Think about what we saw in the final minute of Game Two. We saw Roy Hibbert stay on the floor. In Game One, Frank Vogel pulled him and paid the price as Lebron James took the ball to the rim twice in the final seconds of overtime. Give credit to Vogel for not being stubborn. He took a lot of criticism for his decision, even if Charles Barkley did agree with the strategy. He went the other way in Game Two and James had two huge turnovers in the final minute.

On the first one, David West picked off an errant James pass. I felt he should have taken the ball to the hoop. After all, taking it to the bucket even against Lebron James, your odds are pretty good you are either going to score or get fouled. The Pacers were up by two at the time and that could have made it a four-point lead. But, he backed it out and the Pacers ended up with a shot clock violation with 17 seconds to go. But the Pacers stepped in front of another James pass and George stepped to the line and hit two free throws for the four point lead. Chris Bosh then missed a three that went off Dwayne Wade with 1.6 left and that was it.

Hibbert had 29 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Pacers while George added 22 points and George Hill chipped in 18. James led the Heat with 36 points as they lost for only the fourth time in their last 50 games and the second in these playoffs, both at home. The Heat is perfect on the road in the post-season. Game Three will be on Sunday in Indianapolis and it will actually be a game that both teams have a good chance to win. We didn’t expect that at the start of the series.

What makes a great NCAA Tournament upset? Is it the seedings? Or maybe the magnitude of the game? It can be one or the other. Sometimes it’s also the way the games play out as well. Sometimes its the crowd reaction. Many times an underdog gets the “neutral” fans on their side while bidding for the shocker. That is what makes the NCAA Tournament fun to watch. Here are our 10 best upsets in the history of the tournament.

10. 2013 Florida Gulf Coast 78 Georgetown 68. Only #10?  This was a 15 over a two! Well, we have to give the Eagles some credit for also beating San Diego State in the next round.  What a fun game this was. The Eagles flew up and down the court throwing down dunks on the normally defensive minded beasts from the Big East. Before this night, dew people had even heard of Florida Gulf Coast. Everyone knows them now.

9. 1966 Championship Game- Texas Western72 Kentucky 65. This game was remembered for being the first game to feature an all black starting five but let’s not forget, this was also UTEP beating Kentucky for the national championship. Imagine UTEP beating Kentucky today in a regular season game.

8. 1974 National semifinals- NC State 80 UCLA77.  Wait, this was a Final Four Game right? Yes it was. But Final Fours sometimes produce the greatest upsets. Back in those days, anybody beating John Wooden and UCLA was a lot like the US Olympic Hockey team beating the Soviets.

7. Cleveland State 83 Indiana 79. This was the first major upset of the 64 team era. Cleveland State was a 14 knocking off #3 Indiana. This was also a game where nobody had ever heard of the winner before the game. FGCU should take note that they have rarely been heard from since.

6.  2012 Lehigh 75 Duke 70. A rare #15 over a #2 may have gotten a bit more hype had it not been the second one that day.  This one happened in Duke’s back yard in Greensboro North Carolina, making it even more stunning.

5.  2012 Norfolk State  86 Missouri 84. This game seems to be more memorable than the Lehigh game even though both were 15 over two games. Perhaps this is because the NSU game was earlier in the day and therefore they took some of the shock value away from the later game? But these two happening on the sane day made this one of the best days in tournament history.

4. 2011 Elite Eight-VCU 71 Kansas 61.What made VCU’s upset of Kansas so impressive wasn’t just that they were one of the four teams that played in the opening round of the new 68 team format, but also that they dominated the game. VCU was an 11 seed beating a number one seed by ten points with a Final Four berth at stake. Where have we heard this before? Oh yeah…

3. 2006 Elite Eight- George Mason 86 Connecticut 84. An overtime thriller saw little known George Mason advance to the Final Four in 2006. This win perhaps paved the way for Butler, VCU and Wichita State in the following seasons to get to the Final Four. In 2006, George Mason getting there was a huge deal. Nobody had them getting that far, not that anybody had VCU or Wichita either.

