photo by: Mike Yoder

Danny Manning and Larry Brown embrace after clinching the 1988 Men’s NCAA Basketball title.

The spectacle of March Madness entertains and amazes the nation each and every year. But for the vast majority of the players out there deciding whose brackets get framed and whose get tossed in the recycling bin, the win-or-go-home tournament ends in pain.

Only a select few can survive The Madness and call themselves champions of the NCAA Tournament.

Over at The Players’ Tribune — a website designed to let professional athletes share their first-person accounts of athletic triumphs and trials — there is a series called “Tales of Madness,” in which former college hoops stars detail all that is great (and devastating) about The Big Dance.

Wouldn’t you know it, you can read about an early exit and “one shining moment” from the Kansas perspective, thanks to entries from a couple of all-time greats.

Paul Pierce shares his memories of a painful loss to Arizona — in the Sweet 16, in 1997 — in a piece titled “One Bad Game.”

On the polar opposite end of the NCAA Tournament experience, KU legend Danny Manning describes the joy of winning the 1988 national championship.

“I played in four NCAA tournaments at
Kansas, but that 1987-88 team was a
special group,” Manning says.
“Whenever a team wins a championship,
everything has to fall into place. The
coach has to have the right gameplan,
coaches have to implement it and the
players have to buy in and execute it.
You have to catch some breaks along
the way, but you also have to be
dedicated and disciplined in your
actions.

“In that 1988 NCAA Tournament, we
weren’t the most talented team. We
weren’t the most athletic team. But as
anyone who’s ever watched the
tournament knows, once you’re in,
everyone’s record is 0-0. It’s all
about which team can get hot at the
right time.”

Pierce and his fellow Jayhawks from that 1996-97 KU team know that better than just about anybody who put on a college basketball uniform. Kansas entered the NCAA Tournament with just one loss, and it came in double overtime at rival Missouri.

KU’s previous dominance that season didn’t matter against No. 4 seed Arizona, which, much like Danny and The Miracles, started clicking at just the right time and won a national title.

“Arizona was good — they had a
tremendous backcourt comprised of Mike
Bibby and Jason Terry — but I didn’t
have much doubt that we would win,”
Pierce says. “Honestly, I thought we
would crush them. Our team was stacked
with NBA talent. The expectation was
that we were going to bulldoze through
the early rounds of the tournament. I
had my sights set on the Final Four,
where I figured we’d probably meet
Kentucky, the defending national
champs. That was the game we were all
looking forward to.

“But Arizona came to play, and we
weren’t at our best.”

Nine years earlier, Kansas entered the postseason as a No. 6 seed with 11 losses. Manning says coach Larry Brown’s unwavering belief in the Jayhawks helped them overcome what had at times been a bumpy regular season — the Jayhawks were 12-8 at one juncture.

Manning admits no one outside of the program expected KU in the Final Four, but there the Jayhawks were, playing in nearby Kansas City, Missouri, against fellow Big Eight program Oklahoma in the title game.

In the final seconds of a one-possession game, Manning hit two clutch free throws to push Kansas to an unlikely national title.

At The Players’ Tribune, Manning says his favorite memory from that magical ride actually came after the final game ended.

“Sitting in the locker room with my
teammates after winning the national
championship, we talked about our
season, which was my senior season. We
talked about the tournament. And
that’s when it hit us: That was the
last time we’d ever be together on the
court as a team. It was a somber
moment for me, but also a very
satisfying one knowing that I was a
part of a group that was able to win a
national championship. A lot of hard
work, sweat and tears went into it. A
lot of guys made huge sacrifices for
our team and for each other. We’d been
through such uncertainty and
endured so many tough losses, and here
we were, reaping the benefits together
— as a team.”

Obviously, Pierce recalls a far more agonizing feeling permeating the Kansas locker room when the season ended in 1997.

“The tournament is unforgiving,”
Pierce says. “If you have one bad
game, that’s it. Throughout my career
I’ve had many losses, but all these
years later, this is one that still
stings.”

— Other “Tales of Madness” from The Players’ Tribune include accounts from Ali Farokhmanesh, Mateen Cleaves, Baron Davis, Kenny Lofton, Jameer Nelson, Jalen Rose, Jason Kidd and more.