The best weekend of the college basketball season is upon us. After two weekends of hard fought basketball, the initial bracket that consisted of 68 teams has been whittled down to four deserving squads. North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon, and Gonzaga came to play when it matters most and will duke it out for the National title in Phoenix. Each of these teams has had a great season, but winning the whole thing is obviously the ultimate goal. Let’s see how each of these schools made it to this point:
South Carolina vs Gonzaga
The Gamecocks defeated Marquette, Duke, Baylor, and Florida to reach their first final four in school history. South Carolina had not been to even a Sweet 16 since 1973. Prior to this edition of the tournament, they totaled 4 tournament wins in their schools history, and had not been a part of the field itself since 2004. This is the Cinderella team of the Final Four, and at the same time is the team that has clearly comes into the National Semifinal with the most momentum, having beaten two of the better teams in tournament in Duke and Baylor. Their game against Duke was the most surprising of all the outcomes, as the Blue Devils had arguably the most talent of any of the teams to make this years field. South Carolina is led by fiery coach Frank Martin, in his fifth year with the school, and senior Sindarious Thornwell, the SEC Player of the year. Thorwell has averaged nearly 26 points per game in the tournament thus far, and if his team is going to have any chance, he will need to have a similarly dominant game. They are facing off with Gonzaga, who is also in their first Final Four.
The Bulldogs defeated South Dakota State, Northwestern, West Virginia, and Xavier to make it to their first final four in school history. While that may be surprising, if you look back throughout Gonzaga’s past teams, they tend to not meet expectations in March. Zags fans everywhere are hoping this may finally be the team to bring a championship to Spokane. With big Karnowski in the middle, and Nigel Williams-Goss outside, the Zags have one of the best one two punches in the country. None of the teams remaining can match the size of Karnowski, and it will likely take more than one defender to keep him in check, leaving the multitude of shooters that Gonzaga possesses with space to shoot. Gonzaga is the clear favorite in this game, but if South Carolina’s defense shows up once again, this may turn out to be a great game.
Oregon vs North Carolina
Oregon earned their Final Four bid with wins over Iona, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Kansas. This is their first Final Four since the inaugural Final Four way back in 1939. Iona and Rhode Island were relatively easy opponents. Kansas and Michigan, however, were two of the hotter teams coming into their respective games against the Ducks, but Oregon still managed to come out on top. The game against Michigan came down to the final possession, but the Kansas matchup was a blowout in the end, ending in scores of 69-68 and 74-60 respectively. Dillon Brooks and Tyler Dorsey have led the team in the tournament, but are surrounded by plenty of solid role players. The Ducks feature five players averaging over 10 ppg, with Brooks at the forefront of the scoring at 16ppg on the season.
North Carolina made it to the Final Four thanks to wins against Texas Southern, Arkansas, Butler, and Kentucky. Though the first round against Texas Southern was about as lopsided as a tournament game could ever be, the rest of North Carolina’s games have been nowhere near as easy. Arkansas was ahead by 5 with less than 3 minutes left, only to let UNC come back and win the game by 7. Butler put up a fight but they caught UNC on a night when they were the good version of the Tar Heels, who shot 55% from the field. This is the key with the runner up from last years Final Four in Houston, if the good version of the team shows up, they’re extremely hard to beat, but the even scarier thing is that they have proven that they can play poorly and still win, as proven by the game against Arkansas. Their elite eight game vs Kentucky was one for the ages that saw multiple lead changes in the final 50 seconds alone. Luke Maye sent the Tar Heels to the National Semifinals with a mid range jumper at the buzzer.
North Carolina would really like to make up for their disappointment in last years title game, and having been in the spotlight of the Final Four, they have experience that none of the other teams have, and it isn’t really even close. Personally, I think North Carolina should be the heavy favorite to win not only this game, but the National title as well on Monday night.