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The five best NCAA moments for TU, OU, OSU, ORU and OCU
Published: 3/30/2012 1:46 PM
Last Modified: 3/30/2012 1:46 PM

In today’s Tulsa World, I ranked the top 10 NCAA Tournament moments in our state’s basketball history.

As a bonus, here are the top five NCAA Tournament moments for each of the state’s current Division I schools and the top five moments for Oklahoma City University, which had a nice run in NCAA Division I before dropping to a lower level.

TULSA
The top five moments in the University of Tulsa’s NCAA Tournament history:

1, TU plays in Elite Eight. The Golden Hurricane came-oh-so close to the 2000 Final Four, losing in a regional final to North Carolina.

2, Where’s Tulsa? UCLA players asked “where’s Tulsa?” after being paired with TU in the first round of the 1994 NCAA Tournament. The Bruins got ran out of the Myriad by the Golden Hurricane.

3, Eric Coley “bows up” against Cincinnati. The Bearcats tried to intimidate TU in a 2000 second-round game. Coley fouled Pete Mickael near the five-minute mark of the first half. Mickael engaged Coley in a staredown. Coley didn’t flinch and he imposed his will (16 points, 16 rebounds) on Cincy. Two games later, the Hurricane was in the Elite Eight.

4, Lou Dawkins’ shot. With nine seconds remaining in a 1994 second-round game against Oklahoma State, Dawkins clinched victory by swishing a 3-pointer from the corner. It wasn’t a game-winning shot, but it gave TU an insurmountable four-point cushion and the Hurricane was on its way to consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances.

5, Greg Harrington’s shot. Marquette was ranked 12th nationally in 2002 and had a future NBA star (Dwayne Wade) on the roster. But the hero of a first-round NCAA Tournament game was Harrington, who hit a running one-hander with 14.6 seconds left to give TU a 71-69 victory.

OSU
The top five moments in Oklahoma State University’s NCAA Tournament history:

1, Back-to-back titles. With Bob Kurland standing tall in the paint, OSU went 58-6 over a two-year period and won NCAA championships in 1945 and 1946.

2, Jack Shelton sparks runner-up finish. OSU reached the national title game in 1949. The Cowboys never would have gotten there without a clutch peformance by Shelton in a first-round game against Wyoming. The Aggies trailed 39-34, but Shelton scored three baskets in the last minute and a half to salvage a 40-39 triumph.

3, John Lucas’ shot. OSU was down by one point in a 2004 regional final against St. Joseph’s. Joey Graham nearly fumbled the ball away. But worry was quickly replaced by exhiliration for OSU fans when Lucas flushed a 3-pointer to send the Cowboys to the Final Four.

4, Big man on campus. Bryant Reeves outdueled Drexel’s Malik Rose, Alabama’s Antonio McDyess, Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan and Massachusetts’ Marcus Camby in succession to help the 1995 Cowboys reach the Final Four.

5, Old glory and restoring the roar. OSU used four-point victories over Montana State and Washington to help get Henry Iba to his last Final Four in 1951. And one of Iba’s former players, Eddie Sutton, put the program back on the map when he led the Cowboys to consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances in 1991 and 1992.

ORU
The top five moments in Oral Roberts University’s NCAA Tournament history:

1, Playing for Final Four trip. Ken Trickey’s freewheeling Titans reached the Elite Eight of the 1974 tournament. ORU played host to Kansas, let a nine-point lead slip away in the final minutes of regulation and lost in overtime.

2, Sweet Sixteen triumph. Greg McDougald scored what proved to be the winning basket with 30 seconds remaining and he blocked a shot attempt afterward as ORU came from 11 points down to beat Missouri Valley Conference champ Louisville in the 1974 tournament.

3, Breakthrough performance. Sam McCants forced overtime by making a basket with 28 seconds left in regulation and he sealed an 86-82 first-round win over Syracuse in 1974 by making two free throws with nine seconds remaining. It was ORU’s first NCAA Tournament victory.

4, Three in a row. ORU had never reached the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons until Scott Sutton led the Golden Eagles to three consecutive trips from 2006-08.

5, The return. Ten years after ORU’s first NCAA Tournament experience, coach Dick Acres and sons Mark and Jeff took their family act to the 1984 NCAA Tournament. ORU played Memphis State in Memphis and was beaten in the opening round.

OCU
The top five moments in Oklahoma City University’s NCAA Tournament history:

1, Elite Eight times two. OCU twice came within one game of a Final Four, making Elite Eight appearances in 1956 and 1957.

2, Ahead of their time. In the 1950s, how many college basketball teams were scoring in the 90s? OCU scored 97 points in back-to-back games during the 1956 tournament. The Chiefs led Kansas State by 18 points in a Sweet Sixteen game at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, then held on four a four-point victory after the Wildcats climbed to within one point with 30 seconds remaining.

3, OCU vs. Wilt. With a Final Four berth at stake, OCU faced Wilt Chamberlain-led Kansas in 1957. The Chiefs trailed by only three points at halftime, but Chamberlain scored 30 points in an 81-61 Jayhawk victory. Ultra-quotable OCU coach Abe Lemons got in a jab at the two-man officiating crew afterward. Said Lemons, “It was the toughest seven-man zone defense we faced this year.” Chamberlain had kinder words for OCU’s Hub Reed, who scored 26 points. Said Chamberlain, “He’s the best I’ve ever played against or ever hope to.”

4, OCU vs. John Wooden. The signature victory of coach Doyle Parrack’s career came when OCU beat UCLA 55-53 in the third-place game of the 1952 Western Regional. Arnold Short scored 22 points in the game that put the Chiefs’ program on the map.

5, Last hurrah. Charlie Hunter cashed a jump shot from the corner with one second remaining to give OCU a 70-68 conquest of Colorado State in 1965. It was OCU’s last Division I NCAA Tournament victory.

OU
The top five moments in the University of Oklahoma’s NCAA Tournament history:

1, Playing for all the marbles. OU twice reached the NCAA championship game, losing to Holy Cross in 1947 and losing to Danny Manning-led Kansas in 1988. The Sooners swept two regular season meetings from the Jayhawks in ‘88.

2, Big shot. Ken Pryor sent OU to the 1947 Final Four when he hit a game-winning basket in the final seconds of a regional championship game against Texas.

3, Final Fours. In addition to 1947 and 1988 title game appearances, OU made Final Four trips in 1939 and 2002. In a 2002 Sweet Sixteen game against Arizona, Hollis Price scored 22 of his 26 points in the first half and Aaron McGhee scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half. In a 2002 Elite Eight game, McGhee hit a 3-pointer with 2:15 left to give the Sooners enough of a cushion to stave off Missouri.

4, Star Wars. In the next-to-last game of Wayman Tisdale’s amazing college career, he went head-to-head with future NBA superstar Karl Malone of Louisiana Tech in a 1985 regional semifinal. OU won in overtime, getting a game-winning basket from Tisdale with three seconds left and double-doubles from Tisdale, Choo Kennedy and Anthony Bowie. Memphis State eliminated the Sooners in the Elite Eight.

5, Blake Griffin’s surge. Griffin was college basketball’s player of the year in 2009 and he showed why during a run to the Elite Eight. In four NCAA Tournament games that season, he shot 78 percent from the field while averaging 28.5 points and 15.0 rebounds.



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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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