Conference -- the Patrick Ewing-led Hoyas had no trouble building its bully reputation in the early 1980s. Georgetown played on television frequently, and by the time the 1985 national championship game rolled around, fans of the sport either loved or hated the Hoyas.

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COUNTING DOWN THE TOP GAMES + No. 3: Kentucky vs Arizona, 1997
+ No. 4: Syracuse vs. Indiana, 1987
+ No. 5: Kansas vs. Memphis, 2008
+ No. 6: Michigan vs. Seton Hall, 1989
+ No. 7: Syracuse vs. Kansas, 2003
+ No. 8: Georgetown vs. North Carolina, 1982
+ No. 9: Duke vs. Connecticut, 1999
+ No. 10: Indiana State vs. Michigan State, 1979

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In Ewing's impressive freshman season, John Thompson's team barely lost to North Carolina in the 1982 title game, won the championship in 1984 and found itself a year later needing one more win to get itself into the conversation about college basketball dynasties. Ewing was the undisputed team leader all four of his years there.

Upstart Villanova, with seemingly no match for Ewing inside or Reggie Williams on the wing, pulled off one of college sports' best-ever upsets because it was stronger in only one area: The Wildcats made nine-of-10 field goals in the second half and shot 79 percent from the field for the entire game.

Going into that game, the idea that even a hot-shooting team could beat Georgetown would get laughed out. Great wouldn't be good enough; you had to play perfectly to top the Hoyas.

And although that Villanova team will be remembered as one that played with great heart, Georgetown didn't lack fire or even play poorly. The game is remembered as an upset -- HBO's program is called "Perfect Upset," in fact -- but there was no fluky buzzer-beater or phantom timeout. It was just one team being slightly better than the other.

No. 3: Kentucky vs. Arizona, 1997

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. Today's No. 3 is the 1997 overtime thriller between Kentucky and Arizona in Indianapolis.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Living in Cincinnati in the 1990s, I found it easy to dislike Kentucky fans. Rick Pitino had the Wildcats on top of the college basketball world year after year it seemed.

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COUNTING DOWN THE TOP GAMES + No. 4: Syracuse vs. Indiana, 1987
+ No. 5: Kansas vs. Memphis, 2008
+ No. 6: Michigan vs. Seton Hall, 1989
+ No. 7: Syracuse vs. Kansas, 2003
+ No. 8: Georgetown vs. North Carolina, 1982
+ No. 9: Duke vs. Connecticut, 1999
+ No. 10: Indiana State vs. Michigan State, 1979

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UK fans have long been regarded as some of the most obnoxious in college sports. Sure they support their team like no other fan base, but while a game takes typically two hours to play, the boasting is around the clock all year long.

So it wasn't difficult to enjoy watching Lute Olsen get that March monkey off his back by coaching Arizona to the national championship in 1997 at the expense of Big Blue. The championship game in Indianapolis was loaded with talent; Arizona had Miles Simon, Mike Bibby and Jason Terry, while Kentucky rolled people all season long with Ron Mercer, Scott Padgett, Anthony Epps and a deep bench that accounted for 30 points in the title game.

Epps made a three-pointer late in regulation to send the game into overtime, but once Arizona earned a slight margin, it held on by making free throws. In fact, all 10 of Arizona's points in the extra session came from the stripe, including Simon's four in the final 41 seconds to seal the 84-79 victory. Simon finished with 30 points in the final en route to being named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player.

It was an impressive March for Arizona, which became the first team to beat three No. 1 seeds in a tournament. Had the Catfight not gone Arizona's way, Kentucky might have been the first team to have won three straight titles since the UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and 70s. Pitino guided the Wildcats to the 1996 national championship and Tubby Smith led UK to the crown in 1998.

