It is pretty rare that we get to the Championship game and still have things to decide in both pools, but that will be the case this year. In the Main Pool, Yarmela will be rooting for Kansas to cut down the nets and elevate her to the top spot, but if they lose, Vince will win both pools. That is because Vince is the newest champ of the Gamblers Pool. A tiebreaker will be needed to decide second and third place. If the total score is less than 141, Tiny is the runner up. A total score over 141 points gives Dwight the silver medal. The standings can be found here.
In our first national semifinal, we had an undersized team from the Northeast wearing dark blue uniforms that fell way behind quickly. Did the St. Peter's Peacocks crash the Final Four? Nope, it was actually the Villanova Wildcats who found themselves down 10-0 in the first two and a half minutes of the game. It would actually get worse from there as Kansas took a 38-19 lead with five minutes to go in the first half. Was there a Jayhawk with a huge number of rebounds that I could follow in the second half? This eerily felt like North Carolina - St. Peter's part two, except Villanova wasn't a 15 seed.
The Wildcats championship fight was on display from that moment forward though. Villanova would score the next 10 points to trim the lead to single digits. The deficit would be 11 at the break, but at least the Wildcats had planted a seed of doubt in the heads of the Kansas players that this thing wasn't over. Even when the Jayhawks extended the lead to 16 early in the second half, Jay Wright's players let it be known that they would not be sent packing quietly. They kept scrapping and chipping away, getting within 6 with more than six minutes left to play. But that would end up being as close as they would get. The dagger would come with 4 minutes to go. Kansas was up 9 and the shot clock was about to hit zero when Christian Braun nailed a three to effectively clinch the Jayhawks spot in Monday's title game. Kansas was probably the least heralded of the #1 seeds coming into the tournament, but they'll be the ones playing for it all. The Jayhawks defeat a resilient Villanova squad by a score of 81-65.
National semifinal #2 was the marquee matchup because it featured the sport's biggest rivalry on a stage they had never played on before. Duke and North Carolina is typically must see TV, but they had never met in the NCAA tournament, much less the Final Four. And with this being Coach K's final season, there was somehow one more layer of intrigue added to this game. Duke was seeking revenge as the Tar Heels had ruined Coach K's last home game by blowing them out in Durham a few weeks ago. Duke had been the most clutch team in the tournament so far, while an argument could be made that North Carolina had been the most impressive through 4 rounds. Something would have to give and this game would not disappoint in terms of drama.
It was back and forth from the opening tip, but North Carolina looked like they might have an early advantage when the ref's whistle kept going against Duke in the beginning of the game. The Blue Devils would be called for the first 6 fouls in this one, including 2 against their best big man, Mark Williams. That would land him on the bench for the rest of the half. His replacement, Theo John, would remarkably pick up 4 fouls before intermission, something you almost never see in college basketball. Despite encountering some incredibly rare foul trouble, Duke managed to lead after 20 minutes by a score of 37-34.
The second half would be even more frantic. As was the case with Duke's game with Texas Tech, the Blue Devils emerged from the locker room displaying much more aggression than they had in the opening half, extending their lead to 7. But North Carolina would respond with the biggest run of the night. The Tar Heels scored the next 13 points to leap ahead by 6. There wouldn't be much separation the rest of the way. During the last 7 minutes of this contest, there would be 10 lead changes. Both squads seemed determined not to let their season end at the hands of their hated rival. A three on one end would be answered by a trey from the other team. It became a matter of who would blink first. And the blink wouldn't happen on a missed three or a blocked layup. It would actually happen at the foul line.
With Duke up 1 and just over a minute to go, Carolina's RJ Davis drove to the hoop and was fouled. He stepped to the line and calmly sank two free throws. In this seemingly never ending game of tit-for-tat, it only made sense that Duke would get fouled on a drive to the hoop. The Blue Devils had a chance to take the lead, and perhaps most importantly, it had eliminated one of North Carolina's key players from the game. Armando Bacot had more than 20 rebounds for the second consecutive game, even shrugging off a rolled ankle that had occurred with about 5 minutes to go. But the rules say you can't shrug off your 5th personal foul, so Bacot had to take a seat. If this game went to overtime, the Tar Heels were going to have their hands full defending Duke's big men and getting rebounds without Bacot. To the free throw stepped Mark Williams, and he would be the one who blinked. The first free throw was long, the second free throw short. North Carolina had possession of the ball, a 1 point lead, and only 47 seconds remained.
Many teams would run down as much of the 30 second shot clock as they could in this situation, eventually leaving themselves with a horrible forced shot, but the Tar Heels played it smart. They certainly didn't rush into their offense, but when their best shooter, Caleb Love, found some space at the top of the key, he didn't hesitate to hoist up a three. And it was pure. Carolina was up 4 with less than 28 seconds to go and Duke had no timeouts. Suddenly, you could sense that Duke was in huge trouble. To their credit, they rushed down the court and got an easy drive to the hoop to bring the deficit back down to 2, but they would be forced to put Love on the line. Love made the first, but he missed the second, suddenly giving Duke life again. As the Blue Devils ran their offense to set up a game tying three, North Carolina accidentally fouled them. How do I know it was an accident? Because it almost resulted in a three-point play that could have tied the game. Trevor Keels went to the line and sank the first, missed the second. Was the miss intentional? Nope. How do I know? Because there was no one in the neighborhood of the rebound. Each team had made the first free throw, missed the second, and tit-for-tat had officially been restored with the two missed free throws by Williams being the only blip along the way. That was one extremely costly blip though. Love would get sent to the line again and he wouldn't miss this time, putting North Carolina up 4 with only 8 seconds left. Duke would miss one final three pointer and that was it. I've never known college basketball without Coach K, but one of the greatest coaching eras in sports has now come to a close. North Carolina moves on to play Kansas for the title after ousting the team they (and many others) hate the most. The Tar Heels defeat Duke by a score of 81-77.
One game left and the focus will shift from Coach K to Roy Williams, who isn't coaching either of the teams in the title game, but he had long stints with each of them (15 years with Kansas, 18 years with North Carolina). Prepare for lots of shots of him in the stands where he will most definitely be clad in Carolina powder blue (where he won three titles). It should be an excellent national championship game followed by a wonderful One Shining Moment featuring a shirtless Kelvin Sampson celebrating, the crying Tennessee player being comforted by Juwan Howard, lots of St. Peter's highlights, and the cheerleaders who were able to get the basketballs stuck above the backboards. Be sure to tune in Monday night!
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