10 unforgettable games

How about that Villanova-Pitt game on Saturday?

There hasn't been that much excitement on a Saturday night since the victory cigar Red Auerbach lit after a win over the Warriors turned out to be Satch Sanders' index finger.

The Wildcats' last-second win had to rank as one of the best NCAA games ever involving Big Five teams. That game excluded, here's my top 10 in that category:

1. Villanova 66, Georgetown 64, April 2, 1985, Lexington, Ky. - The Hoyas were defending national champs, and the Wildcats, a No. 8 seed, barely got into the expanded NCAA field. Even now, nearly a quarter century later, there's an otherworldly quality about their monumental title game upset. It was as if something or someone unseen was willing the Wildcats to the victory, guiding their jump shooters, aiding their rebounders, keeping Rollie Massimino's straining shirttail tucked in. Villanova shot 72 percent in the first half, 90 percent in the second, and held on.

2. St. Joseph's 49, DePaul, 48, March 14, 1981, Dayton - Ray Meyer's Blue Demons, with Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings, were the tournament's No. 1 seed. But Jimmy Lynam and his Philly-flavored team set the tempo in that pre-shot-clock era. Still, DePaul led by one point with 12 seconds remaining when the Demons' Skip Dillard, an 85 percent foul-shooter, missed the front end of a one-and-one. Bryan Warrick got the rebound, and, with time expiring, a layup from perhaps the unlikeliest Hawk of all, forward John Smith from Fourth and Shunk, gave the upset to St. Joseph's. Lynam, deliriously running the sideline a la Jim Valvano, hugged his teen daughter. Aguirre was so distraught, he walked out of the building and tossed his jersey into the parking lot. The Hawks then beat Boston College in the Mideast Regional semis before falling to Indiana in the regional final.

3. Kentucky 61, Temple 60, March 21, 1958, Louisville. Ky. - Three months earlier, Kentucky's Vern Hatton had hit a desperation 47-footer to stun the Owls in Lexington. Now, in their national semifinal rematch, Hatton did it again. His layup with 16 seconds remaining would be the margin. Temple led, 59-55, late. But the game was played before an NCAA record crowd of 18,586 in Louisville and, after the Owls went into a stall, Pickles Kennedy was called for a controversial charge. After Hatton's game-winner, a Kennedy turnover gave the ball back to Kentucky. Adolph Rupp's Wildcats beat Seattle, with Elgin Baylor, a night later for the national championship.