2. 1983 Championship Game- North Carolina State 54 Houston 52. #2 and #1 are virtually a tossup. The 1983 tournament run by North Carolina State has got to be one of the greatest in tournament history if not THE greatest. It began in the ACC Tournament that the Wolfpack had to win just to get into the Big Dance. Several times they pulled out close games against some of the nation’s best teams such as the Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins led North Carolina Tar Heels and the Ralph Sampson led Virginia Cavaliers. Then as luck would have it, after pulling off a miracle comeback against Pepperdine and upsetting UNLV, the Wolfpack had to beat Virginia again to get to the Final Four.

Then after beating Georgia in the national semifinals, the Wolfpack watched what looked like an NBA game in the other semi as the Houston Cougars led by Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon beat the Louisville Cardinals in a dunk fest. Few gave the Wolfpack any hope against the Cougars in the title game. But in this pre-shot clock era, the Pack was able to slow the tempo and hold for the last shot down by one. An air-ball from Derrick Wittenburg was grabbed out of the air by Lorenzo Charles and dunked before the buzzer sounded to give NC State the win.

1. 1985 Championship Game- Villanova 66 Georgetown 64. Villanova was the eight seed facing the top seeded Hoyas. Georgetown was the champions of the Big East and had beaten Villanova three times already. The Wildcats were never supposed to even get that far and had already pulled off several upsets in the tournament. They would have to play a near perfect game to beat the more talented Hoyas of Patrick Ewing.

After narrowly escaping number nine Dayton in the first round, the Wildcats then upset the number one seed Michigan in the second round. Then they took down two ACC giants, Maryland and North Carolina, the #5 and #2 seeds. After beating Memphis in the national semifinal, that least them with the mighty Hoyas, the defending national champions who were playing in their third championship game in four years.

Nova shot an astonishing 22 of 28 from the floor and still only won by two points. They had no margin for error and they made none. Neither team committed a turnover in the game.

When the NBA decided the league was ready to expand because of their newly found popularity, Florida threw their hats into the ring. In the late 1980s, Florida still had no NBA teams,  no Major League Baseball teams nor NHL teams despite the growing population. In 1988, the Miami Heat began play and in 1989 the Orlando Magic followed.

For 15 years, these two franchises were identical. They had similar records, played in similar sized arenas, and played each other nearly evenly. As late as the beginning of this past season, the all-time series record was within three games with the Heat holding a 47-44 advantage. Even with this season figured in, the Heat has an all-time win percentage of .515 and the Magic is .510.  Yet, these two franchises cannot be further apart.

The Heat is coasting toward their third NBA World Championship and fourth Eastern Conference Championship with no end of their dominance in sight. The Magic is still in search of their first NBA World Championship and are not really any closer to getting there than they were in October of 1989. So how did these two identical franchises become polar opposites? It’s really simple. The free agent market has repeatedly failed the Magic (or maybe it is the other way around) while the Heat has flourished there.

Is Miami really that much better place than Orlando? Most people would tell you no. In fact, Orlando is a much more desirable place to live, especially if you have a family. Does Miami have a nicer arena? No way. The Amway Center is a basketball palace. Is it the night life? Miami probably does have a more famous strip in South Beach. I suppose that could be a draw. But let’s be real, Miami is not Los Angeles or New York. So what is it then? Orlando wishes they knew.

The Magic has seen Shaquille O’Neal walk, been spurned by Tim Duncan, watched Dwight Howard leave and now are starting over yet again. The Heat have been able to keep Dwayne Wade, lure Lebron James and Chris Bosh and now are running out of fingers for all those rings.

If stories are to be believed, shortly after James signed with Miami, Howard and point guard Chris Paul talked of teaming up. But Howard could not talk Paul into Orlando and Paul could not talk Howard into New Orleans. So they both ended up in Los Angeles on different teams.

So the Magic needs to examine why it is that Chris Paul, Tim Duncan, Shaq and Dwight didn’t want to play there.  Magic ownership has done everything they can to make the franchise more appealing to prospective free agents as far as facilities. Maybe what they need now is their own Pat Riley. Maybe the Magic needs to make Phil Jackson the General Manager. Big time free agents want to go somewhere where the man in charge knows what it takes to win championships.

Jackson has expressed interest in becoming a GM. The  problem is Orlando just hired a new GM and head coach only last year. Once again, timing seems to be the enemy of the Magic. Just yesterday, the Magic landed the number two pick  in this year’s NBA Draft. But most NBA analysts are saying that this is one of the weakest drafts in years, especially at the top. This team just cannot catch a break.

