...And Then There Were Four

To label this year's NCAA Tournament as any one word would be inaccurate. It's been wild, fun, entertaining, tense, whacky, crazy, unbelievable, and unforgettable. I thought the opening weekend of the tournament would be tough to top, but thankfully, I was wrong in that assumption.

Duke and LSU was everything I expected. As they've shown all throughout the course of the season, the Dukies have had trouble with opponents whom have a solid interior game. LSU most definitely has that, as they showed through the course of the weekend. Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas were a two-man wrecking crew for the Tigers. Davis looks like a slightly smaller Shaq, yet is more versatile, has more range, and can shoot free throws better. Thomas is thinner than Davis, but still tall and he has those long arms that can block any shot so long as he's within three or four feet of the shooter. Not only that, but Thomas can jump. When I say he can jump, that boy can jump. He's got springs in his shoes. If an LSU ballhandler tosses the ball up near the basket and Thomas is around? You can rest assured that he's going to leap, find the ball, grab onto it, and dunk it for two points. This makes him a pain at both ends: shot blocking, rebounding, and slam dunks. The two big guys down low, along with J.J. Redick going 3 for 18 from the floor allowed LSU to control the tempo of the game in a 62-54 victory over the Blue Devils.

Bradley hung tough with Memphis for thirty minutes, but there are forty minutes in a game of college basketball, so Memphis ran away with it in the final ten, winning by the score of 80-64.

But, those two games were merely an appetizer for what was to come later. Never in my 25 years have I seen back-to-back endings in Sweet 16 games like I did that night. First up was Texas and West Virginia. Texas, being a two seed, came in as the favorite, but West Virginia can never be taken lightly, as they showed last year in reaching the Elite 8 (almost the Final Four) and this year in getting to the Sweet 16. Texas looked to be in control of the game until about the midway point of the second half when West Virginia started heating up from the three point range. Texas lead by three with half a minute left, when West Virginia drove down the court, and star Kevin Pittsnogle buried a fadeaway three point shot with five seconds left on the clock to tie the game at 71-71. Texas guard Pauloni received the pass from way downtown with just over a second left. He put up the shot and the only sound heard before the crowd erupted was a swoosh as the buzzer sounded. From start to finish, that was probably the more exciting of the two games. But, the other, I'm still scratching my head about. Gonzaga dominated UCLA in every facet of the game. They lead 37-20 at one point. They were up by around 10 points for the majority of the second half. Adam Morrison had a solid game. UCLA started the first half 0-8 and started the second half 1-7. There was no way that UCLA could win, right? They call it March MADNESS for a reason! Down 71-62, UCLA finally went on a run, until they were down 71-70 with twenty seconds left on the clock. UCLA put on the full court press and trapped a Bulldog by the sideline. The ball was stolen by point guard Farmar. There were two Bruins downlow, so Farmar just lobbed it up for them and it was layed in for a 72-71 lead. Gonzaga inbounded the ball, hurried it too much and had it stolen again. UCLA knocked one of two free throws down to take a two point lead at 73-71 and that's how it'd end. After Gonzaga lead by seventeen points at 37-20, they were outscored by UCLA by a score of 53-34. How the Bruins won that game is still beyond me, but they found a way in an unbelievable comeback and finish.

Overall, Friday's games didn't equal that of Thursday's, but that'd be next to impossible. They did come fairly close, however, and that in and of itself, is pretty impressive. The worst game of the evening came between eleven seed George Mason and seven seed Wichita State. George Mason was up by as many as nineteen points in the second half, before the Shockers put on a late surge to make the score a bit more respectable at 63-55. Boston College and Villanova went at it in the other early evening game. BC got out to a 9-0 lead and looked unstoppable, but as I've learned in this year's tournament, if a team has a big lead early in the game, they seem to lose focus and come up short in the end. It was no different here, as BC played sloppy basketball, turned the ball over way too much, and settled for outside shots too consistently. Villanova didn't play their best game, but played just well enough to come out on top, 60-59. Florida and Georgetown locked horns in a battle. If they had put on pads and helmets, I don't think the feel of the game would've been any different than it was. It was back and forth until the very end, until Florida converted on their last couple possession and the Hoyas could not respond. The Gators wound up victorious by the score of 57-53. But, the game of the night had to of been between top seeded UConn and fifth seeded Washington. To say that UConn was sloppy would be the understatement of the tournament. They turned the ball over, not 10, not even 20 times, but 26 times in the game. That number could've been worse, but UConn held onto the ball a bit better in the last few minutes of the ball game. With that number, it'd be impossible for UConn to beat a quality club like Washington, right? Again, they call it madness for a reason. Washington lead by anywhere from five to ten points in the second half, but couldn't convert enough on UConn's mistakes. When UConn turned the ball over seven consecutive times, that was Washington's opportunity to take full control of the ball game and they couldn't do it. That's when they went cold shooting the ball. Finally, in the last few minutes, UConn seemed determined and focused to make a run for it. Rashad Anderson hit a three. Point guard Marcus Williams scored on a lay-up and was fouled for a three point play. Then, down three points with just a few seconds remaining, UConn drove up the court, passed to three-point specialist Rashad Anderson and he hit the game-tying three with 1.8 seconds remaining, sending the game into overtime. In overtime, UConn outplayed an undermanned Washington club. I say undermanned, because, by the end of the game, five players on Washington fouled out. UConn outlasted UW 98-92.

