The last week of February has already had its uncommon intrigues. BYU came from behind at halftime to beat Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse and no one had done that in 71 games. Indiana and Wisconsin had to wait a fire alarm going off in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall — and an evacuation — before the Hoosiers could finish off the win. Maybe the alarm was coming from the locker room of the Badgers, who have now lost six of eight. Kentucky blew a seven-point lead in the last 49 seconds at Mississippi State but then won on the final tick of the clock. Caitlin Clark continued to close on the career scoring landmark of Pete Maravich, who died 14 years before Clark was born.
Now comes a really rare event. College basketball on Leap Day.
Teams can make memories on Feb. 29 only once every four years, so best to take advantage of the opportunity with sometime suitably unusual. And it does happen.
Four years ago, for instance. Nine teams ranked in the Associated Press top-25 went down that Saturday, including No. 2 Baylor, No. 6 Florida State, No. 7 Duke and No. 9 Maryland. Connecticut defeated East Carolina 84-63, overcoming 25 points by the Pirates’ Tristen Newton. Until then, the Huskies had been 0-5 all-time on Feb. 29. Four years and one leap day later, Newton now stars for UConn. Kentucky clinched its 49th SEC season title that day. The Wildcats haven’t won one since and if they miss again this year, that’ll be four seasons in a row, matching Kentucky’s longest dry spell in three decades.
One other notable item from Feb. 29, 2020 would have an impact on the rest of the season, and nearly everything else. There was news from the state of Washington: The first U.S. death from something called COVID-19.
In 2016, No, 1 Kansas and No. 23 Texas had a big showdown on Feb. 29 in Austin. Well, it was supposed to be a showdown. The Jayhawks won by 30, missing by only six points administering the worst home loss in Texas history.
The basketball landscape was very different on Feb. 29, 2012. Cincinnati beat Marquette and Louisville lost to South Florida in Big East games. North Carolina thumped Maryland in the ACC. All those conference matchups are part of yesterday.
On Feb. 29, 2004 Pittsburgh’s 40-game homecourt winning streak was snapped by Syracuse in a grinding sort of affair that was decided 49-46 in overtime.
Indiana overpowered Purdue 79-65 on Feb. 29, 2000, giving Bob Knight only his third win in the previous 11 meetings with Gene Keady. It was Senior Day in Bloomington. How could anyone imagine the storm that would soon break over Knight, and the victory would be his final home game as Indiana coach?
On Feb. 29, 1992, Brown lost for the 42nd consecutive time at Princeton as the Tigers clinched the Ivy League title, 58-49 victory. Princeton was led by 19 points from Chris Mooney, who now coaches Richmond.
On Feb. 29, 1980, Syracuse crushed Connecticut and Georgetown defeated St. John’s to advance to the first championship game ever for that new concoction, the Big East tournament. It was played in Providence. On the same day Duke upset North Carolina 75-61 in the ACC tournament, after losing to the Blue Devils by 15 and 25 points during the regular season. These were the final weeks of the Bill Foster coaching era in Durham. The next year Duke would turn to an Army kid from Chicago with a last name hard to spell or pronounce. Mike something or another.
Since Duke and North Carolina usually play in late February, they’ve shared a few Leap Day memories, Duke Senior Day in 1952 will do as an example. It was to be the final regular season home game for Blue Devils’ All-American Dick Groat, and his father had driven down from Pennsylvania to be there. Except he fell in the parking lot and injured his knee. The game was delayed a half-hour to make sure all was OK. and once Groat got the thumbs up from the hospital, he went out and scored 48 points in a 94-64 rout of the Tar Heels. To this day it is the single game scoring record for a North Carolina opponent. In the same rout, Duke’s Bernie Janicki had 31 rebounds.
On Feb. 29, 1924, two programs with big ideas about where basketball might take them met for the first time as members of the Southern Conference. North Carolina rolled over Kentucky 41-20 in the league tournament in Atlanta. Future bluebloods making their introductions.
Now comes another Leap Day, and among the 51 games on Thursday is Gonzaga at San Francisco in what is a critical bubble test for the Zags. A Gonzaga loss could well damage its chances of continuing its streak of 24 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. It’d be a lousy way to remember Feb. 29, but then the Zags would only have to mark the date once every four years.