Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
John Fanta
College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter
The gang rose to its toes with lower than eight minutes to play as Alabama lower Duke’s lead right down to seven factors. Jon Scheyer’s younger Blue Devils group was feeling the strain. How would they deal with it?
Cooper Flagg had the preliminary reply, pulling down a baseline jumper over Mark Sears. Khaman Maluach proceeded to stuff house an emphatic dunk to push Duke’s result in 69-58. Simply because the Tide appeared to search out their stride, the Blue Devils confirmed their evolution from a group that suffered a pair of early-season heartbreaking losses to Kentucky and Kansas, to a group that appears unbeatable heading into the Last 4.
These early defeats have given technique to a group that continues to show a killer instirct and has greater than lived as much as the hype for the reason that calendar turned to March. And when the ultimate buzzer sounded Saturday evening, it was the Blue Devils who stamped their ticket to San Antoinio with a dominant 85-65 victory over Alabama.
The Blue Devils did it with protection, holding the Crimson Tide scoreless for a four-minute stretch and happening a 7-0 run after their lead was lower to 65-58. Duke held Sears to only six factors on 2-of-12 taking pictures. One 12 months after main the Tide to the varsity’s first-ever Last 4, this was a distinct sort of problem for Sears.
With 4 and a half minutes to go, the fifth-year senior had the basketball on the left wing. He tried to drive on Flagg and took one too many steps, being known as for a journey. After a turnover on the following possession, Sears tried to get out on the break and assault Tyrese Proctor, who took a cost on the baseline drive, prompting a timeout. After Flagg scored a pair of free throws after which completed on Sears simply shy of the shot clock expiring, it served because the dagger.
A 13-0 run over 5 minutes confirmed why this Duke program must be thought of the front-runner in San Antonio subsequent weekend. Their size and athleticism locked up the nation’s highest scoring offense at 91.4 factors per recreation getting into the competition, forcing the Tide into their worst scoring output of the season.
Flagg completed with 16 factors on 6-of-16 taking pictures from the ground, and whereas he wasn’t as robust as he was on Thursday evening, that is why the Blue Devils are the most effective group within the nation.
Kon Knueppel delivered 19 factors, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, considered one of which was a nasty dish to Sion James for a simple dunk to provide Duke an 11-point lead with 8:44 left. Maluach offered the inside presence with 14 factors, eight rebounds and two blocks, whereas Proctor continued his star-studded March with 17 factors on 7-of-10 taking pictures from the sphere.
Pretty much as good as Duke was on the offensive finish – taking pictures 54% from the sphere and 46% from downtown – Saturday evening’s win was all concerning the Blue Devils’ potential to step up and string collectively stops. Along with shutting down Sears, Duke held Alabama to only 8-of-32 (25%) taking pictures from the sphere after their 25-of-51 efficiency Thursday.
For Scheyer, it is the newest second of validation in a three-year run that is led to this, his first journey to a Last 4, and proof that he was the right substitute for Mike Krzyzewski.
That first title in a decade? The hope is actual as a result of this Duke group has all of it.
– John Fanta
Gators full epic comeback, punch ticket to Last 4
By advantage of scheduling, Florida grew to become the primary of 4 SEC faculties with a possibility to succeed in the Last 4 in what may properly be remembered because the best basketball weekend in convention historical past. The Gators, seeded first within the West, had arrived at this level by pulling away from fourth-seeded Maryland within the Candy 16 earlier this week. They entered Saturday’s date with No. 3 Texas Tech on the precipice of the nationwide semifinals, a spot this system hadn’t been since former head coach Billy Donovan was nonetheless prowling the sideline in 2014, the penultimate season earlier than he ascended to the NBA. No season between then and now had captivated the fan base fairly like this one, which included 33 wins in 37 video games forward of the Elite Eight, together with an SEC Event title, and a string of 9 consecutive victories relationship to March 1. It was straightforward to grasp why the Gators have been a classy nationwide championship choose for observers and analysts alike.
Standing between Florida and the Last 4 was a group of Crimson Raiders that wanted a heroic, late-game comeback — plus time beyond regulation — to beat Tenth-seeded Arkansas within the Candy 16. Head coach Grant McCasland’s group trailed by 16 factors with 10:23 remaining earlier than cobbling collectively a frantic rally that culminated in an additional session. JT Toppin, Darrion Williams and Christian Anderson all topped 20 factors that evening to maintain Texas Tech’s season afloat. And the Crimson Raiders acquired one other enormous increase on Saturday afternoon when it grew to become clear that taking pictures guard Chance McMillian, who averages 14.2 factors and 4.1 rebounds per recreation, would return to the court docket towards Florida after lacking 5 video games with an indirect harm. The stage was set for a battle between two groups ranked among the many high 9 within the nation by KenPom.
A nip-and-tuck first half ended with Florida carrying a three-point lead into the break, at which period this system’s streak of 28 consecutive victories when main at halftime — tied for the longest such streak within the nation — got here squarely into play. Might Texas Tech, which had vital disadvantages in peak and high quality depth in comparison with the Gators, mount a second-half cost whereas relying so closely on perimeter taking pictures and second-chance factors? Or would a weekend which may embody a collection of SEC coronations start with Golden’s group pulling away within the latter levels, simply because it did towards UConn and Maryland within the previous two rounds?
The solutions to these questions got here within the type of a shocking, punishing 12-2 run by the Crimson Raiders that bridged the halfway level of the second half. It was throughout that sequence when the inside trio of Williams (23 factors, 5 rebounds), Toppin (20 factors, 11 rebounds) and Federiko Federiko (4 factors, two rebounds) started punishing Florida within the low submit with an onslaught of physicality and offensive rebounding that, ultimately, prompted Golden to name a timeout in hopes of stopping the bleeding. A flurry of buckets on the inside, lots of which stemmed from isolation performs by Williams, helped push Texas Tech’s surprising result in 10 factors with 7:49 remaining, saddling the Gators with their largest deficit of the match as the opportunity of an upset intensified. When Florida was dinged for a shot-clock violation shortly thereafter, Golden put each fingers on his head earlier than slapping a close-by object in frustration.
However then Florida started doing the factor that Florida all the time does: igniting from 3-point vary with such ruthlessness and rapidity that its opponent cannot probably recuperate. Thomas Haugh (20 factors, 11 rebounds) made back-to-back 3s within the span of 33 seconds. Walter Clayton Jr., who made a number of clutch photographs to gasoline the comeback towards UConn final week, buried two extra 3s within the span of 48 seconds, together with his second shot approaching an unbelievable turnaround after he retreated again behind the arc from the center of the lane. Such heroics, such a backbreaking 16-2 run gave the Gators a one-point lead with lower than a minute remaining in a recreation they by no means once more trailed. Clayton scored 22 of his game-high 30 within the second half, together with 13 factors within the remaining 5:24.
The smash-and-grab conclusion produced an 84-79 remaining rating that left Texas Tech surprised and stupefied. However extra importantly, it despatched Florida to the Last 4.
– Michael Cohen
John Fanta is a nationwide faculty basketball broadcaster and author for FOX Sports activities. He covers the game in quite a lot of capacities, from calling video games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Community to offering commentary on The Discipline of 68 Media Community. Observe him at @John_Fanta.
Michael Cohen covers faculty soccer and faculty basketball for FOX Sports activities. Observe him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
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