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The last time Michigan State won a national championship was the 2000 season…in Indianapolis.
Nearly a decade later, the Final Four returns to Indianapolis and the Spartans are hoping for a case of dèjà vu.
Last season the Spartans almost fulfilled a dream season but fell just short of winning a national championship in Detroit. Unfortunately for MSU, the North Carolina team they faced was truly the better team.
Now the Spartans are a much different team from a year ago.
State comes into the season with a #2 national ranking and is favored to be Big-10 champions for the second year in a row. Center Goran Suton and point guard Travis Walton may have both graduated, but new players are ready to step into their roles.
After their impressive win over the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big 10 tournament, the Michigan Wolverines now have a 20-12 record with impressive wins over Duke, Illinois and UCLA on the season. They finished conference play prior to the tournament with a 9-9 record in a conference that will possibly send the most teams, eight, to the NCAA Tournament.
Not only should thier record be taken into consideration by the selection committee, but their strength of schedule verses Division I opponents is #8 and their RPI is #43. Michigan’s win over Iowa should solidify their placement into the tournament as either a #12 or #13 seed. Michigan’s only black eye on this season was their inability to win on the road, posting a dismal 3-8 road record.
If all goes as it should this Sunday, my hat goes off to Coach John Beilein and the Athletic Director for bringing Coach Beilein in. I can’t remember the last time the Wolverines had something to look forward to in March other than the upcoming football season. Congratulations Wolverines on a great season so far and make some noise in the tournament!
When I was a kid, I always thought the term MOP was curious. Perhaps it was because I was so used to the term MVP, and the NCAA Tournament was the only place I ever heard the term MOP, or Most Outstanding Player, used. It makes sense, I suppose; and “valuable” and “outstanding” are relatively interchangeable within the context of a 6-game tournament.
Still, there was always something about MOP that seemed less prestigious to me than MVP. Maybe it has something to do with the unavoidable mental connection to mops, the actual physical things used to clean floors, and of course terms like “mop-up duty” or “mop-up time”. I always associated those terms with the scrubs at the end of the bench getting to play — clearly a stark contrast from what MOP is meant to symbolize.
But it what it is — and I may be the only idiot to overanalyze this in such a way — and when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, the best player is named the Most Outstanding Player. And the history of the Most Outsanding Player Award is the subject of today’s March Madness history lesson.
Before we jump into the All-Time NCAA Tournament MOP table, with both the mens and womens award winners, a quick rundown of our other recent March Madness links, and even a couple of ticket resources if you are thinking of make the (wise) decision to attend some NCAA Tournament games this year.
And now, here is the table that displays the all-time list of MOP winners for the mens and womens NCAA Tournament:
NCAA Basketball Tournament MOP Award Winners: Men and Women
Year
Tournament MOP - Men
School
Tournament MOP - Women
School
2009
Wayne Ellington
North Carolina
Tina Charles
UConn
2008
Mario Chalmers
Kansas
Candace Parker
Tennessee
2007
Corey Brewer
Florida
Candace Parker
Tennessee
2006
Joakim Noah
Florida
Laura Harper
Maryland
2005
Sean May
North Carolina
Sophia Young
Baylor
2004
Emeka Okafor
UConn
Diana Taurasi
UConn
2003
Carmelo Anthony
