news-record.com

The NCAA men's basketball championship in Detroit should be a good one, but it will be tough to beat the best Final Four ever. From Greensboro's perspective, anyway.

That was 35 years ago when N.C. State captured the title before a frenzied, friendly crowd in the Greensboro Coliseum.

Michigan State may claim a similar home-state advantage this weekend, but the Spartans won't find a like atmosphere in massive Ford Field, a football stadium only occasionally adapted for basketball use.

The Greensboro Coliseum, then as now, was a basketball arena first and foremost. It hosted the 1974 ACC Tournament and what might have been the greatest college basketball game ever -- N.C. State's 103-100 championship win over Maryland in overtime. In those days, only the winner could advance to NCAA play.

The Wolfpack returned to Greensboro two weeks later with a No. 1 national ranking and 28-1 record. But the only loss had come against UCLA, the seven-time defending national champions. They were slated to meet in the semifinals on Saturday, March 23.

Led by David Thompson and Tom Burleson, State prevailed over UCLA in a double-overtime thriller, 80-77. Attendance was 15,829.

Five inches of snow fell on Greensboro Monday morning, March 25. That night, the Wolfpack chilled Marquette for the national championship.

Recording his impressions for the Greensboro Daily News, Gov. James Holshouser noted that visitors "had nothing but high praise for Greensboro hospitality and the splendid arrangements that so many people made possible. We're proud to have had the national finals in North Carolina, and we hope that the fine event this time will lead to another opportunity in the not-too-distant future."

The Final Four was held in Charlotte 20 years later, but now only football stadiums are scheduled into the future. Although the Greensboro Coliseum's capacity has grown to 23,500, that's not enough to compete.

Too bad, because college basketball just isn't the same on a football field.