USA TODAY Sports’ Scott Gleeson analyzes how the Kansas Jahox qualified for the Final Four.
USA TODAY
There will be a quartet of traditional forces in college basketball that will gather next weekend in New Orleans for the Men’s Final Four.
North Carolina and Kansas made their tickets to Sunday in a dominant way. The No. 8 seed Tar heels finished a Cinderella run by Saint Peter’s 65-42. They will face ancient rival Duke in a national semifinal next Saturday.
Kansas, meanwhile, fell behind early Sunday, but opened the jets to beat Miami No. 10 76-50. The Jayhawks will face Villanova in the other match of the Final Four.
In the first half of the women’s Elite Eight, Dawn Staley No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks defeated Creighton No. 10 80-50.
And in the final game of the night, top and defending national champion Stanford walked away from No. 2 in Texas with 59-50. The other two places in the Women’s Final Four will be determined on Monday night.
ELITE EIGHT: Winners and losers of Sunday’s men’s games
DOUKAS: Coach K’s young Blue Devils are growing up fast
END OF HISTORY BOOK: The 10 Most Amazing Cinderellas of the NCAA Tournament Include St. Peter
SPOKANE – Behind a stunning defensive performance from second-year Cameron Brink (six blocks, one steal) and some heroic end-of-game heroes from the Hull Sisters, defending champion Stanford beat Texas 59-50 to advance to second consecutive Final Four.
Stanford qualifies to play the winner of the UConn-NC State, which will be played on Monday afternoon.
After a drive and finish by senior guard Lexie Hull who lifted the Cardinal 52-48, Stanford scored seven of the nine free throws in the final 2:29 to freeze the win.
Hull led all the players with 20 points in 7-on-14 shots and Hailey Jones had 18 points and 12 rebounds. Brink finished with 10 points and six rebounds to continue her shooting game.
Joanne Allen-Taylor led Texas with 15 points, but fouled. Rookie superstar Rori Harmon, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, finished with 14 points, but it took 18 shots to get there and bothered much of the night from Stanford length defensively. He also got seven rebounds and shared six assists.
The main difference for Stanford came in the middle of the third quarter, when Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer changed zone. Stanford – and Brink in particular – shook the Longhorns as Brink blocked a shot, guard Hannah Jam blocked a shot, Brink blocked two more and then grabbed a steal.
This will be the 14th appearance in the Final Four for VanDerveer, who has won three national titles.
– Lindsay Snell
Bill Self was unable to contain his smile after Kansas’s dominant victory over Miami at the Elite Eight on Sunday.
Reduced by six points at halftime, the Jayhawks put up a defensive clinic in the second half, limiting the Hurricanes to just 15 points on the road to a 76-50 victory.
After the game, Self took some time to talk to CBS side reporter Dana Jacobson about his thoughts on the team’s victory and trip to the Final Four.
At one point, Jacobson mentioned one of the mottos of Self’s father, Bill Self Sr., who died in January at the age of 82.
“It’s been a special year for me and my family, obviously, with my dad’s death, and that was his motto: ‘Don’t worry about the mules, just load the wagon,’” Self said. “The kids weren’t really worried about the distractions of what was happening in the first half, they were just playing in the second half.”
– Adam Hensley, Topeka Capital-Journal
In the first half, Stanford No. 1 leads Texas No. 2 30-27 at halftime. No team was ahead by more than four points in the first 20 minutes.
As she did throughout the women’s tournament, the Lexie Hull of the Cardinal is ahead of all scorers by 12 points. Teammate Hailey Jones scored nine points and nine rebounds in the game.
Only four players have scored for Texas, with Joanne Allen-Taylor leading by nine.
When North Carolina ruined his big farewell at the Cameron Indoor Stadium, Mike Krzyzewski turned off the microphone and told the crowd that it was “unacceptable.”
That was three weeks ago, when Krzyzewski lost his last game in the most historic rivalry in college basketball was going to be a big part of his last season history, no matter how it ended.
When the NCAA Tournament brackets were released on Election Sunday, the idea that Dukas and North Carolina would play again was not even mentioned. an alternative galaxy.
But maybe we should have more faith in this sport, which somehow understands how to offer the funniest drama. Because on Saturday night in New Orleans, the 98th and certainly the last Ducas-North Carolina match in the Krzyzewski era will take place with a bunk in the national championship game on the line.
