We are down to four teams, the Final Four. In more ways than one, it’s not entirely a group that we might have predicted beforehand, whether we mean before the season or before the NCAA Tournament began. Perhaps most interesting of all is that after a first weekend with a lot of chalk, only one team that was on the one line will be playing in Minneapolis next weekend.
Fortunately, as well, both regional finals on Sunday were as good as advertised, with plenty of drama. The first weekend at times was littered with non-competitive games, but all of the regional finals lived up to their billing.
The first game on Sunday was an SEC battle between two teams that had locked horns twice in the regular season. Kentucky beat Auburn twice, including a 27-point win at Rupp Arena the last time Auburn lost a game. From there, the Tigers have looked very much like they were expected to before the season, when many pegged them as a top 10 team nationally. But could they finally get past the Wildcats, this time with everything on the line and without a key player in Chuma Okeke, lost with a torn ACL on Friday night?
Kentucky led by five at the half and scored the first basket of the second half. Auburn then scored the next ten points to take the lead, and it was a back-and-forth game for a while until Auburn built up a 56-50 lead. Kentucky turned up the defense from there, but offensively only had enough to get ahead by two before Jared Harper (26 points) tied it in the final minute of regulation.
Auburn then scored the first four points of overtime, and made seven free throws in the final minute – six of them from Harper, who hit all 11 of his attempts from the charity stripe on the day – to hang on and beat the Wildcats 77-71 to advance to the Final Four for the first time in program history. They will join Texas Tech in that regard this year.
Auburn didn’t light it up from deep on Sunday like they did on Friday night, going 7-23 from long range on Sunday afternoon. They shot just 40 percent overall. But they forced 14 Kentucky turnovers and didn’t let the Wildcats dominate on the glass, as they actually had one more offensive rebound than Kentucky did to win the possession battle – and ultimately the game.
The second one was a battle of bluebloods, a No. 1 vs. a No. 2, with two Hall of Fame coaches on the respective benches. Even with all of that, Mike Krzyzewski has had Tom Izzo’s number, having won 11 of 12 meetings coming into Sunday. Many of those have come in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, but they have also met three times in the Champions Classic and twice in the Final Four as well. Michigan State’s only win against Duke in these matchups came in the regional semifinals in 2005, a 78-68 Spartans win en route to a Final Four appearance.
It was a game of runs in the latter part of the first half, with Michigan State having the last one as Duke turned the ball over ten times (17 for the game). After the Spartans went up 41-35 early in the second half, Duke scored the next seven points, and the rest of the game was played within an eight-point window.
With 34.3 seconds left, Kenny Goins hit a three-pointer to put the Spartans up 68-66, one of the few baskets they had where Cassius Winston (19 points, 10 assists to figure in 19 of their 30 field goals) was not involved. Duke star freshman R.J. Barrett was fouled with 5.2 seconds left, but missed the first free throw. In an odd twist, he tried to miss the second one but got a friendly bounce and made it. Michigan State was then able to inbound the ball after a foul and run out the clock.
It’s almost certainly the end of the road for the Duke trio of Barrett (21 points, six assists but seven turnovers), Zion Williamson (24 points, 14 rebounds, five turnovers) and Cam Reddish (eight points in 37 minutes off the bench). Tre Jones, who was as emotional as anyone when the game ended, could return; he had four points, five assists with one turnover.
When it’s all said and done, we have four conferences represented in the Final Four (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC). Three of the four teams have head coaches making their first appearance in the Final Four, alongside Tom Izzo, who will be there for the eighth time. All four teams were either regular season or tournament champions in their conference as well.
All but Texas Tech were thought to be good enough to get this far before the season, but by the time the field of 68 was set, Virginia and Michigan State were probably the only two who were thought to be solid candidates to get this far. As usual, though, we have to play the games, and doing just that gives us what we will see next weekend.
And we talk about all of this and more in College Basketball Tonight – be sure to check that out for much more.
Side Dishes
We have several days to go to the national semifinals, but if you’re interested, the start times have been announced for those games. Virginia and Auburn will battle at 6:09 p.m. Eastern, then Michigan State will take on Texas Tech with an 8:49 p.m. Eastern tip.
Pac-12 Player of the Year Jaylen Nowell is among the latest to declare for the NBA Draft, but he is leaving open the possibility of returning to Washington. The sophomore guard averaged 16.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game and shot 44 percent from long range on the season to lead the Huskies to the regular season title and into the NCAA Tournament.
Another player on the move is Lamont West, who will land at Missouri State after announcing his transfer from West Virginia. It’s a big pickup for the Bears, as West is a good talent who should make an impact as soon as he is eligible.
Tonight’s Menu
The best-of-three championship series in the CBI starts with game 1 tonight as DePaul travels to South Florida (7 p.m., ESPNU)