No. 4: Syracuse vs. Indiana, 1987

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. Today's No. 4 is the 1987 classic between Indiana and Syracuse in New Orleans.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I was supposed to attend my first concert ever on this night, but a Cleveland snowstorm turned my plans to see Bon Jovi into an evening alone in the basement watching Indiana and Syracuse. Not a terrible consolation by any stretch.

Unless the Hoosiers were playing Ohio State back then, I almost always rooted for Bob Knight and Indiana. But my high school basketball teammates and I were big fans of the Big East, so it was hard not to root for freshman phenom Derrick Coleman and that funny-looking coach with the glasses.

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COUNTING DOWN THE TOP GAMES + No. 5: Kansas vs. Memphis, 2008
+ No. 6: Michigan vs. Seton Hall, 1989
+ No. 7: Syracuse vs. Kansas, 2003
+ No. 8: Georgetown vs. North Carolina, 1982
+ No. 9: Duke vs. Connecticut, 1999
+ No. 10: Indiana State vs. Michigan State, 1979

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In such a dilemma, the only thing a teen can then hope for is to see a good game. And that's precisely what America got.

The game was a close one throughout, and when Coleman missed a free throw with 27 seconds left, Indiana legend Steve Alford, who led the Hoosiers all season long, brought the ball upcourt, hoping to set up one final shot for himself.

But it was his backcourtmate Keith Smart who got the best look. He knocked down a baseline jumper with four seconds left to give Indiana the 74-73 lead and Knight his third and final national championship.

Smart, who endured an up-and-down career under Knight, finished the season on the highest of high notes, and even joked after the game that teammate Daryl Thomas made the wise move of kicking the ball back out to Smart to set up the heroic shot.

"I'd like to thank Daryl for not taking that last shot and passing it back out to me," he said. "It was a wise decision on his part."

After the chaos of the winning shot, Syracuse didn't call a timeout until only one second remained. That's when Smart intercepted the three-quarter court pass and heaved the ball skwyard, setting off the great celebration just a few miles down the road from his native Baton Rouge.

No. 5: Kansas vs. Memphis, 2008

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. Today's No. 5 is the 2008 overtime thriller between Kansas and Memphis in San Antonio.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Mario Chalmers will forever be remembered as the hero for Kansas, but college basketball fans probably won't soon forget Memphis' terrible free-throw shooting that allowed Chalmers' late three to even matter.

KU trailed by nine points with barely more than two minutes left, but the Tigers missed four of five freebies down the stretch as the Jayhawks mounted their furious comeback.

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COUNTING DOWN THE TOP GAMES + No. 6: Michigan vs. Seton Hall, 1989
+ No. 7: Syracuse vs. Kansas, 2003
+ No. 8: Georgetown vs. North Carolina, 1982
+ No. 9: Duke vs. Connecticut, 1999
+ No. 10: Indiana State vs. Michigan State, 1979

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Kansas guard Sherron Collins brought the ball up on Kansas' final possession in regulation, handed to Chalmers, who dribbled once to his left, then launched the game-tying shot that the following week would grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.

And once overtime began, one team enjoyed the momentum while the other went searching for a Zoloft prescription. Kansas took advantage of its second life and ran away with its first national championship in 20 years, 75-68.

No account of this game can be provided without a mention of Derrick Rose, Memphis' electrifying freshman point guard who almost single-handedly led the Tigers to the title. Rose blossomed in the second half, scoring on driving layups and long-range bombs. His off-balanced rainbow banked in as the shot clock expired, giving Memphis a late eight-point cushion. But the officials later overturned the three-point ruling and said Rose's foot was on the line.

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No. 6: Michigan vs. Seton Hall, 1989

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. Today's No. 6 is the 1989 overtime classic between Michigan and Seton Hall in Seattle.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Quite fitting it was that a great decade of championship games closed with the NCAA's first final in 26 years to reach overtime, where Michigan's Rumeal Robinson sank two free throws with three seconds left to turn a one-point deficit into an 80-79 victory over Seton Hall.

