If you had a chance to watch the Davidson/Oklahoma NIT regional final last night, you may have been watching the two best players in the country go back and forth. Perhaps it’s a bit of hyperbole, but it’s tough to not gush when watching Blake Griffin dominate with a sick line of 25/20 against a Davidson team led by Stephen Curry‘s 44 points. As a Texas fan, I’m certainly not looking forward to the combo of Little Griffin, Big Griffin, and Willie Warren twice this year, but am looking forward to seeing Curry and the Wildcats take on West Virginia in person just before the Horns play Villanova.

The Texas cities making bids for the Final Four went two for three earlier today, when the NCAA named Arlington and Houston future Final Four sites. The 2014 event will be held at the new Cowboys space station out in Arlington, while Reliant in Houston will follow up their 2011 Final Four with another in 2016. San Antonio was one of five cities whose bids were not selected.

It seemed that perhaps Ole Miss could make a run as a darkhorse NCAA candidate with the SEC having a bit of a down year. But after losing Trevor Gaskins at the start of the year, the Rebels took another huge blow when junior guard and leader Eniel Polynice had season-ending knee surgery. It’s a tough break for Andy Kennedy and the Rebs, who were bringing in a serviceable freshman class to compliment the nucleus of a team that started 13-0 last year.

As mentioned in the Greg Oden Video Spectacular below, I’m quite a bit behind this week. Of course, with only 16 teams left in the country, there’s a lot of coverage of the Longhorns out there that I’ve been missing out on. Mixed into all the burnt-orange love is a little news from elsewhere in the NCAAs, so dive in and get your fill as the first night of the Sweet 16 quickly approaches…

Pat Forde tells a story that many Longhorn fans are familiar with as he explores the winding path D.J. Augustin took to Austin and the tight family bond the Augustins share. This story actually had front-page play on ESPN.com earlier in the week, so it looks like the Burnt Orange Media Conspiracy has stepped from the shadows and into plain sight.

And speaking of the BOMC, how about Donald Sloan openly crying that the Aggies don’t get treated with the respect that the Longhorns get? If you happened to miss Sloan’s post-game interview with radio station KZNE, you’ve definitely got to check out the link. Regardless of what you think about the referees swallowing the whistle in that situation, you’ve really got to wonder why the first place Sloan’s mind jumps is a fantasy construct where he’s D.J. Augustin…

Students at Davidson are getting a free ride to see their team play in Detroit. Oh, and they’ll be getting free lodging and tickets, as well. Trustees at the small, private liberal-arts college decided to pay for the unprecedented trip, which will allow at least 300 students to make the journey. Just imagine what Longhorn Road Trip could be with trustees like these. Hint, hint.

Mike Freeman at CBS Sportsline combines all of the recent stories about Coach Barnes into a quick, enjoyable read. All the themes familiar to Longhorn fans are there — Barnes’ moratorium on cursing, his joking remark that set off Razorback fans, and the North Carolina native’s jocular nature. But most enjoyable are the anecdotes from Coach Haith, particularly one about the Final Four in 2003. Check it out.

The folks over at Gutty Little Bruins have a hilarious post about tournament upsets leading into the game with Western Kentucky. Hats off to the writers for this one, which was not only good for a laugh but also provided a great photographic trip down memory lane.

The first round of the greatest playoff in sports is just 60 minutes away, but Longhorn Road Trip has your fix in the meantime. For the last nine days, we’ve been counting down the greatest finishes in NCAA tournament history, and today we reach the end of our list.

Jim Valvano‘s Wolfpack of NC State met the University of Houston in the 1983 NCAA finals, huge underdogs against a Cougar team that had won 26 straight coming into the championship. With 44 seconds left, NC State had the ball in a tie ballgame. Without the modern shot clock, the Wolfpack was able to work the ball around in a Four Corners set, although Houston’s Clyde Drexler came within inches of stealing the ball for a possible game-winning fast break. After another near-steal, Dereck Whittenburg threw up a desperation heave with four seconds to go that completely missed the iron. But Lorenzo Charles was in the perfect position, catching the airball in time for a championship-winning putback dunk.

The video here starts with a little over a minute to go, but it’s worth it to watch the whole thing. The impatient folks who want to cut to the chase can skip to the 2-minute mark of the video.

When I started this feature, the most common question I heard from friends and readers was “Where do you have the Laettner shot?” Many thought it would be the number one play on the countdown, but instead it finds a home at the number two slot. Some may disagree with the choice, but I truly feel that there is one better buzzer beater — that’s called alliteration, kids — and we’ll check that one out tomorrow morning before the tournament kicks off.

If the Bryce Drew shot isn’t the most famous play in NCAA tournament history, this one has to be. Kentucky and Duke were locked in an epic battle from Philadelphia’s Spectrum, with a trip to the 1992 Final Four on the line. The game was so closely contested that 40 minutes of regulation weren’t enough, and after 4 minutes and 58 seconds of overtime, the two teams were still only separated by a point.

Duke had to travel the length of the floor with only 2.1 seconds to go, trailing 103-102. Grant Hill was triggering the inbounds completely unguarded, as the Wildcats decided to put all five defenders in the frontcourt. With no one to impede his vision or his heave, he threw a baseball pass that set up Laettner’s famous move…

The play became a prevalent pop-culture touchstone, with ESPN even tapping Chris Farley to spoof it for a commercial spot the following year. I loved it as a youngster and enacted my own versions of his clumsiness in the driveway, but it’s still just as funny now and deserves a second look.

At this point, you may be asking yourself how I can put the “Game of the Century” — as Farley screamed it — in only second place. But bear with me, dear readers. There’s still one more moment that we all know and love which had even greater implications than Laettner’s clutch shot. And it’ll be here on Longhorn Road Trip tomorrow morning, just in time to get you ready for 12 hours of basketball heaven.

While fans may have been familiar with many of the buzzer beaters seen so far in our countdown, if not all of them, the clip seen today at number three may be new to you. We go all the way back to the 1981 tournament for this buzzer beater. The location? Our very own Frank Erwin Center. The teams? Defending champion Louisville, who was seeded 4th, and Arkansas, the 5-seed who had advanced after beating Mercer in the first round. And on the sidelines were two coaches who are now both legendary, Denny Crum for Louisville and Eddie Sutton for the Hogs.

Down 73-71, Arkansas had the ball with only fives seconds left to play and the length of the court in front of them. But U.S. Reed only needed to go half of that distance to make the game-winner…

According to Rivals.com, Reed is now a pastor in Arkansas after a break pro career. After being drafted by the Kansas City Kings, he failed to make the roster and spent the 1982 season in the CBA. The following summer he had a training-camp stint with the Spurs, but a knee injury cost him the season and effectively ended his career.