"The Stack" 3-27-17
Luke Maye hit the game winning shot with 0.3 seconds left as UNC topped Kentucky in an epic game in the Elite Eight Sunday to advance to the Final Four.
The Stack is back on this Monday. We had some issues getting in and posting last week, but thanks to the tremendous crew at Blogspot.com we are back in business. We don’t have a lot to talk about today other than the great college basketball we saw Sunday as we look ahead to the Final Four so let’s get right to “the stack” for today, Monday, March 27th:
Final Four is set
This Final Four taking place at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, will be unlike any other, at least not one we have seen in recent memory. That is because three of the four teams have either never been to a Final Four before or haven’t made it back since World War II. Saturday, Gonzaga played by far their best game of the NCAA Tournament in taking down Xavier 83-59. Xavier dared the Zags to shoot threes and Gonzaga took them and made them. They were tremendous and have finally reached their first ever Final Four. Oregon also was outstanding in their 74-60 win over Kansas. Never should I have doubted the Ducks when they lost Chris Boucher. Tyler Dorsey scored 27 points and Jordan Bell was a machine with eight blocks to go along with his double-double of 13 points and eleven rebounds. Kansas went ice cold from beyond the arc in the second half and couldn’t take advantage of the opportunities Oregon gave them. Kansas once again failed in the NCAA Tournament.
The better games came on Sunday. South Carolina has been a second half team all tournament long and they did it once again at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, against Florida. The Gators were up by seven points at the end of the first half and that was in large part to their three point shooting. They were six-for-twelve in the first half. That did not continue in the second half. Give credit to the Gamecocks and their defense for making things difficult for the Gators, but Florida still couldn’t get any of their good shots to fall either. They got into foul trouble early in the second half and that was it. South Carolina under Frank Martin is headed to the Final Four for the first time in program history with their 77-70 win.
Florida was in a great game on Friday night against Wisconsin where the Gators beat Wisconsin at the buzzer 84-83 in overtime. That was the best game of the tournament to that point. Kentucky and North Carolina topped it. North Carolina was in control most of the first half and never trailed until the early minutes of the second half despite the fact that they didn’t make a field goal for a seven minute stretch over the end of the first half and start of the second half. Justin Jackson was great for the Tar Heels, but Malik Monk and De’Aaron Fox helped bring Kentucky right back in it and eventually take the lead 64-59. That is when Joel Berry III and the Tar Heels went to work on a 12-0 run to take a 71-64 lead. Fox stopped the run with a three. Then Monk hit one to get Kentucky within one, but they had a breakdown on defense and let Jackson escape. He got the long outlet pass and gave UNC a 73-70 lead. Kentucky had one last chance and Monk delivered with a three pointer to tie the game. Rather than call a timeout, Roy Williams let his team just push the ball up the court and Luke Maye, who already was having a huge game, made the biggest shot of his life with a two pointer to give UNC a 75-73 lead with 0.3 seconds left. That would be enough to win the game. What a win! What a game! Heartbreak for the Wildcats. Jubilation for the Tar Heels who are now in their 20th Final Four. This was an absolutely incredible and epic game.
The Sweet 16 on Thursday saw some great games with West Virginia and Gonzaga overcoming an abundance of fouls and whistles. Xavier ended their game on a 9-0 run to upset Arizona. Kansas fell behind early and went on a huge run to blowout Purdue and Oregon escaped Michigan after a last second shot fell short for the Wolverines. Friday’s games were not quite as good apart from the last one. South Carolina blew out Baylor. UNC handled Butler easily. Kentucky and UCLA was supposed to be great, but Lonzo Ball did not have a good game and UCLA did not make enough shots in the second half to keep up with the Wildcats. And Wisconsin-Florida was by far the best game of the night with Wisconsin coming back from nine points down in the final minute-and-a-half and hitting the game-tying three pointer with 2.4 seconds left. Florida would be trailing in overtime until Chris Chiozza hit the game-winning three pointer leaning in with no time remaining. What a game! March Madness is almost over which sucks, but we should have an incredible Final Four starting on Saturday. Can’t wait.
Women’s Tournament update
We are still waiting for the final two teams in the Final Four, but two are known. #2 Stanford came back from 16 points down against #1 Notre Dame in the Lexington Region final and blocked Notre Dame’s final chance to win 76-75. They will take on the winner of #3 Florida State vs. #1 South Carolina tonight in the Stockton (CA) Region final tonight at 9:06 PM ET on ESPN. Have to believe that South Carolina is going to win this game. It was a shocking loss for Notre Dame who began the year as the number one team in the country. This is certainly a disappointment for Muffet McGraw and company. Blowing a 16 point lead is something that just should not have happened.
Meanwhile in the Oklahoma City Region final, #2 Mississippi State got a career high 41 points from Morgan William and took #1 Baylor to overtime where they would ultimately come through with a 94-85 victory. Take that Baylor and Kim Mulkey! Quite the win for Mississippi State. They lost by 60 points in the Sweet 16 last year to UConn. That is likely who they will face in the Final Four unless #10 Oregon pulls off the shocking upset of all upsets tonight against #1 UConn at 7:06 PM ET ESPN. It’s been a great run, but I don’t think it will last. Hopefully Mississippi State will give them a better game. The women’s Final Four from Dallas starts on Sunday.
Vegas vote looming for Raiders
The NFL owners will likely vote today regarding the Oakland Raiders move to Las Vegas and all signs point the owners voting yes to the move especially after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a letter to Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf saying in no uncertain terms, “We have not yet identified a viable solution” regarding a new stadium for the Raiders in Oakland. Oakland’s elected leaders have not done nearly enough to try and get a new stadium for the Raiders to keep them in Oakland, especially with the lack of public money that the city would help pay for a new stadium. Ronnie Lott tried to put something together, but the details of the deal just weren’t good enough. This is three teams now that have or will be leaving their current cities in the last three years with the Rams leaving St. Louis for Los Angeles last year, the Chargers leaving San Diego for Los Angeles this past offseason and Oakland now leaving for Las Vegas in the near future. That’s three cities that the NFL has alienated here. I don’t like that the Raiders are leaving just like I don’t like the Chargers or the Rams leaving, but at least with the Raiders and Chargers, they had tried to reach stadium deals for many years and local officials just didn’t want to give their full support and help raise public money for it. Rams owner Stan Kroenke always had an eye on Los Angeles and never was willing to listen to the city of St. Louis regarding a new stadium. The Edward Jones Dome wasn’t great, but it was better than the stadiums in San Diego and Oakland. Officials in St. Louis deserve some blame as well. Bottom line, this is still not a great day for the NFL and soon enough fans are going to be fed up with the NFL that it will start impacting the league. Maybe we’re already seeing that with the ratings dropping a bit this past offseason.
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