Some of my early memories of the NCAA basketball tournament, and college basketball in general, circa late 1970s:
*Only 40 teams - 8 first-round games, with the winners joining 24 others in the round of 32. Went to 48 teams soon after. (Then 64, 68...)
*Only one TV network showing games - and it was NBC. There was no such thing as cable or satellite TV, come on!
*No national TV for the early round games, nor the elite eight games. Hell, it wasn't even called the elite eight then, it was called the 'quarterfinal round' if you can believe that.
*No shot clock; no three-point line.
*Duke went to the Final Four in 1978, and no one knew who they were.
*Really long socks. Really short shorts. Really long hair.
*The NCAA had just started to allow dunking. It had been a techincal foul. I am not making this up.
*Magic v. Bird, 1979 championship game, the most watched one ever. Real time: As hyped as it might have been then, nobody really knew if either of them would be a good professional player.
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