Why the NCAA Tournament can be more than just another event in Las Vegas

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, March 25, 2023 | 2 a.m.

The NCAA Tournament has developed a mythology all of its own. Go to any host site during the games, and there will be chatter about past March Madness moments and an often liberal, though also endearing, interpretation of how they relate and have led to the current day.

On Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena, most of the talk was about Gonzaga and UCLA renewing a tournament rivalry that began 17 years ago to the day with a 2006 Sweet 16 matchup. That was the game where the Arron Afflalo- and Jordan Farmar-led Brins famously closed on an 11-0 run to eliminate the Bulldogs and leave star Adam Morrison weeping on the floor.

Morrison was on hand Thursday as a Gonzaga radio analyst to witness his alma mater get another piece of retribution, as it eliminated UCLA from the tournament for the third time since the 2006 game with a 79-76 victory. Las Vegas legend Julian Strawther’s deep, game-winning 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining will go on to be remembered every bit as much as Morrison’s devastation.   

The shot sets up a West Regional final between Gonzaga and Connecticut at approximately 5:49 p.m. tonight as Las Vegas signs off on its first stint as NCAA city.

UConn’s 88-65 dispatching of Arkansas in Thursday’s opening act was more forgettable, but it’s the game that had me reminiscing about one particular tournament game from the past. It wasn’t to the day like UCLA-Gonzaga, but at least to the week 26 years ago.  

That 1997 Sweet 16 contest featured a young Arizona side shocking a once-beaten juggernaut Kansas team, a 10.5-point favorite in the game, to announce it was a legitimate national-championship contender. The Wildcats did go on to win it all that year, becoming the first and still only No. 4 seed to ever cut down the nets at the Final Four.

They might soon have company if the Huskies continue to play as well as they have in three consecutive blowout victories to start the tournament.  

But more than some minor reach of a connection to this year’s madness, the 1997 game came up in my mind for personal reasons. It was the first NCAA Tournament game I ever attended, as an impressionable 9-year-old living in Birmingham, Ala., the site of that year’s Southeast Regional.

There’s a good chance I wouldn’t have been covering the Gonzaga and UConn wins this year if not for the momentous feel of that game between the Wildcats and Jayhawks all those years ago.

I didn’t have any ties to either team — though I ironically ended up attending Kansas eight years later despite rooting hard for the Arizona upset that night — but my dad got a pair of tickets to bring his sports-crazed son. The night only intensified my love for sports, and probably holds some direct correlation to my chosen career choice.

Because of that career choice, I’ve been fortunate to attend hundreds more sporting events.

Super Bowls. The biggest fights of the last decade. Stanley Cup Finals.

Some along the way wound up just as memorable as that initial Sweet 16; none were as formative.

It’s a shame that generations of Las Vegas children never had as much as an opportunity to experience something similar here with the NCAA’s long-lasting, and misguided, ban on our city. It’s a blessing that will no longer be the case, however, with the NCAA Tournament now here. And here to stay.

Thanks to the hard work of a group of local power players with a big-time assist to the United States Supreme Court for striking down an antiquated prohibition on sports betting in 2018, Las Vegas will squarely be in the tournament’s rotation going forward. A Las Vegas Final Four is already scheduled, in 2028 at Allegiant Stadium, while more West Regionals in the future feel like a formality.

Any lingering doubt that Las Vegas was the perfect place for one of the country’s biggest sporting events was eradicated on Thursday. The four fan bases appeared to largely be having great times — even the losing ones.

You couldn’t walk the length of one hotel on the Strip without hearing a, “Wooo Pig Sooie,” chant as Arkansas might have brought the largest contingent of supporters. The “hog calls” faded pretty quickly once it became evident the Razorbacks had no answer for the Huskies’ inside-out combo of Jordan Hawkins and Adama Sanogo, respectively.

They were later replaced by the “U-C-L-A,” chants before Strawther put an end to that for once and for all to cap an instant-classic game.  

The nightcap between the West Coast power programs was the far more entertaining game, but the lopsided opener is what spurred my nostalgic emotions. The way the UConn sophomore Hawkins did a little bit of everything with 24 points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal wasn’t totally unlike an underclassman guard I watched in the tournament 26 years ago.

Mike Bibby, then an Arizona freshman, forever stayed one of my favorite players after he stunned Kansas with 21 points, five assists, two steals and two rebounds.

I know astronomical ticket prices and ever-increasing local sports competition make it hard on families to attend, but I hope there was a local kid at T-Mobile Arena who took as much out of Thursday’s games as I did in 1997. A large number of young, aspiring basketball players in Southern Nevada surely wound up inspired by Strawther whether they were in the building or not. 

But this tradition, this spectacle can be moving to more than solely basketball players.  

The NCAA Tournament is a special event that conjures up all sorts of significance, whether it’s personal or shared, whether it’s real or perceived.

It’s about time our community got to partake in the madness.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or