Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

It’s Final Four week.

Or it would be if the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t caused the entire 2020 NCAA Tournament to be cancelled more than two weeks ago.

By Sunday evening the field would have been whittled down to four. Monday the discussions and conjecture about the coming semifinal contests would be in full swing.

Not this week.

I’m not going to dwell on the basketball games we won’t get to watch this week, that’s not really my style.

Instead, if I start missing basketball this week, I’m going to flood my mind with some of my favorite memories of the NCAA tournament.

The Your Prep Sports staff has a project for this week that will hopefully fill a tiny void for people that have missed filling out a bracket this season but more on that later.

Right now, it’s time to take a trip down memory lane and remember some of my favorite NCAA tournament memories.

The Family Bracket   

Perhaps the word most synonymous with the NCAA tournament – bracket. The beauty of the NCAA tournament is that it appeals to everyone regardless of the depth of their sports knowledge.

People that don’t watch a college basketball game all season fill out a bracket and take a shot at picking the national champ.

As a sports lover and basketball enthusiast the tournament was never about my bracket but for as long as I can remember each member of our family has made picks for our own family pool.

My favorite part of the tournament as a youth was filling in each line of the bracket as games were completed now I enjoy helping my own children go through the bracket to pick the teams they think (or want) to win.

The best part of the family pool is it brings all of us together. My mother, siblings, nieces, nephews and in-laws all make picks each year with more thought going into the team names than the selections themselves.

There has never been a prize other than bragging rights, there is more trash talking than actual correctly selected winners and just thinking of the name of our online bracket group makes me smile.

TV Timeouts

Before you ask if I’m crazy I’m not talking about the television timeouts that come every four minutes in today’s world of basketball.

The favorite NCAA tournament memory from my childhood was my original recollection of a ‘TV Timeout’.

As soon as the game we were watching went to commercial my brother and I would sprint to the other end of the living room for a full-contact battle on the Nerf hoop attached to the coat closet door.

When the game coverage on the television resumed our Nerf game went to break. There was strategy here folks, you didn’t want to get caught with the ball in your hands so you anticipated which commercial would be the last in an effort to get up the final shot.

My earliest memories of watching basketball are lying on my stomach next to my brother in front of the TV then springing up at commercials and flying into walls and doors during our own battles under the Nerf hoop.

The same closet door at my mom’s house now holds a new hoop that my son shoots on but the damage from years of brotherly battles can still be seen.

The Lead Up

Growing up the week before the Final Four was the worst.

What felt like non-stop basketball starting on the Thursday of the opening weekend gave way to five straight days without a game.

After attending the Final Four for the first time the week leading up to the Final Four quickly became one of my favorite parts of the tournament.

It was those days leading up to semifinal Saturday that produced some of the best NCAA tournament memories of my life.

The drives with my brother to the Final Four were great opportunities to catch up, something we don’t do nearly enough of now.

Hanging out with friends on those days, golfing, going to dinners, exploring those cities were things I looked forward to all year.

The 2008 Final Four

My first ever Final Four trip was one of my all-time favorites.

On a last-minute whim I hopped in with my brother and we headed to San Antonio where we stayed with a great childhood friend who lived in the area.

Kansas defeated Memphis in a memorable championship game in the first Final Four that featured all four number one seeds. That championship game is hardly what I remember 12 years later, it’s everything else from that weekend that comes to mind first.

The 2010 Tournament  

The due date for our oldest daughter was early April and every appointment with our doctor leading up to the big day seemed to go the same way.

The same doctor that delivered my wife and had been her family physician since would ask how she was feeling, then quickly turn the subject to basketball for much of the remained of the appointment.

My wife allowed me to attend the Final Four in Indianapolis that season just days before her initial due date which led to some anxious moments for both of us during that trip.

I made it back in plenty of time for the birth of our first child who arrived a week late. (More on this Final Four later).

