Consider North Carolina the tour guide at this year’s Final Four. The Tar Heels will be making their record 20th trip, and most of the players on this year’s roster were on hand last season to find out all about the agony of coming oh-so close to winning it all.
The North Carolina Tar Heels now are a win away from getting back to a national championship game they narrowly lost a year ago. And this time, they made the last shot.
Gonzaga opened as a 6½-point favorite over South Carolina and North Carolina is favored by 4½ points over Oregon in the Final Four.
South Carolina added a missing piece to its rich basketball history. The school of Frank McGuire, Kevin Joyce, Brian Winters, Mike Dunleavy and Alex English is going to the Final Four for the first time.
The NCAA Tournament continues today with the Elite Eight and four more teams vying for a spot in the Final Four.
Nigel Williams-Goss and Zach Collins help the Zags make history with blowout win of Xavier in West Regional championship.
The Zags, a powerful program from the not-so-mighty West Coast Conference, have knocked down what had been an impenetrable fortress impeding their universal acceptance as part of the game’s elite.
Tyler Dorsey poured in 27 points, Dillon Brooks added 17 and plucky Oregon ended Kansas’ romp through the NCAA Tournament with a 74-60 victory Saturday night that gave the Ducks their first Final Four trip in nearly 80 years.
The criticism dogged Gonzaga wherever it went, no matter how much it won. The Zags run up their record by beating up on teams in a weak conference, then always seemed to come up short as the calendar went deep into March. Few outside of Spokane believed the program Mark Few helped build from scratch belonged in the national powerhouse conversation.
Just like that, March Madness is down to the Elite Eight.
Gonzaga is an 8½-point favorite over Xavier and Westgate sports book manager Ed Salmons expects the clock to strike midnight on the Musketeers.
Chris Chiozza went end to end and made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Florida an 84-83 victory against Wisconsin on Friday night in the first overtime game of this NCAA Tournament.
De’Aaron Fox scored a career-high 39 points as the Kentucky Wildcats beat UCLA 86-75 Friday night in a showdown between two of college basketball’s goliaths for a spot in the South Regional final.
Devin Booker scored 70 points, becoming the sixth different player in NBA history to reach that total, but the Boston Celtics got 34 points from Isaiah Thomas and outlasted the Phoenix Suns 130-120 on Friday night.
Apparently South Carolina is getting the hang of winning NCAA Tournament games. The Gamecocks, who hadn’t won a tournament game since 1973, got their third this year. One more and it’s on to the Final Four.
