By Bob Markus

President Obama and I have few things in common, but there are a few familiar threads stitching us together. We're both from Chicago. We're both abominable bowlers. And neither one of us is very good at NCAA basketball bracketology. The Chicago connection, to be sure, is rather flimsy. I was born in Chicago; he wasn't. I am--or was--a lifetime Cubs fan; he favors the White Sox. He's famous. I'm not.

When it comes to bowling I might have a slight edge on him. Reportedly, his best game ever was a 129. I averaged 131 in the only year I bowled in a league. That was when I was newly employed by The Chicago Tribune and working the late shift on the sports copy desk. I'd usually finish work about 1 a.m. and then drive to a north side bowling establishment to compete in a "Night Hawks" league that started around 3 a.m. One of my teammates, in fact the one responsible for my predawn folly, was a fellow copy reader named Jim Fitzgerald. Jim was tall, mouthy, and a copious bleeder, a fact that was established the night he got too lippy with a pressman, who proceeded to knock him over the ball rack, scattering bowling balls like a cue ball breaking the rack in billiards. It was reaffirmed one night on the copy desk, when Fitz got into a wrangle with Pi Warren, a crusty veteran who considered anybody under the age of 40 to be "a boy scout." I was in the slot that night and Pi was handling the White Sox game, which meant he not only read copy on the beat writer's story, but was responsible for keeping a Tribune-style box score. I don't remember--or maybe I never knew--what words were exchanged, but at some point Fitzgerald reached over and slapped Warren in the face. Since deadline was approaching, Pi was not able to retaliate, not then, any way. But inevitably the game ended and Pi totalled up the box score and handed it to me. Then, putting down the toothpick he habitually chewed, he turned to Fitzgerald and said, "now, Junior." The fight that ensued was as brief as the one in the bowling alley, with Pi knocking the younger Fitzgerald into a large trash container. About that time the managing editor came over and, with arms folded, looked at me and murmered, "tsk, tsk," as if he expected me to be a fight referee as well as a slot man.

That brings us to our final point of intersection, the predicting of the Final Four and--ultimately--the NCAA national basketball champion. Obama and I both ended up with only one team in the Final Four, although the President still could be right about his national title pick. We'll find out Saturday, when Obama's North Carolina Tar Heels play my Villanova Wildcats in one game of the semi-finals. Since I picked Memphis to win it all, I have no shot at picking the winner, while President Obama will be riding the probable tournament favorite in North Carolina.
The Tar Heels are used to being in this position. Villanova is not. This is the Wildcats' first visit to the Final Four in 24 years. But perhaps they can take inspiration from what occurred that year on the floor of Rupp Arena in Lexington Ky. Playing a Georgetown team that was being touted as unbeatable, the Wildcats pulled one of the biggest upsets in basketball history. Treating Georgetown and its menacing center, Patrick Ewing, as if they were just another Big East opponent, Villanova shocked the world with its 66-64 victory. To do so, Villanova had to make 78 per cent of its shots--22 of 28--and in the second half they were nine for 10. With only 10 seconds to play, leading 66-62 and needing only to inbound the ball to seal the victory, guard Gary McLain fell on top of the ball on the sideline near press row, looked my way, and winked. "We got it," he chirped. Since I was sitting next to Leslie Visser, then a sports writer for a Boston paper, later a TV analyst, and always one of the world's most beautiful women, I assumed the wink was not meant for me.

There have been many thrilling NCAA Finals, but that one, for me, has to be No. 1. The others in the Top 10:

(2) North Carolina beats Kansas 54-53 in three overtimes in 1957. That Kansas team featured Wilt Chamberlain and, on the bench, a guard named Dean Smith. Yes, that Dean Smith. Almost unbelievably, North Carolina had had to go three overtimes to beat Michigan State and reach the final.

(3) Lorenzo Charles jams home Derek Whittenberg's air ball at the buzzer as North Carolina State upsets Houston 54-52 and Jim Valvano looks in vain for someone to hug. North Carolina had entered the 1983 tourney with a 17-10 record and was unranked.

(4) Loyola rallies from a 15-point deficit in the second half to shock two-time champion Cincinnati, 60-58, in overtime. The winning basket is scored by Vic Rouse on a tip-in with no time left. Rouse later tells me he had no idea the game was over and was preparing to head upcourt to play defense. Loyola played only five men and four of them were African Americans--this was in 1963, three years before Texas Western made history by winning the NCAA title with five black starters. What made the outcome so astounding was that conventional wisdom said that defense-minded, ball controlling Cincinnati could not be beaten if it got off to a lead.

(5) CCNY beats Bradley, 71-68 in 1950. Bradley was ranked No. 1 in the country while CCNY ended the regular season unranked at 17-5. Yet CCNY not only beat Bradley in the NCAA tourney, but in the NIT, as well. At the time, the NIT was considered to be atleast the equal of the NCAA meet.

(6)Larry Bird and Magic Johnson go head-to-head for the first time and Johnson's Spartans win handily over Bird's undefeated Indiana State team. I had a hard time envisioning the Spartans as 1979's national champions since I had covered them three times and they lost all three. One of them was on a half court buzzer beater by Wisconsin's Wes Matthews, another on a 30-footer by a Purdue player whose name has brought on a senior moment.

(7) Freshman Michael Jordan's jumper gives North Carolina a 62-61 win over Georgetown in 1982, but the game is remembered more for the Hoyas' Fred Brown throwing the ball right to Carolina's James Worthy in the final seconds.

(8) Kansas, an 11-time loser in the regular season, beats Oklahoma 83-79 before what amounts to a home crowd in Kansas City. Danny Manning scores 31 in this 1988 classic.

(9) Bobby Knight's last title comes on Keith Smart's baseline jumper at the buzzer. Syracuse loses a chance to seal the victory when freshman Derrick Coleman misses the front end of a one-on-one in the final half minute. Coleman had pulled down 19 rebounds, but not this one. Smart's subsequent game-winner gave Indiana the 74-73 win in the 1987 final.

(10) Rumeal Robinson's two free throws with three seconds remaining give Michigan an unlikely championship, 80-79, over Seton Hall in 1989. Michigan is coached in the tournament by Steve Fisher, an erstwhile assistant who took over when head coach Bill Frieder agreed to coach Arizona State the next year. Frieder offered to stay with the Wolverines throughout the tournament, but Michigan athkletic director Bo Schembechler would have none of it. "A Michigan man is going to coach Michigan," Schembechler said at the time.

There may be other games that should be on this list. Arizona over Kentucky 84-79 in overtime in 1997 and Kansas' overtime win over Memphis last year--after Mario Chalmers' three-pointer with 3 seconds left in regulation tied the game--come to mind. But as for me, I'll play these.