THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: We’ve got your classic NCAA games right here

In lieu of actual games, CBS aired replays of three “classic” NCAA tournament games on Saturday.

North Carolina-Georgetown (1982 title game), Houston-NC State (1983 title game) and Duke-Kentucky (1992 East Region final).

And three more are planned for today — Kansas-Memphis (2008 title game), Virginia-Texas Tech (2019 title game) and Villanova-North Carolina (2016 title game).

But they could have done much more.

I envisioned wall-to-wall replays of old NCAA games, starting Thursday at 9 a.m. and ending Sunday evening. Games that weren’t aired “live” during the day were shown on “tape delay” throughout the night, like ESPN used to do when it carried most of the NCAA tourney.

I get that CBS wasn’t going to give away all that airtime on the main network. But that’s what channels like CBS Sports Network are for.

But no.

So I went through my cabinets of old tapes, and picked out a few games I would have shown, had I had my own network.

This list basically run from the 1985 through 2008 tournaments. After that, flat screen TVs started becoming popular, and recording games digitally replaced taping games on the VCR.

Sometimes progress is not always a good thing.

(Sadly, all recordings of the 1985 NCAA title game have not yet been destroyed, so that one continues to air occasionally on TV.)

HERE GOES ...

Loyola Marymount 149, Michigan 115, 1990 West Region second round: In their second game after the death of Hank Gathers, the Lions destroyed the defending national champions behind 11 3-pointers and 41 points from Jeff Fryer, a gunner with a green light near and dear to my heart. This ranks with Houston-Louisville, 1983 NCAA semifinals, as some of the best two hours of college basketball ever.

Bonus points to you if you remember that Per Stumer was one of LMU’s starters. Or Tom “The Human Bruise” Peabody.

Michigan still had Rumeal Robinson and Terry Mills in 1990 — back when players used to come back to school after winning national titles.

Sadly, LMU has never been anywhere near that good again.

Still, it makes you wonder how that LMU team, which tried to get up a shot in 7 seconds or less, would fare against the recent Gonzaga squads. Methinks the Zags would love to play at that pace — if they could keep up.

Utah 76, Arizona 51, 1998 West Region final: (Note to boss — OK to skip this graf). The Utes, under Rick Majerus, had a nice run during the 1990s, led by Keith Van Horn. But Utah was still considered a “little brother” in college basketball circles — a nice team until the “big kids” got out of school.

Van Horn was gone by then, but the Utes were still good, led by point guard Andre Miller (bonus points if you remember Hanno Mottola). Arizona was an established power for years by then under Lute Olson, and was coming off a national title the year before.

But Utah routed the Wildcats in Anaheim, beat North Carolina in the national semifinals and had a 10-point halftime lead in the national title game before losing to a “big brother” team in Kentucky.

UNLV 103, Duke 73, 1990 national title game: Some say a game has to be close to be a “classic.” Me, I enjoy a good butt-whipping — especially when it’s my team doing the whipping (Bonus points if you remember Moses Scurry). And most of the core of that group (Greg Anthony, Stacey Augmon, Larry Johnson, George Ackles and Anderson Hunt) — four seniors and a junior, when will you ever see that again? — came back for a repeat try. But sadly, UNLV lost to Duke in the 1991 national semifinals, the NCAA came calling, and the Runnin’ Rebels have been barely heard from again.

Arizona 96, Gonzaga 95, OT, 2003 second round: Zag fans should take it as a compliment that many of Gonzaga’s “classic” tourney games were losses — an exception being “The Slipper Still Fits” win over Florida in the 1999 West Regional semifinals in Phoenix. Anyway, the end of the Zags-Arizona game, played in Salt Lake City, was shown on the big screen at the Spokane Arena after the day’s NCAA tourney games in Spokane were over. I remember sitting in the press conference room in the bowels of the Arena, listening to the coaches and players speak, and hearing an occasional roar from the fans out in the Arena who had stuck around to watch the end of the Zags game.

