Michael Cohen
University football and university basketball editor
John Fanta
Badalière and journalist of university basketball
Chalk reigned supreme once again on Saturday as a pair of seeds n ° 1 – Florida and Duke – hit their tickets for the Final Four in San Antonio.
The Gators finished an exciting return against the Tech Red Raiders Tech, the third seeded, who had done the same in Sweet 16 against the team of John Calipari Arkansas. After this match, the first year trio of Duke by Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach organized a memorable defensive performance against the best -classified attack in Alabama to qualify for the 18th Final Four of the program.
Here is everything to know after the Elite Eight action on Saturday:
Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel led Duke in the Final Four
The crowd got up with less than eight minutes to play while the Alabama reduced Duke’s advance to seven points. Jon Scheyer’s young Blue Devils team was feeling the pressure. How would they manage it?
Cooper Flagg had the initial answer, overthrowing a basic rider on Mark Sears. Khaman Maluach carried out the house an emphatic dunk to push Duke’s advance at 69-58. Just as the tide seemed to find their strides, the Blue Devils showed their evolution of a team that underwent a pair of heartbreaking defeats at the start of the season against Kentucky and Kansas, to a team that looked unbeatable before the Final Four.
These first defeats gave way to a team that continues to display an instirct killer and has more than experienced media threw since the calendar turned to Mars. And when the final buzzer struck on Saturday evening, it was the Blue Devils who marked their ticket for San Antoini with a dominant victory of 85-65 on the Alabama.
The Blue Devils did it with La Défense, holding the Crimson Tide aimless for a four-minute section and running 7-0 after their advance was reduced to 65-58. Duke held Sears only six points on 2 shots out of 12. A year after leading the tide to the very first Final Four of the school, it was another type of challenge for Sears.
With four and a half minutes to go, the fifth year had basketball on the left wing. He tried to drive on Flagg and took a big step, being called for a trip. After a turnover on the possession that followed, Sears tried to go out on the break and attack Tyrese Proctor, which took a charge on the reference campaign, which caused a delay. After Flagg marked a pair of free throws, then finished sears just shy from the chronometer expiration, he served as a dagger.
A 13-0 over five-minute race has shown why this Duke program should be considered the first runner in San Antonio next weekend. Their length and athletics have locked the country’s highest attack at 91.4 points per match entering the competition, forcing the tide in their worst score of the season.
Flagg finished with 16 points on 6 shots on 16 on the ground, and although it was not as strong as it was Thursday evening, which is why the Blue Devils are the best team in the country.
Kon Knueppel delivered 19 points, five rebounds and four assists, one of which was a nasty dish in Sion James for an easy dunk to give Duke an 11 -point lead with 8:44 to play. Maluach provided the interior presence of 14 points, eight rebounds and two blocks, while Proctor continued its starry walking with 17 points on 7 shots on the field.
As good as Duke was on the offensive – shooting 54% in the field and 46% of the city center – Saturday evening’s victory concerned the capacity of Blue Devils to intensify and make stops together. In addition to closing Sears, Duke held the Alabama only 8 out of 32 (25%) pulling on the ground after their representation of 251 out of 51 on Thursday.
For Scheyer, it was the last moment of validation in a three -year race that led to this, his first trip to a Final Four, and the proof that he was the perfect replacement for Mike Krzyzewski.
This first title in a decade? Hope is real because this Duke team has everything.
– John Fanta
Gators Complete Epic Comeback, Punch Ticket for Final Four
Under programming, Florida has become the first of the four dry schools with the possibility of reaching the Final Four in what could well be recalled as the best basketball weekend in the history of the conference. The Gators, classified first to the west, had arrived at this stage by moving away from Maryland of the fourth seeded in Sweet 16 earlier this week. They entered the appointment on Saturday with Texas Tech n ° 3 on the precipice of the national semi-finals, a place where the program had not been since the former head coach Billy Donovan still had the touch in 2014, the penultimate season before going to the NBA. No season then entered and now captivated the fans base like this, which included 33 victories in 37 games before Elite Eight, including a dry tournament title, and a series of nine consecutive victories dating from March 1. It was easy to understand why Gators were a fashionable national championship choice for observers and analysts.
Standing between Florida and the Final Four, a collection of Red Raiders which needed a heroic end of the game – more extension – to beat the Arkansas of 10th seeded in the Sweet 16. The head coach Grant McCasland followed 16 points with 10:23 before breaking a frenzied rally that culminated in an additional session. JT Toppin, Darrion Williams and Christian Anderson all exceeded 20 points that night to keep the Texas Tech season afloat. And the Red Raiders received another huge boost on Saturday afternoon when he became clear that the lucky goalkeeper McMillian, who has an average of 14.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per match, would return to the Tribunal against Florida after missing five games with an oblique injury. The scene was ready for a battle between two teams classified among the first nine of the country by Kenpom.
A first half of twinge ended with the Florida bringing a three-point lead at the break, when the sequence of 28 consecutive victories of the program is in the lead-equally for the longest sequence of this type of the nation-came downright at stake. Texas Tech, which had important disadvantages in the height and the quality of quality compared to the Gators, While relying so strongly on the shooting of the perimeter and the second chance points? Or a weekend that could include a series of dry crowns would start with the Golden team who withdraws in the last stages, just as he did against Uconn and Maryland in the previous two towers?
The answers to these questions came in the form of a superb and punishing 12-2 managed by the Raiders Red who laid the point halfway through the second half. It was during this sequence that the interior trio of Williams (23 points, five rebounds), Toppin (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Federiko Federiko (four points, two rebounds) began to punish Florida in the low post with an overview of the physicity and the offensive rebound which, ultimately, encouraged Gold to call a delay in the hopes of the hopes of the hopes. A burst of buckets inside, many of which came from Williams isolation games, helped repel the unexpected advance of Texas Tech at 10 points with 7:49 to play, by blurring the Gators with their greatest deficit in the tournament as the possibility of an upheaval has intensified. When Florida was fired for a violation of the chronometer shortly after, Golden put both hands on his head before slapping an object near frustration.
But then Florida began to do what Florida is still doing: ignite 3 points with such ruthlessability and speed that its opponent cannot recover. Thomas Haugh (20 points, 11 rebounds) made 3s consecutive in 33 seconds. Walter Clayton Jr., who made several clutch strokes to feed the return against Uconn last week, buried two other 3 in the space of 48 seconds, with his second shot coming in an incredible turnaround after having fallen behind the arch in the middle of the track. Such a heroism, such a race of 16-2 16-2 gave the Gators an advance of a point with less than a minute in a match they have never followed. Clayton scored 22 of its summit of 30 in the second half, including 13 points in the 5:24 finals.
The conclusion of Smash-And-Grab produced a final score of 84-79 which left Texas Tech amazed and amazed. But more importantly, he sent Florida in the Final Four.
– Michael Cohen
John Fanta is a national basketball and writer for Fox Sports. It covers sport in a variety of capabilities, from the call for games to FS1 to serve it as a main host on the digital network of Big East to the supply of comments on the field of the 68 media Network. Follow him to @John_fanta.
Michael Cohen covers university football and university basketball for Fox Sports. Follow him on Twitter @ Michael_Cohen13.
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