Syracuse
Diana Taurasi
UConn
2002
Juan Dixon
Maryland
Swin Cash
UConn
2001
Shane Battier
Duke
Ruth Riley
Notre Dame
2000
Mateen Cleaves
Michigan State
Shea Ralph
UConn
1999
Richard Hamilton
UConn
Ukari Figgs
Purdue
1998
Jeff Sheppard
Kentucky
Chamique Holdsclaw
Tennessee
1997
Miles Simon
Arizona
Chamique Holdsclaw
Tennessee
1996
Tony Delk
Kentucky
Michelle Marciniak
Tennessee
1995
Ed O'Bannon
UCLA
Rebecca Lobo
UConn
1994
Corliss Williamson
Arkansas
Charlotte Smith
North Carolina
1993
Donald Williams
North Carolina
Sheryl Swoopes
Texas Tech
1992
Bobby Hurley
Duke
Molly Goodenbour
Stanford
1991
Christian Laettner
Duke
Dawn Staley
Virginia
1990
Anderson Hunt
UNLV
Jennifer Azzi
Stanford
1989
Glen Rice
Michigan
Bridgette Gordon
Tennessee
1988
Danny Manning
Kansas
Erica Westbrooks
Louisiana Tech
1987
Keith Smart
Indiana
Tonya Edwards
Tennessee
1986
Pervis Ellison
Louisville
Clarissa Davis
Texas
1985
Ed Pinckney
Villanova
Tracy Claxton
Old Dominion
1984
Patrick Ewing
Georgetown
Cheryl Miller
USC
1983
Hakeen Olajuwon
Houston
Cheryl Miller
USC
1982
James Worthy
North Carolina
Janice Lawrence
Louisiana Tech
1981
Isiah Thomas
Indiana
1980
Darrell Griffith
Louisville
1979
Magic Johnson
Michigan State
1978
Jack Givens
Kentucky
1977
Butch Lee
Marquette
1976
Kent Benson
Indiana
1975
Richard Washington
UCLA
1974
David Thompson
NC State
1973
Bill Walton
UCLA
1972
Bill Walton
UCLA
1971
None (Howard Porter*)
(Villanova)
*later ruled ineligible
1970
Sidney Wicks
UCLA
1969
Lew Alcindor
UCLA
1968
Lew Alcindor
UCLA
1967
Lew Alcindor
UCLA
1966
Jerry Chambers
Utah
1965
Bill Bradley
Princeton
1964
Walt Hazzard
UCLA
1963
Art Heyman
Duke
1962
Paul Hogue
Cincinnati
1961
Jerry Lucas
Ohio State
1960
Jerry Lucas
Ohio State
1959
Jerry West
West Virginia
1958
Elgin Baylor
Seattle
1957
Wilt Chamberlain
Kansas
1956
Hal Lear
Temple
1955
Bill Russell
San Francisco
1954
Tom Gola
LaSalle
1953
B. H. Born
Kansas
1952
Clyde Lovellette
Kansas
1951
Bill Spivey
Kentucky
1950
Irwin Dambrot
CCNY
1949
Alex Groza
Kentucky
1948
Alex Groza
Kentucky
1947
George Kaftan
Holy Cross
1946
Bob Kurland
Oklahoma A&M*
*now Oklahoma State
1945
Bob Kurland
Oklahoma A&M*
1944
Arnie Ferrin
Utah
1943
Ken Sailors
Wyoming
1942
Howie Dallmer
Stanford
1941
John Kotz
Wisconsin
1940
Marvin Huffman
Indiana
1939
Jimmy Hull
Ohio State
A few interesting tidbits that I noticed while putting this list together:
There have been 4 two-time winners of the Womens NCAA Tournament MOP Award since 1982. During that same time span, not one player on the mens side has won the award twice in a row. It did happen on the mens’ side back in the day, however, when guys like Bill Walton, Lew Alcindor, and Jerry Lucas took home multiple NCAA Tournament MOPs.
2004 was a hell of a year for UConn. The mens and womens teams took home the titles, with Emeka Okafor and Diani Taurasi both winning the MOP.
Since 1982, only 14 different schools on the womens’ side have had MOP winners. In that same timespan, 20 different schools on the mens’ side have had MOP winners.
Damn, Baylor just beat Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament.
Cleveland State’s basketball team went to the NCAA tournament 23 years ago. They beat Bobby Knight’s Indiana team while there, and almost beat David Robinson’s Navy team. They bowed out in the Sweet 16, completing a banner year for the program. Star point guard Mouse McFadden and company had put the Vikings on the map. They were here to stay.
That stay would be short lived however.
In the off season, the coach and architect of the ‘Run and Stun’ Vikings of ‘86 was found one night in a crack house, strung out on crack cocaine. The run was over. The coach, Kevin Mackey, would be soon relieved of his duties, and the Cleveland State Vikings would sink to an all-time low that they would not emerge from for 20 years.
Until now.
