Commish (this post's author) runs the world's most ridiculous(ly fun) March Madness bracket competition. It's free and pays $1,000 to the best bracket. Fill out your bracket today!

I came into basketball consciousness circa age 10. That was when I stopped crying after every loss (Mom: "Honey, why are you crying?" Me: "Because I have to wait a whole week to try to win again!"), became witness to Kevin Garnett's impending superstardom, and experienced my first blackout after resolving it was a good idea to set a blindside pick for a man kid nicknamed "Cash" who ate copious volumes of Chipotle burritos before Chipotle existed.

This was also when many of my fondest March Madness memories started to occur. It's the age when you start to think stuff is incredible because YOU actually find it incredible, instead of your dad or friends or Barney telling you so.

And lucky for me, the late 90s were stacked with incredible March Madness moments. Let's count 'em down...

8. Fourth time is the charm for Rip Hamilton

1998 Sweet Sixteen. UConn's point guard at the time, Khalid El-Amin, was a Minneapolis kid. That made UConn basically my second favorite college basketball team. You don't get much more chaotic than this finish:

7. The (second?) greatest buzzer-beater in Championship history

2016 National Championship. Though the sentimental value is low (I though about attending UNC? ... that's all I've got), the dramatic value is undeniable. The only true buzzer-beater in title game history:

6. What the 15-seed feels like when it beats the 2-seed

2001 First Round. Most people don't like getting picked up. Most coaches certainly don't like getting picked up. But if you beat a 2-seed as Hampton's coach? You'll get picked up, and you'll convulse with happiness like a toddler bathing in Mike and Ikes:

5. When the basketball gods want more overtimes

2016 AAC Tourney Second Round. For a conference tournament game to make this list, the sequence has to be amazing. Triple overtime, NCAA Tournament bids on the line, a dagger with under a second remaining, and then...:

4. Bobby High Socks carries Minnesota to the Final Four

1997 Final Four. In my 30 years, this is the only time my team (then Minnesota, now USC) has made the Final Four. Technically this game (and this season) never happened for Minnesota. I wrote about what makes that the perfect ending to this story.

3. Butler - Butler! - wins the National Cham...

2010 National Championship. Had Gordon Hayward's half court shot been launched with the tiniest of reductions in force, there's no doubt this would be the greatest shot in March Madness history. The idea of Butler winning the title - and beating Duke, no less - never felt possible until the seemingly perfect arc of Hayward's heave made everyone say, "Good lord..." (Also worth watching from this angle.)

2. HEART-BREAK-CITY!

2006 Sweet Sixteen. Aaron Afflalo, Darren Collison, and Jordan Farmar's UCLA team was down 17 points to Adam Morrison's Gonzaga in the first half. Late in the game, it was still 71-62 'Zags. Then UCLA scored the game's final 11 points, Gus Johnson nearly died, and Morrison collapsed to the court in what's become our generation's defining display of sports emotion:

1. Just how they Drew it up: Valpo pulls off the miracle

1998 First Round. Bryce Drew was Indiana's Mr. Basketball. Indiana's best high school player doesn't go play for Valpo. Well, unless his dad is the coach. This was the buzzer beater that made me *get it*. Learning afterward that Valpo had worked on this play all season made it that much better:

Honorable mention: Jimmy V and NC State pull off the unthinkable

1983 National Championship. Though it was before my time, no list is complete without perhaps the most stunning result in title game history:

Join our March Madness bracket for free, and make the NCAA Tournament more fun than it's ever been before: