Texas flavor in Final Four Saturday

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The Oregon State and Arkansas teams doggedly dug themselves out of respective 17- and 18-point holes against No.’s 2 and 1-seeded foes Monday night in Indianapolis in NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament “regional” finals.

Ultimately, though, the OSU Beavers – the biggest “surprise” among the teams still playing after the first 60 had been whittled since March 18 – couldn’t keep the Houston Cougars from their vicious assault on their offensive glass and Coach Kelvin Sampson’s club prevailed, 67-61, and earned the first spot in Saturday’s Final Four semis.

I heard (and read) some pundits referring to the Cougars “solving” the Beavers’ half-court defenses – notably their zone that helped choke off the effectiveness of the opposition in the Pac 12 Tournament as well as in NCAA tourney games vs. 5 (Tennessee), 4 (Cade Cunningham-led Oklahoma State) and 8 (Sister Jean-led Loyola/Chicago).

Pardon, but that wasn’t the case at all, since the Cougars hit just 20 of 62 shots from the floor – including 11 of 32 behind the arc – Monday night.

But what the Beavers couldn’t solve was the Cougars’ quickness edge at every position, and their ability to chase down 19 of those 42 misses to extend positions.

And they also got after the Beavers best scorer (Ethan Thompson) in the same successful fashion that did Syracuse’s Buddy Boeheim two nights before.

Thompson hits a couple of more jumpers or finishes a drive or two, with the Beavers securing just a few more defensive rebounds, then we’d all be trying to get our minds around them playing Saturday against Baylor.

Yes, and if “ifs and butts” were “Cristal and movie-theatre-like popcorn”, I’d have a tough time focusing on my TV screen Tuesday night . . .

Despite going down by 18 points in the first half in the second contest Monday night, the Hogs were within four points with a little more than seven minutes to go in the second half.

But the Bears of Coach Scott Drew – who earned a spot in their first championship semifinals in 61-freakin’-years – had the three-best guards on the floor in All-Americans Jared Butler and Davion Mitchell, as well as Macio Teague and that was the significant impact in the 81-72 decision.

And, as in the case in Houston’s win, Baylor also put the clamps on the best scorer it was facing while holding freshman Moses Moody (almost certainly going to be a first-round selection in the next NBA draft) to two of 10 from the field while coaxing three turnovers out of him.