NCAA at 75 - College Basketball

19. Madness is born

It's impossible to fathom now, but there was a time when March Madness wasn't so mad. Forget HDTV and second-screen tweeting; TV networks broadcast one game at a time, full stop. In 1981, that all changed. NBC's cutaway coverage of the tournament allowed it to record three classic 1981 tournament moments -- U.S. Reed's half-court shot to drop defending champion Louisville, Rolando Blackman's buzzer-beater for Kansas State and John Smith's last-second layup to knock out No. 1 DePaul -- all in a matter of minutes. And so "March Madness" was born. -- Eamonn Brennan

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