Charlie Villanueva, Charlie Bell and Jake Voskuhl have all experienced an NCAA Championship. (Getty)

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April 5, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- Ask any diehard fan of the NCAA Basketball Tournament to name his or her favorite part of it all, and the answers are likely to cover a wide spectrum.

Some thrive on a clash of a titans, which we’ll get this weekend when four No. 1 seeds – North Carolina, UCLA, Memphis and Kansas – collide in the Final Four for the first time since seeding began in 1979.

Others annually pull for those programs deemed mid-majors, like Austin Peay, Bucknell, George Mason and most recently Davidson, that topple the titans and instantly put their small college towns on the national map.

The tourney can be a coming-out party for such future NBA superstars as Bill Walton, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan and Greg Oden, a showcase to the American public for such hidden gems as Harold “The Show” Arceneaux, Ronald “Popeye” Jones and the sharp-shooting Stephen Curry, or a dramatic last hurrah for such heroes as Harold Jensen, Lorenzo Charles and Bryce Drew.

It has provided center stages for such legendary coaches as Pete Carril, Jerry Tarkanian Dean Smith and Bob Knight, and for lesser-known, yet charismatic sideline stalkers like Lafayette Stribling, Dick Fick, Fang Mitchell and Jim Phelan.

To those who have been there and done it, though, nothing can compare to climbing the ladder and cutting down the nets after a national championship conquest.

Milwaukee Bucks Jake Voskuhl, Charlie Bell and Charlie Villanueva will never forget that spine-tingling experience.

Voskuhl arrived at the University of Connecticut in 1995. He received his personal introduction to the NCAA tourney in his freshman season in the spring of 1996, when the Huskies reached the Sweet 16, going 2-1. They did not make the field the following year, but were back in 1998, advancing to the Elite Eight.

Then, in Voskuhl’s senior campaign, UConn bowled over Texas-San Antonio, 91-66, and New Mexico, 78-56, in Denver; ousted Iowa, 78-69, and Gonzaga, 67-62, in Phoenix; and outlasted Ohio State, 64-58, and Duke, 77-74, in the Final Four at St. Petersburg, Fla., to bring home the national championship trophy.

The experience was the realization of dream that dated back to Voskuhl’s boyhood years in Oklahoma and Texas and witnessing “March Madness” on television.

“When I think of being a kid watching the tournament growing up, the one memory that’s most vivid is that Chris Webber timeout,” Voskuhl said, referring to the epic game in which Webber’s ‘Fab Five’ Michigan team met North Carolina and he was assessed a pivotal technical foul because the Wolverines had no timeouts left. “I vividly remember that. It was a tough play, because Chris was such a phenomenal basketball player, and to have that be the moment that so many people remember … it had to be so tough for him.”

As a participant, Voskuhl made some memorable road trips.

“Playing in the tournament was always fun … going places,” he said. “My junior year, in the Elite Eight, we played in Greensboro, North Carolina. We played the University of Washington in the first game, and we ended up beating them on a buzzer-beater. Then two nights later, we played North Carolina in Greensboro, which was supposed to be a neutral location.”

The Huskies knew better than that.

“I vividly remember driving to the game,” Voskuhl said. Our bus had police escorts in front of and behind us, which was kind of cool, but every car that passed us had either a North Carolina bumper sticker, or the flags, or the thing over the tire cover. Everything was baby blue, ‘North Carolina Tar Heels.’

“Then we went into the gym, and there’s this sea of that baby blue and white … and this little section of navy blue (the UConn contingent). They ended up beating us that night. I always felt that if we’d have played them anywhere but North Carolina, we would have beaten them. It was definitely a home-court advantage for them. But that team had Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Shammond Williams, Brendan Haywood – a lot of great basketball players – so it was neat to play those guys. It was such a dynamic group of players on one team.”

Fortunately, Voskuhl got another shot, and he and his teammates made the most of it.

“In ’99, we won it, so that was the best memory for me as a player,” he said. “We played Kenny Thomas when he was at New Mexico. The Elite Eight and the Sweet 16 were in Phoenix. We beat Gonzaga to go to the Final Four. They were a great basketball team. That was our second-toughest game of the year.”

In the national semifinals, Voskuhl went up against a future Bucks teammate.

“We played Michael Redd’s Ohio State team and wound up beating them, and then we played Duke in the national championship game,” he recalled. “Once again, we went up against one of those teams that had a bunch of future NBA players – Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Shane Battier … and a stack of other guys who were in the NBA for a couple of years. It was exciting to experience that and play against a lot of those players who ended up being pros – guys you bump shoulders with again and again.”

What was Voskuhl’s “one shining moment?”

“I think just winning it, and the horn going off,” he said. “I remember the score, 77-74. Going into the game, even though we’d been No. 1 longer, because Duke lost at the beginning of the season, Duke had gotten a lot of hype, just because they had so many great players on that team. They normally do anyway if they’re good, but that year it was because they had so many great players, and all of them were NBA players.

“So we really weren’t expected to win that game; it was kind of Duke’s tournament. To go out there and beat those guys, I don’t want to say it was a miracle, but …”

Voskuhl’s family and several close friends were there in Florida to share in the thrill with him.

“My family was there, and my roommates went down, too,” he said. “The university had this ticket deal where you could get in a lottery for tickets, and if you won, you had to pick them up down there. So the only way you could get the tickets is if you went down to Tampa.

