Ranking the Best Sweet 16 Games of the Last Decade

In the NCAA tournament, the greatest acclaim is reserved for games played in the national semifinals or finals. However, a number of riveting games have been played three rounds before the national championship game, in the Sweet 16.

Many of those classic Sweet 16 contests were played within the past decade, and people will have different opinions about which of those third-round contests since 2006 was the greatest.

We offer our rankings of the 10 best Sweet 16 games in the past decade, hoping some of the games this weekend can live up to these.

10. Texas 74, West Virginia 71, 2006

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West Virginia's Kevin Pittsnogle, a 6'11" center who was more comfortable behind the three-point line than in the paint, was nearly the star of his team's 2006 Sweet 16 game against second-seeded Texas in Atlanta.

Pittsnogle scored 19 points and hit five of his nine three-point attempts that day. His final three-pointer came with five seconds left and tied the game at 71-71 after the sixth-seeded Mountaineers had trailed by 14 points late in the first half.

West Virginia coach John Beilein feared that five seconds was too much time to leave Texas, and he was right.

Without calling a timeout, Texas sped down the court. A.J. Abrams passed to Kenton Paulino, who ranked second in Texas' history in career three-point percentage. Paulino was just 1-for-6 on three-point attempts that day before launching his final long-range shot.  This one fell through at the buzzer, providing the Longhorns with the victory.

West Virginia, which was second in the nation in three-pointers made that season, made 15 of its 33 three-point shots in the game, while Texas was just 4-for-19 from long range. However, the Longhorns made the one that mattered most.

9. Georgetown 66, Vanderbilt 65, 2007

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Georgetown's 66-65 victory over sixth-seeded Vanderbilt in East Rutherford, N.J., is memorable for Jeff Green's game-winning shot and the controversial non-call that accompanied it.

The Commodores had taken a 65-64 lead on two Don Cage foul shots with 17.9 seconds left before the Hoyas inbounded the ball looking for the game-winner. They were without center Roy Hibbert, who had fouled out several minutes earlier, so the ball went to Green. He fumbled the ball at first, was hassled by two defenders, spun and made a 10-foot bank shot to put Georgetown ahead with 2.5 seconds remaining.

"That was a good play, a fumble play, a bumble play I had to make," Green said, according to ESPN.com. "I got lucky, and it went in."

Replays seemed to indicate that Green had traveled on the play, but Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings dismissed the issue.

"I'm certainly not going to take away from the dignity of this game," Stallings said in the ESPN.com report. "I haven't seen the replay. Don't care to. He made a great shot."

8. Kentucky 62, Ohio State 60, 2011

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Ohio State defensive ace Aaron Craft hounded standout Kentucky freshman Brandon Knight for the entire game, and Knight was just 2-for-9 with seven points and six turnovers when Ohio State's Jon Diebler nailed a three-pointer with 21 seconds left to tie the game at 60-60.

Instead of calling timeout, Kentucky coach John Calipari left his fourth-seeded Wildcats on their own to try to win it.

Despite his troubles all game long, Knight hit a 15-footer with a hand in his face with five seconds left to complete the upset victory over the Buckeyes, who were the No. 1 overall seed and were ranked No. 1 in the final regular-season Associated Press poll.

It was Knight's second game-winning shot of the tournament. He was scoreless and 0-for-5 from the floor when had made a layup with two seconds left to beat Princeton.

"I think Brandon does it on purpose," Kentucky guard Doron Lamb said, according to an ESPN.com report, after the victory over Ohio State. "I think he misses every shot in the first half then hits the game winner."

7. Virginia Commonwealth 72, Florida State 71 (OT), 2011

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Critics objected to Virginia Commonwealth getting into the 2011 NCAA tournament at all after losing five of its final eight games out of the Colonial Athletic Association, and the Rams had to play a preliminary-round game as a No. 11 seed. However, their wild, pressing style had pushed the Rams through three rounds and mesmerized observers who were seeing VCU for the first time.  

The Rams seemed to be in command against 10th-seeded Florida State in the Sweet 16, leading by nine with seven minutes and 37 seconds remaining. Suddenly, Shaka Smart's VCU team went cold, going 1-for-7 from the field and 0-for-4 from the foul line over the rest of regulation time, allowing the Seminoles to tie the game and send it into overtime.

