Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
John Fanta
College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter
The crowd rose to its feet with less than eight minutes to play as Alabama cut Duke’s lead down to seven points. Jon Scheyer’s young Blue Devils team was feeling the pressure. How would they handle it?
Cooper Flagg had the initial answer, knocking down a baseline jumper over Mark Sears. Khaman Maluach proceeded to stuff home an emphatic dunk to push Duke’s lead to 69-58. Just as the Tide appeared to find their stride, the Blue Devils showed their evolution from a team that suffered a pair of early-season heartbreaking losses to Kentucky and Kansas, to a team that looks unbeatable heading into the Final Four.
Those early defeats have given way to a team that continues to display a killer instirct and has more than lived up to the hype since the calendar turned to March. And when the final buzzer sounded Saturday night, it was the Blue Devils who stamped their ticket to San Antoinio with a dominant 85-65 victory over Alabama.
The Blue Devils did it with defense, holding the Crimson Tide scoreless for a four-minute stretch and going on a 7-0 run after their lead was cut to 65-58. Duke held Sears to just six points on 2-of-12 shooting. One year after leading the Tide to the school’s first-ever Final Four, this was a different kind of challenge for Sears.
With four and a half minutes to go, the fifth-year senior had the basketball on the left wing. He tried to drive on Flagg and took one too many steps, being called for a travel. After a turnover on the ensuing possession, Sears attempted to get out on the break and attack Tyrese Proctor, who took a charge on the baseline drive, prompting a timeout. After Flagg scored a pair of free throws and then finished on Sears just shy of the shot clock expiring, it served as the dagger.
A 13-0 run over five minutes showed why this Duke program should be considered the front-runner in San Antonio next weekend. Their length and athleticism locked up the nation’s highest scoring offense at 91.4 points per game entering the contest, forcing the Tide into their worst scoring output of the season.
Flagg finished with 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the floor, and while he wasn’t as strong as he was on Thursday night, that’s why the Blue Devils are the best team in the country.
Kon Knueppel delivered 19 points, five rebounds and four assists, one of which was a nasty dish to Sion James for an easy dunk to give Duke an 11-point lead with 8:44 left. Maluach provided the interior presence with 14 points, eight rebounds and two blocks, while Proctor continued his star-studded March with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field.
As good as Duke was on the offensive end – shooting 54% from the field and 46% from downtown – Saturday night’s win was all about the Blue Devils’ ability to step up and string together stops. In addition to shutting down Sears, Duke held Alabama to just 8-of-32 (25%) shooting from the field after their 25-of-51 performance Thursday.
For Scheyer, it’s the latest moment of validation in a three-year run that’s led to this, his first trip to a Final Four, and proof that he was the perfect replacement for Mike Krzyzewski.
That first title in a decade? The hope is real because this Duke team has it all.
– John Fanta
Gators complete epic comeback, punch ticket to Final Four
By virtue of scheduling, Florida became the first of four SEC schools with an opportunity to reach the Final Four in what could well be remembered as the finest basketball weekend in conference history. The Gators, seeded first in the West, had arrived at this point by pulling away from fourth-seeded Maryland in the Sweet 16 earlier this week. They entered Saturday’s date with No. 3 Texas Tech on the precipice of the national semifinals, a place the program hadn’t been since former head coach Billy Donovan was still prowling the sideline in 2014, the penultimate season before he ascended to the NBA. No season between then and now had captivated the fan base quite like this one, which included 33 wins in 37 games ahead of the Elite Eight, including an SEC Tournament title, and a string of nine consecutive victories dating to March 1. It was easy to understand why the Gators were a trendy national championship pick for observers and analysts alike.
Standing between Florida and the Final Four was a collection of Red Raiders that needed a heroic, late-game comeback — plus overtime — to beat 10th-seeded Arkansas in the Sweet 16. Head coach Grant McCasland’s team trailed by 16 points with 10:23 remaining before cobbling together a frantic rally that culminated in an extra session. JT Toppin, Darrion Williams and Christian Anderson all topped 20 points that night to keep Texas Tech’s season afloat. And the Red Raiders received another huge boost on Saturday afternoon when it became clear that shooting guard Chance McMillian, who averages 14.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, would return to the court against Florida after missing five games with an oblique injury. The stage was set for a battle between two teams ranked among the top nine in the country by KenPom.
A nip-and-tuck first half ended with Florida carrying a three-point lead into the break, at which time the program’s streak of 28 consecutive victories when leading at halftime — tied for the longest such streak in the nation — came squarely into play. Could Texas Tech, which had significant disadvantages in height and quality depth compared to the Gators, mount a second-half charge while relying so heavily on perimeter shooting and second-chance points? Or would a weekend that might include a series of SEC coronations begin with Golden’s team pulling away in the latter stages, just as it did against UConn and Maryland in the preceding two rounds?
The answers to those questions came in the form of a stunning, punishing 12-2 run by the Red Raiders that bridged the midway point of the second half. It was during that sequence when the interior trio of Williams (23 points, five rebounds), Toppin (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Federiko Federiko (four points, two rebounds) began punishing Florida in the low post with an onslaught of physicality and offensive rebounding that, eventually, prompted Golden to call a timeout in hopes of stopping the bleeding. A flurry of buckets on the interior, many of which stemmed from isolation plays by Williams, helped push Texas Tech’s unexpected lead to 10 points with 7:49 remaining, saddling the Gators with their largest deficit of the tournament as the possibility of an upset intensified. When Florida was dinged for a shot-clock violation shortly thereafter, Golden put both hands on his head before slapping a nearby object in frustration.
But then Florida began doing the thing that Florida always does: igniting from 3-point range with such ruthlessness and rapidity that its opponent can’t possibly recover. Thomas Haugh (20 points, 11 rebounds) made back-to-back 3s in the span of 33 seconds. Walter Clayton Jr., who made several clutch shots to fuel the comeback against UConn last week, buried two more 3s in the span of 48 seconds, with his second shot coming on an incredible turnaround after he retreated back behind the arc from the middle of the lane. Such heroics, such a backbreaking 16-2 run gave the Gators a one-point lead with less than a minute remaining in a game they never again trailed. Clayton scored 22 of his game-high 30 in the second half, including 13 points in the final 5:24.
The smash-and-grab conclusion produced an 84-79 final score that left Texas Tech stunned and stupefied. But more importantly, it sent Florida to the Final Four.
– Michael Cohen
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.
Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
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