What are you favorite personal NCAA tournament stories?

It was played in San Antonio, so I got to go.  Three really good games.  UConn knocked off Duke (which is always great) and Georgia Tech beat OSU -- both games went down the wire.  The final game was less competitive, but since UConn is my second favorite team behind Michigan (note, I grew up in CT), it was a great few days for me.

Detroit final four at ford field was up in there in the crowd

Unfortunately I've never been to any tournament games but I did once make something like 107 bucks from a $7 start.  My parents were in Vegas and instead of a T-shirt, I asked to make a bet instead (I was big into sports betting at 15-16 years old).  Won my first two-game parlay and then hit another parlay after that to quindecuple my money (x15, yes I looked it up).  

Meanwhile, my dad and his buddy lost a couple hundred each after they tried to do some parlays like me but took the Wisconson spread against Davidson.  I tried to warn them that Wiscy wouldn't score enough to cover, but they didn't listen (Wisconsin ended up losing the game anyway).

...National Championship on S. University and leaving the party just before it got out of hand.

I remember vividly crossing Washtenaw at S. University and watching the cars streaming into central campus. We students got a lot of help with the after party.

Saw a (sweet sixteen?) game where Steph Curry went off. It was pretty entertaining.

Glen Rice.

I was there for the 1993 Final Four in New Orleans. We all know what happened.

But it was one helluva weekend. Drove all day from A2 to get there and NO was hopping with fans from Kentucky, North Carolina, and Kansas (basically all the NCAA basketball royalties). It was unreal.

I remember eating oysters all day and drinking hurricanes all night and how cute Kentucky girls were.

I also remember every Kentucky fan congratulating us after the semi and how we will have no trouble beating UNC.

One of the best weekends of my life.

So many great stories but I think my favorite might be Bryce Drew diving on the floor and getting mobbed by his teammates after hitting the game winning shot for Valpo.  That was just an awesome moment.

and Trevor Huffman and Antonio Gates  making the Elite Eight and taking the Hoosiers to the brink for a chance at a Final Four. The Kent State Campus is only 10 minutes from where I live. This was my favorite moment non U of M for sure.

When UConn knocked off Duke in the 1999 national title game.  The media always slobbers over Duke but they were doing double duty that season with Duke being 35-1 heading into the title game.  The endless interviews with Duke players over being considered possibly the best team of all time got old in a hurry.  It felt like they were handing the devils a national title without even playing the game. 

Then UConn won 74-71.  And the cameras zoomed in on Coack K's daughter balling her eyes out.  I hate to sound cruel but that made it even better.

Going to all six games of the NCAA tournament in Boston, Albany, and the Final Four in New Orleans to see Syracuse win the National Championship my senior year.

I was in the basketball band for the Charlotte, NC trip last year.  Watching Stu dunk against Tenneesee when I was about 20-30 feet from him was amazing (likewise, I was about that far away from Morris' last shot against Duke).  However, my favorite memory was when we had about an hour to kill after we checked out of our rooms.  I started playing Minecraft for no particular reason.  About 10 minutes in, I didn't even realize McClimans was standing right behind me with a very confused look on his face.   I tried to explain it to him but I'm fairly convinced he just thought I was an extremely strange individual.

TL:DR, I accidentally introduced McClimans to Minecraft last year.

I was working at a newspaper in Illinois during Michigan's championship season. Not only was I in the middle of Illini country, but the sports editor had Seton Hall in a citywide pool and was in line to win $1,600 bucks. The day after the game had the potential to be a wee bit tense. Early on, he walked up to me and said, "Let's get something straight. I don't hate you. BUT I HATE THAT GODDAM STATE YOU'RE FROM." Using all my theater training, I kept a poker face. But I laughed like hell all the way home. And I'm laughing now remembering his florid face. 

... at the free throw line in 99.  Not the best free throw shooter, but stone cold ice in his veins as he drains two in the last couple seconds.  I was 12.  Still remember jumping up and down in my room way past bedtime.

