Final Four
Two weeks since starting, the US National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament, or “March Madness,” is now down to the Final Four. After an eventful four rounds of jockeying among the 64 best collegiate schools in the States, 68 including the first four, competition has reached the semifinals and will feature the fittest of the fit from the different tournament regions.
Emerging from the East Regionals are the seventh- seeded South Carolina Gamecocks while from the West Regionals it will be the top- seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs. In the Midwest are the number three Oregon Ducks and out in the South are the number one-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels.
South Carolina faces Gonzaga in one semifinal bracket while Oregon takes on North Carolina in the other in games scheduled for early next week.
Of the four, two — Gonzaga and North Carolina — I picked as part of the Final Four in my bracket in Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick’em. The others were no. 2 Duke Blue Devils ( East) and no. 1 Kansas Jayhawks ( Midwest). In the finals, I had North Carolina and Duke mixing it up with the Tar Heels winning and completing their unfinished business from last year. While I did not get the Final Four 100% correct, still half of it is not bad with my chosen champion very much in the mix.
This year’s semifinals marks the first time since 2006 that three teams will feature first- time coaches — South Carolina’s Frank Martin, Gonzaga’s Mark Few and Oregon’s Dana Altman — in the Final Four, which should be one of the subplots to watch out for.
Coach Roy Williams and North Carolina were dealt a tough loss last year by Villanova in the championship game and it is going to be interesting how they will handle things now that they are two victories away from redeeming themselves.
Being the lowest- seeded team among the four that are left standing, South Carolina winning it all should be a big thing and a gem to write about, more so if the Gamecocks do so at the expense of the Tar Heels in a “Battle of the Carolinas.”
South Carolina is proving to be a “giant- killer” in the tournament, knocking out Duke and no. 3 Baylor en route to topping the East.
But it is going to face a Gonzaga team which has been steady in the West Coast Conference this season and continue to do so in the NCAA tournament.
The Bulldogs have their fair share of shortcomings in tournaments past and this year could well be the time they break through.
Oregon is back in the semifinals after a very long time and, like South Carolina, hard not to root for if you are one that goes with “underdogs.”
The Ducks are playing solid ball, beating Michigan in the Sweet Sixteen before getting the better of Josh Jackson and Kansas in the Elite Eight, so it will foolhardy to dismiss them even against a team like North Carolina.
At this stage of the competition, if the preceding rounds were any indication, the outcome is as open as it gets. Sure, there are the favorites, but this stretch in US collegiate basketball is dubbed March Madness for a reason, and you just never know.