By Aidan Joly
Much was made of the lack of upsets in this year’s NCAA tournament and the fact that the Final Four was made up entirely of 1-seeds for the first time since 2008.
How many complaints are there now?
We saw two instant classics on Saturday night at the national semifinals in San Antonio, with Florida beating Auburn 79-73 and Houston stunning Duke 70-67 to advance to Monday night’s national championship game.
The one everyone is talking about is the second game of the night. Duke led by 14 points with 8:03 to go. It led by nine with 2:06 to go. It led by six with 35 seconds left.
Yet, Houston went on a 10-1 run in the final 1:14, including scoring the final nine points of the game, to pull off an improbable comeback win.
A three from Emanuel Sharp with 34 seconds left cut the deficit to three. That was followed up by a steal from Mylik Wilson, which led to a Joseph Tugler layup with 24 seconds left to cut it to one. Then a Tyrese Proctor miss from the free throw line that led to a questionable foul call on Cooper Flagg. J’Wan Roberts hit the biggest free throws of his life to give the Cougars the lead. Flagg missed again, L.J. Cryer hit two more free throws to make it 70-67, and Duke never found a good shot in the final seconds.
For the first 32 minutes or so of this game, it was all Duke. Freshman phenom Flagg played well and it just felt like every time Houston had some life, Duke hit a big bucket to take the wind out of the sails.
Flagg dunked with 10:31 to go to make it 58-45 and that was the beginning of the end. The Blue Devils hit just one field goal the rest of the way as it was suffocated by Houston’s defense, the same defense that has allowed it to win 18 games in a row and has not lost in regulation since November. It went 19-1 in Big 12 play and won the conference tournament in what is Kelvin Sampson’s best coaching job to date. It’ll play in the title game for the first time since the days of Phi Slama Jama, going for the program’s first-ever championship.
Duke came into this season with tons of promise. The consensus No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft flanked by other future lottery picks, along with veterans, although the year-to-year experience was there. There were certainly skeptics coming in.
Flagg and Kon Knueppel are not to blame for this loss – they finished with a combined 43 points and 14 rebounds. However, it’s fair to say the big buckets we were waiting for never came.
Duke’s season is certainly not a failure. The Blue Devils won 35 games, went 19-1 in the ACC, won a conference championship and made the Final Four. But the way the season ends is excruciating, even more than losing to 11-seed NC State in the Elite Eight last season. Duke has made it further in the tournament each year of Jon Scheyer’s three seasons than the season before. A national title is coming for Mike Krzyzewski’s heir. But it’ll have to wait.
The first game of the night featured the evening’s first come-from-behind victory.
Florida trailed fellow SEC squad Auburn by eight at halftime, and it felt like Auburn would end up cruising in the second half and getting to the national championship game.
Nope. Florida erased the deficit and took the lead in less than five minutes thanks to key scores from Will Richard, Walter Clayton and Alijah Martin. Until the final 1:33 no side had a lead larger than four, until Clayton had a three-point play to put the Gators up six, allowing them to stomp on Auburn’s neck and get to the national championship game since 2007.
All year, we have spent a lot of time talking about the two best players in the country: Flagg and Johni Broome. This tournament, Clayton has emerged as the consensus third best player in the country, and the argument can certainly be made that he has been the best player of the postseason.
Clayton has averaged 24.6 points per game through five tournament contests, and last night scored 30+ for the second straight game. He finished with 34 on Saturday night. According to Fox Sports Research, Clayton is the first player to have back-to-back 30+ point performances in the Elite Eight or later since Larry Bird. He is the first player to drop 30 in a national semifinal since Carmelo Anthony for Syracuse in 2003, and the fifth player to have 30+ in a Final Four game since 2000.
Not bad from a player who was a zero-star recruit out of high school in Florida, was considered a better prospect in football and began his college basketball career at Iona under none other than Rick Pitino.
This is the third game in this tournament Florida has escaped from. It barely beat UConn in the second round, and then found a way against Texas Tech in a classic Elite Eight game. Clayton, Martin and Richard have found a way.
Florida has won 11 in a row and 17 of 18. It won the SEC championship and got a 1-seed out of the best conference in college basketball history. Coach Todd Golden, in his third year in Gainesville by way of San Francisco, will now try to do what Billy Donovan did twice – bring a national title to swamp country.
AJ Hoops 