Cleveland State beat Butler on Tuesday 57-54 and got their Dance Card punched — again — for the first time in 23 years. The job done by this coach, Gary Waters, and his kids is nothing short of incredible. In 3 seasons as coach, Waters has taken possibly the worst Men’s Basketball Program – on a consistent basis – for the last two decades – in America – and turned them into an NCAA tournament team. His Vikings won 21 games last season, and won 25 this year, including wins over #12 Syracuse on the road, and #17 Butler last night for the Horizon League title and automatic bid.
They are not done yet either. Cedric Jackson is a point guard that can play. The St. John’s transfer, and Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year, can match up with any PG in the nation. Anybody. And J’Nathan Bullock, the undersized, Tight End-looking, post player that roams the key for the Vikings is a tough cover inside as well.
They’ve come a long way this group…and Cleveland can’t help but be proud of them. If you don’t know about CSU, I’ll tell you this: you better be careful when you fill out your bracket, that’s all I am going to say.
Coach Waters’ group is just getting started.
Cleveland State photo credit: AP Photo/Darron Cummings
———- JD Shaver is a featured columnist at Midwest Sports Fans who also runs Shaver Sports, where they discuss everything you ever wanted to know about Cleveland sports.
JD Shaver’s contributions to Midwest Sports Fans are sponsored by BigTimeGameBoards.com, the company that helps you tailgate like a champion with our high quality cornhole boards, sets and accessories. And if you don’t know what cornhole is, you aren’t a Midwesterner.
Five minutes ago I did not know who Doug Towey was. Yet, I just dropped everything to sit down and write about him.
And the reason is that Doug Towey is the man responsible for one of my most anticipated moments of every year: the inspiring sounds and thrilling video of the One Shining Moment that ends every NCAA Tournament.
Doug Towey passed away today at 61. There are probably many people out there, like me, for whom the name Doug Towey will not immediately ring a bell. But there cannot possibly be any fan of college basketball who has not been touched, inspired, and entertained by One Shining Moment, which will no doubt be one of Towey’s most enduring legacies.
As told earlier today by Tom Hoffrath at Farther off the Wall:
Folk singer David Barrett penned the song in 1986 and gave it to his high school friend CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent, and then Sports Illustrated staff writer, Armen Keteyian. He passed it along to Towey who planned to use it to accompany the network’s closing highlights of Super Bowl XXI in January 1987. But due to long-running interviews the song never made it to air.
A couple of months later, Towey was looking for a way to bring CBS Sports’ NCAA Tournament coverage to a close and decided to use it. “One Shining Moment” made its Final Four debut on March 30, 1987, following Keith Smart’s baseline jumper in the final seconds that gave Indiana a 74-73 victory over Syracuse.
And here is video of the very first appearance of One Shining Moment at the NCAA Tournament. I get goosebumps every time I watch this, the first and greatest One Shining Moment video of all.
The ball is tipped…and there you are…
One Shining Moment Video: 1987 (Indiana 5th National Championship)
Holy crap, it’s amazing how that video and that song can still give me chills after all these years. I realize I am biased, and that I like this particular One Shining Moment video over all of the others because it is from the last year when my Hoosiers won the title — but the truth is that they are all awesome, and all special, in their own way. Each One Shining Moment Video perfectly captures the magic, majesty, and magnificence of the greatest three weeks in sports.
And the song, of course, plays its role perfectly.
I was only five years old when Keith Smart made the most famous shot in the history of Indiana basketball, and perhaps Big Ten basketball; and certainly one of the five or ten most famous shots in the history of college basketball. I have no specific recollection of watching Keith Smart make that shot live as it happened, but over the next six or seven years I popped my tape of the 1987 National Championship game into the VCR at least 15 or 20 times. I didn’t usually watch the whole game, but I would always watch Keith make that shot, watch he, Coach Knight and Steve Alford get interviewed after the game, and then cap it by singing along with One Shining Moment.
(Side note: And I will never, ever forget Don Fischer’s call of the Keith Smart shot, thanks to one of the greatest gifts ever: a framed picture of the shot with a display base that had a little button you could press to play Fischer’s call: “Out to Smart…baseline jumpshot in the air GOOOD! Four seconds, three seconds, two seconds, one…the Hoosiers have won the National Championship! And there is pandemonium…here at the Superdome as Indiana’s won it.“)
As I got older and become more and more obsessed with college basketball, and basketball in general, One Shining Moment became one of my favorite songs. The first reason, of course, is because of the incredible imagery, memories, and visceral feelings the song evokes, especially for a born and raised basketball junkie from the Hoosier State like me. The second reason is that it’s just a good damn song.