Perhaps the Magic should just throw caution to the wind and throw a lot of money and power at Jackson anyway. What do they have to lose?

Do the Cavaliers draft Kentucky center Nerlens Noel with the first pick? Or do they perhaps trade the pick for multiple picks? Noel is a project. He’s a defensive specialist with not much offense. Plus, he is coming off knee surgery. My advice would be to trade down.

The number one pick from two years ago was Kyrie Irving. The Cavs can’t complain about how that one worked out. Irving is a stud. The Cavs have a chance to put somebody with him if they play this right. Noel wouldn’t be a bad way to go, but they might be better off going with a guy like Mason Plumlee, Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, or Ben McLemore. They might be able to trade down a spot or two and get one of those guys and still have another pick later in the draft.

What about the Orlando Magic with the second pick. Sure, they were awful last season. But when you look at their roster, they have some pieces there. Nik Vukevic is a decent center. Arron Afflalo is a nice shooting guard as is Tobias Harris. Moe Harkless has some potential at small forward. Big Baby Davis is a good power forward. Jameer Nelson can play the point. The problem is none of those guys are great. So if you are the Magic, you can really pick any position and upgrade it. If I was making the pick, I would take Trey Burke. But McLemore, Oladipo, Otto Porter, Zeller, you could make a case for any of them.

The Washington Wizards are in really good shape at pick number three. This team was clearly decimated by early season injuries. They are not this bad when healthy. So adding another top three pick to go with Brad Beal from last year and John Wall from three years ago, this team is on the verge of being really dangerous. Who do you go with if you are the Wizards? I’d go big. Noel if he’s still there or Zeller. Porter or Oladipo would be another way to go. Give Wall another scorer with Beal to pass to.

The thing about this draft is there is no clear cut “this guy is the number one pick” guy like Anthony Davis was last year and Andrew Wiggins will likely be next year. What this draft does have is depth. There will be some late picks that could pan out very well for somebody such as Peyton Siva and Georgui Deng from Louisville or Jeff Withey from Kansas or Kelly Olynyk from Gonzaga. Shabazz Mohammed could turn out to be a great NBA player as well. He had a rather disappointing year at UCLA, but he was rated the #1 player coming out of high school for a reason.

But next year, pay attention to the draft lottery closely. Because there will be some game changers coming out in next year’s draft. If there is a year to root for your team to stink it up, next year might be that year.

The pressure intensifies in this round ans the Grizzlies discovered when they came out flat in Game One against the Spurs. The Spurs have been this far many times and it showed as they jumped out to a 31-14 first quarter lead. The game was essentially over after that. The Spurs drained 14 threes in the game. On most of them there was no Grizzlies defender in the area of the shooter. Look for the Grizzlies to tighten that up in Game Two.

Memphis will not panic as they have been here before. They lost Game One in  both of their playoff series before this one. They are 0-3 in Game One, 1-1 in Game Two and 7-0 in the other games in the playoffs. They a also unbeaten at home.

The Spurs won’t get too overconfident even should they win Game Two. They were up 2-0 in the Western Conference Finals a year ago to the Oklahoma City Thunder and lost in six. The key to this series is whether the Spurs can get a road game. They need to be up 3-1 going into Game Five because the Grizzlies are 2-0 on the road in Game Fives in these playoffs.

The Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat will tip things off on Wednesday in Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals. The first shots though have already been fired in the media as Pacers coach Frank Vogel called the Heat “the next team up.” This did not sit well with the Heat and Lebron James.

Getting the best player in the game extra motivated is probably not the way to go here. It’s a tough situation to be the opposing coach. You don’t want to show the favorites too much respect or you may have your own team thinking they have no shot. But at the same time, you don’t want the best team in the world coming in thinking they have something more to prove.

The Pacers have some guys that can play some defense and the Heat have trouble with good big men. Roy Hibbert will be a key to this series. If Hibbert shows up and dominates in the paint and on the boards, the Pacers could make life difficult for Miami.

Game One is on Wednesday night in Miami. We can’t wait.

