Photo from Google Images
The Final Four is set, brackets are busted, and this year’s March Madness has been a two-year buildup of something to finally cheer about. It doesn’t matter how good or embarrassing your bracket currently looks. All that mattered was is that we had a bracket! The Indianapolis bubble gave us a different schedule with all Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games playing at separate times. I like the format where games were not overlapping, but those almost 9:57pm start times were too late for the east coast. The Elite Eight wrapped up last night to set the stage for this Saturday’s Final Four and the Championship game on Monday, April 5th.
No East Coast Teams!
There are no teams east of the Mississippi River in the Final Four for the first time in the 64-team bracket era (1985-present). Crazy, right? What wasn’t crazy was the overall #1 seed Gonzaga rolled #6 seed USC in a game that was never even close. The Bulldogs remain 30-0 and are not just winning, but dominating. They could go down as one the best teams of all time.
The Tuesday night late game with #1 seed Michigan vs. #11 seed UCLA (from a play-in-game) was a battle! Fab Five member, Jalen Rose was in attendance to support his former teammate and now the Head Coach, Juwan Howard of the Wolverines. UCLA Head Coach, Mick Cronin’s dad, Hep Cronin (former high school basketball coach and MLB scout) got just as much TV time as UCLA’s Johnny Zuzang who was on fire. Michigan had an open shot at the buzzer and missed. Final 51-49, the Bruins are still dancing. Juwan Howard will not be added to the list of players to play in a Final Four and take his alma mater to the Final Four.
The #6 seed USC and #11 seed UCLA may have the most impressive runs in the Tournament. This is the first time both teams advanced to the Elite Eight in the same Tournament. UCLA lost four straight games to end their regular season and now they are headed to the Final Four for the first time since 2008. UCLA has now won 24 straight games when leading at halftime. The only other play-in-game team to reach the Final Four was VCU in 2011.
A Texas Showdown!
The #1 seed Baylor Bears advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 1950. The #2 seed Houston Cougars advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 1984. Houston became the first team in college basketball history to reach the Final Four without playing a single digit seed.
Texas Tech, North Texas, Texas Southern (first four game) and Abilene Christian also won games in this year’s Big Dance. The University of Texas was the only school from the state of Texas that failed to win a game. (And quickly after the loss, Texas Head Coach Shaka Smart got out of Austin before they could fire him by taking the Marquette job.)
Don’t overlook Houston Head Coach, Kelvin Sampson. Sampson is one of five active coaches who have taken multiple schools to the Final Four. (Roy Williams, John Calipari, Bob Huggins and Rick Pitino are the other four coaches.) In 2008 Sampson was given a five-year show cause penalty from the NCAA for recruiting violations at Indiana. Basically, it was the worst punishment for a head coach at that time for bleeping phone calls. While Sampson was banned from the NCAA for five years, he spent time coaching in the NBA. After serving his NCAA ban, Simpson returned back to college in 2014 with Houston. Houston had only been to one NCAA Tournament in the past 22 seasons. Now, Sampson has the Cougars in the Final Four. Talk about a comeback!
What’s really important here, my bracket! I need Gonzaga and Baylor in the Championship with Gonzaga cutting down the nets during One Shining Moment. Forget the money, the bragging rights in St.Clair family bets are everything! Especially when you’re playing my Dad who has been texting ESPN’s bracketologist Joe Lunardi, daily for years. (Kidding, my Dad doesn’t even have a cell phone.) In all seriousness, my Dad can’t handle losing to my Mom, again.