The Seminoles led by a point in the extra period period when VCU's Joey Rodriguez inbounded the ball under his own basket to Bradford Burgess, who hit the contested layup with 7.1 seconds left to give VCU the one-point win.

VCU's victory over No. 1-seeded Kansas in the Elite Eight may have been more memorable for Rams fans, but the Sweet 16 victory was more riveting.

6. Davidson 73, Wisconsin 56, 2008

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This game was an ode to Stephen Curry, who provided the thrills in 10th-seeded Davidson's 72-56 upset of third-seeded Wisconsin.

Curry nailed six of his 11 three-point tries and totaled 33 points, his third straight postseason game of 30 points or more. He scored 22 of those points in the second half, outscoring the entire Wisconsin team, which managed just 20 second-half points after being tied at halftime.

Wisconsin was very much in the game, trailing 48-45 with 13:48 to play. Curry took over at that point, nailing two three-pointers in the next 45 seconds to push the Wildcats' lead to nine points.

Curry put the final nail in the Badgers' coffin when he made his sixth trey, this one from well beyond NBA three-point range, putting Davidson ahead by 15 with 10:20 remaining,

"He continues to amaze me," teammate Andrew Lovedale said, per the ESPN.com report.

It was a hint of what NBA fans have come to expect from Curry.

5. UCLA 73, Gonzaga 71, 2006

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Gonzaga star Adam Morrison was on the floor crying big-time tears when the Bulldogs wound up losing a Sweet 16 game in Oakland that they seemed to have in the bag.

Third-seeded Gonzaga dominated most of the game, leading by 17 points in the final minute of the first half and still holding a nine-point lead when Morrison hit two free throws with 3:26 remaining. Those were the last of the 24 points Morrison would score. In fact, no one on the Gonzaga team scored another point as second-seeded UCLA reeled off the game's final 11 points.

Morrison finished the game 10-for-17 from the field but missed his final four shots as UCLA launched its comeback.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute scored five of the Bruins' 11 points in the spurt, including the go-ahead basket with 10 seconds left after a Jordan Farmar steal in the backcourt. With UCLA ahead by one, Mbah a Moute stole the ball from Derek Raivio, leading to one made free throw by Arron Afflalo with two seconds left. When Gonzaga's J.P. Batiste missed a 15-footer at the buzzer, Morrison went to the ground in tears.

"It just happened in a blur," Morrison said later, according to ESPN.com.

4. Ohio State 85, Tennessee 84, 2007

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A comeback and a block made Ohio State's 2007 Sweet 16 win over Tennessee a thing of beauty for Buckeyes fans.

Despite being ranked No. 1 in the final regular-season Associated Press poll, the Buckeyes found themselves trailing fifth-seeded Tennessee by 20 points in the final minute of the first half. The Buckeyes put on a furious second-half rally and tied the score with 9:34 still remaining in the game.

The teams slugged it out from there until Mike Conley Jr. hit the first of two free throws to give Ohio State an 85-84 lead with 6.5 seconds remaining.

Tennessee's Ramar Smith grabbed the rebound on Conley's miss of the second shot and went all the way to the hoop with Conley defending him. Smith and Conley went up together as Smith launched the potential game-winning shot. That is when Greg Oden came over and swatted Smith's shot into the Vanderbilt cheerleaders, leaving Oden sprawled on the floor and preserving the win.

The 7-foot Oden scored only nine points, matching his lowest output in 15 games, and he had a season-low three rebounds. He played just 18 minutes (nine in each half) because of foul trouble and needed stitches in his chin because of a collision in the second half.

Despite all that, Oden became the game's hero because of one timely block.

3. North Carolina 73, Ohio 65 (OT), 2012

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Ohio had already upset fourth-seeded Michigan earlier in the tournament, and when the Bobcats' Walter Offutt went to the foul line with 25 seconds left in a tie game against No. 1-seeded North Carolina, Ohio was in position to become the first No. 13 seed to reach the Elite Eight.

