Maye hits late jumper to lift North Carolina to Final Four

SC isn’t considered a very good offensive team, either.

It’s been rolling at Gonzaga since Mark Few took over in 1999.

Oregon’s Dana Altman soaked up a Gatorade bath.

North Carolina has been good for decades, and has more than enough history to make up for the other teams. “He hadn’t been in the NCAA Tournament, but he had been a head coach for four years and won over a hundred games, Been coach of the year (in Conference USA) three times”. OR had a 22-15 spread mark this season, while the Tar Heels played to the UNDER in 23 of 38 contests. What a tremendous effort today against a heck of a basketball team in Baylor University. They are also a good rebounding team although FSU is statistically better. “Maybe Fahrenheit. It’s been a while since I was in class”. He’s optimistic about the Seminoles’ shot at the final four.

“The North Carolina Tar Heels for the second straight season are going back to the Final Four!”.

A spectacular, spontaneous moment for South Carolina’s two biggest stars: one headed to her first Final Four, and the other going back to chase the school’s first NCAA championship.

In the Gamecocks’ first four NCAA Tournament games, they have outscored the opponents, 196-142, in the second half, averaging 49 points.

Then there’s Martin, whose seventh-seeded Gamecocks (26-10) upset East No. 2 Duke – the preseason No. 1-ranked team – and No. 3 seed Baylor before Sunday’s win against Florida in NY.

Stay tuned, and prepare for Saturday, because the Cinderella team is facing probably the best team this season. They had scored those 288 points in the first three games on just 217 possessions, 1.333 PPP.

The NCAA hosted its first hoops championship in 1939 in Evanston, Illinois; ironically at Northwestern, the school that until this year couldn’t get to the party it first hosted.

And Oregon? Well, the Ducks have been to the tournament before and won it all. “I thanked them for four wonderful years of Elite Eight basketball”. Oregon’s drought had stretched the entire history of the sport. Plus, Australian guard Kristy Wallace was finishing her freshman season.

So, comparatively, 366 days is not all that long ago.

Seconds after Malik Monk tied the game with a clutch 3, Luke Maye hit the game-winner for UNC. Sagarin has SC as 4.5 point favorites but remember that most of his data was compiled when Coates was playing. “I wish I could get those 4 seconds back, but I can’t”. “You dream it every single day”. “We’ll see you in Phoenix”. Even with such an unstoppable player, Kansas entered the national final ranked second behind North Carolina, which had rolled to a flawless 30-0 record.

The Final Four was the only missing piece to their resume. “We try to speed them up”. This is the first matchup where both teams making their first Final Four appearances play one another since 1973 (Memphis vs. Providence).

Before we discuss the players SC will have let’s talk about the one they won’t have.

“I’m proud of them”, said Green. “I have no idea what to expect”. On Sunday afternoon, at the Mecca of basketball – Madison Square Garden – each player and Frank Martin took turns climbing the ladder and cutting the nets down. Kansas looked like a juggernaut. until it couldn’t scoreagainst Oregon. While last year’s title game might be impossible to top, a mix of newcomers and blue bloods should make for an intriguing weekend in Phoenix. “I feel like we still got the same shots”. “I use my phone to call somebody and they call me”. Gonzaga chewed up darling Northwestern and decidedly less darling West Virginia.

Allen, who had a career-high 35 points in Friday’s 84-83 overtime win over Wisconsin, struggled to find his range.

Kentucky led for less than 4 minutes in a game North Carolina had a big edge on the boards and inside.

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a.”, Williams said with a smile, quoting Clark Gable’s famed line as Rhett Butler. “I think he’s one of the Mt. Rushmore types in college coaching”.

Same goes for SC.