Last year, when most analysts thought the Michigan-Tennessee game was going to be very close.  Then seeing Michigan dominate and forcing people like that douchebag Gottlieb eat his words made it all the better.  (I was only 5 when the Fab Five were at U-M so my experiences consist of the Ellerbe, Amaker, and Belein eras.  Hence the Belein era reigns supreme).

Steph Curry nearly beating Kansas by himself and the horrible sightlines at Ford Field.

Since you just said NCAA Tournament and didn't specify a sport, it's clearly The Molly Game. And it isn't close.

1993 - Final Four, New Orleans.  Friday's open practice at the Superdome the day before the National Semi-final. 

Kentucky was already on the floor and shooting at one end when Michigan arrived.  C-Web led the team onto the floor and everybody had their warm-ups on with hoods up.  They walked onto the floor VERY slowly and just watched Kentucky shoot for a bit.  Then (and i think it was Jimmy King) threw down a pretty vicious dunk with the Kentucky team watching.  Then Kentucky stepped back and started shooting even longer 3's while Michigan watched.  Then C-Webb, Jalen and Howard started dunking...alley-oops, tomahawks, one handed jams....while Kentucky watched.   Then Kentucky moved back even further and started raining 3's from waaaaay past the college 3 point line.  And we dunked some more.

It was chilling.  Watching the two heavyweights try and intimidate each other during a shoot-around was about as cool of a thing in sports as i've ever seen.  And the game the next day was the best one I've ever seen or hope to see.

1988 Midwest Regional at the Silverdome.  I was 14 years old and went with my dad.  Got to see "Danny and the Miracles" take KU on a crazy run that year.  Manning absolutely carried and willed that team to victory. 

Side note, I became a big Danny Manning fan after that run - he ended up with the Clippers and dad and I went to a game in L.A. to see him play whilst on a Rose Bowl trip only a couple of years later.  Although I think Manning was out with a knee injury, Dad bought me one of those charicature t-shirts of  his (the kind that were popular in that day).  Thanks for the memories Dad - miss you tremendously.

I was at the Fab 5 's first Tournament game against Temple in Atlanta. I then watched the following game in which the College I attended, East Tennessee State, knocked Arizona out of the Tournament helping clear Michigan's way to the final 4. The game between the Wolverines and the Bucaneers is the only game in my life where I've ever been conflicted as to who I was going to root for. 

In 1993 I was in basic training in South Carolina. My drill was a UNC fan and he knew I was a Michigan fan. The morning after the game he comes in to the barracks and says, “Private lexgoblue, your boys lost, AND they can’t count. DROP!” I had no idea what he was talking about. I did so many pushups that I lost count (and still had to go do muscle failure PT). I did not see what really happened and why I got smoked until a few months later.

When I was accepted into Michigan a few years after that, this was one of the first things that popped into my head. Chris Webber…you got me smoked…sigh. 

The wierdest, most heartstring-pulling, gut-wrenching, surreal NCAA game I can ever imagine, was the 1990 Tournament game featuring Michigan against Loyola-Marymout immediately after the sudden and tragic death of Hank Gathers on the floor in his team's final conference championship ...

I cannot recall a single team sports performance, in my lifetime, when a single player performed in a manner that I thought was somehow possessed by a higher power, than Bo Kimble in that game.  The whole story is almost beyond words.

If anybody can come up with an NCAA story that comes even close to the '90 Loyola Marymout story, I'd like to hear it.  Just imagine; a famed "four freshmen" recruiting class at USC; all of them dismissed by incoming coach George Raveling; they hook up at Loyala-Marymount (imagine the Fab Five at Michigan all quitting to trasfer to Oakland University); Hank Gathers leading the nation in scoring; his death on the court in a conference tournament game; Bo Kimble leading the team into the NCAA tournament; shooting free throws left handed to honor his deceased friend; scoring 37 points against Michigan to lead his team to a 149-115 win; pushing little LMU to an Elite Eight finish...

It is like the Wes Leonard story, taken to the national level of the NCAA.  I still can hardly believe it.

