ESPN Men's Basketball

If you love the game, the first Tuesday in April is always the hardest day. The dribbling has stopped, and won't start again until mid-October. A boundless feast of basketball  330 teams playing thousands of games, all of them seemingly officiated by Tim Higgins  is over.

Goodbye, Bracketville. Hello, Real World. Now what do we do for fun?

First thing we should do is to look back and appreciate one of the greatest college basketball seasons ever. From the November night when Santa Clara shocked North Carolina to the April evening when the Tar Heels cut down the nets in St. Louis, this was the best year since 1992.

In that year, Duke went wire-to-wire as No. 1 and repeated as champs, and Christian Laettner stamped himself one of the great winners of all time. The Fab Five arrived and changed everything. Bob Knight made his last Final Four. Kentucky finished its comeback from scandal by engaging the Blue Devils in the Greatest Game Ever.

This season didn't quite hit those high notes, but it came close. A sport that seemed to be teetering on the verge of obsolescence a few years back deserves to stick its thumbs in the front of its jersey and stretch it out for all of America to see. Here are a dozen reasons why college hoops made a big comeback in 2004-05:

1. All those upperclassmen
From Sean May to Deron Williams, from Wayne Simien to Hakim Warrick, from Salim Stoudamire to Francisco Garcia, from Nate Robinson to J.J. Redick, the best players on the best teams were juniors and seniors  guys we've actually gotten to know and appreciate before they jetted to the pros.

Enough big-time players put the NBA on hold that the overall quality of play rose appreciably  taking the TV ratings up solidly, as well. These guys have taken the time to learn how to the play the game, and it shows. It certainly showed Monday night, when the upperclassmen starred in a championship game that lived up to immense pregame billing.

The current junior class has been especially invigorating. We're not naive enough to think that all of the big names will return, but the game still will be in good hands. Aside from those already mentioned (some of whom may be back), look at some of the other possible marquee returnees: Paul Davis and Maurice Ager (Michigan State); Taquan Dean (Louisville); Brandon Roy (Washington); Shelden Williams (Duke); Jarrett Jack (Georgia Tech); Gerry McNamara (Syracuse); Craig Smith (Boston College); Rashad Anderson (UConn); just about all of Villanova; Kevin Pittsnogle (West Virginia); Taj Gray (Oklahoma); Patrick Sparks (Kentucky); Anthony Roberson and Matt Walsh (Florida); Dan Grunfeld and Chris Hernandez (Stanford).

This list goes on and on  and that's not even mentioning a whole host of talent at the mid-majors (Chris McNaughton, Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt at Bucknell, anyone?).

2. Illinois
Yes, North Carolina got the hardware Monday night and deserved it. But Illinois was the main draw this season.

The Illini were great for the game, and not just because they were a fresh school in the national title mix. They drew fans to them, but not just because they began the season with a 29-game winning streak, held the No. 1 ranking since early December and tied an NCAA record with 37 wins.

If you love hoops, then you had to love their crafty and creative unselfishness, their iron will, the regular-guy sincerity of coach Bruce Weber and the charisma of their leading men, Williams, Dee Brown and Luther Head.

3. Carolina came back
Cheer for them or cheer against them, but the game is better when the Tar Heels are among the elite. College basketball needs a healthy annual representation from its brand-name schools, and Carolina is definitely one of those.

4. The regional finals
The weekend before the Final Four gets my vote as the best in NCAA Tournament history. Washington Post columnist/PTI guy Michael Wilbon made a compelling argument for the first weekend of the 1981 tourney, when a staggering array of upsets and nail-biters swept the nation. But that was the first weekend, and this was the second  when the stakes were higher.

It was amazing when Louisville rallied from 20 down to beat West Virginia. It was astonishing when, two hours later, Illinois rallied from 15 down with little more than four minutes to play to beat Arizona. And the next day, when Sparks' jackknifed 3-pointer kissed the rim in one, two, three, four ... five spots before falling through and forcing overtime between Kentucky and Michigan State  well, we were just plain spoiled. The eight final teams in the tournament were separated by a total of six points at the end of regulation play and needed a total of four overtime periods to sort out the Final Four. Incredible.

