HoopsHD continues its simulation of what would have happened in TTTW (The Tournament That Wasn’t). Up next it is time to award the fourth and final spot in the Final Four with the East Regional Semifinals and Finals. The 1-seed Dayton Flyers were trying to become the third top-seed to advance to the Final Four. However, they first had to get past the Cinderella Yale Bulldogs. Another Cinderella team was trying to make a run in the bottom half of the bracket, as Mick Cronin’s UCLA Bruins were looking to knock Seton Hall out of the Tournament. It is time to find out what happened and who joins Kansas, Baylor and Oregon in the Final Four!
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS – EAST REGION – NEW YORK CITY
(1) Dayton vs (12) Yale
Madison Square Garden in New York City was the site for the East Regional in this year’s NCAA Tournament, and it gave us a pair of matchups between teams that had been strong Final Four contenders all season and teams that were clearly Cinderellas. In the first game of the evening, the top-seeded Dayton Flyers were in action. Dayton had gotten past a tough Siena team in the first round and then had taken care of USC fairly easily to punch their ticket to the Sweet 16. The Flyers now had their eyes set on the Final Four in Atlanta, but first had to get past a Cinderella Yale team. Yale had been a huge surprise in the first two rounds, upending both Butler and Maryland by double-digits. The Bulldogs had only one NCAA Tournament win all-time prior to this season, so they were already in unchartered territory heading into this game.
The first half was back-and-forth early, with the gritty Bulldogs refusing to allow Dayton to pull away from them. The Flyers did maintain a small edge the entire way, and a Rodney Chatman 3-pointer with only 1 second left to play suddenly pulled Dayton in front by its biggest margin so far, 42-33. With the lead up at 9 at the half, it looked like Dayton was ready to take control of the game and run away in the second. However, with Dayton up by 10 early in the second, Yale put together a very fast 8-0 run, highlighted by 3-pointers from Paul Atkinson and Jalen Gabbidon, to cut the lead down to two points just 6 minutes in. Yale responded to every Dayton push the rest of the way, as the Flyers kept trying to build a lead and the Bulldogs kept answering back and staying tight. August Mahoney’s 3-pointer with 1:39 left to play cut the lead to one and, after Chatman was called for an offensive foul, the Bulldogs got the ball back. Atkinson promptly took the ball and slammed it home on a great pass from Eric Monroe with 56 seconds left to give Yale its first lead since early in the game. The Flyers would get several chances in the final minute to tie or take the lead, but a short miss by Obi Toppin had them still down a point with 3 seconds left, and Yale heading to the line for a one-and-one. Azar Swain missed the front end and the Flyers quickly moved the ball to half-court and called timeout, setting up one final play with 2 seconds on the clock to try to win. The ball was inbounded to Crutcher who got a good look – but the ball bounced off the rim, fell to the floor, and another major upset was in the books. The Yale Bulldogs, behind 19 points from Paul Atkinson, had slain another giant and were moving on to the Elite Eight!
Final Score: (12) Yale 70, (1) Dayton 69
(3) Seton Hall vs (10) UCLA
Another Cinderella, albeit one from a power conference, was playing in the second regional semifinal of the night. The UCLA Bruins, a team that had been pretty much given up for dead in December and January, had put together an amazing second half to their season, finding a way to finish in second place in the Pac-12 and win the Pac-12 Tournament. Head coach Mick Cronin, who had often been criticized for his inability to get his Cincinnati teams past the first weekend of March Madness, suddenly had his new team playing in the Sweet 16 after upending Florida and squeezing past a tough Winthrop team that had knocked out Florida State in the first round. UCLA would certainly have their hands full in New York City, however, as their opponent was the Seton Hall Pirates. Seton Hall, although landing on the 3-seed line while conference-mates Villanova and Creighton had both been 2-seeds, had certainly looked like the best team in the Big East for a good portion of the season. The Pirates could prove that in the East Regional if they could become the Big East’s representative in the Final Four in Atlanta by defeating a pair of Cinderellas – first UCLA and then Yale.
The UCLA Bruins had missed the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons before this one, but they seemed determined to make up for that, especially when they jumped out to an early 12-4 lead that they held and extended throughout the first half. Seton Hall seemed unable to stop the Bruins, and by the break the lead was up to 15 at 41-26. UCLA may have won the first half easily, but Myles Powell and company were far from done. The Hall came out looking like a completely different team in the second, and by the under-12 media timeout the game was tied at 49. The Pirates did not stop there either. They continued to dominate the balance of the game, leaving Mick Cronin’s team looking like they had no idea what hit them. Seton Hall cruised home for an 84-74 win led by 27 point from Powell. With one double-digit seed defeated in the East Regional, Seton Hall now had to get ready for another – a battle against the Yale Bulldogs for a spot in the Final Four.
Final Score: (3) Seton Hall 84, (10) UCLA 74
REGIONAL FINAL – EAST REGION – NEW YORK CITY
(3) Seton Hall vs (12) Yale
Seton Hall had been a popular pick to win the East Region and advance to the Final Four, so seeing them in the Regional Final was certainly no surprise to most. The same could certainly not be said of their opponent. The Yale Bulldogs, a team that had a solid season in the Ivy League, had already pulled off three major upsets, eliminating Butler, Maryland and top-seed Dayton. Head coach James Jones’ squad was clearly playing over their heads, evoking memories of recent mid-major runs to the Final Four like the one we had seen just two years ago from Loyola-Chicago. Five double-digit seeds had advanced to the Final Four in NCAA Tournament history, though four of them (including Loyola) had been 11-seeds and the fifth had been a 10. The 12-seed Bulldogs were therefore on the verge of truly making history. However, one of the top teams in the nation, the Seton Hall Pirates, clearly stood in their way.
The easy pick in this game would be to predict a Seton Hall blowout victory. Yale had made an amazing run, but this was surely where it would end. However, the Bulldogs hung tight throughout the first half. When an Azar Swain 3-pointer tied it up with just under 3 to go until the break, Pirates’ fans began to sweat. When three more points, these from Paul Atkinson, put Yale up 46-43 at the break, alarm bells were going off throughout the State of New Jersey. However Seton Hall had been down big at halftime against UCLA and dominated the second half to win. A performance anything like that one would certainly end the Cinderella run and send Seton hall to Atlanta.
The second half, in a manner similar to the second half of UCLA vs Seton Hall, was not nearly as close as the first had been. Although the teams played tight for the first five minutes, a 14-1 run midway through the period turned a 1-point Seton Hall edge into . . . a 71-59 Yale lead! The Bulldogs were simply unstoppable in the second half, led by 24 points from Swain and 15 from Atkinson. Never before had a 12-seed made the Final Four. Never before . . . until now. History was made in the 2019-20 season, and the Ivy League champion Yale Bulldogs could now add an NCAA East Regional title to their list of accomplishments. It was time for the 2018 Loyola-Chicago Ramblers to step aside. Something even more remarkable had just happened. Yale was headed to the Final Four!
Final Score: (12) Yale 85, (3) Seton Hall 75
