April 3rd, 2024

And then there were four!

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The tumultuous roller-coaster ride labeled March Madness is now down to the Final Four portion of the competition.

The Gamecocks of South Carolina, the only undefeated team (36-0) in Division 1 basketball competition (women or men), tops the headlines. They will square off against the Wolfpack of North Carolina State in one half of the Women’s Final Four, with Iowa going against Connecticut in the other half of the bracket.

The Gamecocks, coached by Dawn Staley, are two wins away from running the table and completing a mission they failed last season. South Carolina suffered a devastating loss to Iowa in the semi-finals, spoiling an unbeaten season and opening the door for Louisiana State University to become national champions.

Some feel that Staley was outcoached in the loss to Iowa. She is fully aware of the pressure surrounding her unbeaten team this time. If South Carolina fails to get the job done this time, the coach will be criticized tremendously — even though she has already led South Carolina to four straight Final Four appearances and two previous national championships (2017 and 2022). Such is the way of life in the highly pressured world of sports.

The Gamecocks advanced to this year’s Final Four by virtue of a 70-58 triumph over third-seeded Oregon State in the NCAA Division 1 Albany regional final. Freshman guard Tessa Johnson (15 points) was the leading scorer for South Carolina. But it was the depth of this team that spelled the difference, as nine different players scored for the winners.

The next challenge for South Carolina will come from the Wolfpack of North Carolina State. Third-seeded NC State punched its ticket to Final Four glory with a 76-66 win over No. 1 seed Texas in the Regional 4 Final Championship game. Aziaha James scored 27 points for the winners, who advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 1998.

The other half of the Women’s Final Four bracket will be a battle between the Hawkeyes of Iowa and the Huskies of Connecticut. Top-seeded Iowa, with 41 points, 12 assists, and seven rebounds from all-American guard Caitlin Clark, took down defending national champion LSU 94-87 in the Albany Regional Championship contest. With help from her teammates (with special mention to Kate Martin — 21 points and six rebounds), Clark took charge of the close game in the third quarter. She hit four of her nine three-point shots to push her team to an 11-point lead in the final quarter. Flau’jae Johnson (23 points, six rebounds, three blocked shots) and all-American center Angel Reese (17 points, 20 rebounds) kept the LSU Tigers in the contest. But it was critical missed foul shots by Reese and others (along with poor defensive and offensive execution) that led to their demise.

The Iowa women’s next opponent will be the Huskies of Connecticut, who beat top-seeded Southern California 80-73 in the Regional 3 title game to make it to the Final Four for the 23rd time in the school’s illustrious history.

All-American guard Paige Bueckers (29 points, 10 rebounds, six assists) and center Aaliyah Edwards (24 points, six rebounds, one blocked shot) played starring roles for the third-seeded Huskies. The remarkable part of this story deals with the fact that Connecticut reached the Final Four despite losing five key players, including two starters, forcing Bueckers and other smaller players to play out of their regular positions. This gritty crew of just eight healthy players distinguished themselves against the taller and stronger USC Trojans, who were led by McKenzie Forbes (24 points) and freshman All-American guard JuJu Watkins, who scored 29 points (10 rebounds, two assists) to break the NCAA freshman scoring record.

Men’s Final Four

The NCAA Division 1 Men’s Final Four is down to Connecticut, Purdue, Alabama and, surprisingly, North Carolina State.

Connecticut, the top overall seed in the men’s division, continued its dominant march towards back-to-back national titles, crushing No. 3-seeded Illinois 77-52 to capture the East Regional. Donovan Clingan led a well-balanced Huskies offensive attack with 27 points, 10 rebounds, five blocked shots, and three steals in just 22 minutes.

However, the primary focus of this contest was UConn’s defense and overall team play. The Huskies became the fourth team in NCAA Division 1 postseason competition to win three games by 25 or more points in a single NCAA tournament.

All-American Purdue center Zack Edey tossed in 40 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, and a key rejection of a Dalton Knecht (37 points) shot in the waning moments, as the Boilermakers held off the charge of Tennessee with a 72-66 triumph to win the Midwest Regional. It is the first Final Four appearance for Purdue since 1980.

Their next opponent is the surprise of the tournament — the 11th-seeded North Carolina State Wolfpack, who continues on their magical postseason ride. Led by the two DJs, center DJ Burns’ season-high 29 points and guard DJ Horne’s 20 points, the Wolfpack beat fourth-seeded Duke 76-64 to win the South Regional, advancing to the Final Four for the first time since 1983 — the year the team won the national title with an upset victory over Houston. This team had to win five games in five days to take the ACC postseason championship to qualify for the NCAA tournament.

No. 4 seed Alabama, under suspicion of stealing sideline signals in their two-point victory over top-seeded North Carolina in the West Regional semifinal action, punched its Final Four ticket with an 89-82 win over sixth-seeded Clemson in the title game. Senior guard Mark Sears, the program’s single-season record-holder in scoring, led the Crimson Tide with 23 points, 18 of them in the second half, as Alabama advanced to its first Final Four in school history.

A historic event occurred in the NCAA Division 2 National Championship basketball competition, as Minnesota State’s women’s and men’s teams both won national titles in their respective postseason tournaments.

The Mavericks women’s team, led by Natalie Bremer’s 27 points, defeated seventh-ranked Texas Women’s University 89-73 to win their second national title in school history (the first since 2008-2009).

The Mavericks men’s basketball team duplicated the championship feat, beating defending national champion Nova Southeastern (Florida) 88-85. With the score tied at 85, Kyreese Willingham buried a three-point shot with less than a second remaining in regulation to give the men’s program its first Division 2 National Championship.

Minnesota State becomes only the third school in any NCAA division to win the women’s and men’s national basketball championships in the same season, joining Connecticut (which accomplished the feat twice — in 2004 and 2014) and Central Missouri State, which won both Division 2 titles back in 1984.

A final note from the local basketball scene

Jaylen Harrell of the CATS Academy school in Braintree has been named the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year.

Harrell, a 6-foot-6, 210-pound junior guard, averaged 24 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game this past season, leading his Griffins team to a 21-10 record. He is the first Gatorade Massachusetts Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from CATS Academy.

basketball, college basketball, Final Four, NCAA March Madness