Several member of the Bucks roster, including Andrew Bogut, enjoyed at least one trip to the NCAA's Sweet 16. (Getty)

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March 27, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- Thanks to its dramatic upset victories over Gonzaga and Georgetown last week, Davidson College suddenly has its highest profile ever on the national collegiate basketball scene.

Western Kentucky, which earned college hoops prominence back in the 1960s and ’70s – thanks in large part to former Milwaukee Buck Greg Smith -- is relevant coast-to-coast again..

And such traditional powers as North Carolina, Kansas and UCLA are still standing, too, as the 2008 NCAA Tournament enters its Sweet 16.

Millions of viewers will crowd around televisions this Thursday through Sunday to watch the tourney unfold. Among them will be several Milwaukee Bucks whose brushes with March Madness still burn fervently in their memories.

Bucks guard Royal Ivey remembers being part of the group that catapulted the University of Texas program back onto the map of big-time college hoops.

“I remember playing Mississippi State in the tournament my sophomore year,” Ivey said. “We were the No. 6 seed, I think, and Mississippi State was the third seed. We were tied, and I went to the line and I knocked down two free throws. We beat them to get Texas to its first Sweet 16 in I don’t know how many years.”

Bucks forward Desmond Mason can identify with Ivey.

Mason’s Oklahoma State Cowboys reached the Elite Eight in 1999-2000 with an 86-66 win over Hofstra and a 75-67 win over Pepperdine at Buffalo, then defeated Seton Hall, 68-66, before falling to Florida, 77-65, in the East Regional at Syracuse.

They had been to the NCAA tourney two years earlier, posting a 69-61 win over Syracuse before losing to Auburn, 81-74, so the Elite Eight voyage was a priceless reward for Mason and such teammates as Joe Adkins, Glendon Alexander, Brian Montonati and current ESPN college basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb.

“We went to the Elite Eight as a senior, with five seniors starting,” Mason said. “It was a very memorable trip. We won some good games, and we lost to Florida, who won it all that year. It was a good run for us.

“Most of those guys, I went through three or four years of college with. To finish up our careers in college like that … that just doesn’t happen much anymore, because so many guys leave college so early. But three out of those five guys, I went to school with for four years. And the other two, I went to school with for three years. It was definitely a good experience for us all.”

When Bucks forward Michael Ruffin was a youngster, he didn’t plant himself in front of the TV set throughout the NCAA tourney like many of his Milwaukee teammates did. But by the time he left the University of Tulsa, he came to understand what all the commotion in March was about.

“I wasn’t a big TV junkie,” Ruffin said. “I probably didn’t start watching the tournament until I was in high school, started playing more and then started getting recruited a little bit. Then you sit there and start watching college basketball and start feeling the excitement and picturing yourself being out there someday.”

“Someday” came earlier than Ruffin could have anticipated.

“In my freshman year in college, we won our league tournament, made the NCAA tournament and played Louisville in the first round,” he said. “I had one of my best games as a college player, against Samaki Walker, at the time.

“I want to say we were like a 12 seed and they were a 5. We actually ended up losing the game, but we were up 11 or 12 points with about 2 minutes left. Samaki was a great player at the time. And it was such an exciting game, with such an exciting atmosphere. That was the first time I’d been in the tournament, so it was my most memorable experience.”

The University of Utah has enjoyed its share of NCAA tourney success, but the Utes weren’t expected to be major players in the 2005 edition, even with consensus national player of the year Andrew Bogut in their lineup. They had other ideas, though.

“My favorite March Madness memory was making the tournament with a team that nobody even picked to win our conference,” Bogut said. “My sophomore year, not many people expected us to win our conference, and we made the Sweet 16, so that was the most memorable thing for me.”

Like Ruffin, Bogut was relatively new to the rush of the NCAA tourney.

“I didn’t watch the tournament much as a kid. We didn’t get much access to it back in Australia. Only in the last five or six years, since I came here and a couple of guys like A.J. Oglivy have made big names for themselves, there’s more TV telecast back in Australia. We only got ESPN – ESPN Oceania – back in Australia about five or six years ago. We really didn’t get much coverage.

“The intensity is definitely much greater (in the NCAA Tournament). And different conferences play different styles. So you see teams like Duke struggling to beat Belmonts and so on. That’s why it’s fun to watch. Every conference has a different style, and it’s tough to scout.”

For those Bucks whose teams advanced beyond the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight, the thrills continued to multiply.

Michael Redd’s Ohio State team of 1999 was another upstart. The Buckeyes beat Murray State, 72-58, and Detroit, 75-44, in Indianapolis; then downed Auburn, 71-64, and St. John's, 77-74, in Knoxville to reach the Final Four. They lost in a national semifinal to Connecticut in St. Petersburg, Fla., 64-56.

“We beat St. John’s, who had Ron Artest, Erick Barkley … a very good team, in the regional final,” Redd said. “We had to beat the No. 1 seed and the No. 3 seed to get to the Final Four. It was cool.”

“Getting to the Final Four is what we played for. Obviously we didn’t win it, but to get so close and be in that atmosphere was tremendous.

“Going into that season, we weren’t even ranked. And we finished the season fourth. It was tremendous. It was the greatest college experience I ever had, and one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had in my life, period.”

Ivey and Texas were rewarded with a Final Four trip to the Georgia Dome in his junior season, 2004.

“We played Connecticut and were down by 10 with like 2 minutes to go and came back and won that game,” he said. “We beat Michigan State to go to the Final Four. There are so many memories. I mean, I really enjoyed my time. I saw the good, the bad and the ugly – losing in the first round, almost winning the whole thing, losing to Syracuse in the Final Four. I mean, it’s a great experience.

“A lot of people don’t understand how great it is. For instance, (2007 Texas All-American and current Seattle Super Sonic) Kevin Durant wanted to experience that. He wanted to stay for four years. But he couldn’t. There’s no way possible he could. But that’s why he goes back and hangs out with the guys. He loves that experience. I love it, too.

“That’s why I go back and kid around with the young guys. It’s fun being in that college atmosphere, hanging around, going out to eat and things like that.”

Ivey can testify to this weekend’s contenders that the Final Four is everything it’s cracked up to be.

“Oh, it’s everything,” he said. “You see 60 or 70 thousand fans screaming and jumping up and down. The college fans are the best fans, hands-down … the hecklers, the guys with the paint on their bodies. It’s just a great environment. I miss it.”

Visit bucks.com next week in advance of the Final Four for Part III of "The Rides of March."