FINAL FOUR IS SET!!

March 30, 2008 by Ducketz
Filed under Sports

The NCAA Tourney Final Four is set with all four number one seeds making it for the first time in NCAA history.

College Basketball News: Mon, Mar. 31

(1) Memphis 85, (2) Texas 67 — The AP reports: With freshman Derrick Rose soaring and scoring, Memphis ended two years of regional final failure and routed Texas 85-67 Sunday to reach the Final Four. The victory backed up the Tigers’ season-long reign near the top of the poll and made them the third No. 1 seed headed to San Antonio. Rose had 21 points, nine assists and six rebounds, outplaying Texas star D.J. Augustin and leading the Tigers (37-1) into a national semifinal Saturday against a UCLA team making its third straight Final Four appearance… Rose finished 7-of-10 and was voted the most outstanding player of the South Regional. The game ended with him getting one last assist of sorts—generously bouncing the ball to a Texas player for the final seconds… Chris Douglas-Roberts, a Naismith Award finalist, led Memphis with 25 points, with 14 coming on free throws. Joey Dorsey provided 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Shawn Taggart added 12 points. Antonio Anderson had nine points and four assists… InsideHoops.com Stat Notes: For Texas, AJ Abrams took 16 shots for 17 points and 5 rebounds, DJ Augustin shot a miserable 4-of-18 for 16 points, 3 assists and 4 turnovers, Damion James shot 4-of-12 for 8, Gary Johnson shot 3-of-4 for 8, and Justin Mason had 7 with 7 rebounds. This tells a lot: Memphis got 36 free throw attempts, making 30, while Texas went just 8-of-9. Memphis shot 50%, Texas 36.2%. The only Memphis struggle came from three-point range, but Texas wasn’t too hot at just 9-of-28.

(1) Kansas 59, (10) Davidson 57 — The AP reports: Stephen Curry darted this way, faked that way. Nothing open, and the bright red numbers on the clock getting close to zero. He was the right guy—the only guy—to take the biggest shot of the NCAA tournament. But there wasn’t one. All he could do was the pass the ball and watch as Jason Richards’ desperation try thudded off the backboard… Sasha Kaun came up with big baskets down the stretch whenever the Jayhawks needed them, and he and Chalmers scored 13 for Kansas, which ended the feel-good story of the tournament. Tiny Davidson, trying to become only the third double-digit to make the Final Four, simply ran out of gas in the stretch… InsideHoops.com Stat Notes: For Kansas, Sasha Kaun (6-of-6) scored 13 with 6 rebounds, Mario Chalmers scored 13, Brandon Rush (just 4-of-14) had 12 with 7 rebounds, and Kansas shot 44.2%. For Davidson, Stephen Curry (miserable 9-of-15, including 4-of-16 three-pointers) had 25, but only Bryant Barr reached double-figures with 11. Jason Richards shot 3-of-9 for 7 points and 9 assists. As a team, Davidson shot just 38.6%.

College Basketball News: Sun, Mar. 30

(1) UCLA 76, (3) Xavier 57 — The AP reports: After reaching the Final Four for the third straight time, UCLA coach Ben Howland called these Bruins “by far the best” of the three. The other two didn’t have freshman Kevin Love, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds as the top-seeded Bruins blitzed Xavier 76-57 Saturday to earn their record 18th overall trip to the Final Four. Love was picked as the most outstanding player of the West Regional… Love made 7-of-11 shots from the floor, including 2-of-4 from beyond the arc. Half of his rebounds came at the offensive end and he added four assists for good measure… The Musketeers (30-7) had no answer for Love on a day they shot 36.2 percent from the floor—a credit to UCLA’s relentless man-to-man defense… Luc Richard Mbah a Moute had 13 points and 13 rebounds and Darren Collison added 19 points for UCLA, which shot 53.8 percent from the floor and won its 14th straight. Derrick Brown had 13 points for Xavier.

(1) North Carolina 83, (3) Louisville 73 — The AP reports: Tyler Hansbrough had 28 points and 13 rebounds Saturday night to help the Tar Heels hold off Louisville 83-73 in the East Regional final. Playing in front of a partisan home-state crowd, they reached the national semifinals for the first time since winning the championship in 2005… Battling in a physical contest inside, Hansbrough finished 12-for-17 from the floor in 38 minutes and was named regional MVP. That included a pair of clutch jumpers over the outstretched arms of 6-11 center David Padgett as the Tar Heels desperately tried to hold their tenuous second-half lead in the final minutes… Ty Lawson added 11 points—including a key 3-pointer with about 5 minutes left—for North Carolina, which blew a 12-point halftime lead, then broke away from a tie at 59 to earn their 17th trip to the Final Four… Jerry Smith scored 17 points to lead Louisville, which shot 53 percent and gave the Tar Heels all they could handle after halftime.

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