For Jon Teitel’s locker-room coverage of the Duke Blue Devils – CLICK HERE
For Jon Teitel’s interview with Duke’s Director of Athletic Bands Jeff Au – CLICK HERE
Most of the games of the NCAA Tournament have felt more scripted than spontaneous this year, but that went out the window emphatically yesterday. The first game featured a nip-and-tuck game from Texas Tech and Gonzaga; strangely enough, the turning point occurred after Gonzaga was down 5 points with under a minute remaining and Texas Tech had the ball. Rather than commit a foul, the Bulldogs were able to steal the ball and hit a 3 in transition that cut the Red Raiders’ lead to two. After a timeout, Josh Perkins ended up making contact with the inbounder, which by definition resulted in a technical foul on Perkins. Tech hit both ensuing free throws, and added 2 more free throws the rest of the way en route to a 75-69 win over Gonzaga. It was only the fourth time Gonzaga was held under 70 points this year, and Texas Tech will make their Final Four debut in Minneapolis next Saturday.
The city of Louisville has been very kind to Virginia the past couple of seasons – there were already a couple of unlikely comebacks by Virginia against Louisville in back-to-back seasons, but their comeback against Purdue topped those two games by a country mile. Carsen Edwards hit a 3-point shot that put the Boilers up by 2 with under a minute remaining, and following a missed shot by Virginia, Purdue hit one of two free throws to extend their lead to 3. Purdue elected to foul Virginia before the Hoos could get off a potential game-tying 3, but Virginia hit the first free throw and missed the second intentionally. The ball was tipped back into the Virginia backcourt, but Kihei Clark was able to pass the ball to Mamadi Diakite inside the arc and Diakite hit a 15-footer as time expired to send the game into overtime. The Hoos outscored Purdue 10-5 in overtime; Carsen Edwards looked like he might try to tie the game singlehandedly on Purdue’s last possession (he had scored 42 points on the night), but his subsequent pass went out-of-bounds to end Purdue’s hopes. This will be Virginia’s third appearance in the Final Four and marks the second time that a father-son duo will both coach in the Final Four – John Thompson Jr. and John Thompson III pulled it off for Georgetown, and now Dick Bennett (Wisconsin) and Tony Bennett can be added to that rare list as well.
MIDWEST REGION
(5) AUBURN VS (2) KENTUCKY (2:20 PM, CBS) – As feared for Auburn, their leading scorer from Friday’s game (Chuma Okeke) tore his ACL and will be out for the remainder of the tournament for the Tigers. Nonetheless, they were coming off of a game where they hit a school-record 17 3-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game against North Carolina on Friday. They have now won 11 straight games, including the SEC Tournament Championship, since being embarrassed at Rupp Arena against UK back in February. The Wildcats survived with tough defense for the second game in a row; this time they took out Houston in the closing seconds as both PJ Washington and Tyler Herro made crucial plays to extend the Wildcats’ season.
EAST REGION
(2) MICHIGAN STATE VS (1) DUKE (approx. 5:05 PM, CBS) – The final game of the Elite 8 features a Final Four-caliber matchup with Michigan State and Duke going head-to-head. Duke has had a couple of narrow escapes against Central Florida and Virginia Tech; what was a surprise at game time on Friday was Cam Reddish being scratched from the lineup due to a pregame injury. He is also a game-time decision for the Blue Devils today. Michigan State continues to press on despite their own injuries throughout the year. They had a brief scare against Bradley in their tournament opener, but they were mostly dominant in their wins against Minnesota and LSU.