HoopsHD continues its simulation of what would have happened in TTTW (The Tournament That Wasn’t). Up next it is time to move to the Final Four in Atlanta with the national semifinal games. The first game matches the #1 overall team, and favorite to win it all, Kansas Jayhawks against the Tournament’s Cinderella story, the 12-seed Ivy League champion Yale Bulldogs. After that, 1-seed Baylor will be taking on 4-seed Oregon in a battle between two schools that seem to believe that neon is an appropriate color for a uniform. The two winners will meet in our national championship game, coming Monday evening.
NATIONAL SEMIFINALS – FINAL FOUR – ATLANTA, GEORGIA
(1) Kansas vs (12) Yale
History is being written in the Final Four this year as, for the first time ever, a 12-seed has moved to within two wins of the National Championship. The Yale Bulldogs made a run through the East Region that will likely be discussed for decades to come, upsetting Butler, Maryland, Dayton and Seton Hall on the way. It was a run that pretty much no one had expected, even though the Bulldogs had played well in their biggest non-conference challenges this season, such as a 2-point loss at Penn State back in November. But to have made it this far, and won three of their four games by double-figures, has simply been amazing to watch. The national semifinal, however, would give the Bulldogs a lot tougher test than any they had faced yet this year.
The Kansas Jayhawks entered the Final Four with 34 wins already under their belts. Since the start of the 2020 calendar year, the only team that had found a way to defeat Rock Chalk was Baylor, doing so once in Lawrence, Kansas and again in the Big 12 championship game. Other than those games, this team had been simply dominant. Of course, the pundits were quick to point out that Kansas was facing the easiest route (in terms of seeding at least) to the national title game that any team had ever faced. Kansas had defeated a 16-seed, an 8-seed, a 12-seed and an 11-seed so far, and now only had another 12-seed to get past to play for the title. At the end of the day, however, the Jayhawks could only play and beat those teams that were in front of them, and their national semifinal game against Yale still had to be played and won if they wanted a chance to cut down the nets.
The Yale Bulldogs could have been happy – thrilled even – to simply be playing in the Final Four in Atlanta. Yet, that did not seem to be the case during the first half. The Bulldogs struck early, and when Azar Swain knocked down a 3 just over 5 minutes into the game, Yale had a shocking 9-2 lead. Kansas tried to fight back, but another Yale run, highlighted by long-balls from Eric Monroe and Matthue Cotton, suddenly had the Ivy League champions up 20-10 on the #1 team in the nation. KU was certainly not going to go away, however, and by scoring the last five points of the first half, the Jayhawks were able to trim the Yale lead down to a single possession, 30-27.
The Yale lead was gone completely 17 seconds into the second half when Devon Dotson knocked a shot down from beyond the arc to tie the game at 30. Added to their 5-0 run to end the first half, the Jayhawks were able to eventually make the run 15-0 and build a 37-30 lead just 5 minutes into the second period. Yale would not go away, however, and a jump hook by Paul Atkinson followed by another 3-ball from Cotton gave the Bulldogs a 4-point edge with 11:22 left to play. The game remained close, with the lead being exchanged back and forth, until a Dotson jumper put Kansas up, and an Ochai Agbaji layup extended the lead to 3 with 5 minutes left to play. After Yale’s Jordan Bruner made a pair of free throws to cut the lead back to 1, Bill Self called his final timeout, with 4:48 still left to play, and did all he could to rally the Jayhawks. It worked. Kansas promptly went on a huge 14-0 run, thanks in part to a pair of huge shots by Dotson, and the game was suddenly blown open, 68-53, with only 2 minutes left to play. The run was the huge knockout punch the Jayhawks desperately needed, as they advanced to Monday night’s National Championship game by a final score of 70-58. Devon Dotson scored 23 points and Udoka Azubuike had yet another double-double. The Yale Bulldogs had given all they had and more, but one of the most amazing NCAA Tournament stories in recent memory ended in the semifinal. Rock Chalk moved on and would have a shot to win it all against either their conference rival Baylor or Oregon.
Final Score: (1) Kansas 70, (12) Yale 58
(1) Baylor vs (4) Oregon
The second National Semifinal featured the team that had beaten Kansas twice this season, the Baylor Bears, taking on the Pac-12’s Oregon Ducks. Baylor had an amazing season in 2019-20, being one of the top teams in the nation all season long, including going to Lawrence, Kansas and defeating the Jayhawks back on January 11 by a score of 67-55. The Bears’ NCAA Tournament run had started with a blowout of Texas Southern followed by a hard-fought 9-point win over Houston. Things got really interesting as they snuck past Louisville by only a single point and defeated Creighton in the regional final by only 2. In order to win their first ever national championship, Baylor would have to defeat Kansas for a third time (despite losing at home to KU back in February, they did defeat the Jayhawks for a second time in the Big 12 Tournament title game). Before they reached that game, however, the Bears would have to first get past Oregon.
The Oregon Ducks had won the Pac-12 regular season title but fell in the conference tournament championship game to UCLA. Their path through the NCAA Tournament had not been easy by any means. After taking care of Bradley in the first round, Oregon fought off BYU to win by 3, upset Gonzaga by 6 and then defeated San Diego State by 7 points. Just as their opponent, Baylor, had experienced, a few balls bouncing in other directions could have easily sent the Ducks home from the Big Dance a lot earlier. However, Oregon had found a way to win four games already, and that put this team only two wins away from being able to hoist the trophy and cut down the nets.
The lights were bright and the stadium was packed in Atlanta for the second national semifinal game, and it was head coach Dana Altman’s Oregon Ducks that came out on fire, building a quick 8-0 lead over Baylor. The Bears, after a well-timed timeout, got themselves under control and were able to tie the game at 19 at the exact midway point of the first half. With the game tied at 21 a few minutes later, it was Oregon that got hot again. A 9-0 run, highlighted by three-pointers from both Payton Pritchard and Chris Duarte, put the Ducks up 30-21 with just under 5 minutes left. Oregon kept their foot on the gas pedal the rest of the first half, and by the time the break came about, the Ducks had extended their advantage to 13 points, 45-32.
This was the national semifinal, and a game between two of the top teams in the nation. The underdog Ducks were up by double-digits at the half, but this was a script that plenty of people had seen before. Baylor would surely come out of the locker room on fire and the game would end up being decided in its final minutes. Well, that is how games like this typically go, but that was not the case tonight. The Oregon Ducks simply refused to allow Baylor back in the game at all in the second half. When the final horn sounded, Oregon has won by a comfortable 82-59 score and was moving on to the championship game against Kansas. Payton Pritchard was once again the star of the game, scoring 21 points to lead his team to Monday night’s finals. For the Baylor Bears, the season had been amazing, but it was now over.
Final Score: (4) Oregon 82, (1) Baylor 59