“It was really funny – they were some interesting guys. One of them got the tickets and then turned around and sold them for about 2,000 bucks, and then he bought some for himself for about $150. So he was down in Tampa acting like a rock star for a couple of days. It was really funny.”

UCLA will tie a record this weekend when it appears in its third consecutive Final Four. That record is held by Michigan State, and Bucks guard Charlie Bell was on board for all three of the Spartans’ trips.

Bell’s Final Four travels began in his sophomore season in 1999, when MSU beat Mt. St. Mary's, 76-53, and Ole Miss, 74-66, in Milwaukee; defeated Oklahoma, 54-46, and Kentucky, 73-66, in St. Louis; then lost to Duke, 68-62, in national semifinal in St. Petersburg.

The following year, the Spartans eliminated Valparaiso, 65-38, and Utah, 73-61, in Cleveland; knocked out Syracuse, 75-58, and Iowa State, 75-64, in Auburn Hills, Mich.; then beat Wisconsin, 53-41, and Florida, 89-76, in Indianapolis to bring East Lansing its first national title since the 1979 conquest by Magic Johnson & Co.

In Bell’s senior season, MSU downed Alabama State, 69-35, and Fresno State, 81-65, in Memphis; beat Gonzaga, 77-62, and Temple, 69-62, in Atlanta; and lost to Arizona in a national semifinal at Minneapolis, 80-61.

He discovered that the feat his team accomplished was an awfully tough act to follow.

"Going out on top is like no other,” Bell said. “You're riding a high. It lasted for a long time. When you get back to school and you're on campus, everybody's yelling, 'Hey!!!' Then I walked into a lecture hall, and everybody was waiting on me to come in so they could give me a standing ovation. We had a parade after that, and a big gathering at Spartan (football) Stadium. That parade went all the way from downtown Lansing to East Lansing. We were in the back of Hummers, and the streets were just full of people. It was unbelievable."

What made the title conquest extra special for Bell is that he was one of “The Flintstones.” He and Michigan State teammates Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson and Antonio Smith were former Flint (Mich.) area prep stars who became the nucleus of the Spartans’ 2000 national championship team, which cut down the nets in Indianapolis.

“Winning a national championship is something not too many guys get a chance to do,” Bell said. “And doing it with a group of guys I grew up with … ‘Mo Pete’ and I went to the same elementary school. We were on the same team at basketball camp when I was in fifth grade.

“We go way back. To see where he and some of those other guys have gone in their careers and be in the NBA, it’s just great, but we’ll never forget what we did together.”

Bell watched the Final Four as a youngster, but never truly fathomed what a spectacle it really is until he experienced it.

"I remember all the hype surrounding it, when you make it to the Final Four,” he said. “I went to the Final Four three times. It never gets old. The media is unreal, unheard-of. Everybody's there ... all our fans. It's like a way of life for some people. You eventually realize how much. I mean, I went back to a game last year in Chicago for the Big Ten Tournament, and a lady came up to me and kissed my hand and told me how much she loved me, and how we won that championship. I was like, 'Wow.' We talk about people bleeding green for Michigan State, and these people really do bleed green."

Bell is grateful that the Spartans won their national championship in a place where many of their family members and friends could be there with them.

"When we won it, we were close to home, only about three hours away from East Lansing,” he said. “It was almost like playing at home. We had a good route that year, too. We played at The Palace (in Auburn Hills). It was unbelievable the fan support we had.

“Magic (Johnson) and Steve Smith and all the guys came out of the woodwork. It's not just a championship for us; we were doing it for all the fans, the coaches, the families and all the past Michigan State players.”

Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva took the fast lane to the Final Four. He found himself wearing a national championship cap and T-shirt at the end of his freshman season at UConn in 2004.

The McDonald’s All-American from Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J. found himself thrown into some pressure-packed situations along the way, too.

The Huskies opened with wins of 70-53 over Vermont and 72-55 over DePaul in Buffalo, N.Y., then rolled past Vanderbilt, 73-53, and Alabama, 87-71, in Phoenix. They had to survive a 79-78 thriller over Duke in their national semifinal game at San Antonio before prevailing over Georgia Tech in the championship game, 82-73.

“I remember the bus rides, the chemistry, us going around town, eating dinner as a team,” Villanueva said. “We did everything together. I miss it very much.”

The most intense part of the whole experience for Villanueva was the national semifinal.

"The Duke game stands out in the Final Four,” he said. “We were down eight points with 2 minutes to go and we won the game by four. That game was just unbelievable. It was unbelievable how determined we were, and we never gave in. We truly believed as a unit that we could win that game, and we didn't give in."

The Huskies had to overcome adversity to get the job done, and Villanueva helped provide the push. His “March Madness” heroics actually began in the Big East Conference Tournament, when he filled in for injured All-American Emeka Okafor and averaged 10 points and 9.5 rebounds in UConn’s first two games.

He was called upon again in the dramatic national semifinal.

"It was a team thing,” he said. “Our best player, Emeka Okafor, had to go out with two fouls in the first 2 minutes of the game. I had to step up, Josh Boone stepped up, guys made big shots ... to me, that was the game.

"Watching the tournament all those years as a little kid and then playing in it and winning it, it's so cool. The environment and atmosphere was just so crazy. That championship ring is something I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life."