The Knicks were seeded #2 in the East, which meant that if they held serve on their home floor they go all the way to the conference finals. But, they lost Game One of the semifinals to the Pacers at home, and they never got that game back. In Game Six, the game was tied 81-81 entering the fourth period and the Knicks later held a 92-90 lead. But the Pacers went on a 9-0 run to take over and advance to face the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.

So some questions that will need to be answered in the near future:

Is coach Mike Woodson on the “hot seat?” Most would think that taking the Knicks farther than they’ve been in years would be good enough to get him another year. But this is New York. Expectations are always through the roof in the Big Apple.

If Woodson is on the way out, who do the Knicks go after? The Knicks job is one of basketball’s highest profile jobs. One would think that it may be a job that would intrigue Phil Jackson. Jackson played for the Knicks. It is a job that keeps a coach at the top of the headlines. Jackson has been highly successful in two large markets in Chicago and Los Angeles. Might he consider trying to conquer New York?

Another high profile coach who may think about going to New York could be John Calipari. Calipari has it made right now with the Kentucky Wildcats. But the Knicks might be a job that could lure him away, much like the Boston Celtics lured another highly successful Kentucky coach, Rick Pitino.

How about Jackson as the General Manager and Calipari as the head coach? That would be an interesting combination.

How about the roster? Do they keep Amare Stoudamire? They didn’t get a whole lot from him this season. What about Jason Kidd? He certainly is not getting any younger. In Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks already have one of the game’s biggest stars. But, as Kevin Durant or James Harden can tell him, it takes more than one to compete for the championship.

A team is probably better off not having any than having one top superstar. The Pacers don’t have one. So they all must contribute. Teams with one tend to wait for him to take over.

The Knicks could just stand pat and hope Stoudamire can come back healthy next year. If he gets back to his old form, he makes two top stars on the Knicks, and they perhaps get a bit further. That is certainly possible.

Whatever the Knicks do, they better hope it doesn’t backfire, because the New York media loves to second guess. So in the off-season, keep your eyes on the Knicks.

If Rivers was entertaining offers, it was because he was thinking he might not want to take on a rebuilding project. He wants a playoff contender. That is why it was possible he may have been the next Brooklyn Nets coach. But he is coming back to Boston and really, there will still be some pieces there.

Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett likely will  be gone. Pierce has stated it it doubtful he will be back. One would assume without those two then Jason Terry probably won’t be back either.

So who will be wearing the Celtics green going forward? How about Rajon Rondo? Rondo is one of the best point guards in the NBA. Rondo is an assist machine, but to rack up assists, guys have to put the ball in the basket. Who do the Celtics have that will do that? How about Jeff Green? Toward the end of this past season, he was really lighting it up.

So that’s two decent pieces. What else? Well, there is Brandon Bass, Courtney Lee, Jared Sullinger, Fab Melo, Avery Bradley and Jordan Crawford. That may not be a roster to throw a scare into the Miami Heat or New York Knicks, but there are some good players in there. Most importantly, there is some youth in there. That is something the Celtics have lacked in recent years. Players like Sullinger and Melo and even Lee and Crawford, could gel together and get better.

With Pierce and Garnett gone, so is about 27 million a year in salary. This gives the Celtics some money to spend if they choose to go that rout. There are some good free agents out there too this summer. Imagine the Celtics with Greg Munroe. Now they are looking pretty good. Our how about Andre Iguodala? Or Monta Ellis? The Celtics will have some money to throw at some of those guys.

If the Celtics can land a good free agent or two, suddenly, they look like they are in good shape for next year.

A lot will depend on Sullinger. He has had a lot of injury issues so far in is basketball career, but when healthy, he can play. Many projected him as a lottery pick when he was at Ohio State

Ironically, the Warriors had two threes rim out in between Parker’s two that really magnified their importance. Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry, both known as deadly three point shooters each had one go half-way down and rim out in the last two minutes. So now the Spurs move on to face the Grizzlies in the conference finals.

The Grizzlies advanced after eliminating the Russell Westbrook deprived Oklahoma City Thunder. Westbrook was injured in the first round series against the Houston Rockets and was unable to go in the Grizzlies series. Without him, the Thunder were not the same team on offense as Kevin Durant could not carry the team past the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies front court of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph owned the paint.

