by Casey Holdahl

There’s no better time of year for basketball fans than early spring. The NBA regular season nears conclusion, making every game so important for those teams in the playoff hunt. Conversations regarding MVPs and ROYs become heated. Games that might have seemed unimportant in November take on playoff-like atmospheres in March.

But while the pros focus on the impending postseason, the eyes of the nation turn to brackets and Cinderella’s and No. 1 seeds, the amateur ranks and the field of 65. The NCAA Tournament, more popularly known as March Madness, springs eternal.

And so too do the many memories of Trail Blazers players who were fortunate enough to participate in the “Big Dance.” Of the players on the Blazers’ roster who went to college, all but one made the NCAA tournament at one point in time as a collegiate.

Raef LaFrentz, who made the tournament in all four of his years as a Kansas Jayhawk, remembers his tourney experiences fondly, though they all ended in the same unsuccessful fashion.

“We got a one or two seed all four years, and every time we ended up getting upset,” LaFrentz noted. “Freshman year it was Virginia. Sophomore year it was Syracuse to go to the Final Four. Junior year (our best team) it was Arizona, and they won it all. Senior year it was Rhode Island.”

James Jones, a member of two Miami Hurricane tournament teams, noted that the reason the tournament is beloved by the fans is the same reason that it can be so frustrating for the players.

“Say you get through the round of 32, you get to the Sweet 16,” Jones said. “If you lose in the Sweet 16 the next week, whatever you did is irrelevant. It’s not the Elite Eight or the Final Four. It’s one of those things where you win it all or you just go home.”

“Looking back on it, it was cool, but you just realize that you were one of the 64 teams who didn’t win it.”

That all-or-nothing sentiment is shared by Greg Oden who, as an Ohio State Buckeye, lost in the championship game of last year’s tournament to the Florida Gators. When asked what he remembers the most about the NCAA’s, Oden sums up his thoughts succinctly.

“The fact that we lost.”

Brandon Roy, who has had a bit more time to reflect on his NCAA experience as a Washington Husky, remembered the overall feeling of the tournament more than the wins and losses.

“I was fortunate enough to play in three tournaments and two Sweet 16’s,” Roy said. “I think the first one was the most exciting because it was my sophomore season and we weren’t expected to make it. We had a great second half of the season. It was special. Every moment was everything I had dreamed about. I had been filling out brackets since I was a kid, and then to play in my first one, there’s really no experience like that.”

Channing Frye, who also made the tournament four times as an Arizona Wildcat, remembers the big games and the wealth of talent that he played alongside of and against.

“The game where we played Gonzaga to triple-overtime, that’s one of my favorite games. Just a great game; a lot of passion. We got so close to the Final Four twice, once against Kansas, once against Illinois. Both those teams had five NBA players on them. Just all-around good games. Very entertaining.”

Part of what makes March Madness so special, maybe more so than any other aspect of the tournament, is that in any game, any team has a shot of knocking out a higher seed. You have to beat a team four times to advance in the NBA playoffs, making upsets relatively rare, but in the NCAA’s, anything is possible.

“We played against University of Northern Iowa and they gave us a tough run” said Jarrett Jack, who started on the Georgia Tech team that lost to Connecticut in the 2004 championship game. “They were actually beating us at one point. We came back and pulled it out, but those dudes fought with a lot of heart. They were better basketball players than we thought.”

Jack also noted that the rabid and wide-spread support shown by fans during the tournament adds an element that you sometimes don’t see in the NBA.

“It’s just crazy seeing the different colors represented in the stands. When you come out for an NBA game, it’s just the home team’s colors and that’s it. Just to see the pride that each school had, with the support and the pride they played with was crazy.”

Seemingly every player who attended college on the Blazers’ roster had an illustrious collegiate career. Many were All-Americans, just about all were at least All-Conference, but only one player has the distinction of being a National Champion.

“Seeing the last seconds run off the clock and knowing that you’ve won it all was special,” said Steve Blake, who started in all 36 games during the Maryland Terrapin's national championship run in 2002.

“Going into the playoffs last year with Denver and playing a lot of minutes against San Antonio was pretty amazing. But actually winning a championship, there’s been nothing else quite like it for me, yet.”