After Thursday and Friday's games, we went from the Sweet 16 to the Elite 8 with these matchups: LSU vs. Texas, Memphis vs. UCLA, UConn vs. George Mason, and Florida vs. Villanova. I've said all along that Duke was going to lose to a team with a strong interior, such as LSU or Texas. Now, those two teams faced one another and I was looking forward to the intensity on the inside for both teams. Oddly enough, one team showed they were far stronger on the inside than the other, and that team was not the second seeded Longhorns of Texas. Lucky for them, they made a few more three point shots than did the Tigers. But, last I saw, LSU had outscored Texas in the paint by a score of 28 to 6. This stat was shown at the midway point of the second half. Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas were too much for the Longhorns, as the Tigers outmuscled the Longhorns to a 70-60 victory. In the other game on Saturday, it was expected to be a near opposite as the first. Memphis is young, deep, athletic, loaded, and fast. They like to run, similar to Tarkanian's old UNLV teams. They averaged approximately 81 points a game during the season. UCLA liked to slow things down a bit more than Memphis, but could still put up a few points, so this would be a fun, high-scoring affair, right? Not so fast. In fact, the Elite 8 matchup between Memphis and UCLA turned out to be the lowest scoring Elite 8 game since the addition of the shot clock. Memphis finally looked like the young team that they are and UCLA kept just enough pressure on the young Tigers to expose their weaknesses in a 50-45 victory for the Bruins. Sunday's games were even more crazy. I'll start with the late game. Florida lead from about start to finish to upset top seeded Villanova 75-62. 'Nova lives and dies with their three point shooting and this was shown on Sunday. So, only one top seed remained, the cardiac kids from UConn, as they took on the Cinderella team of George Mason. UConn seemed more focused from the outset than they had been. They didn't turn the ball over nearly as much as in the Washington game. At one point, they lead by twelve, but that lead was trimmed to nine going into halftime. Still, for UConn this tournament, that was a healthy halftime lead. But, George Mason didn't give up. The smaller George Mason Patriots outrebounded UConn by two in the game. During the course of the regular season, UConn averaged to outrebound their opponents by over ten per game. George Mason seemed to want it more. When UConn went man-to-man on defense, the big guy on the inside, Lewis, battered and abused at will. When he was double-teamed, Jamar Butler would knock down a trifecta. But, as has been a trend in this tournament thus far, UConn seems to shine at the very end. Up two, George Mason had a one-on-one free throw opportunity. The front end of the one-on-one was missed and Marcus Williams drove up the court, dished it to Denham Brown, who drove down the lane, and made a reverse lay-up, barely over the outstretched arms of two George Mason defenders, to send the game into overtime. Would the emotional letdown of going into overtime get the best of the underdogs? A magic 8 ball might say that signs point to yes, but in this tourney, I don't doubt George Mason anymore. They made almost every shot they took, from the floor, that is. Up two points with seven seconds left in overtime, Lewis went to the foul line to shoot two. He missed both and Denham Brown tried to be a hero again and barely missed on a three-point attempt that would've won the game. The eleventh seeded George Mason Patriots, who had never won a NCAA Tournament game heading into this one, are off to the Final Four.

So, there we have it. On Saturday, we have a 4 vs. a 2 (LSU vs. UCLA) and an 11 vs. a 3 (George Mason vs. Florida). This was the first time since 1980 that a number one seed did not reach the Final Four. Who will win these games? That depends on a few things. If LSU has as easy of a time inside as they did against Texas, it'll be very difficult for UCLA to come out on top. But, if UCLA keeps Davis and Thomas in check and forces the Tigers to make outside shots, then the advantage definitely goes to the Bruins. In the other game, if George Mason can pull even with Florida in the rebounding battle and continue their good outside shooting, then they've got a chance. What's benefited the Patriots so much in the Tournament is there rebounding on both ends of the court, their balanced offensive attack, their second chance opportunities on the offensive end, and their good outside shooting. If they keep it up, they've got a chance. One thing George Mason will definitely have on their side is the crowd. Indianapolis is closer to where their campus resides than any of the other three schools and they're an eleven seed. Only one other eleven seed has made it this far and that was, ironically enough, LSU. Let the Madness continue!