Illinois vs Kentucky 1984 NCAA Mideast Regional Final March 24, 1984 

I agree. I'm glad there have been rule changes because the NCAA did some crazy things in the 80s. In 81, Kentucky, the higher seed, played UAB in Birmingham. The winner got Indiana in Bloomington. In 1982, U of L played UAB in the Elite 8 in...Birmingham. Georgia Tech played LSU in Atlanta in the 1986 Sweet 16, but LSU won. UK beat Alabama for the FOURTH time in the other Sweet 16 game in Atlanta that night. in the Elite 8, UK played LSU for the FOURTH time.

Lets not forget lsu got to play on their home court in 86

@@davidelswick6660 But LSU got too play on their home court for the first two rounds. That was way more unfair because the Omni was not Georiga Tech's home court.

@@davidelswick6660 Syracuse won its first two games in '8i7 at the Carrier Dome and reached the championship game. In '88, home courts were outlawed, although KU got to play the Final Four at its second home of Kansas City

💯

It's sadly happened since then, but I completely agree. They pick these sites years in advance, and especially in 1984, they knew exactly what they were doing

Other teams got to play on their home floor during this era, too - that factor was simply part of the tournament (i.e., a school whose home court had been selected as a tournament site could win home court advantage by compiling a record that was good enough to justify that placement - for example, Rupp Arena also hosted the Mideast Regional in 1977, but since Kentucky lost to Tennessee in Knoxville toward the end of the regular season (meaning that they shared the SEC championship with Tennessee rather than winning the conference outright), Tennessee got placed in the Mideast Regional and Kentucky got sent to the East, where they lost to North Carolina in the Elite Eight (in College Park, MD). The bottom line is that Kentucky still had to earn the home court advantage it enjoyed here - the only "unfair" factor being, perhaps, that not every team had an equal shot to do so because only a few schools had facilities with a realistic shot at hosting tournament games. Yet, did the rule change after this game really lead to more fairness? Absolutely not - it only produced more hypocrisy. For example, just two years later Georgia Tech was placed in the Southeast Regional, which was slated for the Omni Atlanta - but because the Omni technically wasn't Tech's "home court," the rule didn't apply (Tech got upset by LSU in Sweet Sixteen - and ironically, LSU knocked out Kentucky the very next game). Even worse (in my opinion, at least) is the fact that Duke and North Carolina (or at least one of them) gets to play the first two rounds of the tournament within the state of North Carolina almost every year. Sure, they play in Greensboro, Charlotte, or Raleigh (which don't count as "home courts"), but can anyone say that they don't enjoy a home court advantage? Just this year, Kansas - after a very middling record, by their standards - got placed in Kansas City as the #3 seed in the Midwest Regional, when Kentucky (a #2 seed) was sent to Jacksonville instead of Columbus for the first two rounds and to Kansas City instead of Louisville for the regional round.

David Host you summed it up best especially the UNC Duke getting to play close to home almost every year in the tournament

GO BIG BLUE 🐱 🏀 🏆

@@dlhost89 Just a few years before this IU played in the Regional held in Bloomington @ Assembly Hall, also that '86 LSU played the first two rounds @ home in BR.

This also happened to illini in 81.

Tom Zeeh yes he did. He probably anticipated the foul call from the bump when he came across the line. Illinois tried to slap at Beal 3 times from the time he got the hand off from Bowie under the basket. Ky could have run the clock out without a foul.

They found it out the hard way

They found it out the hard way