A (first) No. 1 bites the dust

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So much for a “chalk” Final Four . . .

The first top seed went by the wayside Thursday night – and in very surprising (relative) one-sided fashion.

And, as startling as it seems, it was Michigan State that was knocked asunder from the Road to New Orleans, as the Spartans’ offense was dismantled by the Louisville combination of defenses en route to the Cardinals’ 57-44 victory.

The Spartans’ jump shooters didn’t get enough clean and uncontested looks and the defensive “length” provided by Gorgui Dieng (seven blocked shots) negated any size/strength/assertiveness advantage Coach Tom Izzo’s team seemingly enjoyed going into the contest.

The Spartans were held to .282 shooting from the field (14 of 49) and committed 15 turnovers.

Big Ten Player of the Year and All-American Draymond Green had 13 points and 16 rebounds. But he missed 11 of 16 shots from the field and committed six turnovers.

By the way, do you think that Izzo would have felt pretty good about his team’s chances if someone had told him before the game that the Spartans were going to hold Louisville to 57 points and .382 shooting?

The other West Regional semifinal in Phoenix also didn’t stick what had been anticipated to be the script.

The Florida Gators throttled Virginia (71-45) and Norfolk State (84-50, two days after the 15 seed had stunned 2 seed Missouri) but wasn’t able to create much “buzz” about the two performances.

That isn’t going to be the case following Coach Billy Donovan’s club’s 68-58 victory over Marquette.

Although Donovan returned three key elements (guards Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton and post Patric Young) from the team that lost to Butler in a regional final last year, there should be no dispute – in Gainesville or anywhere else – as to the identity of the Gators’ best player on the squad that finds itself back in a regional final on Saturday.

On a night in which Walker and Boynton combined to hit just five of 19 shots, freshman swingman Bradley Beal was not much short of phenomenal.

The Eric Gordon clone was eight of 10 from the field (including three of five from behind the arc) and added six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots to go with his game-high 21 points.

Gators fans: I hope you’ve enjoyed watching Beal wear one of your uniforms for one – and only one – season before he declares his eligibility for the next NBA Draft in June.

While they only committed nine turnovers, the Golden Eagles were sped up so much – by the Gators’ defense and the predicament they found themselves in, i.e., a double-figure deficit much of the second half – that they often forced shots in transition or half-court settings in which the shooters weren’t on balance.

They missed countless seemingly point-blank attempts – largely for the aforementioned reasons.

Of course there is a storyline to Saturday’s West Regional final that you might hear a thing or two about between now and tipoff between the Gators and Cardinals.

When Cardinals’ coach Rick Pitino took Providence to the Final Four in New Orleans 25 years ago as the Friars’ coach, his best player was guard Billy Donovan.

Yes, one and the same.

Donovan is 0-for-6 against his mentor (losing four times with the Gators against Pitino’s Kentucky teams and twice in Florida-Louisville affairs).

But, based upon the kind of defense the Cardinals played Thursday night and the way Beal and his older buddies handled Marquette, No. 7 should be a heck of a showdown, indeed.

There will be no eyebrows lifted if this is the first you’ve heard of the scores from the East semifinals from Boston.

But the victories by top seed Syracuse (64-63 over Wisconsin) and No. 2 Ohio State (81-66 over Cincinnati) were anything but clear cut.

The Badgers had the final possession but, because of the Orange’s aggressive zone defense, weren’t able to get off a clean attempt at the rim before the buzzer – after hitting 14 3-pointers over the first 39 minutes.

There was a 15-point turnaround early in the second half – when Cincinnati went from 12 points down at intermission to up three – but the OSU Buckeyes regain the form that gave them that 12-point edge and they pulled away for a 15-point victory.

With the caveat being that I said the very same thing about Michigan State just a few days ago, the Buckeyes are playing very well right now.

And Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft are playing at a level that is good enough to get the Buckeyes past Syracuse Saturday and on to New Orleans.

But it foolish to underestimate this Syracuse squad, which seems to be able to summon from its vast pool of resources whatever is needed at the time to prevail.

And Saturday it will have to tap into all of those elements in order to get by Sullinger & Co.