Kansas will play top-seeded East Region champion Villanova in the second national semifinal next Saturday in San Antonio. He now shares the record of 12 with John Wooden. It’s the freshmen big men who figure to create the most buzz in National Basketball Association circles, with Marvin Bagley III and Wendell Carter Jr. both likely lottery picks. Their 2-3 zone has been effective in disrupting opposing offenses, and their ability score against multiple defense looks has made them unsafe. But certainly they’ve got to play like there’s no what-ifs.
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What started as a chess match turned into a free-throw-shooting contest. We appreciate everyone on this team.
“A great game to win, a very hard game to lose”, Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “So for use to go from playing against a really big 2-3 (zone) to playing against a team that plays four guards and plays very fast, they’re very different. And, he opens up shots for us and driving lanes”.
Villanova doesn’t shoot more threes than anyone in college basketball, they just shoot more threes than anyone in college basketball that was actually good this year.
On the other side, the Blue Devils are right where their talent suggested they’d be all along. “It’s great when you have two programs of this nature, this status in the history of our game play for a Final Four berth. So I think if you’ve been there before, you kind of relate to what the players are feeling at that time”. Moreover, the Blue Devils, who rank first in offensive rebounding percentage (39.2 percent), will try to take advantage of the Jayhawks, who rank 299th in defensive rebounding percentage (68.5 percent). Asked to pinpoint when Kansas’ seven-loss season turned around, Graham provides a clear-cut answer: that loss on February 3 at home against Oklahoma State, on a weekend that invited decorated former players and celebrated the history-packed 120 years of Kansas basketball.
“As a team, we’ve got to do a good job of boxing him out with that”, Azubuike said. “I think we’ll play with no ‘what ifs.’ I think we’ll be loose”.
In their last five games, Duke is 3-2 ATS with 2 overs, 2 unders and 1 push. “To go into that first game and be able to get that and then to beat TCU and Michigan State”.
It was, by many measures, the game of the tournament, and 40 minutes weren’t enough to decide it. Kansas senior Svi Mykhailiuk tied it at 72 with a 3-pointer with 27 seconds remaining in regulation. “A lot of tough games”. “It’s going to be an awesome game”. “Guys know that we’ve been in this game the last two years and that we’ve come up short”. After all, the Blue Devils could have as many as five potential future first-round draft picks, most notably Bagley, who could go No. 1 overall.
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“We’re both here for a reason”. As Xavier head coach Chris Mack famously said earlier this season, “If you peeled his face off you’d probably have wires coming out”.