Ohio had come a long way to get to that point. It had finished third in its division of the Mid-American Conference before winning the conference tournament to get into the NCAA tournament. And the Bobcats had come back from a 14-point, first-half deficit against the Tar Heels to give themselves a chance for the upset, even though their star guard, D.J. Cooper, finished with just 10 points on 3-of-20 shooting.

Ohio had made all seven of its free throws in the game when Offutt, a 79.4 percent foul shooter, went to the line with 25 seconds left trying to complete a three-point play that would put the Bobcats ahead.

He missed.

"One free throw away," Offutt said, according to the ESPN.com report. "As a leader on this team, I take responsibility that I've got to hit that free throw. ... It just feels terrible to kind of let my team down in that sort of way."

The game went into overtime, and Ohio was spent. North Carolina star Harrison Barnes had a miserable game, going 3-for-16 from the field, but he scored five of his 12 points in overtime to help the Tar Heels survive, despite the absence of injured point guard Kendall Marshall.

"We feel like we got away with one," said North Carolina center Tyler Zeller, who had 20 points and 22 rebounds, per the ESPN.com story. "Ohio played the better game, they hit a lot of shots. I think we just were able to make a lot of plays at the end that made us capable of pulling it out."

2. Kansas State 101, Xavier 96 (2 OT), 2010

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"As good a game as I've ever coached or been a part of," Xavier coach Chris Mack said, according to the ESPN.com report, and he was on the losing side.

The 2010 Sweet 16 game between Xavier and Kansas State seemed to go on forever, with game-changing plays occurring every few seconds.

Xavier trailed by 15 points in the first half but was behind by just three as the final seconds of the second half ticked away.

Kansas State coach Frank Martin had told his team to commit a foul before Xavier could launch a three-pointer. However, no foul was called when Kansas State's Denis Clemente tried to foul Terrell Holloway as Holloway crossed midcourt. Instead, officials called a foul on Chris Merriewether a few seconds later as Holloway attempted an off-balance, desperation 25-foot shot with five seconds left.

He made all three free throws to send the game into overtime.

The sixth-seeded Musketeers found themselves behind by three again in the closing moments of the first overtime, but Jordan Crawford nailed a shot from about 10 feet beyond the three-point line with four seconds left to send the game to a second overtime.

Bearded Jacob Pullen was the hero in the second extra period, hitting one three-pointer to give the Wildcats a 94-93 lead with 1:09 remaining then making another trey to break a 94-94 tie with 31.2 seconds left. When Xavier's Dante Jackson missed an open three-point attempt with 12 seconds left that would have tied the game, the second-seeded Wildcats had survived.

1. Michigan 87, Kansas 85 (OT), 2013

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Michigan sophomore Trey Burke had a first half he would like to forget and a second half few will forget in the Wolverines' 87-85 overtime upset of No. 1-seeded Kansas in front of 42,639 people at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in 2013.

Burke, the Big Ten Player of the Year, went scoreless in the first half, allowing Kansas to take control. The Jayhawks seemed to be comfortably ahead when they took a 14-point lead with 6:50 remaining and still held an eight-point margin with 1:22 left. 

Michigan whittled the margin down to three before Kansas' Elijah Johnson missed the front end of a one-and-one situation with 12.6 seconds remaining, giving Michigan a final chance.

Burke attempted a three-point shot from about 10 feet beyond the three-point line. Besides the daunting distance of the shot, Burke was drifting while he shot and had Kansas' 6'8" Kevin Young jumping out at him while fully extended. Somehow the shot dropped through, tying the game with 4.2 seconds left, sending the game into overtime.

“It didn’t matter how far that shot was,” Burke said, according to the New York Times report. “It was all or nothing. I had a lot of faith in that shot, and it went in."

Burke scored all 23 of his points after halftime, including five in the overtime. But the victory by fourth-seeded Michigan was not secured until Kansas' Naadir Tharpe missed a three-point attempt at the overtime buzzer.

"Well, this will certainly go down as one of the toughest games that obviously we've been a part of and I've been a part of," Kansas coach Bill Self said, per the ESPN.com report. "But props to Michigan for making all the plays late."