This game for some reason gets lost in the shuffle of the sport's great championship events. Perhaps it's because the side stories are the ones that endure more than the end result.

Particularly the one about Steve Fisher, the loyal assistant under Bill Frieder until Frieder told Michigan AD Bo Schembechler he was leaving to take the Arizona State job after the season. Schembechler, the legendary football coach at the legendary
football school, incorporated some legendary football logic when he famously said, "A Michigan man will coach Michigan." Frieder was fired and Fisher took over the Wolverines the day before the tournament started.

Or maybe it was the one about Glen Rice, whose 184 points (30.7 per game) in Fisher's first six games as head coach -- all tournament wins -- still stand
 as the most in an NCAA Tournament. Rice scored 31 points in the final, slightly outdone by Seton Hall's John Morton, who finished with 35 of his own. But it was Rice who celebrated like a king that night in Seattle.

Perhaps it's just as likely the sidebar we best recall is the one about Robinson, typically a poor foul shooter, who shouldn't even have been at the line in the first place, according to some.

Driving through the lane, presumably preparing to pass, Robinson's defender, an old playground buddy named Gerald Greene, was called for a questionable hand-check foul. Michigan's point guard, shooting 64 percent from the line, knocked down both foul shots to give the Wolverines the victory, making the brand new coach look like a great one. It was only two years later that Fisher would sign the greatest freshmen class ever. The Fab Five, headlined by Chris Webber and Jalen Rose, would lead Michigan back to the NCAA title game in 1992 and 1993, but would lose to ACC powers Duke and North Carolina, and after that, the Wolverines went back to being a football school.

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No. 7: Syracuse vs. Kansas, 2003

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. In observance of President's Day, OGS took last week off, but today's No. 7 is the 2003 title game between Syracuse and Kansas.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Finally.

That was about my reaction when longtime Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim won that elusive first national championship.

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I'd become a fan of Big East basketball in the mid-1980s, shortly after the league's inception, and quickly began to favor the Orange. Boeheim came close in 1987 before losing a heartbreaker to Indiana, then lost again in the title game nine years later to a loaded Kentucky team. The third time in a national championship game proved to be the charm for Boeheim's bunch, which held off a late rally by Kansas at the Louisiana Superdome.

But it wasn't easy. Star freshman Carmelo Anthony carried the Orange throughout the season, but he was held scoreless in the final 13 minutes of the game. And the Orange let Kansas trim a 12-point deficit to just three in the final minutes, requiring a heroic defensive play to preserve the win.

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COUNTING DOWN THE TOP GAMES + No. 8: Georgetown vs. North Carolina, 1982
+ No. 9: Duke vs. Connecticut, 1999
+ No. 10: Indiana State vs. Michigan State, 1979

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Syracuse led, 81-78, when Hakim Warrick missed two free throws with eight seconds left. At the other end a moment later, Kansas got a great look for a three-point attempt when guard Kirk Hinrich found Michael Lee alone in the corner. Lee launched his shot, but Warrick came out of nowhere to redeem himself for the missed freebies. He swatted Lee's attempt out of bounds with less than a second left. KU got another chance, but Hinrich couldn't convert and the Syracuse celebration was on.

That game also might be remembered for Bonnie Bernstein's insensitive postgame interview with then-Kansas coach Roy Williams, which you can read about here.

No. 8: Georgetown vs. North Carolina, 1982

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. In observance of President's Day, OGS took last week off, but today's No. 8 is the 1982 title game between upstart Georgetown and a stacked North Carolina team.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

It will forever be remembered by casual sports fans as the game where that one guy threw the ball to the other team.

But those who've followed college basketball closely over the years would say the 1982 national championship game between Georgetown and North Carolina was one of the best in the last 30 years.

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An imposing Georgetown freshman center named Patrick Ewing repeatedly was whistled for goaltending early in the game, but his coach, John Thompson, an intimidator himself, urged Ewing to keep doing it to send a message to the favored Tar Heels.