UCLA 89, Arkansas 78, 1995 national title game: Those of us of a certain age had gotten used to UCLA winning national titles — 10 in 12 years, from 1964-75. Then John Wooden retired and UCLA dipped, inspiring many “Bruins are in ruins” stories over the next two decades. Also, UNLV’s loss was UCLA’s gain as Ed O’Bannon, who had committed to the Runnin’ Rebels, came to Westwood instead when the NCAA dropped the hammer on UNLV. O’Bannon scored 30 in the title game. (Bonus points for remembering freshman Toby Bailey scoring 26). Of course, UCLA would have never made it to the title game without Tyus Edney’s end-to-end dash in 4.8 seconds to beat Missouri in the second round in Boise. And who knew the Bruins’ win over the defending national champion Razorbacks would be the last NCAA tourney game in the Kingdome.

Indiana 106, UCLA 79, 1992 West Region final: Only diehards would remember this was the game on right before that classic Duke-Kentucky East Region final. I rooted for UCLA, but I was also an Indiana fan — Damon Bailey was one of those players you wish could play college basketball forever. Other than that, the game wasn’t all that memorable, as the Hoosiers routed the Bruins in Albuquerque, and went on to lose to Duke in the semifinals. Duke won its second straight national title two nights later.

Wyoming 64, Virginia 60, 1987 West Region first round, and Wyoming 78, UCLA 68, 1987 West Region second round: The Virginia game was the Thursday night tape-delayed game on CBS, back when the network only showed one game on each of the first two days. I remember hanging out in the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City after the game, as a fan, watching Brent Musburger chatting with Virginia coach Terry Holland, after his media obligations. Holland had this look of, “I can’t believe we lost to Wyoming.” But this Fennis Dembo-led Wyoming team was good, as the Cowboys proved two days later in beating Reggie Miller and the Bruins to reach the Sweet 16, where they fell to UNLV in the Kingdome.

Other than when Wyoming knocked off Gonzaga in Albuquerque in the first round in 2001, the Cowboys have hardly been heard from since.

Indiana 97, UNLV 93, 1987 NCAA semifinal: UNLV started its tourney run that year with a victory over Idaho State — the last time, it turns out, the Bengals have been in the NCAAs (Bonus points if you remember Donn Holston).

That year, a band called 911 did a spoof of The Bangles’ song, “Walk like an Egyptian.” The spoof was called “Walk like a Tarkanian.” (Remember the Dan Dickau song, a spoof of “Brick House”?).

Anyway ...

“If you want to find Freddie Banks

He’s hanging out at the 3-point line ...

All the cops in the doughnut shot say ‘Rebels, Rebels ... ”

And on and on.

UNLV 84, Iowa 81, 1987 West Region final: This was an era when Iowa was really good, with B.J. Armstrong, Roy Marble, Kevin Gamble and others ... Iowa led the Runnin’ Rebels 58-42 at halftime at the Kingdome before UNLV staged a furious comeback (are all comebacks “furious”?) to advance to the Final Four.

IF THE list began earlier, it would include the aforementioned Houston-Louisville game, Bird vs. Magic in 1979, Georgetown beating Houston for the 1984 title (not a “classic” game, but it’s my list, and I was hooked on those Patrick Ewing Hoyas teams as the Big East was born and became a national brand in what was before then a regional sport).

Also, any of UCLA’s classic tourney games from the Bill Walton-era early 1970s (thank goodness for YouTube). Idaho State beating UCLA in the Sweet 16 in 1977 in Provo, Utah. The Idaho Vandals beating Iowa on Brian Kellerman’s late basket in Pullman in 1979 to advance to the Sweet 16. Even Oregon State-Georgetown in the West Region final in 1982. Even though the Beavers lost big to the Hoyas in Ewing’s freshman year, that was a great run by OSU teams which included local standouts like Ray Blume, Mark Radford, A.C. Green and Charlie Sitton. Sadly, the Beavs haven’t been close to a Final Four since.

If you have some favorites, I’d love to share them.

Plus, CBS had some cool NCAA music during much of that early stretch.

That has to count for something, right?

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.