It Was Worth All the Frequent-Flier Miles

It was my personal march through March, traveling to four cities to catch all or parts of 10 NCAA tournament games.

Covering the tournament is a venture fraught with as much risk as reward. Sure, you could wind up 10 feet from history. But there’s also the danger of getting stuck in an airport security line during a game for the ages.

I was in a rental car, a bus and an airport during the West Virginia-Wake Forest thriller in the second round. People said you could go 20 years and not see a game that good.

I had to wait only a week to get a seat for one that was even better.

Illinois-Arizona in the Chicago Regional final Saturday was the game of the tournament. Louisville’s comeback from 20 points down against West Virginia’s barrage of three-pointers earlier in the day lacked the same frantic finish and dramatic story lines and didn’t involve the nation’s No. 1 team.

I was at Michigan State-Kentucky on Sunday, and although it had an additional overtime, the game had nowhere near the same intensity from start to finish.

And for all of the Spartan and Wildcat fans who traveled to Austin, the arena wasn’t filled with people who had a vested interest in the outcome.

The partisan crowd helped make the Illinois-Arizona game great. Allstate Arena -- formerly known as the Rosemont Horizon -- was packed with 16,957 fans, and it seemed only those last 57 rooted for Arizona. As the Wildcats took the court, surrounded by an orchard of Illinois orange in the stands, former Georgetown coach John Thompson said, “Now they know how Custer felt.”

(Technically, Custer was done in by the Sioux, not the Illini, but it was a good analogy anyway.)

Don’t tell me it was unfair for Illinois to play a supposedly neutral-site tournament game in its home state. The Illini earned it with their stellar season. If the roles had been reversed, if Arizona had gone 32-1 and Illinois had lost in its conference tournament final, they might have met in Albuquerque, about 1,100 miles closer to Tucson.

The hostile environment made Arizona’s 15-point lead in the second half that much more impressive. And the vocal support made Illinois’ comeback to force overtime possible.

“They gave us the momentum we needed to make the run and win the game,” said Illinois guard Deron Williams, whose tying three-pointer with 39 seconds left sent the place bonkers.

Illinois kept coming up with great plays. What prevented this game from taking a place beside the 1992 Kentucky-Duke regional final on the list of all-time greats were so many Arizona mistakes, from the botched inbounds pass to not executing a final play.

How was Duke able to get the ball to Christian Laettner from 80 feet away with 2.1 seconds remaining but Arizona couldn’t get it to Salim Stoudamire in the final 11.8 seconds of overtime, or couldn’t get a quality shot off at the end of regulation or overtime?

Duke-Kentucky was on ESPN Classic on Monday, serving up more reminders of why it deserves its No. 1 status. First, the stars were at their best. Laettner made every field goal and free throw he attempted. Kentucky’s Jamal Mashburn made 11 of 16 before fouling out. (Saturday, Stoudamire shot two for 13, and Williams had an uncharacteristic six turnovers.) In 1992, Duke shot 65%, including 53% on three-pointers. Kentucky shot 57% overall and from three-point range. In the final three minutes of overtime, the teams scored on eight of their nine possessions. More thoughts and observations from the tournament:

The Best: An uneventful opening round in Charlotte, N.C., didn’t yield much, other than the observation that North Carolina’s first half against Oakland was the most impressive 20 minutes I’ve seen from any tournament team to date.

At halftime I chatted with CBS’ Billy Packer. Ever the coach, he said that Roy Williams’ toughest challenge would be keeping his team interested in the second half and that Williams would have to use his bench players to motivate the team.

Sure enough, the starters came back looking listless, and Williams quickly subbed out all five of them.

Carolina has the most talent but isn’t mentally sharp enough to stay with its strengths. It almost cost the Tar Heels against Wisconsin and could be fatal in a championship game against Illinois.

College Sports Ink: North Carolina super freshman Marvin Williams has a tattoo of cartoon character Marvin the Martian palming a basketball on his left arm.

Rashad McCants’ shoes are covered with everything from Jay-Z lyrics to Bible verses written with a Sharpie.

Tuck Rule: Spent one morning on a plane packed with grade school kids on spring break, including a kid with talents for citing the differences between mollusk species and imitating Gollum from “The Lord of the Rings.”

Drove from Phoenix to Tucson while listening to the Texas Tech-Gonzaga game, then got to the arena just in time to grab a seat behind the Texas Tech bench.

After the final timeout, with his team taking the court holding a two-point lead for one last defensive stand, Bob Knight yelled at forward Devonne Giles. An assignment switch? A reminder to box out? No.

“Devonne!” Knight yelled. “Tuck your shirt in!”

Giles complied.

“I always tell them if you can play, look like you can play,” Knight said later. “I didn’t want to finish this game with Devonne’s shirt hanging down to his knees.”

TV Nation: Although I missed all the good stuff, I did catch the end of the West Virginia-Wake Forest game at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport. If you’ve ever traveled in March, you’ve seen another example of the magic of the tournament: Its ability to draw everyone to the television, and turn every airport bar serving overpriced, watery beer into the sports book at Mandalay Bay.

The Other Side of the Game: Getting a close look at the toll this tournament takes on the losers can be excruciating. Kentucky freshman Rajon Rondo dribbled away precious seconds at the end of the first overtime and had a costly turnover early in the second OT.

After the Wildcats had lost to Michigan State, Rondo never looked up while I was in the Kentucky locker room.

He sat in a chair, uniform on, the only player still wearing his shoes.

He had the ankle-tape cutter in his hands and kept fiddling with it, pulling the blade out of the holder and snapping it back into place. Come to think of it, it probably wasn’t a good idea to let him handle a sharp object at the time.

“I never want to experience this feeling again,” Rondo said.

After traveling 7,000 miles since the tournament began, I’m not eager to experience the feeling of getting on another airplane, either.

And yet, after two great rounds of hoops, I can’t wait to get to St. Louis for the Final Four.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.