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For
the men |
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From marchmadman Updated 04/05/25, 1:30pm |
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Yikes. Those Final 4 games last night did not do much for the
women's game. The
two best women's programs in recent history easily advanced to the
Championship game after (1) South Carolina beat (1) Texas, 74-57, in the
first game followed by (2) UConn's dismantling of (1) UCLA, 85-81. South
Carolina will attempt to repeat as national champion for the first time in
school history. The last women's team to win
back-to-back titles was UConn, which won four straight
from 2013 to 2016. The only two programs to win more than one National
Championship since 2013 are UConn (4 times) and South Carolina (3 times). Hopefully
tonight's men's Final Four games are a little more entertaining. In
the first game, (1) Florida takes on (1) Auburn at 6pm followed by (1) Duke
vs. (1) Houston. This is the first time since 2008
(also in San Antonio), all four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. When
Florida takes on Auburn, it will pit the last two remaining SEC teams against
each other (14 SEC teams entered the Tournament). The
last time the SEC won the championshp was in 2012
when Kentucky won the title. The last non-Kentucky
team from the SEC to win the national title was Florida in 2007. Auburn is making just its second Final Four appearance
with hopes to win its first championship. In
the nightcap, Duke superstar Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick in the
2025 NBA Draft, is attempting to bring home Duke's sixth national
championship. It would be their first since 2015,
when current head coach Jon Scheyer was an assistant coach.
Houston nor their head coach Kelvin Sampson have
ever won a national championship. During
Houston's Phi Slama Jama days in the early 1980's, they managed to make the
Final Four three consecutive years and played for the National Championship
twice, losing in 1983 to Jim Valvano's NC State and then in 1984 to John
Thompson's Georgetown featuring Patrick Ewing. The
1983 Houston team featured Clyde "The Glide" Drexler and Hakeem
"The Dream" Olajuwon, but it was lesser know
NC State center Lorenzo Charles who made the game winning rebound/dunk off of Dereck Whittenburg's three-point airball. Whittenburg
later claimed it was a pass, but it wasn't. The
shot's trajectory took it to the front of the basket where Olajuwon was
covering Charles. As he watched the shot, Olajuwon
said he knew the shot was going to come up short but
he also did not want to go for the ball too early because of the potential
for goaltending. Charles took advantage of the indecision by Olajuwon and
went up for the air ball, and, in one motion, he scored the go-ahead points
with a two-handed dunk for only his second bucket of the night on seven
attempts. The final second ticked off the clock
before Houston could inbound the ball (the rule which stops the clock on a
made basket in the last minute of the second half and any overtime period(s)
was not adopted until the 1993 94 season), and with that, the game ended, and
the "Cardiac Kids" from NC State were the national champions. Somebody please go hug
coach Valvano!
That
was a championship game, but let's home tonight's Final Four games are just
as exciting. |
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