Well, the suits at CBS, Turner and Disney got what they wanted. Final Fours with BIG names. As did the NCAA.
For the Men’s Final Four, it is one #1 seed (Kansas); two #2 seeds (Duke, Villanova); and a #8 seed with pedigree that is not at all playing like it entered the tournament (North Carolina). Each school has multiple titles. Each school has great coaches, history, players who will be in the NBA and rabid fan bases.
The 800 pound elephant in the room is Duke-Carolina. The Blue Devils and the Tar Heels. Two shades of blue which are as different as night and day. Could not have happened any better if the Selection Committee had planned it—which they did by putting the two bitter rivals in the same bracket on the off chance that both teams made it this far.
Whether it was great foresight, just plain luck or a combination of the two, it is the consummate dream game, albeit one game short of the championship match. Coach K’s victory tour gets a tough roadblock to the Finals. Hubert Davis and his legion of suddenly Carolina Blue faithful can make history and give Duke and its coach an unceremonious goodbye as what happened when the Tar Heels had the temerity to upstaged the final party at Cameron Indoor Stadium by winning on National TV.
St. Peter’s proved to be no stumbling block for the Heels in the East Regional Final. As much as the Peacocks were the media darlings, they reverted to playing like a #15 seed facing a white hot North Carolina team which had taken out UCLA, my favorite to win it all. When David meets Goliath, despite the mythology, eventually, if given a chance, the underdogs can only take down some good but flawed teams in Kentucky and Purdue. North Carolina had shown flashes of its potential during the season, but had not impressed the Committee enough with their resume. Thus bye bye and back to a heroes welcome in Jersey City for the little Jesuit school that could.
Duke had its own tough path to the Final Four. In the West Region, absent the looming giant named Gonzaga, which again failed to get close to that elusive National Championship. The Blue Devils played up to expectations. The win over a fast and determined Arkansas team was evidence of how Duke has come together at the right moment.
So what the second game of the twin bill in New Orleans on Saturday will offer (you knew that this would be the late game, so that the West Coast audience can carry it into dinner time) is two of the highest profile college basketball programs, separated by mere miles, meeting for the first time ever in the NCAA Tournament, a legacy of the days prior to 1975 when only the ACC Tournament champ could advance to play for the national title.
Add the drama of whether this will be Coach K’s swan song, it is compelling TV for the basketball junkie. For all the hype, this game could as easily be a dud similar to Duke folding weeks ago at home. Or it can be a rugged and close affair, the outcome uncertain down to the last possession. Someone will be celebrating late into the night on Bourbon Street. One school will eternally have bragging rights once this game concludes.
The other semi-final game, or the prelim to the BIG game, features Villanova against the school with the most victories ever in college hoops—the University of Kansas. No chump change contest here.
Villanova is a grind it out, great shooting squad that plays tenacious defense. At crunch time, the Wildcats are one of the best teams in finishing games. This has to do with their free throw shooting—on a record pace to set an all-time one season mark of over 82% attempts made.
But Villanova will be without a key player, who suffered an Achilles injury in the regional final, a methodical win over a Houston Cougars team which sought a return to the Final Four like last season’s success. Whether Jay Wright’s troops will play an emotional game in honor of their fallen colleague or Kansas’s speed and depth will overcome Nova remains to be seen.
I think that Kansas has the potential to win it all. They are the remaining #1 seed still alive. They have looked like a top seed. In their Midwest Region victory over the University of Miami the Jayhawks trailed at the half and absolutely shut down the Hurricanes in the second half.
If Kansas wins over Villanova, I think they can prevail over the survivor of the Duke-UNC game. The emotions of the ultimate battle for North Carolina state basketball supremacy might take too much out of the winner. Sure, I know that Duke is on a mission to win it all for Coach K in a storybook ending. But playing the Tar Heels like this may prove to be the dagger in the heart of the team’s dreams.
I have a bit to say about the Selection Committee. Before the plaudits go out to them for a great job, remember, the perfect body of work would have had a couple more #1 seeds making it to the Crescent City.
I know that St.Peter’s busted brackets and was such a feel-good story. But that meant that a team like St. Peter’s which amassed a 10 game winning streak before falling on Sunday, was vastly underrated. Are the Peacocks a Top 8 school by virtue of being the first #15 seed to play in the Elite Eight? Nope. Maybe they are a nice Top 20 school in the end. For this season only.
Was this an exciting tournament thus far? You betcha. Will there be more thrills? Probably. I think the Selection Committee lucked out on this one and we, the fans, are the beneficiaries of their actions. Don’t get me wrong—they may have looked and thought of so many possible outcomes in developing the brackets—including Duke and Carolina meeting in the Final Four. But that, like St. Peter’s unplanned trip to Philadelphia, is the product of why they play the games.
A more traditional path is ahead for the women. Three #1 seeds are in the Final Four. Stanford, South Carolina and Louisville were almost joined by North Carolina State, the other #1 seed. Instead, in an epic battle in Connecticut, the Wolfpack repeatedly took the best punch from the University of Connecticut women and forged tie after tie and forced a second overtime.
Quiet for most of the first half, a resurgent Paige Bueckers, seemingly was better than most everyone else on the court despite her claims that she is not fully recovered from her lower body injury. Bueckers demonstrated why she has been regarded by Geno Auriemma, the winningest Head Coach in the women’s game, as a talent as good as Diana Taurasi , who may just have been the best of so many Huskies, men or women. With a nearly flawless effort, Bueckers lifted her team, willing them to a very hard-fought victory.
The reward? Bueckers gets to go home to Minnesota, where the Women’s Final Four will be held near her hometown. UConn now has made 14 straight Final Fours—that is an incredible accomplishment.
However, like Villanova, the Huskies lost a key player and will be regarded as the underdog. Nonetheless, this Selection Committee did everything right, except for giving UConn an unmistakable home court advantage with a raucous pro-Huskies crowd in attendance in Bridgeport. This Final Four will have its own drama though Tuesday.
Just a couple more things. Albert Pujols has returned to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he was beloved. It is a one year deal, which will allow him to face left-handed pitchers, play in the field and be a benefit with the universal DH. This way he can add to his glorious total of 679 home runs; Pujols was the first to reach 400 homers in his first 10 seasons. He is also the all-time leader in hitting into double plays.
Don’t expect much from him, although he wears his familiar number 5 very nicely after all of these years. He joins a list of aging superstars who tried to get one more year in before waiting to be enshrined in Cooperstown. Names like Griffey and Ichiro returned to their old teams for their farewells. Willie Mays came back to New York, albeit with the Mets. Mickey Mantle just stayed on too long, losing his .300 average in his last season.
Everyone will be happy in this reunion. And speaking of reunions, was the practice round that Tiger Woods had with his son and Justin Thomas at Augusta National a foreshadowing of his return to the Masters?
A lot of teases here. I know the date at hand. No foolin’ come April.
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