5. Bob Knight and Rick Pitino returned to relevance
Two of the game's great coaches from the 1980s and '90s had been away from center stage for a while, but this tournament showed that they are still among the leaders of their profession in the new millennium. Knight made his first Sweet 16 appearance since 1994, and Pitino crashed his first Final Four since '97, becoming the first coach to take three schools' teams that far.

And neither guy is anywhere near through. Knight is inexorably closing on Dean Smith's NCAA men's Division I career victory mark. Pitino welcomes one of the top recruiting classes in the nation to Louisville next year and joins the Big East.

At this point, Brennan knew he had the upset in the bag.

6. Vermont and Bucknell
On the first Friday night of the NCAA Tournament, two of the most endearing Cinderella stories in recent years unfolded right on top of one another. First, this once-in-a-lifetime Catamounts team shocked Syracuse. Then the Bison, who give a limited number of athletic scholarships, beat blueblood Kansas (which has a basketball budget more than quadruple Bucknell's) at the buzzer.

In the space of a few hours, Tom Brennan and the Patriot League had their first tournament victories. It was impossible not to cheer for both  and cheer America did.

I watched the end of Kansas-Bucknell in a packed Indianapolis sports bar, and when Bison center McNaughton's hook shot went in and Simien's jump shot bounced out, the entire place erupted. A bunch of strangers bonded around an underdog story unfolding hundreds of miles away  and that's what March Madness is all about.

7. Dwight Howard, Sebastian Telfair, Shaun Livingston, Josh Smith
Miss 'em much this year? Me neither.

8. Great point guards, legitimate low-post players
Points who can make teammates better, fracture defenses and play intelligently make college basketball better, and we seemed to have them in abundance this year. Illinois alone had at least two  three if you count Head  and too many other top teams to name had excellent floor generals.

APMay helped net UNC a title.

We also got to see something that appeared headed the way of the sky hook: guys who can play with their back to the basket. If you thought the last one in college basketball left with Emeka Okafor, you were wrong. May was the best offensive post player of the past several years, and his ACC paint battles with Shelden Williams were scaled-down throwbacks to Ewing vs. Sampson. And don't forget Utah 7-footer Andrew Bogut, who might be the first pick in the draft.

9. The Big Ten bit back
Panned all season  and actually for the past several seasons  one of the game's bedrock leagues restored its image by landing two teams in the Final Four, three in the final eight. Michigan State's maligned senior class went out with a blaze of glory in Austin, beating Duke and Kentucky back-to-back. Wisconsin nearly pulled a Tobacco Road twin killing in Syracuse, beating North Carolina State, then pushing Carolina into the final minute. And Illinois' season speaks for itself.

Just don't ask about anyone else.

10. Championship Week rocked
Oakland winning the Mid-Continent with a losing record on a last-second 3. Bucknell upsetting Holy Cross. Utah State and UTEP swiping bids in the wee hours of Selection Sunday. West Virginia's run from the bubble to the Big East final (and ultimately the Elite Eight). And poor, poor Darius Washington.

Yes, the conference tournaments were a dramatic feast, underscoring the fact that March Madness truly begins a week before the brackets are even filled out.

11. Few ugly stories
John Chaney's goonball breakdown was the worst story of the year. Pierre Pierce's alleged recidivism and dismissal at Iowa was bad. Memphis' coddling of accused assaulter Jeremy Hunt was lamentable.

But it seemed as though the scandal scorecard was less crowded than in some dark years past. At least there was no welder at St. Bonaventure, no scandal at La Salle and no sign of Jim Harrick anywhere. In a sport where you generally set the bar fairly low in terms of integrity, we'll take it.

12. Hey, isn't that ... ?
Yeah, that's Bill Murray in Illini orange. And Nick Lachey in a Cincinnati jersey. And Ashley Judd in that tiny Kentucky T-shirt. Hollywood digs college hoops almost as much as it loves the NBA. (Michael Jordan showing up in the winner's locker room on Monday night wasn't bad, either.)

Hopefully, all the beautiful people will be back when they start dribbling again in October, for a new season that has a tough act to follow.

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com.