Tar Heels, Gamecocks round out Final Four
North Carolina back for record 20th time, but other three have little history
“We’ve got one more four-team tournament to try to go win.” DANA ALTMAN OREGON COACH
Three of these things are not like the other.
The final days of the men’s college basketball season will feature two Final Four virgins and a team that hasn’t been there since Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. Oh, yeah, and a team that has won five NCAA championships.
The Final Four will be the blue blood versus the new blood.
Sunday was a big day for Carolinabased teams, with the Gamecocks and Tar Heels both advancing. South Carolina defeated Florida 77-70, with Sindarius Thornwell scoring 26, while North Carolina needed a jumper from Luke Maye with 0.3 seconds left to beat Kentucky 75-73.
Everyone knows about top-seeded North Carolina, which is on its way to its record 20th Final Four. So let’s get to know these newbies.
No. 3 seed Oregon hasn’t been to the Final Four since it won the whole eight-team tournament in 1939. The Ducks will face the Tar Heels, who haven’t been to the Final Four since way back in 2016.
If North Carolina is a been-theredone-that team, the other side of the bracket in Glendale, Ariz., will feature the never-beens. No.1seed Gonzaga and No. 7 seed South Carolina have never advanced this far in the tournament.
Gonzaga finally gets to be the bride instead of a bridesmaid after years of close-but-no-cigar runs at the Final Four. The Bulldogs lost in the Elite Eight in 1999 and 2015 as underdogs, but here they are as a favoured No. 1 seed.
Gonzaga, which has a long track record of tournament success, won’t be intimidated, coach Mark Few said. And the Bulldogs probably won’t be considered Cinderellas again after finally reaching this stage by brushing aside No. 11 seed Xavier in the Elite Eight.
“I think they’re going to respond like they’ve responded all year,” he said. “They don’t know anything different. They’ve just been unbelievably consistent.”
South Carolina had never even been to the Sweet 16 in the modern era before this season. The Gamecocks had not even won a tourna- ment game since 1973 and now are just the fourth No. 7 seed in tournament history to advance to the Final Four.
Credit coach Frank Martin for taking Kansas State to its lone Elite Eight appearance and now South Carolina, with its intimidating defence, to the Final Four for the first time.
Thornwell, the SEC player of the year, has earned a name for himself in the tournament.
“Anyone that’s in sports dreams of moments like this,” Martin said after the Elite Eight victory Sunday. “It’s not something that you start dreaming it the year you win 25 games. You dream it every single day. And the thing is that you have to work toward getting better every day.”
Oregon returns to the Final Four for the first time in 78 years.
According to ESPN’s bracket challenge, only 11 per cent of participants picked the Ducks to get to the Final Four.
Yet, with superb athleticism and a strong trio in Jordan Bell, Tyler Dorsey and Canadian sensation Dillon Brooks, the Ducks knocked off topseeded Kansas in the Elite Eight.
And remember, they did this after many counted them out following the season-ending injury to senior forward Chris Boucher.
“We would sure like to go and make a great showing for ourselves in Phoenix,” coach Dana Altman said after Oregon’s upset of top-seeded Kansas. “We’ve got one more fourteam tournament to try to go win. We’re not done yet.”
Gonzaga, South Carolina and Oregon have already exceeded expectations by reaching this program pinnacle.
All the pressure is on top-seeded North Carolina.
So who will it be? An underdog or the top dog?