And eventually, Georgetown found itself in position to win the game until UNC's own rookie sensation, Michael Jordan, swished a baseline jumper with 15 seconds left to give his team a 63-62 lead. When the Hoyas brought the ball up to try to set up a game-winning shot, unpressured guard Fred Brown accidentally threw the ball to North Carolina's James Worthy near midcourt, and Worthy raced the other way until he was fouled with two seconds left.

The win gave legendary coach Dean Smith his first national championship, but Ewing and the Hoyas would play in two more title games in the next three years, winning the 1984 championship over Houston.

No. 9: Duke vs. Connecticut, 1999

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. Today's No. 9 is the 1999 championship game between Connecticut and Duke, played in St. Petersburg, Fla.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Connecticut and Duke were the only teams to be ranked No. 1 during the 1998-99 regular season, so when the Huskies and Blue Devils won their Final Four semifinal games on March 27, expectations for a great title game shot through the roof of Tropicana Field.

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And the sides didn't disappoint two nights later. UConn won its first national championship, 77-74, over a seemingly unbeatable Duke team that was playing in its eighth title game.

The Blue Devils hadn't lost since November and were going for an NCAA record 38 victories, as well as the school's third national championship.

Connecticut, meanwhile, was a fairly new player in the elite class of college basketball. The Huskies got to the Elite Eight to open the 1990s, only to lose to Duke when Christian Laettner's buzzer-beater sent the Devils to the Final Four.

But to close the decade during which Duke won two national titles, Connecticut earned its first crown for coach Jim Calhoun by playing an up-tempo game that many thought would have favored Duke's more athletic players.

The Huskies, however, got 27 points from All-American Richard Hamilton, as well as two huge defensive stops late in the game.

Connecticut's Ricky Moore, one of the top defenders in the country, got great positioning to force Duke's sharpshooting guard, Trajan Langdon, into a late traveling violation. Moments later, UConn's Khalid El-Amin converted two free throws to stretch the Huskies' lead to 77-74 with 5.2 seconds left.

And when Duke looked for Langdan on its final possession, the fifth-year senior couldn't even get a potential game-tying shot launched because he fell near the three-point arc and lost control of the ball.

With that, UConn had its crown and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was left to ponder a sixth title-game loss.

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The Top 10 National Championship Games Since 1979 + No. 10: Indiana State vs. Michigan State, 1979

No. 10: Indiana State vs. Michigan State, 1979

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. Today's No. 10 is actually that 1979 game between Indiana State and Michigan State.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

That Michigan State beat Indiana State, 75-64, is almost irrelevant.

The 1979 national championship is known as the game that really put the great sport of basketball on the map. The TV map, at least.

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Sure, there were great Final Fours long before Larry Bird and Magic Johnson led their teams to Salt Lake City, but this one in particular, thanks to those two, introduced the nation to what would become arguably the biggest sporting event in America: March Madness.

Contrasting styles made the Bird-Magic rivalry intriguing for a national television audience that to this day remains the most watched national championship game in NCAA history.

One was a hillbilly, blue-collar white kid from rural Indiana against a flashy magician with a million-dollar smile. One was a lights-out shooter, the other an assist king who practically patented the no-look pass. Each made his teammates around him better, and both filled up their stat sheets by being multi-dimensional.

On the night that Bird and Magic closed out their brilliant collegiate careers, a great American rivalry was born and even more sparkling NBA careers awaited for them both. The fiery competitors would become great friends despite their three head-to-head NBA Finals matchups. Magic's Lakers would take two of those three and five championships overall, while Bird's Celtics won a total of three NBA titles. All 10 of the NBA Finals played in the 1980s included at least one of these teams.

In fact, when the Celtics edged the Lakers in 1984, the seventh game of that series drew the largest television audience in NBA history, and the second-largest audience to ever watch a basketball game, behind -- you guessed it -- that 1979 NCAA title game.