Unless you are a fan of the Syracuse or Florida – or both – teams, there isn’t much to gripe about regarding what went on during the two NCAA Tournament regional finals played Saturday.
And the Ohio State and Louisville now make up half the Final Four field that will be on hand in New Orleans next weekend – and both the Buckeyes and Cardinals had to call on the figurative shovels and dig hard to get there Saturday.
The Louisville Cardinals got there by way of a 72-68 win over the Florida Gators.
This is the sixth time Rick Pitino has taken a team to the Final Four – and the least likely of those to accomplish that feat, other than the No. 6 seed Providence squad that, led by now-Florida Coach Billy Donovan, stunned No.’s 2 Alabama and No. 1 Georgetown to win the Southeast Regional to get to New Orleans 25 years ago.
It took awhile – roughly three quarters of the game – before Louisville’s defense kicked it and proved the difference.
And, after getting lit up for eight 3s in the first 20 minutes, it took Pitino switching from his matchup zone to a man-to-man before the Cardinals cold negate the Gators’ jump shooting.
More incredulously it took an 18-3 run to close the game for Louisville to dig itself out of an 11-point deficit and get its passage to New Orleans.
Is this Pitino’s best-ever coaching job?
Perhaps that is something he’ll address at some point.
But who was talking about Final Four runs after the Cardinals lost four of their final six regular-season games?
And how compelling would a FF semifinal with the University of Kentucky be next Saturday night in New Orleans – assuming a Wildcats’ win over Baylor Sunday in the South final in Atlanta?
It would be a rematch of Kentucky’s 69-62 victory in Lexington on New Year’s Eve and would certainly thrill an audience well beyond the all-encompassing one in the Commonwealth.
The Ohio State Buckeyes didn’t need quite the reversal of fortunes in order to knock off top-seed Syracuse, 77-70, in the East final in Boston.
But it was the game in which the absence of 7-foot sophomore Fab Melo was finally – and painfully, from an Orange perspective – felt for Syracuse.
His offensive and defensive presence in and around a lane might have swung the difference for a team that was clearly no worse than one of the two best teams (with Kentucky) for the bulk of the regular season.
It’s hard to imagine OSU having the same 37-22 rebounding advantage it enjoyed Saturday or the Buckeyes having quite the same success in punching the ball inside the lane to the likes of Jared Sullinger (19 points), Deshaun Thomas (14) and Lenzelle Smith Jr. (18).
What’s remarkable about the Buckeyes toppling Gonzaga, Cincinnati and the Orange in their past three tourney games is that they did so while their top perimeter scoring threat – senior William Buford – shot a combined eight of 33 from the field.
Can the Buckeyes get by the Midwest winner (Kansas or North Carolina) next Saturday if Buford doesn’t become comfortably reacquainted with his jump shot?
One wouldn’t think so.
Looks at Sunday’s regional finals:
*At Atlanta/South: The Kentucky Wildcats were able to outscore Indiana Friday night (102-90) while playing poor half-court defense.
Can they get away with the same kind of defensive performance while playing a Baylor squad that can put comparable size, skill and depth on the floor against them?
Not if the Bears can make things much more difficult, offensively, for Anthony Davis & Co. than the Hoosiers were able to Friday night.
Suggesting that and seeing the Bears actually doing it against a team with the kind of offensive repertoire Kentucky offers are succinctly different propositions, however.
The Wildcats will be in Orleans next weekend.
*At St. Louis/Midwest: Will North Carolina’s sophomore point guard Kendall Marshall play against the Kansas Jayhawks Sunday?
More specifically, how effective can Marshall be if he does play with a right wrist hobbled by a broken bone?
Unless the Tar Heels can slice turnovers (24 Friday night vs. Ohio) in half, they’re going to struggle to score enough to hold off the Jayhawks.
Give a slight edge to Kansas in what may be as good a matchup as we’ve seen so far in the tournament.
Leave a Reply