To finally happen in Krzyzewski’s final season, as his team climbs to the finish line and celebrates returning to the Final Four after seven years of drought, is the kind of plot that Hollywood would reject because it was too malicious and unrealistic.
– Dan Clouds
GREENSBORROW, NC – The image that lasted a year for South Carolina and last season was the pain and emotion on Aliyah Boston’s face after her attempt against Stanford to reach the Final Four.
In a recent interview with SLAM magazine, Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said she wanted to upset Boston’s frowns this year.
The No. 1 USC (33-2) took another step closer to completion that Sunday night, beating Creighton 10-seed, 80-50, in the Elite Eight match at the Greensboro Coliseum to advance back to the Final Four. .
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley received a $ 150,000 bonus tonight as the Gamecocks reached the NCAA Women’s Final Four by beating Creighton.
Staley now has $ 380,000 in bonuses.
– Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) March 28, 2022
South Carolina will play among the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season. The Final Four of 2022 starts on April 1 in Minneapolis. The times of the games will be determined.
– Cory Diaz, New Greenville (SC).
The first two weekends of the NCAA Men’s Tournament have two tracks. There are twists that catch people’s attention and break parentheses while creating wonderful story lines. There is also the hunt to reach the Final Four where the national champion is crowned.
This tournament featured some of the most incredible results of any March Madness. A seed No. 15 reached the Elite Eight for the first time. And it was not just any No. 15 seed. It was St. Peter, with one of the lowest registrations in category I.
Miami No. 10 also joined the Peacocks in the regional finals, making Jim Larrañaga the first coach to take two Elite Eight programs as double-digit seeds. (Pilot George Mason in 2006). There were also lively trips from Houston, Arkansas, Iowa and Michigan and memorable upheavals from New Mexico and Richmond.
But when the dust settled, it was a quartet of the biggest names in college basketball that stood up to what could be considered one of the biggest lineups in the Final Four.
– Eric Smith
The Men’s Final Four is set, and despite the stunning results from this year’s NCAA Tournament, the standing quartet represents some of the most successful college basketball history programs.
The pair in Sunday’s regional finals included some underdogs, debutant Miami and the absolute winner of St. Louis. Peter’s, hoping to make the list of the first of the program.
But whether it was the speed of the top Kansas or the size of the ACC North Carolina force, the underdogs did not spend their day in Sunday’s Elite Eight.
– Eddie Timani
Leading South Carolina scored a stunning 60% off the field and led 46-25 at halftime against No. 10 Creighton in the NCAA Women’s Regional Finals in Greensboro, NC.
Aliyah Boston leads the Gamecocks with 14 points in 6-of-7 shots from the field. USC beat the Bluejays 23-9 in the second quarter to open the comfortable margin.
The Gamecocks want to return to the Women’s Final Four for the second consecutive season and for the fourth time in a row under coach Dawn Staley.
PHILADELPHIA – No. 8 North Carolina led early and surpassed No. 15 of Saint Peter’s 69-49, finishing the most captivating run in NCAA Men’s history and creating a Final Four for the Blues only.
Any thought that the unforgettable March of the Peacocks would continue, was tested from the beginning. UNC went 9-0 after four minutes and extended the lead to 21-7 with 7:30 remaining in the first half and 32-13 four minutes later. The Tar Heels were 38-19 at halftime and with 27 points in the second half.
UNC shot 41% from the field and scored 34 points in color. Young striker Armando Bacot had 15 rebounds at halftime and finished with 22 boards, while the Tar Heels outscored Saint Peter’s 49-35 overall.
After an unexpected explosion after the season, UNC is turning to what may be the most fun Final Four in the 64-team season.
It will be the Tar Heels and No. 2 Duke, who overturned No. 4 Arkansas in the Elite Eight to make one final trip to the Final Four under coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Aside from the fact that the game is potentially Krzyzewski’s last after more than four decades with the Blue Devils, the two long-time rivals have never met in a tournament.
– Paul Myerberg
Villanova will be without key guard Justin Moore for the rest of the NCAA tournament, the school confirmed on Sunday in an expected but disappointing announcement.
Moore went to the floor with a right leg injury late in the Wildcats’ Elite Eight victory over Houston on Saturday night in San Antonio. He…