Watching little brother get hammered by UNC while I got hammered at the casino and waking up in some random fat chicks hotel room.

was Butler/Florida from 1st round in 2000.  I was the only one in my dorm tourney pool that picked Butler to win (I know, cool story bro), but the memorable part is that LaVall Jordan graduated from Albion HS a year in front of me and while we weren't more than acquaintances, we knew who each other were.  It was heartbreaking to see a guy I knew and an 85% free throw shooter miss 2 and Miller go the length of the floor to beat them.

i went to the final four in 2007 when i was a senior at georgetown and we were matched up against ohio state.  taking the bus down from DC with other (drunken) students and the excitement leading up to the game and the agonizing nervousness are unlike anything i have experienced before in sports - i went to all six games of the world series as my yankees clinched in '09 and stormed the field my freshman year at michigan (i transferred to gtown after that year) when we beat OSU in 03 but nothing compared to those heartpounding 40 minutes in atlanta, despite the loss.  it hurt quite a bit to lose that one, not just because it was the final four but we just had to lose to fucking ohio state.  i was miserable the rest of my time in atlanta and while i went to the final and saw Florida beat up on OSU, I kept imagining what it would be like to have my team in the final for one of these games now that i'm old enough to appreciate it.  

really hope i can see gtown win one these things and michigan to do the same in football though i'd have to have a difibrulator ready should it ever happen.

I was misspending a winter of my youth in Steamboat Springs between terms in Ann Arbor in '88-'89.  While I missed being in town for the Championship run, I was working/playing with a bunch of college aged kids and I was the only one around with an M background (lots of Syracuse kids around though). 

Also...I was working for a couple of my old man's cronies (also M grads who were going apeshit for the full 3 weeks=lots of free beer and guacomole which meant a lot then). 

Also...I won the bracket pool at my watering hole in old-town which was better than a week's pay. 

Also and maybe best of all, After a morning's skiing with a girl who's attention I'd been trying to grab all winter, we watched the second half of the blowout Virginia game in a bar halfway up the mountain ...It was a perfect 45 degrees and sunny and life was about as good as it has ever been.

Go Blue!

layola marymount following Hank Gather's death was pretty inspiring. 

Three most outstanding memories:

(1) Michigan's National Championship run--interim Coach Fisher (after Bo said "a Michigan Man will coach Michigan" in the tourney, dismissing Bill Frieder to take the Arizona St. job) being 6-0 after an incredible semi-final and final win in OT. Unbelievable.

(2) Princeton (my alma mater) in 1996 upsetting defending national champ UCLA in the first round: they replay the highlights every year. That final backdoor cut to pull off an improbable upset over a much more athletic team. I was on campus and part of the wild, impromptu celebration out in the street that ensued. It was 'our national championship.' The Tigers unfortunately lost to a much more physical Mississippi State team in the 2nd round that year.

(3) Princeton in 1998 (my senior year) had an unbelievable year, going 26-1 (only loss at UNC) beating Texas, NC State, Wake Forest, & all the hapless Ivies along the way. Getting up to #8 ranking in both polls, drawing a #5 seed. We camped out for tickets, drove to Hartford, CT for the first game against UNLV ( who got hot late & won their conf. tourney to draw a #12 seed). Beat them soundly. Then the dream season ended by 7 points in the 2nd round against #4 seed....Michigan State, led by Mateen Cleaves. (/shakes fist at East Lansing).

Oakland (my hometown team) vs Oral Roberts for a spot in the big dance.

Watched this game with all my high school buddies and it will forever be a great memory I associate with my friends from that time.  Pierre Dukes hit the 3 pointer with 1 second left and the rest is history.

- watching ali farokhmanesh take the bravest shot i've ever seen to sink Kansas a couple years ago. hell of a game for northern iowa (i think kurt warner also went there)

- kansas vs memphis final the year before that, still the best ncaa final i've ever seen in any sport.

- 2009, we walked down to crisler arena and found it packed (my two friends and I). beilein gave a speech to the crowd before the selection show. tensions were high, michigan hadn't been to the dance for over a decade.

i think the selection show decided to stick us in the final possible region to make it as dramatic as possible. people were getting nervous, losing hope, shaking their heads.

but when that block M showed up on the screen in the final bracket...ill never forget how loud everyone screamed.

I loved the year that Maryland and Duke were crazy competitive and played 3 times, including in the NCAA final.