Randolph and Gasol vs Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter should be a good battle throughout this series as will Tony Parker vs Mike Conley. Conley is becoming a star point guard in front of the whole world in these playoffs. He played Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers to a stand still in the opening round series and dominated the Thunder without Westbrook in there.

Conley played one year of college ball at Ohio State the same year as Greg Oden. Both came out after their freshman year after leading the Buckeyes to the Final Four. Most people thought Oden was the guy from that team that would become a star in the NBA. Conley was mostly overlooked. Now it looks as if Conley is the star as Oden’s career has been derailed by multiple injuries.

These two teams met in the playoffs two years ago and the Grizzlies upset the top-seeded Spurs. There will be no overlooking the Grizzlies this time. Many feel the Grizzlies are the favorites this time around, even though the odds-makers have made the Spurs a slight favorite.

We see this series going the full seven games. Anything could happen in the course of a seven game series, but we like the Spurs to win Game Seven on their home floor. The Spurs will be playing in their eighth Western Conference Finals since Tim Duncan joined the team. The Grizzlies have no been this far before. Experience at this stage is a huge advantage.

Therefore we like the Spurs in seven.

The Huskies ended up doing pretty well, perhaps in part because they had no pressure. There was no Big East Tournament seedings or NCAA at-large bid to play for.

UConn was 20-10 and 10-8 in Ollie’s first season. They Beat the eventual Final Four team Syracuse Orange, Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Michigan State Spartans.

Now, UConn begins play next season in the new American Athletic Conference. The defending national champion Louisville Cardinals will be in the league for one season, but besides them, the biggest competition will be the Memphis Tigers, USF Bulls and Cincinnati Bearcats. The rest of the league like Memphis will be newcomers from Conference USA such as the the UCF Knights, Houston Cougars, SMU Mustangs and holdovers from the Big East such as Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Temple Owls.

This conference will not be a walk in the park. There are a lot of teams in it that will only get better with the upgrade in conferences. But the Huskies should be the best team in this league other than Louisville. So not only will they back in the NCAA Tournament, but they will be a high seed.

The Huskies will have Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright and Deandre Daniels, all of who were considering entering the NBA Draft, coming back next year. This is huge as those three all averaged in double figures a year ago. Also Omar Calhoun also returns with his double figure average.

UConn also has a four-star power forward in Kentan Facey and three-star shooting guard Terrance Samuel coming in next season.

The Huskies should finish second in the AAC and we think they will ve a Sweet Sixteen team in the NCAA Tournament.

But had he gone to FSU, Kentucky and Louisville would still be the front runners to win it all next season. But now, throw the Jayhawks into the mix. KU will be extremely young as will the Wildcats, but both will be loaded with talent. They landed six players ranked in Rivals top 76 players including #12 Wayne Selden at shooting guard and center Joel Embiid at #25. Suddenly UK’s does not look head and shoulders above the the number two Jayhawks.

Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville and now Florida look to be strong Final Four contenders. The Gators landed two top recruits in Kasey Hill at #10 and Chris Walker at #6. But the the Gators also have five returning players from last season’s Elite Eight team and three incoming transfers who will be able to play this year. They add Dorian Finney-Smith from Virginia Tech, Demontre Harris from South Carolina and now Rutgers point guard and leading scorer at 15 ppg, Eli Carter. Carter will not have to sit out a year due to the Mike Rice situation at Rutgers.

Florida State was thought to be the destination for Wiggins because both of his parents are FSU alums. His father Mitchell, played basketball at FSU. Wiggins kept things under wraps to the point where nobody really knew Kansas was gaining on FSU and UK. But as we can tell. Bill Self is a master recruiter. John Calipari gets all the publicity for his recruiting classes that are always loaded with top draft picks, but Self is right up there with him. With Wiggins coming on board, Calipari know has some competition on the recruiting trail.

Then we also have Billy Donovan who has been pulling in not only top level recruits, but top level transfers the last few years. Donovan was often criticized for the number of transfers leaving the program, but now is turning the tables and getting players with experience to transfer in. Players on teams whose coach has been fired is becoming another recruiting ground and Donovan is tapping it. Mike Rosario was one of those players and he contributed to two Elite Eight runs in 2012 and 2013.

So now, it looks like next season’s trophy is up for grabs after all thanks to Wiggins spurning Kentucky and going to Kansas. That is a good thing for college basketball.