There have been plenty of remixed and revamped versions (Luther Vandross did one, video below), but nothing beats the original song used in 1987 for me. There is more than one burned CD from my high school college days that has One Shining Moment randomly thrown onto it — usually as the final song, where it should be.
So on the day of his passing, I just want to say thank you to Doug Towey for recognizing the greatness of David Barrett’s song and for creating one of the most sublime moments of the sports year.
Towey was a 34-year veteran of network television and “played a role in the broadcast of virtually every major sporting event in the world” according to the article by Tom Hoffrath linked above, so being responsible for One Shining Moment capping every NCAA Tournament is certainly not Towey’s only shining moment. But it is the one that I will always remember him for and be grateful to him and songwriter David Barrett for creating.
And speaking of Barrett, he certainly appears to have been quite certain of how good the song was from the second he wrote it. From the official website of One Shining Moment:
David comments about the writing of One Shining Moment:
“Writing this song changed my life. Strange how that is so. I mean; the writing came so effortlessly. I knew immediately after that I had something special on my hands. In fact I got up from the piano and went immediately to the phone and called a friend and said… “Glen I just wrote a great song.” It was almost like… “where did this come from?” In any case, the song opened all sorts of doors for me in a professional sense. But on a personal note, it also showed me to write about what mattered to me. I mean, I just wrote it because I thought it was worth writing. I learned to trust that. For years I had been listening to what others thought was valid. It was this song that made it clear to me that my job was to write about what I know, and tell the truth about that… Simple.”
And just in case you do not know them all by now, you can also see the lyrics for One Shining Moment at the website as well.
To close this post, here are two more One Shining Moment videos for you. The first is the most recent, from Kansas’ National Championship run in last year’s Tournament. The second is from 2003, when Carmelo Anthony led Syracuse to its One Shining Moment. If you are looking for one in particular, just search YouTube and there is a good chance you will find it.
One Shining Moment Video: 2009 (North Carolina National Championship)
One Shining Moment Video: 2008 (Kansas National Championship)
One Shining Moment Video: 2003 (Syracuse National Championship)
I’m fairly certain that if I didn’t have other pressing things to attend to tonight that I would probably search for each video since 1987 and embed them all here. Do me a favor if you wish: put links to the videos for other years in the comment section, or just embed the video. Let’s get as many One Shining Moments in this post as possible — a last tribute to Doug Towey for making the final few minutes of the NCAA Tournament the most shining of all.
Update: The great folks over Cuzoogle have a post that shows the One Shining Moment videos from 1987, 1988, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, and some other One Shining Moment parodies.
Go to our latest March Madness post right now to see the official 2009 NCAA Tournament Brackets. Or, scroll down for ticket info for each tournament site, and all the way to the bottom for our bracket breakdowns (matchups, schedule, announcers, spreads).
After Indiana’s trashing at the hands of the Michigan State Spartans yesterday, I think it is time to admit the obvious: the Indiana Hoosiers will not be making the NCAA Tournament.
Not that this is surprising of course; but, it is still strange to say this early in the season. Unlike Indiana and its fans, who are suffering through an awful season with no hope of postseason play, hundreds of other teams and fan bases are still holding out hope of playing deep into March.
Here is a breakdown of the key dates and locations for the 2009 Mens Basketball Tournament. First the dates:
Selection Sunday Date: March 15
Opening Round/Play-in Game Date: March 17
NCAA Tournament First Round Dates: March 19-20
NCAA Tournament Second Round Dates: March 21-22
NCAA Tournament Regional Semi-final Round Dates: March 26-27
NCAA Tournament Regional Final Dates: March 28-29
Final Four Date: April 4
NCAA Mens Basketball Championship Game Date: April 6
And now the locations of the 2009 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament. And remember how the whole “pod” system works. During the first two rounds of the tourney, eight teams play at each host site. The top four seeds in each region are placed at a site as close to the school’s location as possible. with other three teams in the top-seeded teams’ bracket “pod” also playing at that site. Here are the first and second round locations for March Madness 2009:
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