Te east regional final is scheduled to tip off at 2:20 on Sunday. Scouting reports aren’t really necessary.
Advertisement
Such is life in NY these days for Thornwell, the breakout player of this NCAA Tournament, who in Sunday’s East region final will try to carry No. 7 seed SC past No. 4 seed Florida and into the Final Four. The East is not going to feature the sexiest basketball-check out the West or South regions for that-but the remaining teams of Baylor, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Florida are all teams that few, if any, expected to take the title when the tournament kicked off. They’re all pretty fundamentally sound.
No mistake: previous year, the Gamecocks were mistakenly told on Selection Sunday that they were in the field. “We wanted to speed them up”. By halftime, the Gamecocks were up by 18.
It had to happen after the Florida Gators did everything right in the previous round, allowing only 39 points to Virginia, but once the emotions settle, coach White will have to remind his players what their bread and butter was this season. “Without that fire he has right now, and desire to win that pushes the players around him and makes them better as well, they probably wouldn’t be in this position”. “We can’t let them turn us over”. They’re a team that likes to force you into turnovers.
With only 4 seconds left, just getting into position to take a decent shot is hard, but Florida has the type of players needed to pull it off. In all, the Bears shot just 30.4% from the field, a testament not only to poor shooting but also what they had to shoot against.
That has a lot to do with why the teams in this state have little NCAA tournament history, but that little history is also a reason great players haven’t stayed. He broke out with a career-high 35 points in the regional semifinal. The freshman scored 15 points against Duke and was 9 of 10 from the free throw line. But the Lady Bears first have to win two games in Oklahoma City, where earlier this month they lost in the Big 12 Tournament championship game for the first time in seven years.
The kudos continued Saturday as the Gamecocks prepared for their Elite Eight matchup with Florida. SC was the top seed, with the SEC player of the Year and Naismith candidate. This is the Bears’ fourth Sweet 16 under coach Scott Drew, but they haven’t been to a Final Four since 1950. “I think it’s slowly turning into a basketball conference”.
SC is 1-9 ATS in its last 10 games against its conference. The Tigers recently chose to keep coach Brad Brownell in place, and they spent a ton of money on new facilities.
Sindarius Thornwell, the Player of the Year in the Southeastern Conference, led SC with 24 points.
“The defense was extremely tough”, Motley said. “They’re long, they’re athletic”.
Even after all the various profiles and highlights, Koenig may still be one of the most underrated guards in the nation. They protect the rim. “They don’t back down”.
“Going into the game, I think some guys looked at it like, ‘Man, almighty Duke and Coach K, ‘” Gravett said then. “We don’t get out of the way”.
The Florida Gators (27-8) vs. Wisconsin Badgers game provided a lot of excitement, none bigger than the off balance, running floater three pointer to beat the buzzer in overtime, hit by Gators guard Chris Chiozza. “And I’m sure SC feels that way as well”.
Chiozza can’t help but smile even 12 hours after hitting his game-winning 3. It was only a matter of time [before people took notice]. “I enjoy it every time I watch it”.
Southern universities – or at least those outside the Atlantic Coast Conference and SEC powerhouse Kentucky – have always been trying to bring back to basketball the luster that has waned in the shadow of the behemoth that is college football.
Advertisement
Chris Chiozza’s three-point floater as time expired in overtime lifted Florida past Wisconsin, 84-83, in Sweet 16 action from NY.