Wichita State’s Second Round Upset of Gonzaga

Seems like a random game to remember right? I’ll never forget this 76-70 win for ninth-seeded Wichita State (which went on to reach the final four) in 2013.

I watched it in the delivery room as my wife gave birth to our son.

That’s not as bad as it sounds. I didn’t miss the berth of my only son to watch the NCAA tournament but its certainly a memory I’ll never forget.

We went to the hospital at 7 a.m. and my son was born at 11:43 p.m. He waited long enough for me to watch every second-round tournament day, with the Wichita State upset the final game of the day.

The Dunks

Not the dunks from the players in the tournament but instead from my friends and I a majority of which came on less than 10-foot rims at various play grounds or driveways.

It started around junior high when I remember hitting up the driveway hoop regularly with friends who had come over to watch the NCAA tournament.

In high school we would head to our favorite low rim hoop during the first two weekends of the tournament and battle it out.

I carried that opening-weekend tradition on to college where a group of friends and I once drove 30 miles one way to a low rim court for a 3-on-3 dunk tournament.

The Opening Weekend  

Come one, how could this not be on the list? Who didn’t skip work, school or other occasions to set up multiple TVs, draw a giant bracket on the wall and do nothing but watch basketball for four straight days.

(Full disclosure I’ve done all those things at various points in my life).

Covering the 2015 Women’s Tournament

Among my all-time favorite work memories is covering the Iowa women’s basketball team on its way to the Sweet 16 in 2015.

As a journalist I am to remain impartial, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been happier for a team and coaching staff that I covered than I was when Iowa reached the Sweet 16 for the first time under Lisa Bluder with a win over Miami in the second round.

Going to Oklahoma City for the regional was another great memory.

Gordan Hayward’s Shot vs. Duke

If you watched the 2010 title game you remember it.

With Duke leading fifth-seeded Butler late Hayward grabbed an inbound pass took a few dribbles and launched from half court.

Lucas Oil Stadium had been deafening all game but for a brief second when the ball was in the air you could hear a pin drop.

We had walked up to the concourse from our seats during the timeout before the shot. As I walked to a spot with a clean view of the court I turned and looked over my shoulder just as Hayward released the shot.

I thought it was in. It missed and Duke won 61-59 in an instant classic. I had no emotional attachment to that game but I can still see that shot. Just a great sports memory in my head.

Covering The 2016 Opening Rounds in Des Moines

My job never feels like work to me but for a few days in 2016 it felt less like a job than ever before.

While working for the Iowa City Press Citizen I helped the Des Moines Register with coverage when the NCAA tournament came to Des Moines in 2016.

I watched courtside as fifth-seeded Indiana defeated Kentucky to reach the Sweet 16. The deadlines were tight and I caught some flack from my wife for missing a few family events that week but it was something I’ll never forget.

Iowa State’s Elite Eight Run in 2000

The 2000 season is remembered by many Iowa State fans for the way it ended, with an Elite Eight loss to eventual national champion Michigan State.

When I think of the best tournament run for Iowa State my memories are much more positive.

I’ll admit I skipped a few classes to watch the NCAA tournament with my college buddies that season.

During my college days my friends had a way of rallying around each other. My roommates at the time were two of my best friends and huge Iowa and Missouri fans but jumped fully on the Iowa State bandwagon that year. The Sweet 16 win over UCLA was a wild night at our apartment.

Indiana vs. Maryland National Championship Game

As a college baseball player I missed a lot of NCAA tournament games but remember vividly watching the games I got to see with my teammates.

I can remember listening to games on the radio in the school vans on the way home from a weekend doubleheader trying to get caught up on what had happened during the tournament while we were playing.

(Remember, this was before smart phones).

This game falls squarely into the category. I had no tie to either team and didn’t care who won but remember watching with a room full of my baseball teammates.

Same goes for the 2003 semifinals where we crowded into a teammates’ cabin to watch Marquette and Kansas.

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