Big Blue, bluebloods and sweet Sister Jean are on their way to San Antonio for the 2018 Final Four.
No. 3 Michigan, No. 11 Loyola-Chicago, No. 1 Villanova and No. 1 Kansas are the final teams standing after the first four rounds of a particularly wild NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Michigan and Loyola will face off in one national semifinal and Villanova and Kansas will play the other this Saturday for the right to advance to the title game two days later.
Villanova beat No. 3 Texas Tech 71-59 in the East Regional Final and Kansas topped No. 2 Duke 85-81 in overtime in the Midwest Region to conclude the Elite Eight on Sunday.
The Final Four teams offer an assortment of the best of college basketball: some exciting players on their way to the NBA, some coaches with notable postseason track records and one small school with a double-digit seed and an ever-expanding bandwagon.
Coming out of the South Region, Loyola is tied for the lowest seed to make the Final Four and the third No. 11 seed to do so this millennium, after George Mason in 2006 and Virginia Commonwealth in 2011. The Ramblers took down No. 6 Miami, No. 3 Tennessee, No. 7 Nevada and No. 9 Kansas State, and they won each of the first three games by one or two points with a shot in the final seconds.
There are some key differences between the Ramblers and their predecessors. George Mason and VCU each had to upset the No. 1 seeds in their regions in the Elite Eight, but Loyola was spared having to meet No. 1 Virginia when the Cavaliers were stunned by No. 16 UMBC.
Moreover, the face of Loyola’s upset run is not a player or coach, but Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the 98-year-old team chaplain who became an overnight sensation with basketball fans. Loyola is a Catholic university (as is Villanova) and coach Porter Moser frequently says “All glory to God” after games.
Representing the West Region, Michigan has won 13 straight games since its last loss on Feb. 6. It won the Big Ten Tournament during that streak in a four-game sweep that included wins over Michigan State and Purdue.
The Wolverines struggled a bit against NCAA first-round opponent Montana and needed a miraculous buzzer-beater by reserve Jordan Poole to beat Houston in round two. But they spent week two of the tournament winning with both offense and defense — one day rolling over Texas A&M 99-72 in the Sweet 16, and two days later, shutting down Florida State, 58-54.
“I’ve never seen a team work so hard and be so connected on both ends of the floor. Even when things do not go right on the offensive end, they were exceptional on defense,” said Michigan coach John Beilein, who also led the Wolverines to the Final Four in 2013 and reached the title game.
The trio of Charles Matthews (16.5 points per game during the tournament), Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman (14 ppg) and Moritz Wagner (12.5 ppg) leads the Wolverines.
Villanova is perhaps the most predictable team left standing. Media and coaches alike consistently voted the Wildcats No. 1 in both the Associated Press and Coaches’ Polls from mid-December to early February; the Wildcats fell out of the top spot for just one week in that span. They battled back from a few conference losses and finished the year ranked No. 2 in both polls.
Led by two finalists for the John R. Wooden Award for national player of the year, Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges, the Wildcats took care of No. 16 Radford and torched No. 9 Alabama with 17 3-pointers during the tournament’s first weekend. They went on to quash tough efforts by No. 5 West Virginia and No. 3 Texas Tech to reach San Antonio.
Coach Jay Wright said the day before the Texas Tech game that his players, many of whom played for the Villanova team that won a national championship two years ago, needed to stay humble and hungry to keep advancing.
Villanova now will play a fellow blue blood, Kansas, which might be hungrier. The Jayhawks were a No. 1 seed each of the last three years and lost in the Elite Eight in 2016 and 2017 before getting over that hump. It’s Kansas’s first Final Four appearance since 2012.
After winning it’s 14th straight Big 12 title, Kansas started off the NCAA Tournament having to fight off a pesky No. 16, Pennsylvania. The Jayhawks won that game 76-60 but won it’s next three — over No. 8 Seton Hall, No. 5 Clemson and Duke — each by four points.
Devonte’ Graham leads Kansas in both points and assists per game and four players besides Graham average double-digit points per game, including Malik Newman, who was the hero against Duke by scoring all 13 of Kansas’s points in overtime.
The semifinal games will be played Saturday, March 31, starting with Loyola vs. Michigan at 6:09 p.m. Eastern and followed by Villanova vs. Kansas. The national championship will be contested Monday, April 2 at 9:20 p.m., and all three games will be televised on TBS.
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