When this year’s NCAA Tournament began, it looked the same way it always does: a blank bracket filled with possibility. The field was set, and 65 teams had, at least theoretically, a chance to win it all.
The first weekend was kind to Cinderella. One day in Tampa saw two 12-seeds and two 13-seeds score four straight upsets. Many of the higher seeds that survived the first two games looked vulnerable, UCLA included.
Then the second weekend came and the clock began to strike midnight. Lower-seeded upstarts were sent home, some going meekly and some firing up 3-pointers until their time ran out. By the time the dust had settled on the Elite Eight, and Davidson’s last shot had bounced wide, order had not so much been restored as it had been enforced.
All four No. 1 seeds are moving on to the Final Four for the first time, which means that in San Antonio the Bruins may be walking into a firestorm the likes of which they haven’t seen, even in their previous two trips to the Final Four.
“Everybody’s good,” coach Ben Howland said. “This will be the toughest Final Four I think of the previous three years. … We know that the field is loaded, and it will be very, very difficult.”
While no single team of the four remaining may look as dominant as last year’s Florida Gators, the depth of overall ability is unquestionably higher. This year there is no mid-major world-beater (see George Mason, 2006), nor is there a team built almost entirely on the talents of one-and-done freshmen phenoms (see Ohio State, 2007).
In their places are a collection of college basketball’s true blue-bloods, each one stocked with both experience and NBA-caliber talent. UCLA and North Carolina are first and second, respectively, in number of all-time trips made to the Final Four. Kansas is fourth on that list.
Memphis isn’t in that same class historically, but this year’s Tigers were all of four points away from being undefeated up to this point, so it’s hard to say they don’t belong.
All told, this year’s Final Four teams lost a grand total of nine games this year.
Though the four teams play radically different styles, the basic formula is the same: Each school has the clout to recruit top-tier talent and the coaches to properly adapt that talent to their schemes.
“I think everybody would take experienced talent over anything else, but I think they would take talent over just experience,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “At this level, with the four teams that are in, what you have is … basically experienced talent on every team.”
Williams’ Tar Heels ““ nominally the tournament’s top seed ““ ran roughshod over the East Regional, playing their up-tempo, high-scoring style and keeping drama to a minimum.
Opposing North Carolina on Saturday will be Kansas, probably the most balanced team of the four. The Jayhawks certainly can run, but they also play tight defense and have an absurd amount of athleticism, especially in the backcourt.
Then there’s this: Williams coached at Kansas for 15 years, before leaving to return to his alma mater in 2003. Two years later he won the national championship with North Carolina, leaving some bad blood that hasn’t completely healed in the minds of many Jayhawk fans. Not that either Williams or current Kansas coach Bill Self are interested in talking about that.
“When people are upset that you leave … it’s a backhanded compliment because they didn’t want you to,” Self said. “I think feelings were hurt initially and all those things, but I think five years is enough time for people to let a few things go.”
On UCLA’s side of the bracket is Memphis, a team the Bruins last played two years ago in the Elite Eight. UCLA outslugged Memphis 50-45 in that defensive grind of a game, but the scores figure to be much higher this time.
The Tigers are explosive and run an unorthodox “dribble-drive” offense, which coach John Calipari has called “Princeton on steroids.” That’s a reference to the “Princeton” offense, which relies on a lot of dribble handoffs and backdoor cuts. Freshman point guard Derrick Rose ““ who has been projected as a top-two pick in the NBA Draft if he decides to leave school – is the linchpin, and he’s played as well as any guard in the tournament.
“In the tournament, it’s guard play,” Calipari said. “Big guys put you at another level … but if you don’t have good guard play, you don’t get to the Final Four. I think what you’re finding out is that, on all four teams, guard play has been outstanding.”
That leaves the Bruins, who are, like the rest of Howland’s teams, far from flashy. They score less than the other Final Four teams, work the shot clock and duke it out on defense.
UCLA has also, deservedly or not, become a lightning rod for criticism. Members of the media have found plenty of reasons to dislike the Bruins, whether they be questionable officiating, streaky shooting, occasional letdowns of defensive intensity or simply the fact that they play a style only a connoisseur of defensive rotations can enjoy.
That being said, UCLA has a few things going in its favor.
“We have very experienced players from the previous two years,” Howland said. “And then we added the best post player in the country in Kevin Love.”
Love, the All-American freshman center who averages upward of 17 points and 10 rebounds a game, is a big reason Howland has called this the “best” of his three Final Four squads.
Love has given the Bruins their most legitimate post presence in years, and he has become an invaluable offensive safety valve; when all else fails, just dump the ball to the tall guy in the post.
While Love is new to the Final Four, most of the Bruins are not. Alfred Aboya, Darren Collison, Lorenzo Mata-Real and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute all have two years of experience with Final Four games ““ and Final Four heartbreak. Now, in this, the most top-heavy of any championship weekend in recent memory, the Bruins are hoping that the first will keep them from learning any more about the second.
“We’re tired of coming back to this Final Four and not winning it all,” Collison said. “It’s not about the Final Four; it’s who wins it.”